every kitchen needs a good chef knife
and before me I have to of possibly the
best bang for your buck chef knives that
you can buy in the Japanese and European
category on my right I've got the
Masumoto VG 210 millimeter Giotto on my
left I have the Westhoff icon classic
icon 8-inch cook's knife in terms of
their steel the masa moto uses a hyper
molybdenum vanadium stainless steel that
is such a tongue-twister that's horrible
while the name Steel's molybdenum
anyways that's another topic for
discussion and the Warsaw fuses a high
carbon stainless steel heat-treated to a
57 on the rockwell hardness scale both
use a palm handle which is actually
quite interesting when we get into the
handle portion of this video so all in
all they trade a lot of blows they
actually have a lot of similarities in
terms of what they use for steel and
they have a lot of similarities in terms
of what they use for their handles but
that is where their similarities end
now this knife here was rated top knife
or top kyoto by America's Test Kitchen
and so it's really become a really
popular knife amongst Japanese knife
lovers who were buying their first
Japanese knife or maybe going up to
their second or third knife at this
point this knife retails for 160 which
is right in the same area ballpark as
the wood soft classic icon to get this
knife to its optimal sharpness you
really need to know how to sharpen a
knife free hand on a whetstone
because this knife is rated at a 59
rockwell rating it's not quite soft and
it's not quite hard okay so it's right
in the middle there I think for me
anything with a rating of 58 to 60 is a
medium hardness anything over 60 I would
say is considered hard and under 58 is
medium soft okay so this knife is rated
at a 59 so that makes it kind of a knife
that you don't really want to use on a
steel and you do really need to use on a
whetstone now what stone sharpening if
you guys aren't aware it does take time
to perfect and so you know with that in
mind this life can get sharper than the
worst off but it does not get there
unless you really know how to shop your
knife
and it takes time to actually perfect
that you know that technique or may not
perfect but maybe it takes time to
really develop a good technique that's
consistent and will give you a really
consistent sharp edge in terms of fit
and finish on a scale of one to ten I
would say it's a seven to maybe an eight
ok so here's why this is my third copy
of the MAS model Viji line now the very
first one I received in the mail
he actually had a chipped tip so I sent
that back and this is before I really
got to sharpening so I sent it back the
second one that rots my home the palm
handle had a chip on where the rivet
meets contact with the handle so that is
not necessarily a problem but in the
long run that rivet can run loose and
it's something that you don't
necessarily want finish wise this knife
is probably an 8 or you know I would say
eight maybe close to a nine main because
the edges the spine and the edges around
the handle are actually nicely polished
there are no sharp edges anywhere other
than the edge of the cutting edge itself
but other than that the knife actually
is a pretty well put together knife I
found that in terms of handles the
Matsumoto's and miso nose and the
Japanese side makes some of the best
handles out there but even though they
are some of the better handles out there
don't find them to be optimal I find it
too because I find them to be
comfortable just not great okay and the
MAS model has a very decent handle I do
have small hands and so this handle is
really right you know it's it's actually
a right fit for my hand size but in
terms of the curvature of the handle and
the way it feels it just doesn't feel as
good as some of the Germans out there
now in terms of handling I really
enjoyed the way the muscle er handles
because it feels quite nimble and light
in my hands although it's not the
lightest knife you can buy a lot of the
weight is in the handle itself so
because of that the knife the blade
actually feels quite nimble and also
another thing that I like about this
knife in particular is the fact that it
has a relatively round or pronounced
belly it's not so obvious where it's a
huge rocker but it has enough belly or
had enough profile in the belly where it
gives the
it actually rocks really really nicely
list of icons I've really become a kind
of a household item in my kitchen these
knives are just a joy to use now granted
this knife does not get as sharp as a
must model on the absolute scale but it
does get sharp enough to be used every
single day and by me who is actually
quite picky when it comes to knife
sharpness this knife here ten strokes on
the steel and it gets just as sharp in
terms of daily use as the Matsumoto
now the Matsumoto I need ten fifteen
minutes of sharpening to get the knife
to get optimal sharpness on this knife
here a few strokes and I'm good to go
and so that's really the benefit on the
trade-off that you get is this knife
will get ninety ninety five percent as
sharp as the moss moto with ten seconds
of investment before every cooking
session in terms of fit and finish I
would say the fit is about a nine to a
ten it is virtually flawless in terms of
fit there is no better knife together
than this knife here it is solid there's
no loose rivets there's no clingy
chatter when you hit the handle on the
board it is just such a well put
together knife in terms of finish I
would say this is an 8 ok mainly because
even though the edges on the handles are
perfectly shaved and preferably grounded
the spine is ever slightly sharp and not
so sharp that it will hurt you at all
I would say it would sake really just
some really fine ultra fine sandpaper 10
20 seconds on each side on the spine
will give this knife a ten finished
that's how good this knife is put
together now in terms of handling this
knife has a profile for a rocker just
dream it has no flat spots so you
literally can rock this knife from edge
to edge and not have any weird clunk or
stop when you guys hit the board now a
few nights ago I had to crush some
garlic on my cutting board but because
it was full I had to improvise that I
did not want to use the edge of the
knife to crush because I would risk
cutting myself and offshore damaging the
tip of the knife so I turned the knife
ups this way and I started crushing the
garlic it works really well and that's
something that I don't know of any if
we're soft thought of that as in their
design phase but it's a nice little
bonus to have a metal end here obviously
it does
to handle a little bit heavier which you
know for a European knife is not a big
problem at all because most European
knives tend to be handle heavy it really
comes close to being a perfect chef's
knife that anyone can use now the only
negative I have of this knife if I had
to choose a negative and this is me
nitpicking
is the fact that the spine of the knife
is not as well polished as I would like
it to be again a couple seconds with
some sandpaper and it would be perfect
okay other than that I have no negatives
to say about this knife so you have to
ask yourself what are you willing to
deal with and what are you willing to
put it with to own these knives so on
the MAS motor side are you willing to
put up with the fact that that steel
itself is potentially more brittle and
can crack if you were or chip if you
were to cut into a frozen piece of meat
or is a bone I've had my very first mass
model ship with a broken tip which I
have mentioned and the second one came
with a cracked handle okay so that's
something that you have to know and also
speaking of you know having a knife with
problems is with Wisthoff I know that I
can call with stops headquarters they're
based in the US and I can probably have
a replacement ships my home whether the
knife is three months old or a year old
with Matsumoto because they're imported
you're not gonna have the same level of
service which to me is actually quite
important in many cases that is it for
this episode thank you guys for watching
let me know your thoughts if you have
experience with one or both of these
knives drop me a line let me know what
you think and I look forward to catching
up with you guys in the next video
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