Yaxell Ran Plus 6.5" Santoku Knife - Made in Japan - 69 Layers VG10 Damascus

I'm not a knife nut and metallurgical scientist, but I do like knives and know a bit more than most. I have no complaints about VG10 and the Damascus steel process or the micarta handle. The knife ia a bit heavy and the blade is a little thick. Only time will tell if the quality of the build is there. Super impressive looking knife, handle is beautiful. However the sharpening was horrible! Very uneven and poor grind. Not even close 12.5 degrees per side as was promised in the description. That was very disapointing! 19 degrees at the best part of the belly and unevenly ground to 20+ degrees at different parts of the blade everywhere else per my angle cube. The tip was especially mangled, which is ridiculous with gently sloped and nearly squared tip design of a Santoku knife. The one side of the tip was gouged so badly, I pulled out my KME Sharpener and completely reprofiled the knife using 140 through 1500 grit diamond stone and stropped it and you can still see the scratches on the bevel. It took me nearly two hours to make this knife right. It's a real shame. If it were not a knife that I gave as a gift to a family member who was flying home in a few days, I would have returned it. It's a real shame to say that this is impressively pretty knife that I could never recommend