Kiritsuke ( きりつけ) Japanese Damascus Steel Chefs Knife With Ebony Octagonal Handle

I'm no professional chef but I'm a seasoned home cook. I cook everything from scratch and I cook daily. The knives that I use include, paring, boning, a basic slicing knife, and a santoku for chopping and dicing bigger, hardier vegetables and herbs.This is the most expensive knife that I have ever owned and it's the first of this style that I have used. It has taken some adjusting to it quite frankly.
The handle reminds me of a Japanese sword and the blade has an ornamental design on it. It really stands out as a unique knife in my kitchen.
It's very lightweight compared to the largest knife that I have, the santoku. I'm used to the allowing the weight of my santoku do half the work while chopping and dicing because I apply less effort as the combination of sharp and weight of the blade do some of the work so this is an adjustment that I'm getting used to. It's not a bad thing. It's just a fact.

Just a short review.
It handles differently than a typical western style knife but once you got used to it you will never go back.
The steel is real damascus steel, i checked it after sharpening, the lines come back after sharpening. First i was skeptical because it is extremely light. The blade is very sharp.
Use a good and very fine wet stone.
The grip is octagonal and i thought that might be an issue but it turned out that i specifically love the shape.
I’d buy it again, the build quality is very good.

I bought this as a Gift for my son who loves to cook. His reaction was quite simple, "Dad, this is the best knife I have ever used, I love it". I'm sure I will enjoy many great meals that were made with this knife.

I bought this for a friend who is a trie gourmet!
I think he was crying after he saw this knife, truly a work of art!
This knife speaks for itself in the pictures!

I don't know how to feel about the octagon handle. It's nice but it's just not my idea of ergonomic, I suppose. The handle feels quite different in my hand than most knive handles which are smooth and have some curve that you can wrap your palm comfortably around. This handle is very straight wooden handle which reminds me of the classic wood yellow pencil that will leave a writers bump on your finger after writing too long with it. It would be nice to have a more organic shape to it for a comfortable grip but I understand that it's the design of this style and not necessarily necessarily a design flaw.