I was doing some reading on new knives due to this thread, and came across the JA Henckels Miyabi products. Apparently, they purchased a knife making facility in Seki (the knife making capital of Japan), employed some of the top craftsmen there and are putting out some insane shit.
The Fusion line just came out (June 2010 was the debut), uses the VG10 steel (same stuff used in the Shun Classic line), but has double the layering (64 layers compared to 32 on the Shun) and a ridiculously razor sharp 9 to 12 degree edge tolerance.
The line is being offered through Sur la Table exclusively, and I just checked their site and it looks like they are offering the Santoku at a very nice introductory price:
http://www.surlatable.com/product/cu...ortby=ourPicks
Apparently, Henckel Japan gave one to Zknives for review and then was confident enough in the blade to let it go for a pass around through the knife forum members.
Here's the initial review:
http://www.zknives.com/knives/kitche...00dgy270.shtml
For $90, I'm going to go down to the Sur la Table store here and pick one up today. That's ridiculously cheap for what is theoretically being offered on this knife in terms of build quality, the type of steel and the edge. I'll put it through the paces this week and let you know how it stacks up against my Shun's.