Home Hero Santoku Knife with Sheath - High Carbon Stainless Steel Knife | High Carbon Stainless Steel Santoku Knife - Nonstick Blade, Ergonomic Handle & Protective Sheath (7-Inch)

Wow, I was blown away by the two knives I bought (this chef knife and a Santaku) from this company. For what they cost (I was able to score a sweet limited time deal which made them even more irresistible) you would be hard pressed to find better. Here are my complete and honest thoughts, hopefully this helps someone. As a professional chef who's used about every sort of knife, at nearly every price point imaginable over the last 20 years, I wasn't expecting much from this knife. I needed to get a small gift for someone who I knew didn't have any legit chef (or even sharp) knives at their house, and I knew wouldn't buy any. I was also headed there to help them cook for Christmas, so I ordered one for myself as well. I figured it was cheap enough to roll the dice on, and it would at least get me through the night. Needless to say, my expectations were pretty low going into it. I was very surprised when they arrived and looked as quality as they did though. It comes in a very nice little display type box with some information about care and the type of steel, and also included a sheath. Which was very helpful bc let me tell you, these bad boys are SHARP. I have sharpened knives every way you can think of from wet stone to using a laser, and these came in nearly as sharp as anything I've ever done. Which sounds insane, but I'm telling you, watch those fingers my friends. A sharp edge is meaningless though if the handle is cheap and the balance is off. I was pleasantly surprised, however, when I picked it up. The handle is quality wood and well designed. The balance, while not what you would find in say an upper end Wusthof or comparable, is surprisingly well managed. Altogether it makes for a very sharp blade with a surprisingly comfortable handle and feel. I bought this as a throw away basically, didn't expect to use it much beyond that evening, but I was wrong. It's now become one of my most used knives. I wouldn't try hacking apart bones or something with it, but that's not what it is designed for. The blade has also held a surprisingly solid edge, and I haven't felt a need to sharpen it in the 7+ months I've owned it, which is saying a LOT coming from someone who is a religious knife sharpener. I'll hit it with a steel every now and again, mostly just out of habit, but I've never gone to use it and felt it wasn't sharp enough, I'll say that. So yeah, if you're on the fence about this one, pull the trigger. It's worth the money all day long. Don't expect a top tier chef knife that will last you a lifetime at this price, but for any home cook this is going to quickly become your favorite new knife. Definitely recommend. I've even shown it off to a few fellow chefs who have all been equally surprised by the price and quality. There are a million more expensive knives out there that aren't anywhere near as good as these. Kudos to the company behind this, it is definitely a hidden gem out there among a sea of mediocre ones.

