An argument about chef's knives? Good Lord, let us bid a hasty retreat to politics, gun rights, and religion -- it's safer!

At a certain level, it's never about the best utilitarian tool; it's about the fine and subtle optimizations and adjustments that make the tool a seamless extension of your hand and your will. Personal ergonomics become huge, in the same manner as musical instruments to an advanced player. The right tool draws you forward and higher in your art.

Now, I'm a unique case because I've been a thrift shop scrounge for a decade or two. As a result, I have a pail of Victorinox blades, including 10" Fibrox chef knives. Frankly, I find the steel quite soft in comparison to German blades; but perhaps I need to push them to a much finer grit on the belt sander, and see if they "pop" in a way I didn't expect.

To underscore the ergonomics point made earlier: I pulled set of hand-made Japanese Hattori blades, a chef and a utility, with original cases, from a thrift shop for a total of $6.00. They're the best knives in the house, by orders of magnitude; but they don't fit our hands. So they remain as conversation pieces. (And I get endless amusement out of taking them to snooty, high-end knife boutiques, asking for an assessment, and then showing them the tags and receipt. High quality entertainment IMO.)

I guess this is a long-winded way of saying that I don't buy the YouTube assessment of these different blades. It's an interesting but tone-deaf comparison.

(Meanwhile, Phaedrus is in the bullpen, warming up ...?)