Japanese Damasus Gyuto Chef’s Knife Model D2
Star Rating: 5.3
Overall Rating: Outstanding Quality Professional Knife
Knife: The D2 model is from the Damasus Series
Company: Zhen Premium Knife Company
Blade Length: 10.5″
Thickness at Spine: 2.5 mm
Handle: Micarta Handle
This knife has an excellent edge and nice balance. It has 33 layers of Damascus steel (16 per side plus the center) which produces very clean, almost effortless cuts. The Micarta handle is beautiful, very tough, and is comfortable in the hand. Overall the Japanese Damascus Gyuto Chef Knife D2 is an excellent, well above average chef knife. I would put this blade slightly below the 10” Shun Ken Onion chef knife, and clearly above the Henckels 4 star. The Zhen Premium Knives are very competitively priced compared to other knives of similar quality.
Damascus steel knives are made by welding multiple layers of steel together creates a high quality knife blade with a very unique “dragon” pattern. These layers wear at a slightly different rate, causing a very fine micro-serration which makes cutting easier and helps the blade stay sharp longer. The Zhen Premium Damascus knife series are made with a durable ebony Micarta handle and Damascus VG-10 steel (HRC60-62) imported from Japan. This VG-10 (HRC60~62) “super steel” contains carbon, chromium, cobalt, manganese, molybdenum, silicon, and vanadium. The blade combines the best attributes of high carbon steel and stainless steel to make a tougher knife which is more rust-resistant, takes a killer edge and holds the edge longer.
Note: In the video below I miss-named this knife a 9.5” model D1, it is actually the 10.5″ D2.
Japanese Gyuto 10.5″ Chef Knife model D2 |
|||
| P | 3 | Carrot-Lengthwise Test | sliced but could not pull through the carrot |
| O | 6 | Carrot-Crosswise Test | very smooth, almost as smooth as the shun |
| 0 | 7 | Shallot Test | very smooth, no resistance, clean dice w/o smashing the shallot |
| E | 6 | Potato Test | smooth, no resistance, but not quite as easy as the Shun |
| E | 7 | Green Onion Test | smooth cuts all the way thru all strands w/ no bruising |
| O | 7 | Red Bell Pepper Test | smooth, cut all the way thru the skin |
| O | 6 | Salmon Test | cuts cleanly with minimal sticking to the blade |
| O | 7 | Paper Test | cut all the way thru 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper the long way |
| E | Comfort | comfortable in the hand with a good roll during slicing | |
| E | Balance | nice heft and balance | |
| 5.3 | Total | the first carrot test (see video) really hurt this knife’s scores because all the other scores were either Excellent or Outstanding | |
| Comfort is so subjective that I chose not to give it a detailed rating which would effect the overall score, and I chose not to rate Balance either. | |||
Suggested Reading
See Our Tutorial Library!
Related Pages Index
Books by Chefs Resources!
Handcrafted Cards
wpDiscuz