[galley swiller]

It looks pretty much like a stock, standard VG-10 cored damascus blade - with a price of $99 which is not all that spectacular for 210mm length. There are a lot of them out there. Takefu Specialty Steel Co. makes and sells the damascus blanks to innumerable cutlers, who then forge and grind the rectangular blanks into blades for sale.

I'm no fan of damascus. It doesn't add any specific advantages to the cutting performance. And, after just a little usage, the blade surface tends to look dismal with all of the scratches in the soft steel cladding layers. The appearance can be restored, but it requires re-polishing the full face of the blade to remove all of the scratches, then that face has to be re-etched in acid to re-highlight the various damascus layers. That's a lot of work for no cutting performance benefit.

While you can get VG-10 reasonably sharp, and, once properly sharpened, it can hold a decent edge for a respectable amount of use. The major problem is getting to that edge in the first place. VG-10 mandates that you have to carefully abrade any beaded edge away with progressively finer grit stones. If you attempt to remove a bead by just running the edge through a felt block, it has a tendency to snap the edge off below the thinnest point behind the bead - that mandates that you need to start over your sharpening process all over again.

I'm also noting that this is a 210mm blade. A 240mm or 270mm blade is (at least for me) a more pragmatic length.

You don't say where you are, but if you are in the USA, then you have some options. A stock, standard clad (but not damascus) Tojiro DP 210mm gyuto is available from amazon.com for $79.42. Also available from Amazon is a 240mm version for $89.95 and a 270mm long blade for $99.99.

Or, from various sellers on eBay, you can get a MAC HB-85, which is also 210mm long, and is a mono-steel blade (no cladding, hence not damascus) for just about $70. Tisn't fancy, but it is a basic honest blade.

Or, for about $110, you can get a MAC BK-100, which is 255mm long, and a good, honest, long-enough no-frills basic knife, used by quite a few line cooks.

By the way, how does beer come into this (other than as a universal libation)?

GS

 

[galley swiller]

I would recommend against the Tojiro DP set for someone who "will use each knife incorrectly".

I'm presuming that the "someone" probably does not have knife sharpening skills with stones. That makes getting Tojiro DP knives problematic, since the VG-10 core steel is not very easy to properly sharpen (see my post #2 in this thread). All you are likely to do is give a set of knives that, one after another, will eventually dull and be difficult to properly re-sharpen.

In my mind, that's a prescription to future frustration. Better to give a few knives that will work in the long run and can actually be sharpened more easily. A chef's knife (a japanese version being called a gyuto), a paring knife and a serrated or scalloped edge bread knife are all that are truly essential in blades for most western cuisines.

For a "first Japanese knife" for yourself, consider something relatively cheap that you are really willing to fool around with, especially on the sharpening stones. The Tojiro ITK isn't by any means an ideal beginner's knife - but its clunkiness and relatively low price make it a good blade to see how well your blade thinning and edge sharpening can develop. And it's those skills which are (at least in my mind) more important than the actual blade in hand.

GS