This review is for the knife listed as: Home Hero 2 Pcs Japanese Chef Knife with Sheath - VG10 Damascus Steel Triple Rivet Knife - 67 Layers Damascus Knife - Rosewood Handle Japanese Knife (Damascus Steel 8-Inch Chef Knife) As of now, its day of arrival, I am thrilled with this knife. My 5-star rating is relative to my expectations which were not entirely consistent with the description of the knife on its Amazon page. The title on that page says it's a “Triple Rivet Knife” but the pictures show a knife with but a single rivet. The description on that page says “Our Gyutou chef knife is designed with a full tang handle” but if it had a full tang, I would expect it to have more than one rivet. Reviews lead me to believe that the knife is on the heavy side. So, I expected a relatively heavy Damascus partial tang knife with a single rivet, a solid bolster, and a VG10 core. As far as I can tell, I got what I expected. The knife looks just like the one shown in the pictures on its Amazon page and experiments with a neodymium disk magnet reveal that the tang extends halfway along the handle of the knife. I tried cutting a tomato at each of three different positions along the length of the blade and found the knife to be very sharp in all three edge regions. The knife is beautiful and feels comfortable in my hand. This is the first high-end-steel kitchen knife that I have ever owned, and I am looking forward to finding out how well it holds its edge. I plan on using it for chopping vegetables and cutting meat as part of food preparation at home. I find it incredible that I was able to get what is listed as a VG10 knife at a price lower than that of the Liflicon Extra Large Thick Silicone Cutting Board on which I am planning on using the knife. I am writing this review on the day the knife arrived for fear that if I wait until after I have used it for a while I will forget to write, but I am hoping to update this review after I have used the knife for a while and am in a position to comment on how much or little I like using it and well or poorly it holds its edge. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Week After Arrival: After using the knife three times for cutting up vegetables for salad, I again sliced a small tomato to test for sharpness in the three regions (the tip region, the central region, and the heel region). I found the latter two regions to be just as sharp as they were when I first got the knife, but the tip region, while still fairly sharp, was noticeably duller than before. I sharpened it. The sharpening took about as much effort as it takes to sharpen an 8-inch chef knife made of metal made of unspecified high carbon steel and, upon completion, the tip region was as sharp as when the knife was brand new. Not having been trained in cooking, I have generally held a kitchen knife by the handle without the hand that is on the handle making contact with the blade. I have tried the pinch grip but never become comfortable with it. With this knife, the third time I used it I found myself using the pinch grip without making an effort to do so. There is a natural notch below and slightly forward of the bolster where the middle finger can rest while you pinch the blade between the thumb and index finger. The balance point of the knife is at the forward part of the bolster, so your hand is pretty much wrapped around the balance point of the knife. This makes it easy and comfortable to use the knife. At the one-week mark, I am still happy with the knife but a little concerned about edge retention. I am hoping I remember to update this review at the 1-month mark. --------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Month After Arrival I am still liking the knife a lot. I have now sharpened it twice since I got it. It did seem to take a very sharp edge more easily the second time. Its Amazon page says the blade sharpened at 12 degrees, but I judge it to be more like 20 degrees on each side for an inclusive angle of 40 degrees. The heel region is still as sharp as ever (that part has never needed sharpening). The middle and the region near the tip, while still pretty sharp are noticeably less sharp than the region near the heel, so I am planning on sharpening it again after the next use. I use it about twice a week to cut up vegetables (usually lettuce, cucumber, bell pepper, mushrooms, onion, and sometimes carrot and celery) and have used it once on cooked pork. It cuts well and I still find it comfortable in the hand; I like using it. Despite the title of my review, given the reputation of VG10 steel, I did expect it to hold an edge better than it does, but I am going to chalk that up to unrealistic expectations despite the fact that I use it on a relatively soft silicone cutting board. One of the things that makes me believe that the core metal really is VG10, is that one of the other reviewers said that their knife sharpener does not work on it. I'm guessing that the sharpening material of the sharpener is hardened high-carbon steel, and the knife blade is just as hard as the sharpening material, if not harder, consistent with the knife blade being made of VG10 steel. Some reviewers have said that the knife is not really Damascus. I think the manufacturer of the knife either buys or makes a stack of two kinds of stainless-steel sheet metal, neither of which is VG10 steel, alternating the two metals throughout the stack, with 17 layers of one kind of stainless steel and 16 layers of the other. One kind dissolves pretty readily in acid, the other not so much. I'm guessing stack is heated and put through rollers, so the layers are forge welded together and the whole stack is quite thin, perhaps about a sixteenth of an inch thick. I think the core of the knife is cut out, in the shape of a knife, of a relatively thick piece of VG10 steel. Two pieces are cut out of the stack, each having the shape of the VG10 core, thus forming two knife-shaped stacks. One stack is placed on each side of the core and the three items are forge welded together. The blade is ground down, heat treated, and dipped in acid, thus revealing a Damascus pattern. The kinds of steel used in the stacks are probably different from those used in other Damascus knives, so the brightness patterns are different from what people are used to, but I think it really is a layered Damascus knife with a VG10 steel core. The pattern on my knife is different from the one depicted on the Amazon page and in mass manufacturing, I don't think the cost difference in making it an actual Damascus knife rather than etching or sanding a Damascus pattern into the more expensive VG10 steel would entice the manufacturer to make a fake Damascus knife and call it a Damascus knife. I'm no expert but this is my opinion. --------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Year and Four Months After Arrival I like this knife as much as ever. After having it for about 6 months, I used a coarse grit diamond sharpening plate to change the edge angle on each to what I estimate to be 15 degrees, closer to the 12 degrees the knife's amazon page claimed edge angle but I don't think I got it all the way there. Since then, it seems to hold an edge longer than it used to. I sharpened it just a day or two ago and it had been a couple of months since the time before that, despite the fact that I use it almost daily. I cut onions in half often and I use how hard it is to do that to judge whether the knife is quite sharp or starting to be a little dull. I use a relatively cheap, diamond sharpening plate to sharpen the knife (the sharpener looks just like one you see on Amazon if you search on "5-In-1 Diamond Sharpening Plate" but I think someone gave it to me as a gift, so I don't know if the one I use was purchased on Amazon). I find it easy to get the knife quite sharp; for each side, several strokes on the 400-grit side of the sharpener followed by a few strokes on the 1000-grit side, gets it as sharp as I could want it to be. Another reviewer complained about a scratch developing on the knife. I think the only way you can avoid getting a scratch on it is to avoid cutting any vegetables that might have even just a few grains of sand in them. Grains of sand that are, as is often the case, bits of silica, are a lot harder than even a very hard knife steel. (Silica comes in between 120 and 150 on the Rockwell scale while the cutting steel of this knife, though quite hard for knife steel, comes in at 60 on the same scale, with the Damascus cladding being softer.) As should be expected, my knife has several scratches on each side. I am fine with that. I have twice dropped this knife from counter height to a ceramic tile floor with no apparent damage to the knife. While it was and still is my intention to wash and dry it by hand, right away, after each use, I have, on several occasions left it out with moist vegetable matter on it, overnight, and once, I found it soaking in a basin of soapy water, and, it seems to have developed no rust spots or signs of corrosion. I did not expect the VG10 steel to be that forgiving. I do find that food sticks to the sides of the knife when you are cutting, e.g. mushrooms, onions, and potatoes. I probably failed to mention that negative characteristic before because again, before I purchased it, I could see from the Amazon page that it had smooth sides with a polished appearance, so of course raw foods like that would stick to it. Still, that is one thing I would change if I could. Before purchasing it, I would have been happier if it were lighter overall, but I have gotten used to the weight of it and I am fine with that. Overall, after a year and a third, the knife is holding up well, no chips, no sign of the handle coming loose at all, and no signs of corrosion. I am still very pleased with it.

