Sensational meant to make you feel exceptional. This marketing does a few things. It's layered, but the first part is "it might go away" since it was once banned. Second part is, the ability to get products not meant for general use can be appealing to some. Think advertisements selling "military" or "space grade" products. Third part is, it makes a person feel like they're more capable if they can use it; "other people might not be able to use it, but I would". Stupid, but appealing enough to work. I hate this kind of marketing.
Exactly. So many of these ads for drop-shipped goods, all with that text-to-speech audio, every one making ludicrous claims. Considering how easy it is to spot that they're bs, it annoys me that TH-cam shows so many of them.
@@drengillespie No, and unfortunately some of them are getting harder to spot. These ones are already challenging for older people who don't know any better and are hard of hearing. Doubly so if their native language isn't English.
I see it all the time on videos about firearms. Somehow these AI bot channels get hundreds of thousands of views and the only thing the video does is take the description of a firearm off the manufacturer's website put into text to speech and then steal footage of other content creators that are actually using the firearm for a review.
@@I.b.shifty The best part is, the "Japanese" looking writing on the package uses a form of the second character (话) that isn't used in Japanese, only Chinese. The Japanese text would be 神話.
@@I.b.shiftyThe idea probably being that the vikings are famous for their high quality swords, especially the Ulfberht (actually spelled +VLFBERH+T). Problem with that: Ulfberht swords, while widely used and praised by vikings, were made in the Frankish Empire and traded to the vikings. The vikings at the time weren't able to create the high quality steel the Franks were able to produce.
Any time someone says “It was banned for being too (desirable quality)” in an advertisement, just run. Too sharp, too good at curing every ailment, too good at curing a single ailment, too good at dating.
It's not like it wouldnt be easier for BIG [INDUSTRY] to just copy it and make their own version and use their BIG [INDUSTRY] money to flood the market with their product.
There are some instances where it is legitimate though. For example, many fishing lures are banned from competitive fishing competitions for being too good at attracting fish, and many shoes are banned from sports as well for the same reason.
I have one of these Matsato knives and it works wonderfully for cutting all kinds of meat and tenderizes it at the same time. I'd say 2 thumbs up, but I lost one of them in the hole.
I actually got a Huusk "knife" as a present (looks very much like this thing). I also have an Estwing hammer that cuts meat just as well, tenderizes almost as well, and drives nails a lot better. 🤣
@@thomaslutro5560 It's the same company. It's Huusk Matsato. Might be the same scam company group behind Kamikoto Knives and Established Titles and these.
@@thomaslutro5560 Ha, I got one as a christmas present, actually. I'll take my real opinion on that thing to the grave, before I admit how bad it is to my sister. It's nice to look at, I guess.
Knife companies, three options and they are not mutually exclusive: 1. Make better knives. 2. Stop lying in your adverts. 3. Stay out of Will's insta feed.
Victorinox is the best you'll ever need as a home chef and at a very good price point. Fiskars are also decent cheap knives if they are avalible where you live. And you do not need a huge set, 3-5 knives depending on what you do is all you really need.
@jakobrosenqvist4691 I still think Wüsthof gets a bad rap in that price range... They are decent knives... I like the Wüsthof Ikon Classc range for cheap but decent beater. If you want something just a little nicer, look into Kai Shun or the Myabi lines by Zwilling... They'll cost you about twice of what a Global or a Wüsthof will cost you, but there is a real difference in quality there as well... Also depends on whether you want a beater or something to take care of a bit better... A Kai Shun Santoku is nice, but not so horribly expensive it's unaffordable, and it really makes for a great allround knife in the kitchen for pretty much all prep work, unless you're talking filleting fish or deboning a piece of meat or some other really specialised task. I'm not sure this will pass on TH-cam, but a great website I can recommend, which ships pretty much locally world-wide is: www.knivesandtools.com/en/ct/kitchen-knives.htm Great detailed descriptions and a lot of knowhow and honest reviews... It's my go-to place for anything that isn't something Japanese and fancy...
@@That1NissanGuy Dunno , i cheap out on them , even though i a knife guy , most of them i made it myself, and use , the other knifes are for somebody else , that would just cut on porcelan stuff like this , so i don't care about them
A friend asked me what I thought of these, I told him it’s a knife with an identity crisis. It has no idea what it wants to be so it’s horrible at everything
It's like it went to community college and got partway through getting credits towards six different degrees but never stuck to the classes long enough to finish. It knows, to some small degree, what kinds of things knives are used for, but it can't with any degree of competence emulate any of those tasks.
@@foxyfoxington2651 So many companies are "successful" just because they manage to find ways to scam the public, but their products are garbage and the world would be better off with them not existing.
I got an early kamikotu and it’s still fantastic and one of my most used knives. I bought a second, different model a year later and it was utter utter garbage. It’s literally in the garage as a paint can opener.
The edge profile would be good for a skinner, but it's much to large and chunky for that. To me it feels like someone mixed a heavu duty outdoor knive and a skinner, and then made a cheap edgy replica version of that.
@@einundsiebenziger5488 If you want something really heavy duty that can baton firewood and be used to pry and poke, then something this size is ok. But it's definitley on the larger end.
I think someone contracted a Chinese foundry to crank out thousands of these blanks and then a marketing + drop shipper company tried to make it into a "premium chef's knife"
I had a skinning knife that was larger than this thing, but it was made by a reputable company. I have a smaller version of a knife that's sorta like this one. It was advertised as a "bush craft utility knife". Basically they said "it's good for cutting sticks". :D
For when a chef has to survive because his sous chef has lost the plot and is threatening the waiting staff with a hot frying pan and you have to put them down with it? xD
I do wanna point out, that my aunt owns a very, very similar (but not the same) knife from a place called "The Caveman Style". Cheep handles, nonforged blade with black painted upper section with the same pressed dimples, the hole, the only difference I can see being the grip and tang are shaped differently, and the finger cutter (rear overhang) is gone. Blade profile looks very similar otherwise
From the way that it looks, it looks like the knife was originally meant to be a survival knife of some kind. Especially since the ads show them using it to strike flint. But I think it failed at that and they realized they could more easily market it as a kitchen knife than an outdoors knife.
My "survival" knife feels a lot more sturdy and safe than this one, tbh. And it's a years-old pretty cheap one. And most I'd need that type of knife for is cutting rope, whittling and maybe chopping food/meat in a pinch. I can't see whittling work too well with this and you can cut rope with pretty much any knife. Then add in the "ez stab" spike near the handle and the safety I'd want from a knife I need to grab blindly from my belt goes out the window, too. Couldn't even hand that knife safely to someone who needs it, because of that stupid spike.
Keep in mind: Design is used to make a good, quality, functional product. Marketing gets whatever product you *do* have to sell to people. There isn't necessarily a lot of overlap between them. Careful on the internet guys, and Will, thanks for reviewing the bunk for all of us.
lol My cousin brought up one of those cringy Instagram knife ads and I immediately made fun of it without realizing he was about to tell me he had just bought one xD It was one of those big cleavers you see people doing like.. "survival" outdoor cooking videos with.
Hi Will There is another channel on TH-cam called Project farm, he has some pretty neat setups to show things like cutting force required etc.. Anyways just a suggestion to maybe try to make some of these cuts on a kitchen scale or something to show how much force is required to cut certain inedible vegetables (like pumpkin or aubergines) in comparison to actual kitchen knives? Just a thought. Love the videos thank you for all the effort you put into them.
