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Me Mrs uses the Shun Kanso Santoku with the fly grantons and gunmetal finish. I’ve found the aus10a holds up pretty darn ok considering the abuse it gets, and the handle is nice. Super friendly knife and I anyways enjoy a quick thinning/sharpening of it every month or so.
 
Just ordered the 160mm (or 16 cm as they specify it) Wüsthof Crafter. She chose it herself over the Tadafusa, which I also showed her. She argued that we have a lot of thin, hard knives, and this one (with HCR 58) kinda fills in a gap and would be a knife we could handle to any guest in the kitchen, totally worry free (scrape it across the board, NP, etc.). I bought the argument. Ill post a picture when it gets here.
 
One big difference is the grind. The mercer has a hollow (concave) grind, while the victorinox has a slightly convex one.
So in general a little easier to sharpen but a less durable edge? The Mercer gets wicked sharp quickly and I do need to sharpen it fairly often. I had put that down to the abuse it gets but I'm sure the hollow grind adds to the frequency. Thanks!

Just ordered the 160mm (or 16 cm as they specify it) Wüsthof Crafter.
We definitely define "beater" differently. 😄 Looks like a very nice knife, enjoy! My wife uses our Wusthof classics weekly, as I did for years before getting the Japanese knife bug. They are great knives and very tough. Fairly recently I put 15º angles on them all and they cut much better. I believe Wusthof may be doing this at the factory these days but all mine are old enough to have shipped at 22.5º IIRC.
 
16 cm Wüsthof crafter with smoked oak handle, stainless steel at 56 hcr.
 

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I have a hard time getting my wife to use big knives. She is now using a 8-inch MAC Pro and a Henckels 4star 7-inch chef's knife. I think she would be happy with what you ordered also.

I bought my wife a Wusthof 5.5 inch Santoku which she used for a while but I think she likes the chef style knives better as she doesn't use my small santoku any more.
 
My wifey likes to rock knives more than straight up and down motions, so this is perfect for her.
 
Does it lose that edge really fast? That would be my worry...
It really doesn't, and as I mentioned, I *believe* that they come with 15º from the factory nowadays (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). My understanding is that the 22ish degree angles were a compromise for the average user who is likely to drop the knife, throw it in the draw/sink/dishwasher etc., but the steel handles 15º just fine. I do give them a run on a couple of ceramic hones every time she uses them which helps edge retention.
 
My wife also uses an 8" WC and I tend to sharpen it at ~15 degrees with a small micro bevel simply so it holds up for her use/abuse. The funny thing is after I touchup her knife she complains that it's too sharp. :) I've explained to her that sharper is safer but it's not sticking.
 
My wife also uses an 8" WC and I tend to sharpen it at ~15 degrees with a small micro bevel simply so it holds up for her use/abuse. The funny thing is after I touchup her knife she complains that it's too sharp. :) I've explained to her that sharper is safer but it's not sticking.
:D Not an uncommon reaction. Pretty much everyone I speak to who isn't a knife geek to some degree will worry about a knife being "too sharp."
 
I always worry about it not being sharp enough "should I sharpen this??? Definately!".

And hey man, we're the WC-Team! Sounds strange....
 
Wüsthofs come these days with edges the steel hardly takes — see the nice burrs and wire edges. Better round it a bit and ease the shoulders.
 
Mine came with a wire edge. It's still there actually. Leather didnt take it.
Even if you could get rid of it by stropping, it probably would leave a damaged edge behind. Think a moonscape. If it doesn't break off, it will fold over the edge, and make it totally dull. Sharpen it, and start with a medium-coarse and begin at the shoulders, at a very low angle, and increase it little by little. End at some 18 degree. Make sure to remove the original edge, check with a sharpie and a loupe. I would start with a 320 stone.
 
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Even if you could get rid of it by stropping, it probably would leave a damaged edge behind. Think a moonscape. If it doesn't break off, it will fold over the edge, and make it totally dull. Sharpen it, and start with a medium-coarse and begin at the shoulders, at a very low angle, and increase it little by little. End at some 18 degree. Make sure to remove the original edge, check with a sharpie and a loupe. I would start with a 320 stone.
The shoulders? Thanks!
 
I have talked my wife into using my Wusthof Classic 8-inch chef knife that I hate and won't use. She started around Thanksgiving and is still using it. I can't believe it she is using a large knife now. She used small knives for so many years.

Maybe next year I can get her to use one of my 10-inch chef knives. Wait I don't want her to use my knives. I have a 9-inch she can use.
 
^^___ exactly. My wife has her users and is afraid to even touch any knives in my knife roll. I see that as a good thing :) The crazy thing is her favorite knives are a vintage Forgecraft paring knife and a cheap Spyderco Z-cut serrated. Even stranger is I tend to use the Spyderco for quick things like slicing up a bagel.
 

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