Hello and welcome to in the kitchen with Matt.
I am your host, Matt Taylor.
Today I have another product review for you and I'm going to
be reviewing some knives from Kyoku and this brand or this
company has been around for a while and they are highly rated
on Amazon and they are the sponsor of today's video.
They reached out to me and asked me if I would take a look
at some of their knives and review them, and I said, sure.
So they sent them over to me to have a look.
And so that's what I'm going to be doing and
reviewing those knives.
Before I move on, make sure to subscribe to my channel.
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Let's begin.
So although this is a sponsored video, I'm not going
to hold back in my review at all.
I'm going to give an honest review for you all.
So the brand is Kyoku , and just at first glance,
I wanted to point out when they sent the knives.
The packaging is absolutely impressive.
Really cool packaging.
Now, the packaging doesn't necessarily mean that the knife
is good, but if the packaging is really horrible, then it's
just like attention to detail that wasn't there.
And so for me, it just gives it a little bit notch up when it
has really good packaging.
And I just really like this packaging just looks really,
really cool, and I'll go on to the website a little bit
later as well.
But I want to open this up and just show you what's in here,
and it just opens up like this, and it has this cool
little pamphlet here that tells you about all their knives
that they have.
A lot of different knives in there.
And then it has where you can find them social media,
contact, support, website and whatnot.
Really awesome.
And then as another little like a one sheet deal
about the names.
And in the knife now, this one is their utility knife,
and they come with a little guard right here, a little
safety guard, which is good, so you don't cut
yourself right away.
Opening up the box.
So that is the utility knife.
It's like a five inch blade.
And then it's nice felt kind of a felt liner, just really
impressive box, and then they come with a safety guard for
the night, and not all knives come with something like this
so that already I think it gives it like a notch up as
well in my in my mind.
And you just take your knife and you just slide it
right in here.
And this is perfect for traveling with your knives or
you just want to keep them safe.
Maybe you have kids or whatnot and you put these in a
drawer or something.
Now, if you have like a woodblock where you put the
knives in the woodblock, you don't really need to store
them that way, but keep them handy because if you wanted
to travel, take them somewhere.
You may not carry your whole woodblock.
You can just put it on a knife card on there.
And like I said, not that most knives don't come with
something like that.
So that's really cool.
It's easy to put them on, easy to take them off.
Pretty cool.
I have four knives from them, I had that utility knife,
the five inch utility knife.
I have what is called the knackery.
And this is a specifically a Japanese style of
blade for vegetables.
And it's a very popular style of knife.
And so that's really cool.
I have the popular European style chef knife, and this is
the classic when we think of a chef knife.
This is the design that most people think of
classic European style.
And then I had the Santuko, which is a popular
Japanese style chef.
So now let's go over to the website a little bit and talk
about the website.
And first glance, the website is great,
really nice looking website.
Last thing you want to do when you're buying something is go
to a website for a particular product, even if the
knives are really, really good quality.
If the the website is super janky, you're not going
to want to buy from them.
And so I was very impressed with the website.
It's very functional and looks very nice, clean looking.
So that's really a plus in my book,
inspired by tradition, but not bound by it.
Kiyoko knives incorporate the precision of craftsmanship of
Japanese sword making masters while utilizing modern forging
techniques to enhance your experience on the board.
So these knives are known for being having strength,
durability and holding an edge.
So edge retention, which is pretty,
pretty important.
Like the few, the few times that you have to sharpen
your knife, the fewer times that, just more times
that you have to be working in the kitchen.
Most cheap knives that you buy, like at Walmart,
they're not going to hold an edge very long and they're not
going be very durable.
They will probably break a lot easier and whatnot.
So that's one thing to keep in mind.
So these particular style, they have three different
styles that are series of blades.
They have the Shogun series, which is their most
expensive brand, and that uses the high quality
Damascus style.
If you're familiar with knives, Damascus is
very popular, high quality steel.
They have the new release, which is what they sent me.
The demo I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly,
the demo series.
And these are kind of more middle middle of
the line expense.
The chef's knives were about 35, 40 45 dollars.
The handle is made out of Rosewood, just a really
neat looking handle.
And there's a nice, seamless edge here where it
hits the blade, when I'm looking at knives, I want to
look at sharpness.
How long does it hold an edge?
How well does it cut ?
Obviously.
And also, like, how does it feel in your hand?
The ergonomics of it.
And this feels really nice.
It's a little bit different design than I normally use.
I am very used to using my cut Gonaives, which I've had
for many, many, many years.
And those are shaped a little bit differently.
But this is a more classic shape handle again made
out of Rosewood.