I really appreciate you going through the knives that are pushed so hard. It shows how bad they are. My personal feeling is that if you need this much advertisement to sell it it's probably not worth buying.
I was gifted one of these by a relative who fell for the false advertising of "Japanese Knife" "Japanese Steel" Will got lucky with the handle scales being flat on his, mine have chips out of them and daylight between the scales and tang. I have never even tried to cut anything with it, other than paper (which is simply couldn't do out of the box) I use it to practice sharpening since I'm not worried about messing it up. Also notice in the ad they demonstrate cutting with several completely different knives to the one they actually sell, it would be funny if so many people weren't actually paying money to such a blatantly fraudulent business.
I'd love to see you recreate one of these production knives with good quality steel and a proper edge on them. Just to show the difference that even with a bad design, what a proper edge and steel makes to a knife and why its worth the money.
Interesting how in most of the footage these shady companies use in their ads, nobody seen cutting food uses the knife they advertise (1:00). And fascinating how they do not feel ashamed to sell the same shitty thing under names that change on a weekly basis.
Imagine claiming to pay respect to ancient Japanese weaponsmiths, and calling one of the most well-known blade styles. . . a samurai sword. Were they afraid "katana" was too niche? I see the levels or respect match the products quality.
As soon as I heard 420j2 steel being used for this, I already knew how much of a scam this was. 420j2 steel, for those unaware, is a really good steel. For surgical utensils. That's an insanely bad thing for a blade that is going to be used often, like a kitchen knife. 420j2 steel can hold an edge, but it doesn't hold an edge for very long. It's easy to manufacture, and it's cheap, which is why they're used for surgical utensils; because surgeons dispose of their utensils after surgery, for both sanitary and efficiency purposes. If you ever see any blade that is made with 420j2 steel, do not buy it even if you like dedicating your life to resharpening it after almost every single use.
I have one of these knives, and yeah, I would agree with most of this. My aunt got one each for me and my mom, and my mom hated it right off the bat because of how HEAVY it is. For me, as you said, the pinch grip is surprisingly comfortable, but because of the blade's weird shape, it makes it really awkward for both slicing and chopping. What I find it useful for, weirdly enough since it doesn't look like it, is carving. I use it for cutting meat, especially partially-frozen meat that's hard to cut. I also use the tip to carve things like peppers off the stem or really thick vegetables like carrots or leeks (my local grocery store only sells giant flakkees). Turns out that weight is actually surprisingly good for just brute-forcing some tougher ingredients. Honestly if you're strong enough you could probably use the tip for chopping things finely like garlic, but again, it's really heavy compared to any other knife. Also it looks cool so my guests like to gawk at it, and that distracts them long enough for me to use the $15 nakiri I got from the local grocery store. ALSO it's really fun for mushrooms. I like my mushroom slices thick so I can just haphazardly chop chop chop which is fun with this knife. Basically, this knife is better treated as a miniature woodcutting axe than a knife. All that said it's just incredibly overpriced. The weird shape isn't doing it any favours. It's easily the most expensive knife in my drawer and not nearly the most useful. I definitely don't hate using it, but I completely understand why it's getting so much scrutiny, since it's basically trying to sell on being a gimmick. Which sucks, because the handle is really nice and the weight might be something that other people like me might like. God knows the fucking 1cm blade won't bend ever. But instead of making just, you know, a good knife, they had to try to trick people.
I was a chef for 6 years and still use my 8" Henckles for pretty much everything. I got one of these instagram knives as a gift one year for christmas. It was a really tall and thick blade with a decently sharp edge. The only thing I use it for, and will admit that it works quite well for, is cutting chicken wings. When I am breaking down whole wings into the drum and flat and removing the tip it really does well. Not good for much else.
I could really stand to see more of this type of video... Not just because it's entertaining ripping into horrible knives, but it's actually rather instructional as to what you should be looking for as well. 👍👍 [edit] From a blacksmith/knifesmith standpoint, I could also stand to hear a bit more about certain steel types. Especially some of the more modern powdered carbide knife steels in contrast to the more traditional white/blue carbon steels, Aogami super steel, the VG variations, etc... Advantages, disadvantages, etc... -- Also, people really underestimate just how important a good knife or two in the kitchen really is... I hardly know anybody, not matter how great a cook they are, that actually have a decently sharp knife in the kitchen... It's crazy! It's come to a point where I hardly even let people loose on my better knives in the kitchen, because they'll invariably be maltreated, so they'll just have to deal with the Wüsthoff's... That said, it's also become pretty automatic to warn people that my knives are sharp, and half the time they'll still cut themselves... What's up with all that?!
I learned how to sharpen almost immediately after my favorite knife (A Dalstrong, nothing fancy really, probably about as good as a Wustoff) began to dull on me. I was not about to lose gliding through food, truly, more sharp is more fun.
Not 100% a bladesmith's perspective but for someone who's definitely an authority and passionate about steel and their use in knives, Larrin Thomas of KnifeSteelNerds has a huge repository of his personal independent testing and metallurgy knowledge of many many different steels from your classic 1095 to his personally developed Magnacut that's the new big hotness of knife steels being a high carbide stainless steel that's more stainless and tough than M390, sacrificing just a little bit in edge retention Magnacut is nearly what most say is the most well balanced steel by far in terms of the triple seesaw of stainlessness, toughness, and Wear Resistance/*Edge retention where in any steel it's always going to be a at most "pick two" situation. Want a knife that doesn't chip and you can abuse it to high hell but able to bring back the edge using a river rock? 1095 is a great option, but it's gonna rust like nobodies business. Want a knife that stays sharp dang near forever? Maxamet is right up your alley, but it's not exactly stainless and chipping is a real danger with abuse, also sharpening it with normal whetstones is a huge pain(even with diamonds) but if you're sharpening once a year then it ain't so bad. Need a knife that'll mostly survive the ocean salt on a busy boat or while diving? LC200N is your best bet, very tough and can be abused, just expect to maintain that edge a lot more often than other popular steels Of course there's no such thing "perfect" knife steel, only what's best for your environment and needed application. *Edge Retention has a lot of factors, not just the steel. Assuming identical heat treatments(method(oil, water, aluminum plate, cryo), temperature, time, HrC) it's knife geometry and bevel angle that's a bigger factor when it comes to edge retention and cutting performance a 15 Degrees Per Side vs a 20DPS edge on two identical geometry knives the 15DPS will be sharp for much longer compared to the 20DPS. Though of course the edge will be a bit more prone to folding over and even chipping compared to the more robust 20DPS. Again it's always that seesaw for your particular application
In my country they are trying the sell it as "the absolute japanese chef knife sward"... "made in China" (if you notice the superfine print on the label). I'd say it's a wonderful blade (if you use it daily, all the way from the edge) - for developing carpal tunnel joint problems...
The ideograms on the box looked familiar (the 2nd is "hua" which denotes a language or dialect). So... I looked them up. It's "shen hua". I assume they're marketing on the "legendary" translation. But... it also translates to "fairy tale". :D
I love the concept of this series. It's so fun seeing an absloute dumpster fire of a kitchen knife being talked up about. It's almost as if every design choice of this knife was to make it bad at its supposed job in the kitchen.
