They tried to sponsor my last video. After checking the reviews I turned off the offer.

If anyone is claiming they are selling a hand made knife and it's being sold for $30, run away.

Huusk originally promoted their product as Viking knives. When it wasn't selling well, they just rebranded their pot and pan steel knives as Japanese to make it sound cool.

What kills me the most is the struggle to use that shape for food prep

These scams are actually incredibly common. Many of the products influencers promote are utter garbage/scam.

Cedric and Ada gear called Huusk out for selling knives made of what is essentially a pot metal (It’s a steel used to make stainless pots and water bottles), the video had hundreds of thousands of views. Then Huusk sent him a cease and desist through youtube and a legal threat to his channel forcing him to take it down. He did a re-review where he slammed them again, but for some reason mysteriously it’s stuck around 6k views. Now I’m seeing their ads everywhere and can’t help but think that this was them trying to clean up their rep before a big advertising push.

I bought 3 of these knives on “sale”. I was sucked in by the advertising they did. After i received them i lasted all three out in a row. I noticed that the “hammer forged marks” were all at the exact same place on each blade and they also were exactly the same shape. These blades are stamped, not forged.

My girlfriend wants some Japanese kitchen knives for Christmas. If I hadn't seen your video I probably would have bought these.You saved me from being scammed.Thanks for posting from the UK!

Cedric & Ada Gear and Outdoors channel has done 3 vids on how bad the knives are

My husband was about to order 2 for $49.99 from their " website ", luckily he asked me to check it out. Thank you for posting this video. ❤

Nice to see someone still cares where the money is coming from. Much respect for doing the research and doing the right thing.

I had a few extra bucks, so I decided to get one of these knives, being a professional cook, it piqued my interest. My first impression was that it was too heavy to use in a professional kitchen compared to my standard 10-inch chef's knife. The second problem I found was the so-called finger hole. This abomination is nothing more than a design flaw and takes away a lot of the stability of the pinching technique that all professionals typically use. The third problem comes in the form of the shape of the curved blade. The rocking motion that you have to use feels unwieldly especially if your taller and having to use a standard height counter/cutting board. True there are a lot of sliding cutting motions used in the kitchen but there are also the straight down cuts that come in use very frequently as well. Sliding works well for meats but not when you have to go through hard vegetables. Overall, I would rank this knife in the middle of the scale not great but also not bad. For me it makes a better utility knife then a knife in the kitchen.

I run a knife sharpening business & returned some knives to a chef on Friday and saw one of these and told him to throw it straight in the bin. I knew nothing of this company or product, you can just tell it's bullshit. Great video!

Great job of calling this out. I collect fine Japanese and French cutlery. I saw the faux Tsuchime. (hammered) surface, and knew immediately that it was bogus. It was easy enough to research it at a skin deep level to find out HOW bogus they are. Appearance was obvious but "where made Huusk immediately revealed that they were made in China. You did a fantastic job of enumerating the huge number of red flags. For the sake of overkill I will add another and that is just the shape of the blade. Fine Japanese cutlery pretty much falls into three categories of design. 1. Traditional Japanese designs such as yanagiba, deba, etc. 2. interpretation of western designs primarily based on French designs. The Gyoto is an interpretation of the French chefs knife. 3. Hybrid designs that may favor either European tradition or Japanese tradition. The nakiri uses a double bevel edge,(western) vs. the single bevel usuba which shares a similar shape. The Huusk,(with fake Tsuchime), shows none of these design elements. One other thing, just as legit Japanese knife makers proudly display what steel was used, the geographical origin is displayed somewhere, if not on the blade, on the packaging. Most quality cutlery from Japan is made in Seki, Sakai, or Echizen. Those communities are rightly very proud of their blade making heritage and always promote that. Anyway, I type to much. AMAZING job of digging up so many details on the scam. Cheers!

I know u mentioned u didn’t want people going to hate on the KZfaqrs who advertised this product but the fact is they deserve it. That check from Huusk was worth more than making sure their viewers didn’t spend money on garbage. Meanwhile the KZfaqrs are always so quick to tell viewers how much they are appreciated

I literally typed in scam knives because I was looking for a video on these things and an actual ad for huusk was one of the first things to pop up.😂

18/10 is not even a cutlery steel. Some pots and steel bottles are made from 18/10. It is not sufficiently heat-treatable, so the blade and the bevel aren’t hard enough.

Being a Hobbyist Leather worker, the first thing I noticed was the low-quality cheap leather sheath. It's a shame that so many creators think it's okay to lie to their viewers for the love of money.

