Shun Chips

[Ziggy]

Quick update.
Today got a few fairly new Wusthof Classic Ikons, already hard honed down to nothing so no chance trying to get the original angle. Nice Knives BTW, very ergo in the hand, solid German feel. Sad that they are getting beat up with the steel so fast, but that’s another story.

Anyway, gave the customer a call, note said he had questions on honing.

After talking, (yeah, he was honing the heck on a ribbed steel at unknown angles, usual stuff) mentioned he had more knives to sharpen, new customer.

Said one he wants to send in is a Shun Santuko, fairly new.
Asked him, “is it VG-10 and do you notice any chips on it”? … yep and yep.
Said it has seen barely any use, just soft veggies, and they thought it odd to have chips and that they did something to it somehow.

Aside the hard honing, his knives are in stellar shape, well taken care of.

Long story short, he’s bringing it back to Williams Sonoma.
Seems they still are pumping the same ol out.

Long term, sooner or later you’re gonna hit into the Damask cladding.
Wonder what happens then? ….. they have that high VG-10 polished exposed sidewall.
Wonder what thinning will to it 🙂

Yep, its common.

[Ziggy]

Ok… so yesterday I was sharpening some KitchenAid knives on my belt sander.

I noticed that the edge kept chipping out on a few of them, no matter how much I “destressed” the edge! So finally I just finished them… but when I was looking with the naked eye I could see little inclusions in the edge, so I snapped a few photos.

Quick question.
Did you try giving them a near perp pass and just take away the edge?
I do that a lot, can see what I call “fatigue” come off and feel it.
When I hit hard metal, thin it, reprofile, I can get a solid edge back.

During process near the end, I’ll debur and slice a catalog page slow …. and catch those “soft” spots … if we are dealing with the same thing.

I then take the apex off, run through the steps, and most times can find a hard edge that holds.

Since I do usually hit paydirt eventually, I then chalk it up to weak metal from use.

Is that a possibility you think?
In my case, if dirty metal, than I’d have little chance of getting to some solid.

[Mark76]

Yep, its common.

Yep, it is. And it is really bad we cannot do much about it.

I have a Fallkniven A1 knife made of VG10. I regard Fallkniven very highly. But even this knife has a microchip.

What do you guys think of VG10 in general? There seems to be a kitchen knife brand (Hattori?) that has got their heat treatment right. But otherwise I hear (and experience) pretty bad stories of VG10.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Ziggy]

What do you guys think of VG10 in general? There seems to be a kitchen knife brand (Hattori?) that has got their heat treatment right. But otherwise I hear (and experience) pretty bad stories of VG10.

I can appreciate its edge retention.
That said, I think it has its place in a worker capacity if its only air pockets and not cracks.
Give me a Camping Knife that I’m not worried about a small chip here or there when battening at a fair price and I’d be happy.

Heck, make an axe out of them.

Sell me a slick high end expensive dolled up piece with chips …. no dice.

[Author]

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