I would love to get like a basics video on knives. What the typical marketing with different steel types actually means for the knife, what the different shapes mean for cutting/how to cut and all that. Plus some recommendations for different budgets and maybe even a summary of brands (how good is a normal wüsthoff against a zwilling or hexclad, are the cheap ikea knives acutally okay)
This product leverage that their customers probably have an old kitchen knife at home, probably cheap and horrible to use, and that they have no knowledge of how a proper knife should be. So what ends up happening is that once they get the knife to compare, the Matsato will conform to their notions of an "exotic and super sharp knife" in it's design and functionally it will definitively cut better than their old knife. Also, with claims of thinner slices and so on, the user be inclined to try making thin slices and such and then believe them to be special because they TRIED IT WITH THE MATSATO KNIFE. They would otherwise would never cut thin slices because they are probably terrible chefs in the first place. It's a cartoon knife - it's designed to appeal not to cut.
I have this exact knife (given as a gift) and it is utterly hideous. The handle material has no protection and is rough. And the blade isn't even good enough as a cleaver and is downright dangerous with how unstable it is if you don't know how to handle a knife properly. Thank you for bringing this to peoples attention Will. Keep up the great work!
I'd love to see Wil re-grind and try to make this knife... anything but awful. I mean the shape is awful, but at least a correct sharpening would be good
I bought a Santoku off aliexpress for about $7.00... Was NOT expecting anything but when it go to me I was really impressed with sharpness and the way it cut. Very similar to my $125 20+ year-old Shun. Comfortable as well. No idea how the edge is going to last but at $7.00 and having a decent whetstone set, I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it.
Something to help us the viewer understand how hard you have to push to cut through things would be to put a scale beneath the cutting board. Probably weird to film but would be cool to see.
@@WillStelterbladesmith I thought that might be the case. Very cool to see how blade geometry alone makes such a big difference in the cut. Thanks for the video!
I LOVE this series of testing knives that were recommended from instagram. You should make a video for all the people that took the bait and bought one a way to “fix” the knife by modifying it with a regrind so they don’t have to just throw it away, right away.
I always love watching experts talk about things they’re knowledgable about, and since cooking is one of my passions, it was relatively easy for me to understand some of the points I otherwise might not have. I didn’t understand everything, but it was an interesting video on balance, and I’m interested to watch some more.
When I started working as a chef, my Grandpa got me one. Handle was uncomfortable, point and edge were brittle, and its a pain to sharpen. I eventually gave the knife away. Much prefer to use Whusthof or Dexter Russels in a professional setting. The Japanese knives are wonderful, but too brittle to stand up in all but the calmest situations. Most professional kitchens are not "calm" settings.
If they are still an MLM (door to door scam jobs), I would never buy from them, regardless if their knives are good. They are overpriced as fuck on top of that.
Quality review of a highly marketed knife. I learned some things that I just never thought about before. I am not a chef, I'm not much of a cook at all but I do help in the kitchen when asked and trying to sharpen knives is my responsibility. The more ya know... Thanks Will.
This looks like a fighting knife. "If you intend to duel your food to the death first, this is the way to go!" also sounds like something they would use as marketing.
These are great videos! You should try cutting things on a scale to see if you can actually quantify how much harder it is to push these knives through the veggies than it is the more well designed knives
I wonder which Okinawan hermit this guy approached to learn from but was turned away but then waited outside his house for 3 months until he begrudgingly accepted him as an apprentice to learn all this stuff
I saw an ad for this "knife" claiming it was some ancient long lost viking knife. Then vikings dropped from mainstream and they're a banned samurai knife.
I love how they say the hole is for control, yet none of the footage from ads you shown was anyone actually using the hole, 😂 It's almost like they made the blade then had people who actually knew how to use a blade use for footage. Lol
it reminds me of a mall knife or a gas station knife. but at least when you buy a mall knife or a gas station knife you *know* you're not buying a *real* knife.
11:40 "How many ounces is that? Because I'm a normal person." Classic American that doesn't realise that almost every other country in the world uses metric making you anything but a "normal person".
I'm very impressed by your presentation, super natural and informative, subscribed! As a culinary school grad I appreciate your knowledge of the craft and would love to have one of your knives
Great job of comparing the differences and describing the specifics of what makes cutting with it tough! The angled part that causes it to wedge is never even something I considered with knives, great to keep in mind!
One of my life goals is to buy one of your knives. I love your reviews and I hate my current knife set. You do amazing work! I’ll save up for this for sure.
In the advertising, none of the people cutting used the hole, even while talking about how great the hole is. Worth pointing out, almost nothing advertised by TH-cam/social media people is actually good quality. A majority is just drop-shipped or OEM garbage made for as cheap as possible. I guess that's not fair, some of it is decent quality, but just for the price you get if you go straight to the original manufacturer on their only stores rather than the massively marked up versions. A 20 dollar item that's built like it's maybe a 30 dollar item is nice; a 20 dollar item built like it's a 30 dollar item but then sold for 65-100 is not so nice.
I love how even having no real experience/knowledge in proper kitchen technique, or use in good/bad knife comparison, anyone can HEAR the difference in the cuts between the knives!
No clue why this came across my feed, I know nothing about knives. Grateful it did, I feel like I learned a lot watching this, both about knives and how to use them. Fantastic.
Love these videos! It's funny though because the main thing I always take away is how dull my kitchen knives are and that I need to sharpen them again.
I love that you clearly see in all of their marketing with chefs using the blade, NONE of them are using that stupid hole to put their finger into. Pointless design choice just made to be flashy. XD
Thanks Will! Love to see all the finer tidbits of perfecting blade geometry revealed in your videos. Helps me to make a better product when I can see direct comparison in action.
I'm not sure why this was in my recommended... I haven't even thought about buying any knives (nor have I watched similar content). That being said, this sounds like just the channel to watch IF I ever want to get any info on the topic, so... well done, good sir!
17:05 I've made a knife for general purpose slicing, cutting, and peeling. It does the same thing as this knife at the time stamp. I'm sure it can be fixed though with a proper bevel. But my free hand grinding skills suck. Waiting for a jig to try again. But anyway thanks for the review Will
I like knives, but I lack the knowledge to appreciate them. Thank you for this video ! I realize I have been cutting most of my food of the last 5 years with a 12$ santoku than doesn't have an edge :'D Will watch more videos so I improve my knives understanding. Fun trivia : "lame" is the french word for "blade" !
I've been using the Victorinox for close to 20 years as my best knife, but I recently upgraded to a nice japanese damascus steel. First cut with it I couldn't believe the difference. I've been using it for about a month now and am still astonished I waited this long.
I love this little series! Cant stand seeing these flashy "content creator" knives as i call them lol. I have an idea, maybe you could take these knives and "fix" what you don't like about them and re-test to see if it's any better! Like refinishing the edge geometry from hollow grind to convex edge, maybe smooth out the choil/heel or remove the jimping on the spiine. Love the videos, thanks!
Is Isaiah also doing the secondary camera? Because the closeups are really high quality! Those carrot slices are so nicely lit and in focus! A+ work, gents!
The branding isn’t even trying. Matsato, I don’t think is a real Japanese word. It’s just what a non-japanese person THINKS sounds Japanese. To be specific, the “tsa” sound is basically non existent in standard Japanese. The characters 神話 on the box is written in simplified Chinese characters, which are not used in Japan.
Victorinox Fibrox line is popular in commercial kitchens because they are decent, reasonably priced, easy to clean and the handles can stand up to repeated immersion in sanitizer.
Really enjoying these knife reviews! If you cut to close-up footage when you describe things like the hollow grind or distal taper, rather than using hand gestures, it would help to illustrate those concepts better. I've never thought much about kitchen knife blade geometry, and seeing how it's done wrong is great for understanding how to do it right.
Even zooming in probably won't help most people understand it, because the way light and shadow fall will make some people see something other than the correct thing or focus on the wrong part. The best way is drawing a big picture of whatever you're describing in macro.
