Shun knives
- This topic has 29 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 11/13/2017 at 10:04 am by
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Well if you saw my post about my $5 knife purchase, you’ll know that I’m now planning to start talking to my wife about the ‘average’ cost of knives I buy. The more cheap knives I buy, the more expensive ones I can buy!
For the caveat emptor about online shopping, I do hear you. I’m pretty fearless about buying on amazon, ebay, you name it. But only if I can find evidence that the seller is credible.
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The knife you referenced is sold by a lot of big on-line retailers like Bed-Bath and Beyond, Amazon and Chef’scorner.com. I believe it’s a mass manufactured knife and branded for different retailers. It’s probably a fairly decent VG-10 Santoku, looks to be, a little overpriced, for what it is, but I couldn’t really see who made it and where. I like knives like Mark76 writes about, a knife who has a known forger, artisan or factory. I buy mostly Japanese for the “bang-for-your-buck”, factor.
This is still one of two of may favorite VG-10 Santoku’s I own. It’s a beautiful knife, easy to sharpen and keep sharp. It’s pretty durable and very thin profiled and light weight. I still maintain that VG-10 is probably my favorite all around stainless steel for price, durability ease of sharpening without difficulty. I like the mystique of the Japanese Super Steels but they’re just a pain to sharpen.
Marc
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As a new WEPS user, I’ve tried to sharpen every edge in the house with the kit I have and the stones that came with it. After practicing on a dozen or so less-critical kitchen knives, I started with the few more-costly knives. Three of those are Shuns: a paring knife, gyuto, and Santoku. I had sent these recently back to the factory for resharpening ($9 fee for all 3). When I got them back a few weeks(!) later, I was appalled at the poor shape they were now in. They had less practical sharpness than when I sent them in, and all had been reground to something far different than original. In fact this experience was the catalyst for me to by the WEPS (2017 Pro Pack 2).
I felt I was ready to take on the Shuns, since they could not be harmed by me any more than the state they were in. So, armed with only the diamond stones in the kit I went to work on the paring knife. I began with the 100-grit, got my burrs after what seemed to me an excessively long time, and progressed through the other diamonds to the final strops in the kit. I was stunned at how well this knife sharpened for me, and encouraged to try the other two Shuns. The Gyuto and Santoku were in impressively bad shape and I purchased the 50/80 stone to shorten the time to get a burr. I was able to move to the 100-grit pretty quickly, get a good burr, and progress through the rest of the stones and strops quite well. The results were knives at least as sharp as I remember the originals being, and my wife (the primary Shun user), and I both are pleased.
I’ve not invested (yet) in ceramics or other materials, trying to maximize my WEPS investment for the 30-or-so kitchen knives I’ll ever likely sharpen. But to answer the original OP question: yes, you certainly can get great edges on Shun knives with the standard diamond stones.
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Welcome to the fourm SalisburySam and thanks for sharing your experiences with us!
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I sharpen a friend’s shun chef knife almost every time I go over to their house to dog sit. I was a little apprehensive at first cause it’s like OMG it’s a shun what will I do if I screwed it up. I didn’t have to worry, it was dull as a $250 butter knife. I started out with the 100 grit stones and light pressure letting the grit do its job. I stopped at 600 grit, stropped a few times with 5 and 3.5 and they couldn’t be happier. It was sharper than new. I am half scared to take that to 1500 grit, at 600 it cuts so good they have nipped a finger more than once. I have sharpened it over a dozen times now almost always having to start at 100 grit, never had any chipping issues and I sharpen it at 16 per side. Pretty sure it is the vg10 core/Damascus laminated steel. On a side note the doggies don’t like the 100/200 grit stones, it has an interesting ringing sound almost musical.
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I have sharpened my Shun to 1500 grit followed by stropping with no problems, also 16 dps.
Marc
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I have sharpened it over a dozen times now almost always having to start at 100 grit, never had any chipping issues and I sharpen it at 16 per side.
James:
With any good Japanese kitchen knife, the blade is so thin at the shoulders that you shouldn’t need to go lower than 400 or 600 to refine the edge. I think at 100-grit you may be removing too much steel unnecessarily. If there are no serious dings in the edge, I start at 800 or 1000 for a re-sharpening.
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James, I used to sharpen knives for a restaurant and this included some Japanese knives. I asked the owners what finish they preferred and the results were pretty diverse… from 1000 grit to 0.3 microns.
Personally, I have quite a few Japanese knives and I sometimes finish them at very high grit levels (up to 0.5 microns). This is just to say: don’t be afraid to go any further with your sharpening, the owners may like it.
I agree with Tom that if you’re resharpening a knife at the same angle, you don’t need to start at 100 grit. However, when I re-bevel a knife, particularly at another angle, I personally start at 100 grit. I know Tom prefers to start at 400 grit in those cases.
Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge
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My input is that personal preference is the overarching criteria relative to finished grit. It is not the brand of knife that matters, it is the type of steel, the hardness (heat treat) and the geometry. There is also a good amount of touch involved similar to brush strokes on a master painting. As silly as it sounds, I say that the feel and sound of the strokes yield information on how things are going. One of my short term bucket list items is putting an audio pickup in place to investigate the frequency response during consistent strokes. (Have any of you tried this ?) Consistent strokes are an art similar to how freehand sharpeners “claim” to be able to hold repeatable angles freehand within a tight tolerance (say 0.5 degs). This challenge helped drive the birth of the WEPS IMHO. More Kudos Cliff !
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One of my short term bucket list items is putting an audio pickup in place to investigate the frequency response during consistent strokes. (Have any of you tried this ?) Consistent strokes are an art similar to how freehand sharpeners “claim” to be able to hold repeatable angles freehand within a tight tolerance (say 0.5 degs).
Redheads, of course I’ve never use a scientific analyzing listening device. I do use the sound of my strokes as a gauge of the quality and consistency of my sharpening technique. What I like to think of as my clean, even, consistent, repetitive, and timely tone; song. When this song, so to speak, all sounds right, I know my technique is good. This came with hours of paying attention with all my senses and well learned muscle memory technique followed by visual inspection with the USB Microscope to verify this song reflects I have good results. I have to add, this song is different with each individual, size and shape knife, or portion of the knife, since it comes from the vibration of the stone against the steel. Through experience, I intuitively know when the song is right, and when it’s not, for that knife.
Marc
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My input is that personal preference is the overarching criteria relative to finished grit. It is not the brand of knife that matters, it is the type of steel, the hardness (heat treat) and the geometry.
I agree. Some time ago I sharpened knives for a restaurant and I asked each cook what their preferred finish was. It varied between 800 grit and 5,000 grit, I think.
As silly as it sounds, I say that the feel and sound of the strokes yield information on how things are going. One of my short term bucket list items is putting an audio pickup in place to investigate the frequency response during consistent strokes. (Have any of you tried this ?)
That would be interesting! I’ve followed and contributed to this forum not too long since its existence and I think we never had a topic on that subject. I’m really interested to see what your findings are and if there are any patterns.
Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge
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Redheads, while I can’t help with the pickup, it may just be that any old microphone would do. For software, I’m also a PC guy more than Mac and I’ve used the free software Audacity for audio projects in the past with some success.
It does take a little getting used to, but I’m sure it would offer more than you would ever need in terms of recording and analysing the sound.
AlieN
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