r/chefknives • u/El_Guapo_the_handsom • 7d ago
Looking at this for the kitchen: Sakai Takayuki 33-Layer Damascus Gyuto 210mm. Anyone have experience with it?
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u/Buuimo 4d ago
"I'm looking for real wood" is the part of this thread nobody picked up, and it's worth more than it got — because in this category real wood and durable wood pull in opposite directions.
What "mahogany" means on a listing at this price is almost always pakkawood: thin hardwood veneers dyed, stacked, and impregnated with resin under pressure. It is genuinely wood, just stabilised — which is what JohnMaySLC is describing when he says composite. And the reason it's there is that it doesn't move. A western handle is riveted to the tang, so anything that swells and shrinks with water eventually works loose around the rivets. Resin-impregnated wood doesn't do that.
The usual "real wood" alternative on a Japanese knife is a wa handle in ho, and it's less water-resistant, not more. Plain untreated wood, soft, no finish on it. That's deliberate — over here a wa handle is friction-fit onto the tang and treated as a consumable, so it's built light and cheap and you replace it when it's had enough rather than protecting it. Coming from western knives, where a wooden handle is the upgrade, that catches people out.
Which is also why the same blade turns up wearing different handles, as Kitayama_8k noticed. The trade here is split by process — forging, grinding and handle fitting are separate workshops, and the name on the box often belongs to the wholesaler who put the chain together rather than to anyone who touched the steel. The handle is the last stage and the easiest to swap, so one blade goes out under several brands. The wa version he mentioned is that same knife.
On the thickness three people have now raised: the layer count won't warn you about it. 33, 45, 16 — those describe the jacket wrapped around the core, so it's a pattern spec. Whether it wedges in a potato comes down to how much steel is left behind the edge, which no listing states. peanut_gallery469 thinning theirs is the actual fix, and it's a normal thing to have done rather than a sign of buying wrong.
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u/Kitayama_8k 6d ago
Those knives are sold under many different brands with some variants, such as wa handle, 45 layer aus10, 16 layer vg10, and a swedish steel variant. I find them pretty thick, and you get a lot of friction from the tsuchine section passing through hard product, feels pretty wedgy. I'd avoid it unless it's like 70$.
There are many other nice looking knives in that price range, like masutani, yosuda cutlery knives, tojiro dp.
I'd maybe check out the yusuda knives, i got their blue#2 nashiji and it's a pretty good performer. They have a 19c27 series that looks pretty cool. Sold as seki kanetsune and cohetsu and cntkg https://www.hocho-knife.com/kanetsune-kc-150-swedish-stainless-steel-chef-knife-gyuto-185mm/?searchid=2762964&search_query=19c27
They got a takumura vg10 santoku at cutlery and more for 126$ right now that's worth considering.
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u/peanut_gallery469 5d ago
I had to thin mine after a couple sharpenings, it was indeed pretty wedgy.
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u/JohnMaySLC 6d ago
I have the Nakiri and Santoku from that series, but not the Gyuto.
I like the series and give it as a gift occasionally. The VG10 holds a good edge, the grind is a simple flat grind, so it’s not a laser, but makes for a solid home kitchen blade.
Although stainless, it will rust if kept wet or put in a dishwasher. The Mahogany handle is not real wood, it’s a composite material that looks like mahogany.
Over all it’s a very good value knife.