Thank you for the video Will. Please add the company name to the title, so when people look for a review, they see your video instead of the scammer account videos. I just did a round of reporting on those videos, but having you come up in a search will do much more to spread awareness. My father fell for Huusk. I don't want more people to fall for these scams.
Thanks Will, I somehow knew what a good chef's knife needed to be, but, you gave definition to my intuition in that regard. I've got a set of stainless Oxford Hall knives that have been working well for me for over forty years. I could probably really enjoy a set of your knives, but I'm not sure I could afford them. Love your vids, and the work you've done with Alec.You two inspired me to set up a smithing area at my shop. Just to putter... First project has been a Chestnut knife from a circular saw blade that lost some teeth... Ugly, but hey, it works for scoring Chestnuts for roasting. Yeah, on an open fire!
i got a bullshit knife like this once, it is some wonky shaped 'kitchen knife' called an Otoma or something, its so fat weighs a ton and can't cut a potatoe it more splits it like a log splitter, it was wild to take it into work for one day but it was also useless to cook with
My mom bought me one of these things for Christmas and although it's a different brand I knew immediately that I would love it, because it was a gift from my mom. First thing I noticed upon picking it up was just how crappy the handle was. Not only is it an awkward shape it was actually loose on the tang - such quality control they have. The alloy isn't too bad and after a proper sharpening it held up fairly well, not great, but ok. Really not suited for a pro but fine for home so long as you have a hone for each use. It's not the worst knife I own so..... thanks mom!
First off, loved the video I never heard of your channel before and you're so professional but also help the viewer understand what you are talking about! Second, this knife reminds me of those blades to see a cosplay convention, sometimes blade sellers come and they sell mostly swords for those who want to use them for costumes, renn fairs, videos, etc. I cosplay and make armor using foam and that looks like a knife someone who is just starting out would make. Generally, cosplay makers try and add pitting and weird texture to simulate a blacksmith (of course it doesn't have to be perfect its fantasy stuff). But even among cosplayers, unless that blade design is actually part of the character it's even wild to me. Most of us use tinfoil scrunched into a ball to make pitting and then router bits to create nicks in the metal. It looks comically bad, almost cartoonish.
In school, we used Victorinox Fibrox knives which are great workhorses, for my personal use I've bought used Shun Classic knives and I can attest to the value of both brands
When you mentioned the toothy grind it reminded me of a knife from a small Japanese mass market knives maker i once had. It was your standard 1 hand opening knife. The blade hand full serrations effectively scallops standard stuff really quarter round at least on first look how ever looking at it more closely each serration had again quarter round serrations along the quarter round serrations in side those barely visible with out a magnifying lens was yet 1 more stage. The damn thing had fractal serrations LOL I carried that knife daily for work and often times i was cutting down boxes. and i kept using it everyday for over 3 years i never did dull that sucker at all. It could cut rope any type boxes what ever you needed and just would not dual at all I ended up loosing it in a move and can not remember the company name or knife name. Would love to find another one because for such a cheap pocket knife 35 bucks new it was a great little general utility knife. I can only imagine how complex it was to machine those serrations like that LOL
Will, you should also have, for reference, the big two workhorses of the industry... Global and Zwilling. You can spend 50 to 100 quid and be real happy. I always recommend THEM for someone looking for actually useful knives without breaking the bank.
As someone who likes knives and knows a small amount about grinds and steel (usually woodcraft knives), the Huusk ads are painful for even me to watch. Despite knowing the knife is horrible, you explained and demonstrated the reality of using this knife (piece of junk) very well! I'm amazed they are allowed to keep the false advertising going as it's not just exaggerated, it's straight up lying and no doubt illegal.
“Banned from public use for being too sharp” is an incomprehensibly stupid marketing phrase. I am astounded.
It probably works though. Most people's kitchen knives are annoyingly dull so when they hear that they go "oh heck yea".
Sensational meant to make you feel exceptional. This marketing does a few things.
It's layered, but the first part is "it might go away" since it was once banned. Second part is, the ability to get products not meant for general use can be appealing to some. Think advertisements selling "military" or "space grade" products. Third part is, it makes a person feel like they're more capable if they can use it; "other people might not be able to use it, but I would".
Stupid, but appealing enough to work. I hate this kind of marketing.
@@kai.05 That's what marketing is: lies and manipulation. It's pretty much a different word for propaganda.
@@mrkikyNot if done properly for a good product. An increasingly rare thing unfortunately.
@@mrkikyAnd learning how to use a knife steel is really easy.
The AI voicing those ads is a dead giveaway, honestly. Maximum distrust, activated.
Exactly. So many of these ads for drop-shipped goods, all with that text-to-speech audio, every one making ludicrous claims. Considering how easy it is to spot that they're bs, it annoys me that TH-cam shows so many of them.
@@jamesdennett196 TH-cam policy: Disregard bs, acquire currency.
Is there just one AI voice?
@@drengillespie No, and unfortunately some of them are getting harder to spot. These ones are already challenging for older people who don't know any better and are hard of hearing. Doubly so if their native language isn't English.
That whole AI video was showing other knives...
you know its gonna be quality when the advertisements feature of heavy use of AI images/voiceover and footage of a completely different knife
Like boy, that dollar store looking knife is outperforming this dimensional cutter they claim to be selling
I see it all the time on videos about firearms. Somehow these AI bot channels get hundreds of thousands of views and the only thing the video does is take the description of a firearm off the manufacturer's website put into text to speech and then steal footage of other content creators that are actually using the firearm for a review.
If that knife had feelings it would need intense psychological therapy and a designated safe space after Wills evaluation.
“Our truck stop novelty knives aren’t selling!”
Just rebrand it as a japanese chef knife and put some basic wood scales on it.
Before it was a Japanese knife, it was marketed as a Viking forged knife
@@I.b.shifty The best part is, the "Japanese" looking writing on the package uses a form of the second character (话) that isn't used in Japanese, only Chinese. The Japanese text would be 神話.
@@Aederexnah they didn't convert to traditional😭
@@I.b.shiftyThe idea probably being that the vikings are famous for their high quality swords, especially the Ulfberht (actually spelled +VLFBERH+T). Problem with that: Ulfberht swords, while widely used and praised by vikings, were made in the Frankish Empire and traded to the vikings. The vikings at the time weren't able to create the high quality steel the Franks were able to produce.
@@SiqueScarface cool fact!. But more than likely it was because Vikings the show was popular!
Any time someone says “It was banned for being too (desirable quality)” in an advertisement, just run. Too sharp, too good at curing every ailment, too good at curing a single ailment, too good at dating.
It's not like it wouldnt be easier for BIG [INDUSTRY] to just copy it and make their own version and use their BIG [INDUSTRY] money to flood the market with their product.
There are some instances where it is legitimate though. For example, many fishing lures are banned from competitive fishing competitions for being too good at attracting fish, and many shoes are banned from sports as well for the same reason.
@@sanhakim1335yeah but that’s not general use
"I'm just too much of a hard worker"😂
@@sanhakim1335banned from fishing competitions is NOT the same thing as banned from the public
I have one of these Matsato knives and it works wonderfully for cutting all kinds of meat and tenderizes it at the same time. I'd say 2 thumbs up, but I lost one of them in the hole.
Hahahahahaha
This is awesome hahahahah
I actually got a Huusk "knife" as a present (looks very much like this thing). I also have an Estwing hammer that cuts meat just as well, tenderizes almost as well, and drives nails a lot better. 🤣
@@thomaslutro5560 It's the same company. It's Huusk Matsato. Might be the same scam company group behind Kamikoto Knives and Established Titles and these.
