oh man it has been so long since I've
done a proper knife of you forgive me it
has been an extremely busy summer but
today I started making all these excuses
let's look at the Zen my supreme tea
this is the supreme tea 210 millimeter
Giotto basically I spent a single week
with my knives in the kitchen and I use
it in normal circumstances I'm not
trying to break them on the China to
anything odd with them that I normally
would not do with my usual knives when I
first saw this knife there are two
things that caught my attention first is
the solid vg-10 blade and the second is
they twisted handle design and because
of those two main attributes I had two
main questions first this solid vg-10
affected the overall performance of the
blade and the second thing was there's a
twisted handle affect comfort or
performance at all very few knives will
use vg-10 for the entire blade now shewn
does make a vg-10 yanagawa but you know
Gerber's you don't really use all that
often or Alize i don't so for me having
a v10 solid bladed nagoba is really cool
but it's not something that is as
functional as a guru or chef knife that
is made entirely of vg10 first off let's
talk about the fit and finish of this
knife it is fantastic the blade has a
satin finish spine and a SAN finished
royal now most knives in this price
category will have a polished spine and
choil and they basically all they do is
they run some sandpaper over the spine
in the trial so that it's not very sharp
then my went the extra step and did a
really nice rounded spine and choil
something I really appreciate especially
for those who use a pinch grip with
these knives when your index finger is
over the spine and your middle finger is
under the toil it's really nice to have
a spine and trough that is nicely
rounded and polished the polish on the
spine and the toil are such as a
continuation of the polish you see on
the profile of the knife coming down to
the handle you see a nice flashy ferrule
and it's something that it really takes
a I would say a few days ago used to
because none of my knives have this sort
of high polished semi mere ferrule I
like it it just took a little a little
bit of getting used to you have a nice
white ring separating the ferrule from
the handle and the handle is what takes
the attention of this knife it has got a
really interesting octagonal twisted
handle now the shaping of the handle is
very unique the twisted handle is
something you don't see very often but
also the ferrule has two indentations at
the very top of the handle which makes
it look different first of all but also
it is actually very comfortable this
handle here because of the way they
shipped the ferrule at the very top it's
much taller than wide and that makes it
much more comfortable to hold and
because of the reflectiveness of the
ferrule you really won't see that detail
in photos either so that's something
that I really was appreciative when I
actually use this knife for a week now
this particular sample is not quite as
sharp as what I would find on my yeah
bees and yak cells but on a scale of one
to ten I would say is about an eight so
very very satisfactory in terms of its
overall sharpness out of the box so to
address the first question does a blade
made of solid vg-10 affect overall
performance well sort of so in terms of
performance
there was no differences between this
knife and any other vg-10 knife the
knife cutting things like potatoes
cantaloupe it's just a sticky food
greenies will still stick to the blade
profile it's not going to change that at
all it's retention is still good it's a
vg10 core steel it is Japanese vg10 now
in a typical vg-10 blade you'll have
either three layers where you have a
stainless steel cladding on each side
plus the core steel or something like a
33 layer or 96 layers or even up to like
a hundred and ninety six layers today
they all feel slightly dampened compared
to a mono steel knife because the entire
blade is one structure so in terms of
responsiveness I will say that vg-10
mono still does feel a bit more
responsive than a v10 cladded knife
however I did use a sabes I'd with one
my favorite knives that must one okay
yes and the massimo okay yes being the
what number two it still is more
responsive than the vg-10 mono steel now
this knife does bridge the gap in terms
of responsiveness closer to what the
Amano steel is on the K yes but not
quite there yet now coming down to the
handle my question was and I'm sure you
guys have this question as well
is the handle more or less comfortable
compared to an average octagonal handle
I'm happy to report it's neither more or
less comfortable than a well designed
octagonal handle if you're holding it in
a regular pistol grip however I will say
that if your grip was slightly higher up
and you are holding this in a pistol
grip and your thumb is resting on the
side of the knife this specific design
here is actually more comfortable than
your average or even a well-designed
octagonal handle and that cutout is not
only flattened it's actually angled so
that a gotcha comes towards the blade at
an angle and that is a detail you will
not see in any photos unless you were
holding this knife with your hands you
will not appreciate the detail very much
there was one extra benefit that I did
not expect to find with a solid v10
knife and here it is it's the artist
thing these are both Scotch sponges that
I use for my home these are pretty much
all I use then I do have some steel wool
that I use for like really burnt pants
which doesn't happen too often thank
goodness but they do happen but this is
what I use in my home the sponge of my
left here is actually just a regular
sponge with wrapped in kind of like I am
a plastic weaving and then the one in my
right is the blue which you guys
probably all know about it's do what
they call what the advertises blue
non-scratch there's also the yellow and
the green I don't use it at my home
because the green tends to be very
abrasive and in some cases can even
scratch glass now when washing a knife
it's always advised to use a soft side
of your sponge in my home 100% of the
time I wash all of my knives using the
soft side of the sponge and if I had
something baked on the side of the knife
I don't try to kind of scrub it off with
a blue side and simply throw some water
and I give it a few seconds some warm
water hopefully that will kind of soften
it up and use the soft side of the
sponge I never used the abrasive side of
the sponge so I know lots of people who
do because I go to homes all the time
and I look at their knives and when I
look at the knives or scratch patterns
they're horizontal scratches all along
the profile of the blade so one of the
added benefits of having a model steel
knife made of vg-10 is that the vg-10 is
very hard it is virtually scratch
resistant now because I don't use the
yellow and green version
this sponge at home I couldn't test it
on this knife but it did do a lot of
scrubbing with this knife here on the
blue side to see how it would react and
as you can see here the blade looks
virtually brand new there are no
scratches on this blade and no matter
what I do I can sit here and scrub this
sponge on this blade and there are no
scratch marks on it which is actually
pretty amazing so one of the added
benefits of this knife here is that if
you have a spouse or partner there is a
bit more rough in their knives when it
comes to watching them this knife here
will retain its natural or out of the
factory Beauty longer um so those are
the pros of this knife what are their
negatives well honestly there's only one
thing and I wish this knife was really
just about 2 millimeters taller
that's my only gripe I never hit my
knuckles on the cutting board I think
it's more of a psychological thing when
I ask for a knife that is 46 or 47
millimeters the overall design fit and
finish and sharpness of this knife out
of the box is nearly perfect
I love the twisted octagonal handle it
looks great in photos and even better in
person and is very comfortable to hold
the cut out are the very top of the
ferrule is something I really like I
really want to see more manufacturers
incorporate that design until their
handle designs for octagonal handles the
amount of steel construction doesn't
necessarily add cutting performance but
does a slightly better responsiveness on
the cutting board and more scratch
resistance to rough sponges overall I
think it's a fantastic knife with major
styling points in the handle and the
ferrule Department and for those who are
interested I have a few samples of this
knife here listed in my estore for sale
I'm also selling this knife as well this
is not one of the knives I'm planning on
keeping so if you guys want to buy this
very knife here I'll list it in my store
in the video's description below alright
but thank you guys for being here and
I'll catch you in the next video