Discovering Hezhen 2023 Collection - Unfiltered First Impressions

[@chefpanko]

In the video above, I've provided unfiltered reactions to the Hezhen 2023 collection. Closed captions (CC) have been added for your convenience. While recording, I sometimes looked for the right words, especially when changing Dutch to English, my main language. You might hear me say 'um,' 'oh,' 'yeah,' and 'so' a lot. I'm trying to improve this for future videos when I plan to do live commentary.

[@mitchellk1269]

As someone who is disabled, retired (age 77) & living only on a fixed income thru Social Security. I can never afford a good Japanese knife. These knives look like something I could eventually save up for. I’ll keep checking thrift stores for used knives until then. Thanks for your review; it gives me hope.

[@jtnachtlauf1961]

I've got a cāi dāo from Hezhen 2021 collection, wooden handle a bit different from the one of YML series you reviewed. I'm satisfied with its performance and handling. Pretty quality piece of cuttlery for that money I've paid. Thanks for your review. Greetings from the Czech Republic.

[@bryanphillips341]

I also wasn't sure about the bulb. Once I got my cutting style adjusted to a more forward motion with a tighter grip from my pinky. I grew to really like it. Almost more than the 110 layer. Both good knives for me. I'd say 4_8 hrs of use a week .

[@chefpanko]

Thank you for sharing your experience. For most of the knives in the video I could get adjusted too. It's from ''I probably will hate it'' to ''not sure'' to ''not bad''. I made some adjustments for some of them (coreless version) by sandpapering them down as some of them were a bit too sharp for my liking.

[@voodoodr]

Thank you Chef! I look forward to your test video.

[@chefpanko]

Reviews follow shortly on a weekly basis. The Xinzuo series comes first and after that, the Hezhen reviews will follow too. 1 review per week. (as I had the knives for quite some time now, since it took so long I have decided to publish the first impressions which I did not plan to upload as I was not sure about my English pronunciation but thought that it would be fair to share my unfiltered first impressions). Definitely a learning process in terms of talking live while recording vs my voice-over styled reviews.

[@jiahaotan696]

Hey. I only liked the YM3L vegetable cleaver and the coreless damascus knife. Veg cleaver: Sterotypical Chinese style, slight distal taper, thinner at the front than the rear, will perform exactly as you expect, and that's what makes it good. Not great, but pretty dang good. Panko, you can try doing a twist (Victory sign with pointer and middle finger), then wrap your thumb over the bolster area, so it's a three-finger pinch grip on the metal itself. This brings your balance point forward and the thickness of the handle doesn't really matter. The handle is gripped only by the last two fingers to prevent the knife from moving sideways but you don't hold it too hard. Do try it and let me know if you find the grip better. Coreless damascus: Without even looking at steel, all the other knives have way too much belly. The 'elegant series cleaver' even has a belly to the heel. Not sure if even German-knife users can use that knife well. At least this coreless damascus has a reasonable profile. But... The design team really needs to cut back on the angles. The blade, the N-gon handle, and the sharp cutoff at the choil are all strange and not ergonomic. I hope they reach a compromise between usability and whatever strange concept they've come up with.

[@chefpanko]

I tried it and it indeed improve the comfort levels, however, I do find the handles of the Shibazi, Dengjia, CCK, and Leung Tim more comfortable. In terms of the blade and all that I expected is there. I also need to keep changing my grips more after testing so many knife styles, I sometimes just forget to change to what would be the most comfortable for a specific knife style. So a great point! Now I need to make sure that the habits return per knife style. Haven't touched a Chinese vegetable knife for a long time when I did the unboxing/first impression video. Design-wise I want them to keep the daring design but keep comfort at #1. Something they can definitely improve. Had to look up what N-gon was my English vocab does not go that deep but I see what it is and tbh I don't even know the Dutch word for it. Really need to go back to basics/school when they thought me all the shapes haha.