I'm an Industrial Quality Analyst, I immediately confirmed to myself that it was a scam company. Everything points to it being Chinese garbage but the nail in the coffin is the claim that they test every knife for quality. That is NOT how QC works, that's an American and Chinese concept that doesn't work. Japan learned from geniuses like Dr. Deming that you don't inspect quality into the product, you do it right the first time and use statistical process control and sampling to monitor the systems. That's why Japan is the world leader in quality control, they don't fall for stupid bullshit like mass inspection. Also just look at it, might as well use a steel cube as a knife, will work about as well

Any time a channel creator is called or calls themself an 'influencer' I don't believe a word they say. They are just grifters paid by the companies sponsoring their videos.

That's why my respect for Cedric went through the roof. The man just proved with science how bad those knives were.

As a knife maker this company really gets on my nerves.

My son and wife bought one of these for my birthday. First, this thing doesn't hold an edge, it's not the worst knife but it rates down near the bottom, you are better off spending more money with a Hencknels and for the most part get what you paid for. It showed up not sharp, I spent and hour trying to get a decent edge. Second, The scales don't blend into the tang. Where is the quality control? I feel like it was made by an amateur or a pro that doesn't care. It is definitely mass produced and isn't hand made. Third, the knife is not balanced. On the pro side, it looks nice, as long as you don't handle it or look too closely. Don't waist your money, these knives suck. Thanks for doing this video, keep spreading the word!

Great video! I've found through their website that they use 4CR14 Stainless Steel. This basically means that there is very little carbon in the blade which means it'll go blunt after a few days in the kitchen.

This is honestly scary what they are trying to do. One of my favorite automotive channels with almost 500k subscribers just uploaded a video sponsored by huusk knives. I did some research and found some of the same questionable stuff that you found which led me here. I made several comments with different accounts of mine explaining that its a scam, but they were all deleted. I thought I could trust that channel, but I guess not. Thanks for making the video and I hope more people see it before wasting their money. It's amazing how easily some people can sell out.

If I see a knife or any product does not state it's country of origin, my default conclusion is that it must be from China or somewhere else I don't want to indirectly send money to.

I am an actual knifemaker here in the US. The amount of garbage (china/pakistan, etc) being pushed is wrecking the market. The ads are EVERYWHERE.. I saw a comment below talking about how unrealistic a $30 "hand made" knife is, anyone charging less than $150 is very sus. Hand made products are expensive and time consuming. I found this under recommended videos and couldnt help myself ...

Thanks. I was flashed a promo for these on some channel I was watching. Like most KZfaq ads, if it is too good to be true, it isn't. The whole influencer/digital creator marketplace is a cesspool of deception and lies, a place governed by "let the buyer beware." Reviews are particularly problematic with sites that sell/fake reviews. These folks wouldn't know the truth if they tripped over it.

How to detect a knife scam: - "JAPAN" - Promoted by KZfaqrs completely unrelated to knives - No mention of where it is actually made - No mention of steel used other than "HIGH QUALITY" and "JAPANEEEZ" - Crazy discount BUT ONLY IF YOU ORDER RIGHT NOW

Similarly, years ago my friend worked at Hardee's restaurant, they claimed "Made from scratch biscuits", which was true. The frozen biscuit company was named "Made from scratch". Deception in its simplist form.

As a former cook, these knives would be a nightmare in a kitchen. Absolutely horrible weighting and blade shape for anything. The chefs aren’t even using them naturally. This isn’t even a real knife.

Thank you for your thorough research on these products. I'm just sad to see some people I follow on You Tube promoting these knives.

You notice, it seems like they stay away from _actual_ knife and blade related channels? They know that people that know knives would see it for the garbage it is.

The thing is that China is very capable of producing quality steel knives. They could have been honest and embraced that, and put out a product that's decent enough quality for a person to invest in, but they chose to be deceptors. I feel sorry for the fallout for the employees, but that company needs to just go away.

I have one rule regarding advertisements. 1) If it's advertised on KZfaq or Facebook, it's garbage.

I bought one of these knives, it wasn’t sharp, but I sharpened it, and it is very sharp now, very disappointed I was lied to by the company.