@@thomaslutro5560 Ha, I got one as a christmas present, actually. I'll take my real opinion on that thing to the grave, before I admit how bad it is to my sister.
It's nice to look at, I guess.
Knife companies, three options and they are not mutually exclusive:
1. Make better knives.
2. Stop lying in your adverts.
3. Stay out of Will's insta feed.
But how will they make a lot of money while having a crap product?
@@mrkiky By putting it in Walmart.
In fact, I think I have bought better knives in Walmart for 5 bucks.
@@Benjamin1986980 My point illustrated. Selling it for 5 bucks makes less money than selling it for whatever they're selling it.
@@Benjamin1986980 Literally the $25 Gerber pocket knife I bought on Amazon last week would cut food better than this hunk of junk.
Would love to see some recommendations on decent affordable kitchen knives
I love Global knives. The chef's knife is about $80 and is wonderful.
Kitchen knives are not something to cheap out on. You will hate yourself. Unfortunately, with price comes quality in the knife world.
Victorinox is the best you'll ever need as a home chef and at a very good price point. Fiskars are also decent cheap knives if they are avalible where you live. And you do not need a huge set, 3-5 knives depending on what you do is all you really need.
@jakobrosenqvist4691 I still think Wüsthof gets a bad rap in that price range... They are decent knives... I like the Wüsthof Ikon Classc range for cheap but decent beater.
If you want something just a little nicer, look into Kai Shun or the Myabi lines by Zwilling... They'll cost you about twice of what a Global or a Wüsthof will cost you, but there is a real difference in quality there as well...
Also depends on whether you want a beater or something to take care of a bit better...
A Kai Shun Santoku is nice, but not so horribly expensive it's unaffordable, and it really makes for a great allround knife in the kitchen for pretty much all prep work, unless you're talking filleting fish or deboning a piece of meat or some other really specialised task.
I'm not sure this will pass on TH-cam, but a great website I can recommend, which ships pretty much locally world-wide is:
www.knivesandtools.com/en/ct/kitchen-knives.htm
Great detailed descriptions and a lot of knowhow and honest reviews...
It's my go-to place for anything that isn't something Japanese and fancy...
@@That1NissanGuy Dunno , i cheap out on them , even though i a knife guy , most of them i made it myself, and use , the other knifes are for somebody else , that would just cut on porcelan stuff like this , so i don't care about them
A friend asked me what I thought of these, I told him it’s a knife with an identity crisis. It has no idea what it wants to be so it’s horrible at everything
It's like it went to community college and got partway through getting credits towards six different degrees but never stuck to the classes long enough to finish. It knows, to some small degree, what kinds of things knives are used for, but it can't with any degree of competence emulate any of those tasks.
It's a kitchen knife who wants to be a fighting knife.
But it's also a meth addict and spends most of it's days tweaking behind the trailer park.
I love how in their ads whenever they actually show their knife, you can see the person using it struggling to cut things lmao.
some of the clips were different knives too
The irony of TH-cam forcing me to watch an ad for this very knife before watching this.
Same
Got an ad for this knife when I clicked on the video. Hilarious.
I am reminded of those Kamikoto scam knives that were all over the sponsorships a bit ago.
Fun fact: The parent company of Kamikoto was also the parent company of Established Titles.
@@foxyfoxington2651 So many companies are "successful" just because they manage to find ways to scam the public, but their products are garbage and the world would be better off with them not existing.
ngl my rule of thumb for knive buying, is if it does Sponsorships on youtube, i wont buy it
I got an early kamikotu and it’s still fantastic and one of my most used knives. I bought a second, different model a year later and it was utter utter garbage.
It’s literally in the garage as a paint can opener.
@@imbored667rule of thumb for general buying, if it does sponsorship on youtube, don't buy it
Will should do a video about the best knives at certain price points. Like something along the lines of
The edge profile would be good for a skinner, but it's much to large and chunky for that. To me it feels like someone mixed a heavu duty outdoor knive and a skinner, and then made a cheap edgy replica version of that.
... too* large / outdoor knife* . Otherwise completely agreed.
@@einundsiebenziger5488 If you want something really heavy duty that can baton firewood and be used to pry and poke, then something this size is ok. But it's definitley on the larger end.
I think someone contracted a Chinese foundry to crank out thousands of these blanks and then a marketing + drop shipper company tried to make it into a "premium chef's knife"
@@jakobrosenqvist4691 I was just hinting on your typos, but thanks for the fast response anyway.
I had a skinning knife that was larger than this thing, but it was made by a reputable company. I have a smaller version of a knife that's sorta like this one. It was advertised as a "bush craft utility knife". Basically they said "it's good for cutting sticks". :D
Com'on Will. That's obviously a "Survival" Chef Knife. 😁
For when a chef has to survive because his sous chef has lost the plot and is threatening the waiting staff with a hot frying pan and you have to put them down with it? xD
ah, you mean use it as a club I presume
😄@@DaftFader
@@andyc750 After you've shaved with it, maybe 🤔😏
also very good for cosplay..
I do wanna point out, that my aunt owns a very, very similar (but not the same) knife from a place called "The Caveman Style". Cheep handles, nonforged blade with black painted upper section with the same pressed dimples, the hole, the only difference I can see being the grip and tang are shaped differently, and the finger cutter (rear overhang) is gone. Blade profile looks very similar otherwise
From the way that it looks, it looks like the knife was originally meant to be a survival knife of some kind. Especially since the ads show them using it to strike flint. But I think it failed at that and they realized they could more easily market it as a kitchen knife than an outdoors knife.
These businesses literally recycle the same knife models as japanese, viking survival, etc.
My "survival" knife feels a lot more sturdy and safe than this one, tbh. And it's a years-old pretty cheap one.
And most I'd need that type of knife for is cutting rope, whittling and maybe chopping food/meat in a pinch. I can't see whittling work too well with this and you can cut rope with pretty much any knife. Then add in the "ez stab" spike near the handle and the safety I'd want from a knife I need to grab blindly from my belt goes out the window, too.
Couldn't even hand that knife safely to someone who needs it, because of that stupid spike.
Its probably advertised as both, on different sites with different ads and maybe a sheath in one case.
It's supposed to resemble those outdoor "rugged" cooking videos with their ridiculous knives
Keep in mind: Design is used to make a good, quality, functional product.
Marketing gets whatever product you *do* have to sell to people.
There isn't necessarily a lot of overlap between them. Careful on the internet guys, and Will, thanks for reviewing the bunk for all of us.
lol My cousin brought up one of those cringy Instagram knife ads and I immediately made fun of it without realizing he was about to tell me he had just bought one xD It was one of those big cleavers you see people doing like.. "survival" outdoor cooking videos with.
"My wife got me this new knife, at first i thought it looked like a viking sword"
@@Louzahsol”My wife got me this weird knife for [my birthday / Christmas / Valentine’s Day]. God I love her…”
@@ivanheffner2587 lol those ads are so bad. The dialog legit feels like AI
Hi Will
There is another channel on TH-cam called Project farm, he has some pretty neat setups to show things like cutting force required etc..
Anyways just a suggestion to maybe try to make some of these cuts on a kitchen scale or something to show how much force is required to cut certain inedible vegetables (like pumpkin or aubergines) in comparison to actual kitchen knives? Just a thought.
Love the videos thank you for all the effort you put into them.
I really appreciate you going through the knives that are pushed so hard. It shows how bad they are.
