Review (of the santoku) from my professional chef customer R. Abanes from Delta, BC: "Paul, I received the Sakai Takayuki knife last Friday. My friends & I immediately put it to work (prepping veg, fish & line duty). Everyone who saw it was impressed with its beauty, I'm very impressed with its surgical accuracy. Thank you so much for your impeccable service. You have my recommendation to anyone who's in the market to buying a knife (even if its not Japanese they're looking for)."

Note: I put all the images together here at full size so you can see them better, but of course the bottom knife (the petty/utility knife) is smaller than the others in real life.

These come in beautiful individual gift boxes.

I'd recommend the fine ceramic hone (see below) for regular/daily maintenance of the edge. As with any knife, use the hone regularly and you'll keep the edge in good shape for a LONG time before you need to think about doing any serious "re-sharpening" or real grinding and refinishing of the edge.