Tamahagane isn't really a "kind" of steel. It's more about the process of covering up the fact that you're using relatively crummy/impure iron sand by combining it with pure charcoal (carbon) in a sealed air-proof vessel called a crucible to actually make steel by getting it all to melt together over a long period of time. Then you take the new steel that comes out of your crucible and if it's not too terrible you heat it back up and fold it over and over and over to create a matrix of steel that doesn't let any of the impurities stay together in any one place where they can create a weak spot in the blade. Then you cover half the blade in clay, heat it back up enough to harden the part that isn't covered, quench the whole thing (which causes all that Katana curvy-ness) and grind and sharpen the hardened edge you've made on the outside of the curve. And boom, you've got a toy that will give all the little Samurai out there hours and hours of unsafe fun. The only thing that really makes Tamahagane "special" is that the process allows you to make a relatively decent blade out of pretty crummy materials.

I feel the creators should be made to bear the blame when they promote scams without doing their due diligence.

These are so common I expect a new one to pop up every week. Every niche has at least one, audio gear, watches, clothing, fishing tackle, knives, the list goes on and on into infinity.

My brother-in-law pulled one of these out of a kitchen drawer to proudly show it off. It was all I could do to not burst out laughing.

I own a sharpening business in New Zealand, and one of these knives came in to be sharpened. The handle was so rattley and poorly made. The wooden handle was literally moving every time I touched it.

Husk Japan; Owned by a European company, made out of pot metal in CHINA.

Here's how you can avoid being scammed into buying garbage all these influencers pedal: don't watch influencers.

This scam is ongoing in France. They use the "Aikyo" brand and say the knives are handmade by a Japanese family named Nakamura. But it's the exact same knife as Huusk, they use the same images/videos in their ads. And what's even worse? The price : they say there's a 50% discount, from 159€ down to 79€!

Great job exposing this scam!

If you've ever used a kitchen knife you have to know at a glance that this thing is not going to work well. It could be made of the best materials, but it is still clearly an ergonomic nightmare!

So fed up with their fricken emails that they never stop sending despite endless requests.

Great work... when I saw the advertising for these (even by some "good" YT channels), it's obvious to anyone who knows anything about Japanese knives, that the whole thing is crap! Katanas have special steel, and 10,000 layers, so the claim that they are made like a Katana is bogus...and stainless steel, not in a Katana, and 70% discount? It's something that appeals to certain buyers, especially chinese, and, apparently, US Americans! And, as you noted, anyone reading the "Ferengi print" sees all kinds of "we don't really claim that they are professional", "we remove fake reviews", "manufactured and shipped from China"... Seriously disappointed that so many "influencers" have shown how cheaply "bought" they are!

The first red flag for me (from watching this) was claiming that the knives were manufactured using 'ancient' Japanese techniques and materials. No one does that for sale to the mass market. It would take far too long to make them. You CAN get traditionally made knives in Japan, but you will pay a premium for them. That and from the get go looking at this knife, I'm sure I saw a vid for probably the exact same knife a while back, it did not get a good review.

Thank you for putting this information out there for consumers and KZfaqrs alike. We live in the age of information, there aren't any excuses, you can be deceived, only if you want to be! 😮

"Comes off the box razor sharp and they'll stay like that for years", *laughs in knife person*.

No respectable chef would stab their cutting board with a knife

This whole scam sounds like it needs to be looked at under the RICO Act. Due to the number of influencers and companies involved, this may be considered "Modern" organized crime. I'm no attorney, but...

+++ Cedric & Ada also called these guys out, & tested their garbage to prove it. Complete crap knives without heat treat. Thanks for calling out the complete FRAUD of these scumbags.

All KZfaq sponsors should be considered scams. Whether it's knives, watches or Scottish Lord titles, they are all designed to make lots of money from ignorant customers.

I actually brought a Husk knife, I feel very stupid. The knives are garbage, as soon I opened it I knew I was screwed. UGH

I love the design but when I saw the price the first time I didn't believe it was hand forged because the price would be to unbelievable for that.

The funny thing is that you can see how bad the knife is because it can't even get through an onion. I own a 10€ knife and that one works better.

Funny how I’ve never paid more than 10 bucks for a kitchen knife and yet I’m still able to cut just about anything I cook.

I'll never give a dime to any company who employees influencers.

Thank you for a well researched commentary. Imagine the depth of malicious enterprise currently available on the web. Sadly I see HUUSK is still marketing with expertly craven presenters but it gives me pleasure to watch them laboriously HUUSKING a pickle or waving it about as if fending off an invisible badger. Sometimes you must laugh & try not to think of the next scam. Me, I hope they contract tetanus.

Nice content. To be honest, it's very easy to find out that this is some scam in some form just from their promos (and buzz words used in their sponsorships/ads) it's just that most KZfaqrs don't even care and that is the sad reality. Hope you get more subs and make more videos.