Which is really cool.
It just feels really nice in the hand, feels really nice.
And then one thing the drawback that I notice right away is the
top edge right here is a little bit sharp.
It's not a dealbreaker by any means, but it's a
little sharp, sharper than some edges, like my cut go
edges are more rounded on the top here, which depending on
how you hold your knife classically, you'll hold
it and pinch the top here.
And if you're using that quite a bit, that little edge right
there might dig into your hand a little bit.
It depends on how you hold it.
If you're holding it down here, which most people
might hold down here, most chefs are going to wrap it
up here, but then you won't even worry about it.
You won't even notice it.
But if you're holding up here and cutting a lot, you might
notice that dig into your hand, your finger
a little bit.
So for me, that's a minor drawback.
And so we go back here to the website and you can take a look
more about it.
Here I am on the About You page, and it talks about
the different main points that they have legendary style they
use globally sourced Big Ten.
So I want to point this out is globally sourced Fiji.
It's not Japanese midget.
And still there's a difference there, but super
steel coated in six or seven layers of Damascus steel and
sharing ridiculous sharpness, hardness
and corrosion resistance.
And that's what they're Shogun brand.
I don't have the Damascus video in front of me here.
So there's high quality.
Even though it's not specifically Japanese steel
from Japan, it is still really high quality,
unrivaled performance, ergonomically optimized.
And I talked about the ergonomics,
stunning design.
And then I mentioned Amazon.
They have so many reviews on Amazon, very positive,
all between four and a half and five stars.
So that's always a good plus.
Whenever I buy something, I like to review stuff on
Amazon and see what other people are saying about it.
And if it's between four and a half and five with at least
five hundred reviews and that's a good sign it and are people
like it?
Some awesome things to note is there is a 60 day money back
guarantee for these guys.
If you use it for 60 days and you just decided you don't
like them, send it back and get a full refund.
That's pretty cool.
Also, a lifetime guarantee on these knives, if you by chance
happen to break one or break the tip accidentally,
someone gets a hold of it and they don't use it properly or
you drop it or something like that, and it breaks.
They will replace it for free.
Pretty awesome.
Similar to like Cutco, if you're familiar with
Cutco brands, that's one of the things they have just a
lifetime like guarantee with them to you.
And that's something that I really enjoy, and not a lot of
companies do that.
So that's another major plus.
And then the price point.
I mentioned that the higher Shogun series that's more in
line with the more expensive knives like a chef knife
running around one hundred dollars.
And so that's more on the higher end price for a knife.
These are mid range like the $50 range is actually pretty
decent for what you get.
That's a good price point.
Now you might get a cheaper chef knife at like Walmart for
like 15 to 20 bucks, but it's going to be a terrible knife.
And if you've been using one of those and you upgrade to
something like this, it's twice as much or even buy something
that's three or four times as much.
You will notice the difference right away.
And so this is a good price point for someone that wants to
upgrade some of their cheaper knives.
One thing I do want to point out is these are made
in China, and that is a sticky point for some people.
And if you want to have something like if you're a U.S.
viewer and you want to have something made in the U.S.,
specifically buy made in the U.S. by American workers,
then by CutCo you can't go wrong with cart.
Cutco goes are amazing knives, and I own those and I love
those as well.
But those are super expensive.
They are really expensive.
Cutco knives are extremely expensive like the S.
The San Tuku.
Cup coverage in this one.
Forty five dollars.
The Santaco for Keiko is like $170 or something like that,
but so just keep that in mind.
I just want to like full disclosure there.
These are made in China.
And now let's do a little demonstration for you.
And I just have a couple of things I want to demonstrate
with these and how sharp they are.
So sharpness test, there's a lot of ways to test sharpness
with a knife.
And one of the most common ways is to take a sheet of
piece of paper.
And you might think paper that's like easy to cut, right?
If you have a dull knife or an act, it doesn't hold
an edge.
No, it's not easy.
It's going to tear the paper.
It just kind of folds over and it doesn't really cut.
So we take this knife.
This piece of paper
look at that slices through it like butter.
That's a cool sound that it gives.
That is a very good sign of a very sharp knife.
And these are brand new and they come sharpen.
So I expect them to be sharp.
OK, so that's one test that you can do.
Also, this is the Nick Fury style or the Nick Fury Blade.
And this is used specifically like you can use it for a lot
of things, most things, but where it really shines
is with vegetables.
And I just want to take some carrots here and just show you
like it just slices through these carrots like nothing.
Oh my gosh.
