I have a single high-end kitchen knife, a Masakage Mizu gyuto. At under $200, it's not the height of bling, but still an order of magnitude above the cheapest t

I have a single high-end kitchen knife, a Masakage Mizu gyuto. At under $200, it's not the height of bling, but still an order of magnitude above the cheapest thing that could possibly work. I bought it after handling almost everything in a shop specializing in Japanese knives, and I selected it largely based on its feel and balance. It is much better at cutting things than any other kitchen knife I've used (yes, most were properly sharpened), though compared to German knives around $100, its advantage for me as a home cook is mostly that it feels good to cut with, not that I couldn't do all the same things with a cheaper, lower-performing knife. The difference in performance comes from the blade stock being thinner, the grind being convex instead of flat, and the blade being thinner immediately behind the sharpened edge. There are downsides: the steel is not stainless, and being much harder than a typical German knife makes it prone to chip if it accidentally contacts something hard. Stainless options with similar characteristics exist, but it's widely believed that they can't get quite as sharp.