Anyone tried this knife? I think the mfr is 'Rader' but not...

[dglevy]

...the Rader who does custom knives. Link is here. My impression is it's a Taiwanese manufacturer that uses Japanese VG-10. Tempting b/c the 9.5" version is only $US 56 delivered. Has anyone actually gotten their hands on one of these and can give impressions? Or personally know someone reliable who gave their impressions?

[Mingooch]

Havent tried it, but I am not a VG10 fan.

[dglevy]

I finally found something, a post (link here), by Richard_L on 02-05-11. It looks as though Rader = Evergood = Zhen. He says:

I actually bought a 300mm/12" Evergood VG-10 gyuto a few months ago, but at the time I was so busy, I didn't have time to play around with it much. Initial impressions: decent F&F but definitely not on par with, say, Shun. Handle shape looks nice but not great for pinch grip because of the pronounced palm swell. Spine was very sharp, so I had to round and polish it. Decent edge out of the box, but probably could use some thinning. I think I'll dig it out of the box this weekend and put a finished edge on it and try it out some, maybe.

Unfortunately, he didn't follow up, but the impression he gives is that it wasn't that bad a knife, for the price.

[dangermouse]

I have the same 300mm and his comments reflect my experience. It is a bit harder to sharpen than some of my other knives (including other vg-10) and holds an okay edge. Overall, worth the $50 I payed.

[dglevy]

Okay, thanks for posting!