My personal feeling is that if you need this much advertisement to sell it it's probably not worth buying.
And like Will said, if you can give me a 60% discount and still make a profit, you're not pricing your product in a reasonable way
I was gifted one of these by a relative who fell for the false advertising of "Japanese Knife" "Japanese Steel" Will got lucky with the handle scales being flat on his, mine have chips out of them and daylight between the scales and tang. I have never even tried to cut anything with it, other than paper (which is simply couldn't do out of the box) I use it to practice sharpening since I'm not worried about messing it up. Also notice in the ad they demonstrate cutting with several completely different knives to the one they actually sell, it would be funny if so many people weren't actually paying money to such a blatantly fraudulent business.
The Ginsu and its advertising has a lot to answer for.
I'd love to see you recreate one of these production knives with good quality steel and a proper edge on them. Just to show the difference that even with a bad design, what a proper edge and steel makes to a knife and why its worth the money.
Interesting how in most of the footage these shady companies use in their ads, nobody seen cutting food uses the knife they advertise (1:00). And fascinating how they do not feel ashamed to sell the same shitty thing under names that change on a weekly basis.
A friend bought me one of those 'Viking' blades. I left it on the table in the break room at work with a post-it that said "free knife shaped object".
Any picture of what you mean by a "viking" blade?
@@shadehealerthe one in the video, this is a pretty well known knife scam at this point
"gawd I love that woman" should ring a bell 😢
@@Alsry1 Thanks for the reply :)
That's a bit rude
It's like they saw a spyderco and didn't realize the hole for opening the knife.
Imagine claiming to pay respect to ancient Japanese weaponsmiths, and calling one of the most well-known blade styles. . . a samurai sword. Were they afraid "katana" was too niche? I see the levels or respect match the products quality.
As soon as I heard 420j2 steel being used for this, I already knew how much of a scam this was.
420j2 steel, for those unaware, is a really good steel. For surgical utensils. That's an insanely bad thing for a blade that is going to be used often, like a kitchen knife. 420j2 steel can hold an edge, but it doesn't hold an edge for very long. It's easy to manufacture, and it's cheap, which is why they're used for surgical utensils; because surgeons dispose of their utensils after surgery, for both sanitary and efficiency purposes.
If you ever see any blade that is made with 420j2 steel, do not buy it even if you like dedicating your life to resharpening it after almost every single use.
I have one of these knives, and yeah, I would agree with most of this. My aunt got one each for me and my mom, and my mom hated it right off the bat because of how HEAVY it is. For me, as you said, the pinch grip is surprisingly comfortable, but because of the blade's weird shape, it makes it really awkward for both slicing and chopping.
What I find it useful for, weirdly enough since it doesn't look like it, is carving. I use it for cutting meat, especially partially-frozen meat that's hard to cut. I also use the tip to carve things like peppers off the stem or really thick vegetables like carrots or leeks (my local grocery store only sells giant flakkees). Turns out that weight is actually surprisingly good for just brute-forcing some tougher ingredients. Honestly if you're strong enough you could probably use the tip for chopping things finely like garlic, but again, it's really heavy compared to any other knife.
Also it looks cool so my guests like to gawk at it, and that distracts them long enough for me to use the $15 nakiri I got from the local grocery store. ALSO it's really fun for mushrooms. I like my mushroom slices thick so I can just haphazardly chop chop chop which is fun with this knife. Basically, this knife is better treated as a miniature woodcutting axe than a knife.
All that said it's just incredibly overpriced. The weird shape isn't doing it any favours. It's easily the most expensive knife in my drawer and not nearly the most useful. I definitely don't hate using it, but I completely understand why it's getting so much scrutiny, since it's basically trying to sell on being a gimmick. Which sucks, because the handle is really nice and the weight might be something that other people like me might like. God knows the fucking 1cm blade won't bend ever. But instead of making just, you know, a good knife, they had to try to trick people.
I was a chef for 6 years and still use my 8" Henckles for pretty much everything. I got one of these instagram knives as a gift one year for christmas. It was a really tall and thick blade with a decently sharp edge. The only thing I use it for, and will admit that it works quite well for, is cutting chicken wings. When I am breaking down whole wings into the drum and flat and removing the tip it really does well. Not good for much else.
19:17 literally chills and goosebumps seeing a cut that clean after seeing the mall ninja knife struggle to knife
I love these videos so much. the vindictive glee at watching these knives fail to live up to marketing lies is so enjoyable.
I could really stand to see more of this type of video...
Not just because it's entertaining ripping into horrible knives, but it's actually rather instructional as to what you should be looking for as well.
👍👍
[edit] From a blacksmith/knifesmith standpoint, I could also stand to hear a bit more about certain steel types.
Especially some of the more modern powdered carbide knife steels in contrast to the more traditional white/blue carbon steels, Aogami super steel, the VG variations, etc...
Advantages, disadvantages, etc...
--
Also, people really underestimate just how important a good knife or two in the kitchen really is...
I hardly know anybody, not matter how great a cook they are, that actually have a decently sharp knife in the kitchen... It's crazy!
It's come to a point where I hardly even let people loose on my better knives in the kitchen, because they'll invariably be maltreated, so they'll just have to deal with the Wüsthoff's...
That said, it's also become pretty automatic to warn people that my knives are sharp, and half the time they'll still cut themselves...
What's up with all that?!
They don't understand what sharp means. And they don't know how much hacking they've been doing in their own kitchens
I learned how to sharpen almost immediately after my favorite knife (A Dalstrong, nothing fancy really, probably about as good as a Wustoff) began to dull on me. I was not about to lose gliding through food, truly, more sharp is more fun.
Not 100% a bladesmith's perspective but for someone who's definitely an authority and passionate about steel and their use in knives, Larrin Thomas of KnifeSteelNerds has a huge repository of his personal independent testing and metallurgy knowledge of many many different steels from your classic 1095 to his personally developed Magnacut that's the new big hotness of knife steels being a high carbide stainless steel that's more stainless and tough than M390, sacrificing just a little bit in edge retention
Magnacut is nearly what most say is the most well balanced steel by far in terms of the triple seesaw of stainlessness, toughness, and Wear Resistance/*Edge retention where in any steel it's always going to be a at most "pick two" situation. Want a knife that doesn't chip and you can abuse it to high hell but able to bring back the edge using a river rock? 1095 is a great option, but it's gonna rust like nobodies business. Want a knife that stays sharp dang near forever? Maxamet is right up your alley, but it's not exactly stainless and chipping is a real danger with abuse, also sharpening it with normal whetstones is a huge pain(even with diamonds) but if you're sharpening once a year then it ain't so bad. Need a knife that'll mostly survive the ocean salt on a busy boat or while diving? LC200N is your best bet, very tough and can be abused, just expect to maintain that edge a lot more often than other popular steels
Of course there's no such thing "perfect" knife steel, only what's best for your environment and needed application.
*Edge Retention has a lot of factors, not just the steel. Assuming identical heat treatments(method(oil, water, aluminum plate, cryo), temperature, time, HrC) it's knife geometry and bevel angle that's a bigger factor when it comes to edge retention and cutting performance a 15 Degrees Per Side vs a 20DPS edge on two identical geometry knives the 15DPS will be sharp for much longer compared to the 20DPS. Though of course the edge will be a bit more prone to folding over and even chipping compared to the more robust 20DPS. Again it's always that seesaw for your particular application
"I need ounces because i am a normal person" said no one ever that is normal 😂
In my country they are trying the sell it as "the absolute japanese chef knife sward"... "made in China" (if you notice the superfine print on the label).