Remember, whenever you're cutting the proper ways to have
your fingers like this on the vegetable or whatever and you
go right down, you don't go at an angle because you might cut
into your finger, you always go straight down,
write down your knuckle.
In fact, you're not even touching the tip of
your fingers, burn
right away like it is really often it cuts very well through
through the carrots.
Another thing that's very common to be chopping up in
your kitchen is onion.
All right, so we'll take off the.
But stay in here, and it just cuts really well through this.
Get that top layer off.
And I'm just going to cut it right down, Sinner here
and just this like effortlessly just going right through
that effort, effortless, pretty awesome.
And then for this one, what do you do with this style of knife
is you kind of just dig in and go down like this?
Just like you would.
The classic chef.
One thing I did notice is this blade is a little thicker.
And others.
We'll stick your blade.
Up top.
And I do notice at this part where I like to hold my knife
is kind of digging into my finger a little bit, so that's
a little bit off putting.
So if I grab it down here, I have a little
bit less control.
Oh, but it cuts so good like you can just go straight down
straight down on these.
It's not smashing at all.
Straight, straight down.
Ooh, that's so good, it's not smashing at all cut and cutting
through those like butter.
And then that's the style this style of knife is.
It's more more straight down motions than kind of
a seesaw motion.
Oh man.
And that thing is another thing that I notice is we're
not smashing it.
It's not releasing a lot of the
juice and it's not releasing a lot of the fumes or whatever
from the onion.
It goes up into your eyes, like my eyes are totally fine.
That, in and of itself is amazing, you know,
especially onions all the time that the did an amazing job
with that onion, it was awesome.
Another thing that I wanted to show was doing a cabbage.
Cabbages are big, dense vegetables, and that's
where a knife like this will shine.
And this is not supposed to be a.
Specific in specific review, but I'm just going to stick
with this knife for everything just because and then we can so
it cuts to that really well, you know, that's a
big thick cabbage.
If you have a dull knife, like going to cabbage is going
to be a pain.
Of that core.
Yeah, it's just awesome.
I barely have to put very much pressure on this at all, and it
just goes straight down.
That does an amazing job with vegetables,
I'm telling you.
Really cool knife.
I like it again.
The drawback for me personally, because the way
I like to hold my knife is it's a little sharp on the
top there.
So if I had a recommendation for them for the Kiyoko guys is
to round that off a little bit at the top round that off,
because that is a little bit sharp for me and it's kind of
cutting digging into my fingers a little bit, just not as
comfortable as I would like.
But if you're used to holding down here, it's a lot
of people are.
You wouldn't run into that issue at all, and it won't be
an issue for me.
It's a minor problem because it works.
This knife just works so well, but there you go.
Pretty awesome.
And then switch the boards and then we will go for something
else that's classically cut in your kitchen that sometimes if
you if you don't have a very sharp knife or a good knife,
it's going to be harder to cut through.
And that is something like a chicken breast,
a thick chicken breast.
So let me use the same knife here, and I just rinsed
it off a little bit and I'm going to cut this chicken.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
Seriously.
It is cutting through that chicken again, like butter,
that's that's the easiest way to
describe it.
Awesome.
And there you go.
That is a look at the Kiyoko knives.
Final Thoughts.
I love the design of the packaging that comes in.
I love that it comes with a guard that works just really,
really well and just holds the knife.
Well, that's I can see.
That is a huge benefit if you travel.
I really like the website, the design.
They're very clean design.
I love that there's a lot of reviews of these knives already
on Amazon, and they're good, good reviews.
I love the way that it feels in my night and just holding it
like this feels really well if you just hold the handle.
Again, the only drawback for me personally, some people,
a drawback for them is that it's made in China.
But for me, the only drawback for this one is it's a little
bit sharp up there at the top and it digs in to my hand,
my forefinger or my index finger.
When I hold it up there and I hold it up there and chefs hold
it up, there is you have way more control with that blade.
But a lot of people will hold down here, and for them, if you
if you're used to holding your knife down here, then you won't
even notice that at all.
OK, so that's a minor drawback for me.
And the price point is great.
Fifty bucks for a really good quality
lifetime guarantee knife.
That's pretty awesome.
So if you are in the market for to upgrade your knife, take a
look at these.
Definitely worth it.
And again, the 60 day money back guarantee you can't go
wrong down in the description box, you'll find
affiliate links to each one of these knives that I showed
in this video.
If you're interested in trying them out and upgrading your
current knives once again, my name is Matt Taylor,
and this has been another episode of In the
Kitchen with Matt.
Thank you for joining me.
As always, if you have any questions,
comments or requests, put him down below and I'll get back to
you as soon as I can.
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