Morakniv Classic Paring Kitchen Knife Black Wood vs KAI Wasabi Black Yanagiba 8 1/4" Kitchen Knife 6721Y

The handle looks like the classic morakniv but is quite a bit thinner but still too big for my XL hands. I am used to peeling by holding a paring knife in my knuckle joint and anchor the fruit/vegetable on my thumb that motion is impossible with the size of that handle. The handle has no indication that would tell me which side of the knife is sharpened and the blade in itself has not much of a distinction between sharpened edge and spine and every so often I try cutting something with the dull side. The blade is too wide to do more intricate work or work through grooved veggies

First, the handle feels like it's made of hollow plastic, which makes it pretty light. This means that for dicing "tough" (relative to sushi) pieces of poultry/meats such as chicken breast, I have to apply a lot of pressure and long strokes to slice the meat all the way through. This eventually gets pretty tiring for the hand. A heavier handle would give the knife better balance and let the knife do more of the work

I had this knife in my watch list for quite a while and just happened to refresh the list one night just before going to bed. I was lucky enough to get it that way for a very healthy discount and my only regret now is that I didn't order two at that price. I could keep one in my trailer for camping trips if I had done that.

Since I was looking for something particular and based my decision partly on that factor, I'm knocking a star off. I'd only take half a star off it was an option. I'm putting the review on this knife because it's specifically a santoku and should have a single bevel as part of the style. The other 2 knives were a paring knife and a chef's knife