Are you home cook looking for good quality knives at reasonable price? If so try these out. Top of the line professional knives can be several hundred dollars each. Obviously they're not that level of quality but I'd say they're comparable to some knives I've used that are 3-5x the cost. They are more than adequate for home use. Note: They do hold their edge pretty well but like any knife after enough use will begin to dull some. A standard shapener won't work well on these, I've used ceramic sharpeners (rod) on mine and got good results. I'd imagine a proper sharpening stone would work even better but I don't own one so can't say for sure. I first ordered the paring knife. I've never been happy with the ones I've owned and wanted something higher quality. I also didn't want to spend too much, it was my first higher carbon steel type knife so figured I'd start with something affordable and could always upgrade later if needed. Was happy with the paring knife, so ordered the utility, then the nakiri. Was very impressed with the nakiri for the price. Almost a year later and it's still very sharp and I haven't had to sharpen it yet. Eventually ordered the 5 & 7 inch santoku's for myself because they were on sale really cheap & later another paring, utility & 5 inch santoku to give as gifts to people who tried them and commented that they liked them. Recently seen the chef's knife & deba on sale for $15 & $20 & ordered them since the price was so low. They're all good knifes, sharp, hold their edge reasonably well and look pretty good. As long as you have realistic expectations given the price I think you'll be happy with your purchase. My favorites are the nakiri-great for cutting large amounts of vegetables, the deba- excellent for fish, poultry or other meats without large bones & the 5 inch santoku which is a good all purpose/utility type knife.

I bought the Home Hero 5" Santoku as an extra to complement our existing Emeril 5" Santoku so my wife and I each have one to use when we cook together. It's perfect for cutting small veggies like brussels sprouts, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, etc, and is also useful for smaller cuts of meat like chicken breasts. I chose the Home Hero for its VG10 steel, good looks, included storage blade protector, and great price, and I am not disappointed. It came shaving sharp and has held an edge very well, remaining shaving sharp after many uses. Although it never got dull enough to degrade performance cutting food, it did lose its razor edge after a month or so, but was very easy to bring back to shaving sharp with a few light strokes on the 40 degree V of a Spyderco Sharpmaker. My only complaint about it is the handle is just a little short so the end of it catches the palm a little uncomfortably when I take a natural grip. But it is so good otherwise, I just choke up on it a little and cut happily way.

Love this knife. It is very sharp and I use it all the time.

For more than 60 years I have had a passion for knives and swords. Even though at my advanced age I do not have as many different knives as I had in my youth; nevertheless, I am still always looking for unique and interesting edged weapons. While browsing on Amazon recently I came across this product (Home Hero, 2 pcs paring knife with sheath-high carbon stainless steel chopping knife with ergonomic handle-razor sharp, multi-purpose kitchen knife for chopping and cooking) and purchased it. As always, the delivery was quick. I immediately loved this knife as soon as I took it out of the package. This 3.5 inch paring knife with sheath is just what I was looking for and I am very pleased with my purchase. It is light weight and very sharp. If you are seeking a good quality paring knife at a great price you may want to check out this product. Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Tanto-Jutsu: An official manual of Bushi Satori Ryu).

This knife is holding so well after a one year use. I love the quality, as long as you wipe it down after washing it quickly. I don't think there's a chance of corrosion really recommended.

Dandy sharp knife!! Great for chopping vegetables! Very pleased with purchase!!

Très bon produit super pour couper les légumes fins

Very good

Ce set Home Hero est de grande qualité. Les couteaux sont bien équilibrés, ultra-tranchants et très agréables à utiliser. Idéal pour la cuisine au quotidien. Très bon rapport qualité-prix, je recommande !

Très beau design et très belle finition. Léger et ultra tranchant. Bien sécher et aiguiser après chaque utilisation pour une durabilité certaine.

I have been doing most of the cooking since my wife had cancer treatment last year. She finds roast dinners the easiest thing to eat because of the gravy. I like to include lots of veg and this knife is perfect for chopping the veg. The main reason I got a new knife was because all of mine stick to the veg after I've cut it. So I waste time picking it all off, which I also feel is a bit dangerous and spoils my flow. This knife doesn't stick to the veg at all plus it feels really secure. It is a good weight, clearly well-made and seems to have a very good edge which I hope will last. When I used it for the first time tonight, I found myself chopping the "proper" way, although slowly. I can't do this with my other knives for some reason. Very pleased and the price was amazing considering the quality. I was also very impressed that the delivery guy insisted on my wife passing security before he would hand the package over as I wasn't in. Very wise in the current climate.