I'd say it's a wonderful blade (if you use it daily, all the way from the edge) - for developing carpal tunnel joint problems...
The ideograms on the box looked familiar (the 2nd is "hua" which denotes a language or dialect). So... I looked them up. It's "shen hua". I assume they're marketing on the "legendary" translation. But... it also translates to "fairy tale". :D
神话 "kamifua" meaning "myth".
Literally: "God-Story"
Going with the Japanese pronunciation since it's marketed as "Japanese".
So it’s either mythically fake, or legendarily fake, depending which way we choose to lean!
I love the concept of this series. It's so fun seeing an absloute dumpster fire of a kitchen knife being talked up about.
It's almost as if every design choice of this knife was to make it bad at its supposed job in the kitchen.
I would love to get like a basics video on knives. What the typical marketing with different steel types actually means for the knife, what the different shapes mean for cutting/how to cut and all that. Plus some recommendations for different budgets and maybe even a summary of brands (how good is a normal wüsthoff against a zwilling or hexclad, are the cheap ikea knives acutally okay)
This product leverage that their customers probably have an old kitchen knife at home, probably cheap and horrible to use, and that they have no knowledge of how a proper knife should be. So what ends up happening is that once they get the knife to compare, the Matsato will conform to their notions of an "exotic and super sharp knife" in it's design and functionally it will definitively cut better than their old knife.
Also, with claims of thinner slices and so on, the user be inclined to try making thin slices and such and then believe them to be special because they TRIED IT WITH THE MATSATO KNIFE. They would otherwise would never cut thin slices because they are probably terrible chefs in the first place.
It's a cartoon knife - it's designed to appeal not to cut.
I have this exact knife (given as a gift) and it is utterly hideous. The handle material has no protection and is rough. And the blade isn't even good enough as a cleaver and is downright dangerous with how unstable it is if you don't know how to handle a knife properly.
Thank you for bringing this to peoples attention Will. Keep up the great work!
I'd love to see Wil re-grind and try to make this knife... anything but awful. I mean the shape is awful, but at least a correct sharpening would be good
I bought a Santoku off aliexpress for about $7.00... Was NOT expecting anything but when it go to me I was really impressed with sharpness and the way it cut. Very similar to my $125 20+ year-old Shun. Comfortable as well. No idea how the edge is going to last but at $7.00 and having a decent whetstone set, I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it.
Something to help us the viewer understand how hard you have to push to cut through things would be to put a scale beneath the cutting board. Probably weird to film but would be cool to see.
We tried it for this video, but it’s too challenging to make it read consistently
@@WillStelterbladesmith I thought that might be the case. Very cool to see how blade geometry alone makes such a big difference in the cut. Thanks for the video!
That AI art in the advertisement told me all I needed to know...
(Still watched the video though.)
I LOVE this series of testing knives that were recommended from instagram. You should make a video for all the people that took the bait and bought one a way to “fix” the knife by modifying it with a regrind so they don’t have to just throw it away, right away.
“Fix my knife” series!
I always love watching experts talk about things they’re knowledgable about, and since cooking is one of my passions, it was relatively easy for me to understand some of the points I otherwise might not have. I didn’t understand everything, but it was an interesting video on balance, and I’m interested to watch some more.
The first red flag is that Matsato isn't a real Japanese name you'd use ever. Kind of like Thomdas or Grevgory or something
More of these please! You are built for this! Fun and informative!
My mom swears by Cutco knives. Love to see you evaluate one of theirs. I like the ones I have.
ooo this is a great idea, we have a Cutco near us, would be interesting to see what he thinks.
When I started working as a chef, my Grandpa got me one. Handle was uncomfortable, point and edge were brittle, and its a pain to sharpen. I eventually gave the knife away. Much prefer to use Whusthof or Dexter Russels in a professional setting. The Japanese knives are wonderful, but too brittle to stand up in all but the calmest situations. Most professional kitchens are not "calm" settings.
They're good but not their price good. They're probably overcharged by at least 50% but the marketing is scummy as heck.
If they are still an MLM (door to door scam jobs), I would never buy from them, regardless if their knives are good. They are overpriced as fuck on top of that.
@@rdizzy1Their price runs under the kind of price you find JA Henckels 4 Star charging.
What you buy with Cutco is stubborn durability.
I know it’s not a great knife but I almost feel bad for the poor thing
It doesn't look like it'd be a bad skinner. If they gave it a nice taper or a more efficient grind then it might be more functional
Quality review of a highly marketed knife. I learned some things that I just never thought about before. I am not a chef, I'm not much of a cook at all but I do help in the kitchen when asked and trying to sharpen knives is my responsibility.
The more ya know...
Thanks Will.
This looks like a fighting knife. "If you intend to duel your food to the death first, this is the way to go!" also sounds like something they would use as marketing.
These are great videos! You should try cutting things on a scale to see if you can actually quantify how much harder it is to push these knives through the veggies than it is the more well designed knives
I wonder which Okinawan hermit this guy approached to learn from but was turned away but then waited outside his house for 3 months until he begrudgingly accepted him as an apprentice to learn all this stuff
Hang on I know that knife as the Huusk as it goes via one of its other names, its a compete joke the steel used in it isnt even tool steel!
It's steel for tools. The buyer being the tool.
I saw an ad for this "knife" claiming it was some ancient long lost viking knife. Then vikings dropped from mainstream and they're a banned samurai knife.
I love how they say the hole is for control, yet none of the footage from ads you shown was anyone actually using the hole, 😂
It's almost like they made the blade then had people who actually knew how to use a blade use for footage. Lol
it reminds me of a mall knife or a gas station knife. but at least when you buy a mall knife or a gas station knife you *know* you're not buying a *real* knife.
11:40
"How many ounces is that? Because I'm a normal person."
Classic American that doesn't realise that almost every other country in the world uses metric making you anything but a "normal person".
I'm very impressed by your presentation, super natural and informative, subscribed!
As a culinary school grad I appreciate your knowledge of the craft and would love to have one of your knives
My dad bought one of those. He was all happy about it, and couldn’t wait to show me. I had the hardest time not throwing up haha
Great job of comparing the differences and describing the specifics of what makes cutting with it tough!
The angled part that causes it to wedge is never even something I considered with knives, great to keep in mind!
One of my life goals is to buy one of your knives. I love your reviews and I hate my current knife set. You do amazing work! I’ll save up for this for sure.
In the advertising, none of the people cutting used the hole, even while talking about how great the hole is.
Worth pointing out, almost nothing advertised by TH-cam/social media people is actually good quality. A majority is just drop-shipped or OEM garbage made for as cheap as possible. I guess that's not fair, some of it is decent quality, but just for the price you get if you go straight to the original manufacturer on their only stores rather than the massively marked up versions. A 20 dollar item that's built like it's maybe a 30 dollar item is nice; a 20 dollar item built like it's a 30 dollar item but then sold for 65-100 is not so nice.
I love how even having no real experience/knowledge in proper kitchen technique, or use in good/bad knife comparison, anyone can HEAR the difference in the cuts between the knives!
No clue why this came across my feed, I know nothing about knives. Grateful it did, I feel like I learned a lot watching this, both about knives and how to use them. Fantastic.
Love these videos! It's funny though because the main thing I always take away is how dull my kitchen knives are and that I need to sharpen them again.
Thanks for covering these things. I'd love to see you cover a good inexpensive knife like the Victornox you mentioned.
Darn, That knife has a harder time being straight than i do.
