Unique take on the Alaskan Ulu, good materials, excellent build._.
This Dalstrong Ulu rocker knife from their Shogun Series is a very cool looking kitchen knife. I honestly expected it to be much bigger than what it is, but upon seeing it in my unboxing…. I don’t care…. It’s amazing. The high quality metals stand out as much as the unique rounded edge blade that wraps 180 degrees around and under the handle. I have tried rocking the knife around and it seems I have to move my wrist more than anything else, so I suppose push cuts and slide cuts are not ideal motions to perform with this knife. But what-evs, let the mincing begin! Very few manufacturers attempt to create knives this unique and with such resolve. I mean, Alaskan knives with high quality materials? Indeed, quite unheard of…. which is a good thing! Furthermore, the forging and sharpening are said to have taken place in the knife making capital of China. The blade is not the sharpest but it is still able to cut paper; I am pretty sure I can sharpen it better than it came anyway. Whilst being the black sheep of the Shogun Series, its handle shares its key features with the rest of the knives in this family: looking mighty fancy, and maintaining the same precision detail. This is a good conversation piece in itself, but the look of this thing is on another level of amazing. The black sheath with red trim is an added bonus (the icing on the cake if you will), and it even has a tiny little locking pin with a red string attached to it that does its job surprisingly well. What I didn’t expect to see in the box was two little Dalstrong logo promo vinyl stickers and a magnetic pin. The company sure does know a thing or two about presentation! To conclude, I am blown away by the designing and execution of said designing of this Dalstrong Ulu knife: The looks are great, the performance is great, the little extras that came along with it were great as well. As far as the Shogun Series goes, I am not as impressed by the overselling of it being “Japanese” though, as it comes across as being dishonest to a degree, but I can definitely appreciate the inspiration. Especially when that inspiration employs the use of the same high quality metal alloys used in the making of some Japanese knives. Dalstrong has grown on me in recent years, and I hope this product will survive for many years as well. Maybe it was not as big as I would have liked, but it passes all the tests that I would like for a knife to pass in my kitchen. The final test will be the test of time, and with this material composition it is likely to accomplish that. So until then, I can currently say that I am a new fan of Dalstrong products.