Ancient Japanese samurai wielding authentic Japanese stainless steel is a hilarious image to conjure.

I got mine for $14. It's my cheese and meat knife. I sharpen it every couple of months and it has not been a problem for me. I was not aware of any scam. It's a nice heavy knife that cuts thick 5 lb blocks of cheese and all sizes of meat, raw or cooked, with ease. Maybe I got a good one or something. Edit: I did not get mine from any youtube ad or channel personality.

Excellent! You are what makes the consumer world a better place. Thank you!!

Hoax knives...

Anything that any youtubers promote or is sponsored by, is best believed to be a scam.

As a knife enthusiast and collector, 2 things: 1. Sick to death of hearing "German steel" or "Japanese steel" and seeing promo videos showing them chopping carrots like you couldn't chop a carrot with a butter knife. 2. This knife is so awful even at a glance. Gross.

Great video - thanks. This highlights how KZfaq channels need to do their homework before endorsing a product (also see FTX).

Excellent job Venerable. Keep it up

When I went to check to see if "Ellie Clark" is a real person, I found articles from over two years ago...pointing out that these knives are a scam. Also, I found Haarko knives, which are the same knives, just shaped a bit differently--the wording is just about identical in the advertising. Both blade designs are bad jokes, not knives any decent cook would choose. All things considered, I expect a thorough search would turn up more variations of these, probably all with a vaguely similar name and design. The funniest part, I think, was the one "article" (really an ad) praising these things--which claims that it isn't the chef's skill that matters, but the tools the chef uses. They pushed the idea pretty hard. Just watching the clips of people cutting with those knives is enough to tell they aren't all that sharp--too much effort is required to make the cuts, and it's much too obvious...at least it's obvious to me. The hole through the blade is a really dumb gimmick...just there for show, not functionality. The "Ellie Clarke" quote is ludicrous. "...the most widely recognized style of chef's knife in the West." is an outright lie. Just do a quick search for images of "chef's knife", and you'll see what I mean. While looking to see if there is an actual chef named "Ellie Clarke", I found a LinkdIn profile for one claiming "Ellie Clarke Chef Slough, England, United Kingdom" but under education: " East Berkshire college Windsor Graphic East Berkshire college Windsor Retail and visual merchandising display (3D)Window displays, interior design, graphics. 2012 - 2014 Highly passionate when it comes fashion, creative writing and design. Window displays and visual merchandising are where my skills lie, I like to keep up to date with the latest trends and research by window shopping." Given the mismatch, I think this profile is likely connected to the scam...why else would an advertising student list their job as chef? My guess is that the scammers stole this profile and changed only the current job part. Another of the "chefs" giving testimonials, "Bernard Descoteaux" is a retired newspaper editor. I was pretty sure before I went looking, but both the names I looked up primarily show up in advertising for these scams...and if I look up any other names attached to this scam, I'm sure it'll turn out they're unconnected to cooking. The actual people whose names are being used will be unaware of this, too.

Note: In many countries it’s illegal to offer a discounted product that’s never sold at the non-discounted price because that means the discounted price is the true price and the non-discounted price is false advertising. Companies cannot offer a product that’s always on sale to trick people into thinking they’re getting a good deal.

Except that every one’s talking about it, but scams shouldn’t spread so liking- comment -subscribe to calling it out 👍

Keep up telling the truth! 👍🏻

I'm surprised they didn't market them as "Hand-forged by blind Japanese monks on Mount Fuji that can cut through diamonds".

Them not realizing its a scam, makes it worse .. if you just push anything on your followers as long as it makes you money, you probably do not deserve followers.

Also. The entire reason the Japanese developed the blacksmithing techniques of folding the katana blades was because JAPANESE STEEL IS LOW QUALITY, so it needed the folding technique to have a useable strength in the first place. It's like bragging about "Authentic soul food ingredients from tablescraps!" for anyone that knows.

In the ads it doesn't even looks very sharp

Never seen a ‘super sharp’ knife fight so hard to get through an onion.

Really well put together video and obviously a lot of time and research - thank you for bringing this to my attention - I could easily have fallen for this scam

Like the video and subscribe to the channel. Thanks!

100% crap!

It's nothing new that most stuff nowadays is a scam.