[@jiahaotan696]

@@chefpanko N-gon just means polygon where N is the number of sides. I put N because it's a complex 3D shape and I also cannot be bothered to count how many sides the handle has. For example, a 6-sided polygon is a hexagon.

[@chefpanko]

@@jiahaotan696 haha yeah looked it up and understood what it was saw 3D pictures too

[@theredbar-cross8515]

The "he" in "Hezhen" is pronounced like the "he" in "her", not like "heee". So it's like "Her'Zhen" but without the R sound. That last one with the wa-handle has one of the most amazing Damascus patterns I've ever seen. The problems with the handle I can live with. The sharp spine can also be fixed. But yeah, they should have cleaned all that up in production. We Chinese are not the best when it comes to attention to detail sometimes hahaha...

[@chefpanko]

haha I will try my best but I think if I try to pronounce it that it will be worse than it already is. Same with Xinzuo (something with ''star'' Xin I heard). ''Sin-tsou'' or something like that. I have given them my suggestions for improvements and what I discovered. I think they will implement them in newer series, not sure about the current batches. They are all indeed easy fixes with a bit of sanding with sandpaper (which I already did but will be talking about that in the full review).

[@theredbar-cross8515]

@@chefpanko I look forward to the full review! And yes, I think "Sin-tsuo" is pretty close.

[@chefpanko]

@@theredbar-cross8515 will try to pronounce it in the full reviews. If I think I did it entirely wrong I will keep the original voiceover.

[@LJSheffRBLX]

amazing video keep up the amazing content

[@chefpanko]

Thank you for the comment :)

[@dimmacommunication]

Yeah it's always nice when panko puts out a new video , Panko do you have a reddit account ?

[@chefpanko]

@@dimmacommunication I have but it is never active as I already had trouble uploading on a weekly basis on YT + keeping the website up to date. I also have Tiktok, Twitter, and Instagram and none of them I'm active on (I do occasionally log in to Instagram to see the DM's but other than that everything besides YT and my website I'm pretty much inactive). Always told myself someday I will start uploading there!!!........... TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit..........someday.... 😅

[@drrayeye]

A lot of vitality and "newness" to challenge our thinking. Can't wait for your testing of those with powder steel, imported steel, and coreless.

[@chefpanko]

Everything is currently going to plan so it should be a constant weekly review schedule from now on. Looking forward to what Xinzuo/Hezhen has to offer for future releases when they add improvements to new designs.

[@chopsddy3]

It might be a good idea for manufacturers to drill a series of holes in these laminate wood handles on the side facing the full tang. . That stabilized wood product is beautiful and easy to polish,but it is very heavy compared to natural wood. Weight reduction is necessary. Tapering the tang works but it’s expensive and time consuming. Thanks so much for these reviews.👍

[@abdurrahmanmoustapha]

you can tell he likes the handle

[@WongmanX2]

The handles look better than the product images on the site. I pike the contrast and the look idd light and easy to handle.

[@chefpanko]

Reviews are coming up soon! :)

[@guyharrison909]

So a bit of work with a sander or just sandpaper will sort some of these out. Also chef you appear to have the forearms of an uruk hai orc must help when chopping.

[@chefpanko]

hahaha urukhai orc, Dwarf Durin IV has some nice forearms too! But yeah most of it can be solved with a bit of sanding it down.

[@hendosergio]

My favourite knife is ym3l chinesse cleaver, it's very fast cutting vegetables and like a sound

[@rexseven6907]

My brother works with a Chinese national and asked about the pronunciation of Hezhen. She said it was more "Huh Jen". It doesn't matter, I was just curious. Also, the coreless knife you looked at last is the one I have. I agree with your observations except, my blade wasn't particularly sharp on the cutting edge. I wish the handle facets were sanded better and the spine was rounded some. Beautiful knife though.

