I'm not familiar with this style of knife, nor what it's typically used for (aside from cutting tuber veggies into gossamer delights). I was curious about the blade and, found this:
Forged out of Aogami Super blue steel, which is known for its excellent edge retention and ability to get incredibly sharp, each knife is hand sharpened by Shibata-san
What is your sharpening set up for this knife, do you use H2O stones? Freehand?
This knife is made out of R2 steel (powdered, high speed tool steel).
Everyday maintenance is just leather strop. (you can see in the video at around 00:55)
The bird is pretty simple and straight forward.
You can do from the start to finish with just one knife.
Basically, all you are doing is thin slicing.
(better to use thin blade stock, taller profile, longer blade.
You can do this with petty knife, or Spyderco Spydiechef, if that’s what
you want to do.)
The rabbit is, ... more like carving.
XM-18 is, by no means, a suitable knife for cooking duty.
The blade is too thick (the thickness behind the edge, to be precise).
HOWEVER, the blade shape (with finger choile) and the handle are
EXCELLENT for detailed carving work.
(I can use the knife with pencil grip.)