A winning knife! Better than Wusthof!
I ordered 5, 3.5-inch paring knives to be able to compare their performance side by side. Every kitchen needs good paring knives. I tested them on onions, sweet potatoes, apples, carrots and paper. Here are the results:1. ZHEN VG-10 67-layer Damascus Steel, weight 94 g. Blade thickness - just larger than 1mm. Cuts very nicely through paper smoothly and without resistant. This knives shines through in tough vegetables like sweet potatoes and carrots. The extremely stiff blade aids in this test. If just feels powerful as it slices through hard things. It also glides through onions very well. Bolster shape allows for the entire blade to be sharpened. I liked the heft, but my wife did not like the handle thickness. So I guess this might not be the best knife if you have Trump-sized hands. Finally, sharpening. This is harder steel, so it shouldn't need sharpened as regularly as a German steel knife, but I have heard that VG-10 can be more time consumer to sharpen. I'm not a steel expert though so correct me if I'm wrong.2. F.Dick 1905 series. weight 69g. Black thickness seems about the same as the ZHEN knife (just larger than 1mm). WHY F.DICK KNIVES NOT BETTER KNOWN??? This knife is tie with the ZHEN knife. It is a different style knife (so not exactly comparing apples to apples here), with German steel instead of Japanese steel. The slicing ability is comparable to the ZHEN knife. In peeling, the handle is more comfortable than the ZHEN. The distal taper on the blade is particularly clever and makes for better cutting than the Wusthof classic. It doesn't feel as stiff as ZHEN when you cut with it, but it still makes easy work of cutting food in a different way. It seems to go through paper a little smoother than the ZHEN knife. This knife is my wife's favorite because the handle is much more comfortable for her (it's comfy for me too). The weight of the knife if perfect. It is not too heavy and it is not too light.3. Wusthof Classic. weighs 63g. Thickness seems the same as the ZHEN and F.Dick knives. This is American's Test Kitchen winning paring knife (ZHEN and F.Dick were not in their lineup). I have used it for years. I thought it was the best until I tried the F.Dick (from what I can tell, the distal taper makes F.Dick better than Wusthof). The other design issue is that the bolster gets in the way of sharpening this knife.4. Victorinox Fibrox Pro. 17g. Blade thickness about 1mm. This is American's Test Kitchen winning best buy. I have also used this for years. It is a good little knife and for less than $10 it is a great deal. But this knife struggles because the blade is too flexible. It seems to bend out of the way for tough foods. This knife is good for detail work on something like an apple or softer. ZHEN and F.Dick seem to slice through easier and cleaner though. For me, the biggest issue is the weight. It is just too light. Featherweight. To some, this would be a good thing. I don't like it though. Makes it feel cheap. The bolster gets in the way of sharpening the entire blade.5. Dalstrong Shogun Series. 102g! This VG-10 Japanese steel blade is a tank at 2mm thick! It is not a good thing either. Cutting everything was more difficult compared to all of the other knives in the lineup because it acted as a wedge between the food. It is bulky and clumsy. I would not recommend this knife in comparison with the others. Aside from all of that, it was the most expensive.