This is my gateway yasugi Hitachi metal shiragami steel. I was specifically looking for a single bevel geometry. At this price I was fully prepared for the product to arrive not fully sharpened, and in need of touching up on whetstones before use. To my great surprise what arrived was the sharpest knife I'd ever cut with, and I have yet to need touching my new deba with a strop or whetstone, even after hours of cutting many kilograms of ingredients. I am beyond impressed with the high performance sharpness and edge retention. As a bonus side effect, the urasaki and hagane edge has taken on a most attractive iridescent blue purple green yellow orange natural patina after several uses , after wearing away the protective lacquer coating. The charm of the rainbow natural patina beauty has made me fall deeper in love. I thought I knew what sharp was from my experience honing and sharpening with whetstones, but the single bevel angle grind of this deba was on a whole different level
The shirogami2 steel edge retention is so impressive. I can honestly say I didn't know true sharpness until I got this shirogami2 deba by mikihisa ontoy hands and started using it. I would highly recommend this deba to anyone looking to experience what true sharpness and edge retention is, and to be initiated into the tamahagane cult of elite high carbon steel high performance chef knives. The clean cut slicing performance of this deba is like a surgical scalpel. I use it on vegetables mostly and it's become my most used kitchen knife at the moment. Amazing.