[@chefpanko]

Very interesting, I'm pretty sure if I try to pronounce it, I will still butcher the name. I think that Xinzuo has fixed some of my suggestions in a newer series that they have not announced yet, but I don't have them with me so can't be sure.

[@Edska1]

Would you recommend X9Cr18MoV over Shibazi F208-2 as an all purpose cleaver? Mostly cutting veggies and some meat. They seem similar. Which one do you like more?

[@chefpanko]

If priced the same Hezhen YM3L with X9Cr18MoV over the Shibazi F208-2. Better finish longer edge retention the handle is something I had to get adjusted to since the circumference is bigger. F208-2 when I first reviewed them the price was $25/$30 now the price increased to $50/$70. But the same applies here if the Hezhen YM3L price compared to the F208-2 was exactly the same I would get the Hezhen one over Shibazi.

[@Edska1]

@@chefpanko Thank you! Appreciate the response.

[@dimmacommunication]

14c28n best steel with AEB-L 13c26 , love it.

[@chefpanko]

There will be some more interesting steel coming up from Xinzuo. Unfortunately, they were out of stock as one of them was a Bohler M390, but more steel types are coming in the next series. Finalizing most of the reviews so they will be uploaded on a weekly schedule.

[@dimmacommunication]

@@chefpanko I think they stopped m390 cause it wasn't sold as much as others

[@chefpanko]

@@dimmacommunication that would be sad, I hope that they keep adding more steel types and if they keep up with the improvements and innovation I think that the prices may increase in the future.

[@jiahaotan696]

@@dimmacommunication Hopefully they continue in the near future! I'm quite willing to believe that the high-income classes in China will purchase. Buy domestic, support local, good bragging rights etc.

[@chopsddy3]

It is nice that knife lovers build factories to make knives. I wish they would consult professional knife users before they go into production. It would save a lot of time.

[@chefpanko]

I have given them my initial thought and suggestions, and I think they have implemented some in the upcoming newer series. I will give them my entire thought on each style that I review now and hopefully, they implement them in the unreleased series that they are still designing. The Co-Founder told me that he will share my suggestions with the design team and R&D team. So far Xinzuo has been very thoughtful and responded to all my questions and taken my suggestions seriously.

[@chopsddy3]

@@chefpanko That is very good news chef. As a knife maker and user, I’m in full agreement with your assessment of these knives. They show real promise, but they are in need of some important improvements.

[@chefpanko]

@@chopsddy3 yeah, I can only send them the perspective of an ex-sushi chef. So my thoughts are purely based on how the knife feels and how the knives perform anatomically.

[@jiahaotan696]

To be very honest, they could have simply consulted a few chefs back in China (doing a range of cuisines) and really elevated their entire offerings. Doesn't make sense to me to invest so much time and effort into making knives, but forget the details that push a knife into stellar territory. Well, what comes out from China will bring serious competition to Japanese knives in the next few years, and I'm anticipating it

[@chefpanko]