I think you SHOULD use a Victorinox fibrox as a comparator for future knives. If just to demonstrate how much better you can get for way less.
“I can’t go through because MY FINGER IS IN THE WAY” is a solid comedy moment. I understand now why my cheap farberware knives are so frustrating!!
I love that you clearly see in all of their marketing with chefs using the blade, NONE of them are using that stupid hole to put their finger into. Pointless design choice just made to be flashy. XD
Thanks Will! Love to see all the finer tidbits of perfecting blade geometry revealed in your videos. Helps me to make a better product when I can see direct comparison in action.
I'm not sure why this was in my recommended... I haven't even thought about buying any knives (nor have I watched similar content).
That being said, this sounds like just the channel to watch IF I ever want to get any info on the topic, so... well done, good sir!
17:05 I've made a knife for general purpose slicing, cutting, and peeling. It does the same thing as this knife at the time stamp. I'm sure it can be fixed though with a proper bevel. But my free hand grinding skills suck. Waiting for a jig to try again.
But anyway thanks for the review Will
Didnt expect to learn why stropping is so important in this video, but im glad i did!
Thanks for making this Will!! Ive been trying to post educational stuff on "handmade" items on Amazon for less than what my material cost is lol
I like knives, but I lack the knowledge to appreciate them. Thank you for this video !
I realize I have been cutting most of my food of the last 5 years with a 12$ santoku than doesn't have an edge :'D
Will watch more videos so I improve my knives understanding.
Fun trivia : "lame" is the french word for "blade" !
I've been using the Victorinox for close to 20 years as my best knife, but I recently upgraded to a nice japanese damascus steel. First cut with it I couldn't believe the difference. I've been using it for about a month now and am still astonished I waited this long.
I love this little series! Cant stand seeing these flashy "content creator" knives as i call them lol. I have an idea, maybe you could take these knives and "fix" what you don't like about them and re-test to see if it's any better! Like refinishing the edge geometry from hollow grind to convex edge, maybe smooth out the choil/heel or remove the jimping on the spiine. Love the videos, thanks!
Is Isaiah also doing the secondary camera? Because the closeups are really high quality! Those carrot slices are so nicely lit and in focus! A+ work, gents!
The branding isn’t even trying.
Matsato, I don’t think is a real Japanese word.
It’s just what a non-japanese person THINKS sounds Japanese.
To be specific, the “tsa” sound is basically non existent in standard Japanese.
The characters 神話 on the box is written in simplified Chinese characters, which are not used in Japan.
Im just gonna state it now that Im only clicking on the video because the blade kinda looks like Guiron's head
Victorinox Fibrox line is popular in commercial kitchens because they are decent, reasonably priced, easy to clean and the handles can stand up to repeated immersion in sanitizer.
Really enjoying these knife reviews! If you cut to close-up footage when you describe things like the hollow grind or distal taper, rather than using hand gestures, it would help to illustrate those concepts better. I've never thought much about kitchen knife blade geometry, and seeing how it's done wrong is great for understanding how to do it right.
Even zooming in probably won't help most people understand it, because the way light and shadow fall will make some people see something other than the correct thing or focus on the wrong part. The best way is drawing a big picture of whatever you're describing in macro.
I'd love to see a video on someone taking one of these knives and making them useful, like ReSharpen or forge it into a better shape etc
Thank you for the video Will. Please add the company name to the title, so when people look for a review, they see your video instead of the scammer account videos. I just did a round of reporting on those videos, but having you come up in a search will do much more to spread awareness. My father fell for Huusk. I don't want more people to fall for these scams.
there is a lot of companies selling this exact same knife.
Thanks Will, I somehow knew what a good chef's knife needed to be, but, you gave definition to my intuition in that regard. I've got a set of stainless Oxford Hall knives that have been working well for me for over forty years. I could probably really enjoy a set of your knives, but I'm not sure I could afford them. Love your vids, and the work you've done with Alec.You two inspired me to set up a smithing area at my shop. Just to putter... First project has been a Chestnut knife from a circular saw blade that lost some teeth... Ugly, but hey, it works for scoring Chestnuts for roasting. Yeah, on an open fire!
i got a bullshit knife like this once, it is some wonky shaped 'kitchen knife' called an Otoma or something, its so fat weighs a ton and can't cut a potatoe it more splits it like a log splitter, it was wild to take it into work for one day but it was also useless to cook with
My mom bought me one of these things for Christmas and although it's a different brand I knew immediately that I would love it, because it was a gift from my mom. First thing I noticed upon picking it up was just how crappy the handle was. Not only is it an awkward shape it was actually loose on the tang - such quality control they have. The alloy isn't too bad and after a proper sharpening it held up fairly well, not great, but ok. Really not suited for a pro but fine for home so long as you have a hone for each use. It's not the worst knife I own so..... thanks mom!
A useful comparison might be a kitchen knife most people would have in their house. just to help me understand the difference a little
Go to your local asian grocery store. Buy the cheapest nakiri or santoku they have, and it will likely be more useful for way less.
First off, loved the video I never heard of your channel before and you're so professional but also help the viewer understand what you are talking about! Second, this knife reminds me of those blades to see a cosplay convention, sometimes blade sellers come and they sell mostly swords for those who want to use them for costumes, renn fairs, videos, etc. I cosplay and make armor using foam and that looks like a knife someone who is just starting out would make. Generally, cosplay makers try and add pitting and weird texture to simulate a blacksmith (of course it doesn't have to be perfect its fantasy stuff). But even among cosplayers, unless that blade design is actually part of the character it's even wild to me. Most of us use tinfoil scrunched into a ball to make pitting and then router bits to create nicks in the metal. It looks comically bad, almost cartoonish.
What's funny is these are the improved ones, originally it wasn't 420j2, it was literally a stainless potmetal with 0% carbon.
In school, we used Victorinox Fibrox knives which are great workhorses, for my personal use I've bought used Shun Classic knives and I can attest to the value of both brands
I’m pretty sure this is a fish fillet knife marketed as a chef knife, hence the hole and shape
When you mentioned the toothy grind it reminded me of a knife from a small Japanese mass market knives maker i once had. It was your standard 1 hand opening knife. The blade hand full serrations effectively scallops standard stuff really quarter round at least on first look how ever looking at it more closely each serration had again quarter round serrations along the quarter round serrations in side those barely visible with out a magnifying lens was yet 1 more stage. The damn thing had fractal serrations LOL
I carried that knife daily for work and often times i was cutting down boxes. and i kept using it everyday for over 3 years i never did dull that sucker at all. It could cut rope any type boxes what ever you needed and just would not dual at all I ended up loosing it in a move and can not remember the company name or knife name. Would love to find another one because for such a cheap pocket knife 35 bucks new it was a great little general utility knife. I can only imagine how complex it was to machine those serrations like that LOL
I got one of these as an Xmas gift last year. I use it as a general purpose hiking knife
Will, you should also have, for reference, the big two workhorses of the industry... Global and Zwilling. You can spend 50 to 100 quid and be real happy. I always recommend THEM for someone looking for actually useful knives without breaking the bank.
As someone who likes knives and knows a small amount about grinds and steel (usually woodcraft knives), the Huusk ads are painful for even me to watch. Despite knowing the knife is horrible, you explained and demonstrated the reality of using this knife (piece of junk) very well! I'm amazed they are allowed to keep the false advertising going as it's not just exaggerated, it's straight up lying and no doubt illegal.
Watching Will roast terrible knives is not something I knew I needed in my life! 😂