Thank you for your kind feedbacks. I should be clear that knife was sharp out of the box. It can cut foods and slice paper. I just wanted to make it even slightly sharper. Partially I did this because I want to see how this knife fares compared to my Tojiro DP (both sharpened at the same time in the same way). Another reason is that Sur La Table in the store ran out of this knife. This knife is actually in the display case. While it was mostly untouched, I just wanted to give it a touch-up. I got another 10% off for this knife because it was a display knife. ($90). 
Yes, I would recommend this knife for anyone new to Japanese knives for a few reasons.
- The price right now is good. It is $100, so it is not a deep investment like a $200+ knife.
- You have the option to test drive this knife at a brick and mortar Sur La Table store. I did. This will give you a first hand experience how this knife really looks in person and how it cuts.
- Because this knife is under the Zwilling Henckels umbrella and sold by Sur La Table, you will get a good warranty and easy return policy. I know this is useful for people on the fence.
- I don’t know if this is absolutely true, but if this FC61 is indeed slightly tougher than VG10 as the store employee has stated, then it makes it easier for newcomers to use.
By the way, Kaizen I is also on sale in Cutlrey and More and Amazon.com (not from Sur La Table though) if you are interested in the narrower handle with a VG10 steel.
Finally, if price is a concern, then it is very difficult to beat the $52 Tojiro DP 8" (210 mm) Chef’s knife:
