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Kamikoto knives

212K views 106 replies 39 participants last post by  rick alan 
#1 ·
How humiliating. I had to select the only descriptor that suited my skills. "Can't Boil Water"

Anyway, I saw some knives on one of those bidding sites thar sells some real crap but also some great name brand stuff. They have these knives supposedly made by a "reputable" Japanese manufacturer. I checked out the same knives on Amazon, and they are being sold there for prices similar to the MSRP on the auction site, and lots of good reviews. Did some googling, saw more good reviews. Also got hits for reviews on reputable sites but those turned up being "best of" lists that gave hits for a bunch of mfrs but actual reviews of only 3- brands. Next stop, ebay. Saw same Buy Now prices as auction sites for new sets, and used sets for about 25-35% of that, which seems reasonable. Due diligence, right?

Long story not so short, I won one of the auctions and got the pkg yesterday. Meanwhile, I reopened my Amazon window to look for something else and realized there was a review on there I hadn't seen before, claiming the other reviews were fake. They look legit, but I went back to trusty google and went a couple of pages into the search results and have noticed a lot of similarities in the reviews.

Have I been "tooken for a ride" on these knives? If so, I'll learn my lesson and keep the crap for myself. I was buying the set for my sister, an awesome home cook who just started taking lessons to expand her knowledge and skillset. I wanna get her something she'll get a lot of use out of, and be proud to own.

So, what say you? Cook? Or Con?

Thanx from a not so noob who can bake a decent cake and really good cookies but, alas, do have trouble with the stove top stuff. After several really bad attempts (actually, several bags' worth) at making long grain rice, I finally learned that simmer was not "bring it to a boil then turn it almost all the way off and let simmer".

Looking forward to any response. Be honest. Brutally honest! Thanx!
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Niigata is not a steel or steel company, it is a scissors company.  I'm not even sure if the OP is for real and this is hilarious.

"They work with such gentleness"  Oh yeh, that really sounds like an American buyer describing a knife. 

Now I just have to wonder how is it I never came across Komikoto knives in all my Amazon and google searches on knives?
 
#5 ·
Yes Niigata is a city, I did see the website (with those amazingly bad looking knives pictured on homepage) before commenting, and the whole thing is just so absolutely hokey.  I mean no one's heard of them, there is not a legitimate review for them anywhere and, proof of the pudding, you find their knives selling all over ebay for about 1/6 of the price Kamikoto advertises.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Sorry for the giddiness of last night realBKW, but whatever you have there it does not appear to be a $6-700 knife or $1000+ set of 3.  New Japanese knives from desirable makers do not sell on ebay for gigantic discounts.

We would all be curious to know what these knives look like out of the box, the quality of their finish, how sharp they come, how they go through a large carrot or sweet potatoe, etc.  They are not going to be quite as advertised, but they will hopefully give you good use for the money paid.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Thanks for the repies! So yesterdayI got the set of three. The shipping carton was really nice and the label was clearly printed, so they gave a really good first impression! Then, alas, no fun bubble wrap, just air bags. Then, your average cardboard sleeve. A very nicely made bamboo case with a very shiny clasp! I was almost salivating. And really anxious! Inside, three very pretty knives in a nice, apparently custom fit, charcoal gray foam setting. Since I usually "can't have nice things" I took my time admiring the knives . Slowly .I removed one. Careful to use the thumb-size cutout in the foam, instead of trying to dig it out of the foam, thus preserving the foam so, if these puppies are legit, my sister won't know I played with them first.

I held the knife up, again, by the handle. As the saying goes, "I may be crazy but I'm not stupid!" It was breathtaking, in the way that, you know, you have to breathe. But, seriously, they do look knice, and sharp. I kind of touched the edge but not enough to cut myself. Cuz, blood thinners. So far I haven't tried cutting anything yet, since pretty much all I have in the house right now is canned and frozen. Hey, they aren't as-seen-on-tv ginsu knives, after all! Oh, and rice. I was serious about the rice. Anyway, going shopping tomorrow so I'll have some real food to try them out, and I'll let you know. how well they slice a tomato and dice an onion. It may not be til mid-afternoon, cuz it takes me awhile to dice a whole onion.

I really did try and check these out before buying them, Amazon prices were high, just like the Buy It Now prices on the auction site. Somebody once said if you go to one of those sites, and the brand is not easily recognizable, drop the last number of the Buy It Now price to get the true value, which I did. So I figured the value, then figured I'd try and get them for about a quarter of THAT price. The way the site makes its money is from actually selling bids. Think of the bids as tickets. So you buy a pack of bids, and find the item you want. Once the auction for that item "goes live", all hell breaks loose! You have to kind of bide your time, because the bid changes every ten seconds or less, and each bid only raises the offer by a penny. So if you paid, say, $0.19 for each bid, every bid increase actually costs $0.20, and even if everybody bidding lets the clock count down from 10 to 1, that's six bids every minute divided by the number of bidders. They were actually running specials because of the holiday and, while the bidding proceeded as usual, the items were actually either free or 1/2 off the final price bid. In other words, for many items all you paid for were the bids! I actually got one set of knives and a nice whetstone for FREE and the other knives were pretty inexpensive, at half of the amount they were bid up to, so, honestly, I can't complain about what I paid.

My bigger concern is whether I should go ahead and give these as a gift to my sister. I really DO want to give her at least a couple of basic knives she will be proud to own, and will be of good use and kinda long-lasting. I bought a J A Henkels paring knife, for another sister, through Amazon. I only got her the one knife, and the "little one" at that. Cuz I don't love her as much. Just kidding! I know she got a couple of nicer, larger knives last year. So, I'll let you know how well these SEEM to work tomorrow. I certainly don't know enough to give a real evaluation, but if they get me through a tomato without squishing it and I can get through the onion before dropping to my knees sobbing, then I guess they're satisfactory. If they suck, lesson learned. I could come back for recs on REAL knives and hopefully not have to sell plasma to pay for them! But they're gonna hafta be the same sizes as these. Cuz that bamboo case really is nice!

Thanks, guys! Happy New Year! I'll let you know how these work out.

 
#10 ·
Rick, thanks for your reply!

I honestly did try and check some reviews before buying the knives. One that looked like it came from a trade mag said Kamikoto had only recently started selling in the US. Others gave varying reviews. On Amazon, I always check to make sure a reviewer has more than one review, on different kinds of items. And when looking at the stuff on DealDash, I checked to see if they offered cameras and iStuff, since I know those. They have a couple of models of Canon digital cameras, Nikon lenses, iPhones and iPads, all with Buy It Now prices pretty much the same as what you can get the stuff for at Best Buy or Amazon, so I knew at least some of the stuff was legit. I bought a couple of gift cards at the site, just to get an understanding of, and feel for, the bidding process. Won a couple, lost out on a couple (still having paid a little for them because I'd had to buy the bids".

I WILL come back tomorrow, Monday latest, to let you kind folks know how well I fare with these.

Oh, yeah, and when I was digging deeper into the reviews (after purchase [emoji]128542[/emoji]) I did get a few giggles out of some that were obviously translated from Japanese. By someone who was probably going word by word using google translate or some such method. They were pretty odd! I think I could make a lot of money if I could get them to let me rewrite their translations! They remind me of the manual I got with the Subaru I bought in '84 - Please to put the fuel into the gas. LOL

I'll be back with my review! [emoji]9996[/emoji]️️[emoji]127881[/emoji]
 
#20 ·
These knives are manufactured in China.  Notice they are "Japanese-style" made with "Japanese steel."  Sadly there are a lot of knives that try to trick consumers in this way.  They might be decent, but are not worth anywhere near what they charge for them.  If you can snag one for less than $100 you might be getting a good deal but personally I try not to give any of my money to these companies.  You can get a genuine hand-forged knife from Japan for less than $200 on chefknivestogo.
 
#21 ·
They are real, in the same way that the moon is real. The CLAIMS, however and the MSRP are as real as an honest politician

​There is NO SUCH THING AS NIIGATA STEEL. It is NOT a steel rating.
There is NO mention of the chemical composition
​There is NO mention of it's RockwellC or any other physical property.
​The knives are made in CHINA
​They NOW say made in China of Japanese steel, but that is only because so many people caught them.
​The VAST majority of the reviews are fake or made by people who obviously have no experience in a kitchen.
The claims of giving a certificate of authenticity should also be a red flag.
​I'd probably place these in the 20 to 25 dollar category not the 650 dollar category they claim
FAKESPOT gives this company and product an "F" rating



 
 
#22 · (Edited)
REMEMEBER THAT AMAZON ALLOWS A PRETTY GOOD RETURN POLICY, ESPECIALLY AFTER KNOWING THAT THE CLAIMS ARE SO SPURIOUS

AND, JUST LIKE ON THE AMAZON SITE AND IN FACEBOOK, THE ONLY POSITIVE REVIEWS AND THE ONLY PEOPLE SUPPORTING THE COMPANY IN THIS THREAD ARE EITHER FAKE OR HAVE NO IDEA BAOUT WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT

​I THINK WE NEED TO GET RID OF THE FAKE REVIEWERS
 
#46 ·
REMEMEBER THAT AMAZON ALLOWS A PRETTY GOOD RETURN POLICY, ESPECIALLY AFTER KNOWING THAT THE CLAIMS ARE SO SPURIOUS

AND, JUST LIKE ON THE AMAZON SITE AND IN FACEBOOK, THE ONLY POSITIVE REVIEWS AND THE ONLY PEOPLE SUPPORTING THE COMPANY IN THIS THREAD ARE EITHER FAKE OR HAVE NO IDEA BAOUT WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT

I THINK WE NEED TO GET RID OF THE FAKE REVIEWERS
I've warned Facebook innumerable times to block these crooks. The ads still run.
 
#26 ·
I'm in exactly the same position. Received the 3-knife set yesterday; haven't used them yet. My wife was amazed at how sharp the knives are, just to the touch.
Out of the box edge means nothing, [especially if you don't know just how sharp good steel can get]. Often times the initial perception of sharpness from a factory edge is created by a burr carelessly left behind, and where a few wacks on the board or some mild cutting tasks quickly make that "amazing" edge a rather dull one.
 
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