Too many creators promote anything and everything and I'm over it. I won't buy anything that a KZfaqr recommends- because I'm tired of being lied to. Don't pee on my head and tell me it's raining... 1 gal raves about the free mattress she got and tells us how amazing her sleep is now and she can't believe she lived so long without this mattress- and then shows us the mattress in her guest room. So either she sleeps in the guest room while her husband sleeps in their master bedroom alone- or she's a liar. People raving about all of these stupid games and begging us to sign up and then crickets- but they got paid so that's all it mattered.

Why do you keep calling them "Huks" ? You lose credibility.

Huusk Knives depend on Liberal customers.

All they see is dollar signs. They dont care about due diligence or what these companies support. Its disgusting.

Anything that markets directly through social media people is usually a scam. But anyone who knows how traditional katana are made would know that would have nothing to do with these knives (it'd be a really stupid way to make a knife)

I'm certain I've seen this exact scam knife years ago, with the distinctive hole and all. Great to see it's still around... I'm also just disappointed by people's gullibility, that they can believe a knife hand-forged in a wealthy country could turn a profit for $30 or $100 apiece. There are like a billion scams on social media these days.

My father in law fell for a scam on Facebook, claiming to be selling a Dewalt tool set at 70% off. Even after I told him that it is a scam and to call and cancel his debit card used, he said no that he will wait to see if they will ship him the tools just in case it is a real offer. Two weeks later, he got a knock-off Dewalt screw driver set that he paid $50 for, lol.

this problem is so much worse than most realize. tons of drop shipped chinesium for knives like these, fashion watches like mvmt, headphones like raycon and beats (at least at one point those were basically just drop shipped crap, maybe changed with apple involved..) and on and on with cheap, junky products passed off as premium. often with the same company running several of them at once like the kamikoto knives and established titles people. its sad how many people are willing to take advantage of people who just dont know the industry very well and dont know theyre buying crap.

Social media truly has become the late night shopping channels of the 90s 🤷‍♂️

Good work exposing another dropship scam! i can not imagine why are things like this legal? i understand free market, but fake advertising should be a crime

All these influencer and KZfaqr sales pitches are obvious BS. Surprised anyone still falls for it.

Sad to admit it, I got , got. Dopey me fell for the "Japanese Blade of the Samurai." It took a month and a half or more for it to arrive. I had forgotten it was even coming. The first couple of weeks, it was scary sharp. And then it wasn't. I realized a good sharpening stone can make a butter knife sharp. I wasted money for this lesson. Buyers beware. I also spent on that ab stimulator, OOPS. It didn't work, and I can not get it to work. There is no information on the packaging, the instructions book, or the shipping label. No number to call, no support. I'm just "Stuck like Chuck."

Even without research, you know why I know it's a scam? The blade's entire edge is rounded, and it's way too fat for a kitchen knife that's not a cleaver. The second tip is saying that it's made the same way as Samurai swords. Samurai swords are made from inferior material and technology. You can buy a steel alloy blank and grind a knife out of it. No need to hammer forge. A third tip is that the kitchen knife industry already has its pedigrees that have their own secret sauce that they named themselves. They won't go corny and sell you a meteorite knife that killed the dinosaurs. Fourth is that the stippled dark part of the blade looks super fake, like it was a fantasy prop. Good job on the expose, Man! I hope your video gets more attention.

This is exactly why I don't take the word of "influencers" seriously. This happens with firearms, watches, tools and clothing all the time. It's hard to sift through life when you get so many phonies lying for money out there.

My mom got me one of these, and it's a decent knife, but this is nowhere near the quality of a real handmade kitchen knife, and the curved blade makes it almost unusable in the kitchen. I know most members of the target audience of this scam can't read chinese or japanese, but the symbols on the pamphlet are not japanese, but simplified chinese. Dead giveaway right there.

Ancient Japanese sword makers would fold metal for the finest katanas over and over again during the forging process. This method increases the resilience of the metal used to make the blade, is time consuming and exceptionally laborious, and most importantly, requires the *consummate skill* of a talented smith. The very notion that these blades are forged in a similar fashion is LAUGHABLY PREPOSTEROUS to anyone who has even one SCINTILLA of knowledge about smithing. They tip their hat that they are frauds in their opening statement. I would never purchase this knife, but thank you for getting this out there; apparently some people are easily duped.

Many of these "Influencers" are serial offenders advertising one scam after another. All any any social media advertising is at best suspect. Legitimate KZfaqrs would know they are renting their own credibility to their advertisers and choose wisely. Promoting scams harms their own credibility and the only redress consumers have is unsubscribe, not interested at the 3 dots. With no views they may learn to reject scams.