Stainless or Semi-stainless santoku gift recommendation

[ColonelJLloyd]

Looking to give a general purpose kitchen knife as a gift to my dad's wife. They own a block of Cuisinart stainless knives and a few dull Dexter Russells in a drawer. My dad has a Norton IM200 but I am going to gift a Cerax 1000/3000 combo stone along with this knife.

This does not need to be a workhorse and could be laser-ish. She has only ever used western handles so I'll probably stick with that (I wish the hand engraved Yahiko Ginsan santoku was available with a western handle). Budget is in the $90-125 range. I really don't have experience sharpening stainless steels aside from a lot of Wustof Classic knives so I need help choosing a good steel. I think I'd rather give her something around 180mm than 165mm. Thanks in advance!

Some knives that look like candidates to me are these.

Harukaze VG10 tsuchime https://www.chefknivestogo.com/satahachkn21.html
Kanehide PS60 https://www.chefknivestogo.com/kapssa18.html
Takamura VG10 migaki https://www.chefknivestogo.com/tamivgsa16.html
Tsunehisa SLD https://www.chefknivestogo.com/tssldstsa18.html

[gladius]

Nice choices in your list. I like the Kanehide PS60 Santoku 180mm. I have several PS60's, all very nice knives and good cutters that are easy to maintain. Also consider their TK line. Though not as nice looking a handle, they are excellent cutters also easy to maintain. The Kanehide TK Semi Stainless Petty 150mm is almost always on my board.

Try to find out what size knife she now prefers. I have tried to get my wife to use longer knives (165mm-200mm) but she favors those in the 135mm-150mm range. Her sister though, snagged my Takamura 180mm and likes it.

[zekepa]

I got the Tsunehisa SLD when Mark had them featured on the 20th anniversary sale. I'm very impressed with the performance of the knife. I consider it laserish.

Here is a link to my thoughts on it when I first got it. My opinion hasn't changed. I did manage to hit the tip on the sink being careless and chip it off, not even big enough that I've done anything to fix it.

viewtopic.php?p=141339&hilit=Tsunehisa+SLD#p141339

[ChefKnivesToGo]

They're pretty similar in performance but I would favor the Kanehide PS60 https://www.chefknivestogo.com/kapssa18.html

Thin, laser-type knives usually cut exceptionally well and this one is no exception.

[salemj]

Nice choices in your list. I like the Kanehide PS60 Santoku 180mm. I have several PS60's, all very nice knives and good cutters that are easy to maintain. Also consider their TK line. Though not as nice looking a handle, they are excellent cutters also easy to maintain. The Kanehide TK Semi Stainless Petty 150mm is almost always on my board.

Try to find out what size knife she now prefers. I have tried to get my wife to use longer knives (165mm-200mm) but she favors those in the 135mm-150mm range. Her sister though, snagged my Takamura 180mm and likes it.

I concur, but wanted to add that I gifted a TK knife only to discover later that they really do patina strongly over time...they are less forgiving and get a bit uglier than some other semi-stainless. While I still favour these knives as a terrific deal (especially if you can tweak the bevels), I might hesitate to give a TK as a gift to someone who isn't necessarily fastidious but is perhaps also not interested in "dirty" looking knives in their kitchen. (In my case, the people I gifted to were perfectly fine with how it discoloured, and I actually think the TK is a great choice for someone who wants the character of a reactive knife but needs something a touch more forgiving when it comes to rust, etc.!)

[mjgillen]

I am happy with the stainless steel Mac Santoku I recently bought. Added the sharpening service and it arrived scary sharp!

https://www.chefknivestogo.com/macsu65insak.html