@@jiahaotan696 I was told they had their own test before mass production (which they will improve) etc, but they are taking my feedback seriously and are currently pretty much the only ones that kept working with me on the Q&A (which took longer than expected to finish) and responding to every improvement suggestion. I mean they have proven that they can and are capable of making enthusiast-level knives. The Xinzuo ZDP-189 Zhen series is proof of what they actually can do. (Which I thought before I had the knife that none of the Chinese manufacturers could/would bother to do). Sure the foundation of the handle is widespread, but the blade grind is what got me excited compared to what I saw in the pictures. If they manage to keep the ZDP-189 standards of their own knives in future series and improve on it, I think there will finally be competition to the Japanese enthusiast knives on a mass-produced scale. That being said the ZDP-189 is not a beginner-friendly knife so they are segmenting away from the average home cooks designed knives. But it will bring competition in the coming years if they keep that level of detail in the blade grind and come up with new interesting designs without changing the comfort or functionality values. I think they can become a great competition and disrupt the industry. The only other problem is how they can break the stigma around ''made in China'' or ''Chinese steel''. They are not hiding the fact and the brand name itself sounds Chinese to me and not Japanese and ''Made in China'' is clearly visible on the box. While I admit that the Chinese VG10 equivalent did not have a good start for me personally. The 10Cr15CoMoV was all over the place from various brands. However, if done correctly it was indeed very similar to the Japanese VG10, and in my opinion, it was better than the Japanese AUS-10 but only if they did the 10Cr15CoMoV correctly. My ranking would be: #1 - VG10 #2 - 10Cr15CoMoV* #3 - AUS-10 *If heat treatment is done wrong it would not even be a competition of the AUS-10 or VG10 (or I had a bait and switch knife because some of the claimed 10cr15comov performed like a 7cr but worse, but that is on me for reviewing unknown branded AliExpress knives it takes some time to pick out the golden nuggets). So I do not only think, that on a blade production level but also on a steel level the Chinese manufacturers might be able to create similar properties. ie; Chinese equivalent version of the VG10,, AUS10, SG2/R2, SRS13 etc.

[@bryanphillips341]

I had the 72 layer chef knife for about a year. I love it and cutting with it is great. I recently got the one in the wooden box. I like it but think the other model feels better in hand. I know the risks of the different damascus and sadly bent and broke the tip off mine. I need to have it fixed. I do like this brand though.

[@chefpanko]

Sad to hear that you broke the tip, just to be sure that you don't shorten the knife's lifespan. If you plan to repair it do not, I repeat do not remove material away from the cutting edge. Instead, you should remove the spine part so that a new point is created. With this method, you preserve the knife's lifespan since you preserve the profile grind.

[@GabrielChollet]

Nice video, so, I order an Elegant Series Cleaver - 10Cr14CoMoV (Chinese VG10) with your link, I hope it's a good knife, I think so, Chinese Knife have a very good price/quality

[@chefpanko]

Hope you like it, if you have any questions about the knife while you wait for your order to arrive please let me know.

[@GabrielChollet]

I've just received mine and can't wait to try them @@chefpanko

[@GabrielChollet]

try done, very good, I love these knifes, very good fabrication quality, nice balance for the Elegant Series Cleaver, for me it's a high bunka, very efficient

[@JacquesRenaitre]

Reviews coming on French knives ?

[@chefpanko]

It will probably be in the second quarter of 2024 as the review slots for 2023 are all taken. I will keep them in my list! Any suggestions? I heard ''K Sabatier''.

[@JacquesRenaitre]

@@chefpanko Yes, K Sabatier. Opinel is another. Most French knives are made in Thiers, Auvergne. TB Groupe is also one.

[@chefpanko]

@@JacquesRenaitre Thank you for the information added it to my list, Opinel!! that is a very old brand that I have not seen in a while weren't they a pocket knife brand? Brings back some nostalgia hearing that brand name.

[@chefpanko]

@@JacquesRenaitre While I can't say much as it is not final yet, I might be able to see them in early 2024 if everything goes to plan. I might hear more if the plans are final nearing the end of 2023. If that is final I might be able to see most of the brands you mentioned.

[@JacquesRenaitre]

@@chefpanko Yes, and they also make Chef Knives.

[@knifesharpeningnorway]

Would be fun to test on my channel

[@chefpanko]

It indeed would be fun, if you can find them at a nice discount it might be worth trying them. I think they will eventually increase the prices if they keep implementing on improving on each new series.

[@knifesharpeningnorway]

@@chefpanko i sent em a mail asking them if they can send me some

[@chefpanko]

@@knifesharpeningnorway hopefully they want to send some, as I was approached by them directly so I have no idea how they respond. The reason that they approached me was that they saw my earlier videos where I bought every single knife myself for every review.

[@knifesharpeningnorway]

@@chefpanko yes sir hoping for the best

[@chefpanko]

@@knifesharpeningnorway I wish you the best!