imarku Chef Knife - 8 Inch Home Essentials Sharp Kitchen knife HC Steel Japanese Knife Paring knife, Birthday Gifts for Women/Men, Gifts for Mom/Dad, Kitchen Gadgets with Premium Gift Box

At first, I didn't think this knife would really do the job compared to my other bread knife that I got from the county fair many years ago. My old bread knife is over 15 years old but still holds up amazing and I doubted anything could match it. But I wanted to try a new knife, one that had more heft and would be able to cut the bottom crust of homemade sourdough bread.One of the best ways to keep sourdough bread from being hard on the bottom crust is to line the bake pan/ Dutch oven with several layers of parchment that have been sprinkled with corn flour between the layers. This assures that my sourdough bread will come out light and not burned on the bottom. That being said, these knives are sometimes extremely challenged to cut through the bottom crust. My old knife is easily able to cut through the top crust of the bread. Anyone who makes sourdough bread knows that the top crust can be pretty hard, but it's designed that way with a soft and wonderful crumb on the inside.With this new knife, the first cut into the bread has to be very careful. You have to start off gently and very light. I made the mistake of kind of hitting it a bit too fast and hard and the knife skipped off of the bread and cut my finger.I learned my lesson from that one. But I went to cut another piece and cut different finger deeper.Then I try to third time and cut another finger down to the bone. Eventually realized I needed to back off and make the first few cutting motions as delicate as possible. Once I got the knack of it, I was able to work with the knife much easier.It has some decent heft and made cutting through the crust at the bottom much easier and with much less effort. My old knife took four or five draws in order to cut the crust. This new knife took about two draws across the bottom and it was cut all the way. So yes it worked really good for me!I could have avoided cutting my fingers if I had not pressed so hard on the knife expecting it to make those initial cuts through the bread. I realized that it has to be approached very slowly at first and once it makes those first half inch slits on the top crust, Then you can simply go gently through the rest of the bread until you hit the bottom crust. On the bottom crust you can hit it a little more aggressively.It's surprised me that this knife was as good as it was. I didn't expect it to be as good as it was and I was ready to wrap it up and send it back until I realized it was a pretty good knife and is somewhat better than my older one, even though my older one is amazing still!I think for the price it is a decent knife. It comes with two plastic nibs to cover the tip point and the rear corner of the blade. I do not find these things useful or all that protective because they just fall off. The box is elegant and is great for storing.One thing I didn't like about the knife was that once I cut the first loaf, the blade seem to already have linear scratches on it! So I don't know if it's because the metal is softer, or the bread cut through the protective coating if there is one. Maybe it's just part of breaking in a knife.I would give it 4.5 stars But I rated it as five stars because you can't do 4.5.

Weight, balance, and sharpness *****This chef's knife is exactly what I've been looking for. I absolutely recommend this item.

This knife is great, we are planning on getting another one from this brand.

Really nice blade and design. This knife is clearly designed to be used with proper technique, which is nice. I've had some issues with common household chef's knives that are not designed to be compatible with good technique, and while I'm no chef, I do want to use proper technique for stability and safety. My only complaint is that the handle seems to dry out easily, which is a little concerning.

Beautiful and Sharp, as intended. Comfortable in your hand and will keep its durability as long as you Take Care of it. Great purchase.

Great quality at a very price.

I love this knife! The edge stays sharp very well is very easy to sharpen when you need to is very easy to useBe careful it is a very sharp knife!

Love this knife. It is super sharp.