Mercer Culinary Genesis 8-Inch Chef's Knife

I am very impressed with the Mercer Culinary Genesis 8-Inch Forged Chef's Knife. It is, as a type, very similar to the Wüsthof Classic 8" Chef's Knife and the Henckels International Classic 8" Chef's Knife, both of which cost more, much more in the case of the Wüsthof. The Mercer Culinary Genesis Chef's Knife is a delightful kitchen tool, well balanced, made in Taiwan from high-carbon, German cutlery steel. This seems to be the method these days with Chinese and Asian knives: made in China or Taiwan to cut costs from imported high end German steel. The knife is definitely sharp right out of the box. Although I don't know for sure I would guess that it uses a standard 20 degree bevel rather than the 15 degree Japanese style that has become fashionable for super sharpness. For home cooking it should hold its edge for quite some time between stropping or sharpening. I especially like the feel and grip of the Santoprene handle. Of course synthetic materials like Santoprene always raise a small worry about long term wear and durability. But I have had Henckels knives with wooden handles that splintered after a few years and also Chinese knives with ABS handles that shattered or separated. So it's mostly a matter of quality and the Mercer impresses that no corners were cut in its manufacture. The bolster on the Mercer Culinary Genesis is, for me, especially well proportioned and makes it easy to grip the knife properly. The knife has a full tang that runs the length of the handle, something that many cut rate but otherwise good looking Chinese knives do not have. Be especially careful of such Chinese made knives that have ABS handles with faux rivets and no visible tang on the top or bottom. Mercer Culinary is not a brand well known to most consumers. Mercer knives are sold mostly to culinary professionals and food service businesses through restaurant stores and other commercial outlets. But in the industry Mercer Culinary knives are one of the go to brands for dependable high quality long wearing knives to be used in daily food service and food industry work that in one day probably does more work than the average home cook would do in a year. The Mercer Culinary Genesis 8-Inch Forged Chef's Knife can typically be had for about $30.00-45.00 whereas the Wüsthof Classic 8" usually goes for about $130-155.00. The Mercer Culinary Genesis 8-Inch Forged Chef's Knife is a solid, dependable, sharp high quality chef's tool at a very affordable price. RECOMMENDED.

I have an array of knifes from shun to wustoff to Kuhn rink on .. for the cheaper end of 30 this knife is fantastic one of the best weighted fir me personally has enougth weight in it to cut veg good (were some of the light weight /Japanese knife fall short but is also light enougth to use for hours on end comfortably and sag dice cut onion . The retention is good I use my steel on it maybe once every 4-5 hours of use it's gets sharp. My wustoff are only the other knife I manage to get sharper but fir 30 pound this is a good all round knife and I would recommend it as a first knife . Handle is probably best Iv used tbh onfiryable and fits hand well

Knife performs well and has good ergonomics.

Excellent quality, pretty sharp factory edge and takes an ever better edge if you sharpen it. The grip is very good, I think it's the best grip of any knife I've tried. I weights about 250 grams, it fits a standard messermeister or any sort of blade guard you want to use (unlike my Victorinox). I bought it on sale for 20$, and for that amount I would wholeheartedly recommend picking this knife up, it is a sturdy workhorse and will not disappoint you if you're looking for a German-style, heavy knife.

Snaped tip