Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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70 of 82 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good knife, but not a great one., May 9, 2005
This was a difficult knife to rate, because on the one hand it is a very nice knife, and on the other, I can't recommend that you buy one.
1) This is a beautiful knife. I don't prep with it, but it has a permanent place on my magnetic strip, because I just like looking at it. If you want a Damascus-pattern Japanese knife that looks pretty, this is a good choice. You must also look at the Hattori HD (different Damascus style, black Western style handle with visible rivets), and the A.G. Russell Damascus (better Damascus pattern with white Eastern handles and visible rivets). They are harder to find, but nothing a quick Google won’t fix.
2) Do not buy this knife unless you have held it, and preferably used it. This is true of any knife. Handle comfort and balance are extremely personal issues. My love affair with this knife ended as soon as I took it out of the box. I'm a right hander with large hands and I use a pinch grip. I like my knife balanced exactly on my working fingers. With its curved, offset bolster and ridged handle, it's specially designed for a right hander with small hands, using a pinch grip, and even then it's mediocre. Using that grip, the balance is 2cm (3/4") nose heavy. My $25 10" Forschner Fibrox embarrasses this knife in term of handle comfort and balance. The only Shun knife with a real handle is the Ken Onion custom.
3) This knife is razor sharp out of the box. But really, any good knife will take a 15 degree edge, you just have to be willing to put it on yourself (or find a pro you can trust to do it for you). My Wusthof Grand Prix has a 15 degree edge and is as sharp as this knife, and gives me at least 50 hours on the board before I need to touch it up with my Sharpmaker. The same goes for my Forschner. VG10 is better steel, but you will still need to hone it with a sharpening steel, and it will still go dull on you. It’s only 7% harder than the average good knife and the Vanadium helps but isn’t going to change your life.
If you just want a light knife with a thin spine, you can get the same thing for a quarter the money from a Forschner or some other industrial (F. Dick Pro-Dynamic or Messermeister Four Seasons, etc) If you want a light, razor sharp Japanese knife with a hard blade, you can get the same blade performance and a better handle for half the money from a Tojiro DP.
4) If you're in the market for a Japanese knife and want a complete set of Eastern and Western shapes, your only real options are the Shun or the Globals. I'd rather have a Hattori, but they don't make a bread knife, or a western boning knife, or a Chinese cleaver, or a paring knife (although the petty knives will do most of the same jobs). But unless you're really attached to the idea of a matching set, buy this knife and the 3.5" paring knife, and go industrial on the rest. A $15 Forschner boning knife will spank the $90 Shun boning knife. The same goes for the bread knife. All pimpery aside, if you ask Alton Brown, he’ll tell you that a $100 bread knife is a waste of money (but he’ll still be more than happy to sell you one).
5) The 9" Shun sharpening steel is too short for this knife. Find a nice 12" sharpening steel, or buy a 12" fine ceramic steel. The ceramic steel will take off metal, so if you don't really know how to use a steel, stick with metal; it's more forgiving of bad form.
All that said, this is a good knife. The edge is flawless, the steel is good, it’s pretty, it has a nice blade shape, and the price is reasonable. If you like the hand-feel and don't have any trouble paying the mortgage, it will be money well spent. But I still prep with my Forschner, and leave the 10” Shun on the strip next to the 10” Global and the 10” Wusthof to impress any foodies that happen to wander through my kitchen, and as a silent testament to Brown, Bourdain, and my dream that Rachel Ray will someday learn how to use a real knife.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Watch Your Hands, October 4, 2005
I'll try not to be dull (pun intended). I went through three phases with this knife when I finally decided to buy it.
The first: it's simply beautiful to look at. Sure, the Damascus styling is just that, but why not add beauty to something you're going to use everyday for every meal. In fact, it probably lowers the cost of the knife because it's made of a slightly lower grade of steel than the super-steel interior. Let your eyes dazzle, and your friends be jealous.
The second: I picked it up. Hopefully when you buy a knife, you get to use it (I'll get to that in a minute), and I actually don't suggest buying this, or any knife, from Amazon until you've checked it out in a real chef supply store. But still, I picked it up. The balance is perfect for a medium or small sized hand using a pinch grip. The blade rests in peace on your pointer as you let your middle and index fingers wrap around the circular metal bolster. The knife does all the work for you. Unlike its German counterparts, the Shun is thin and light, making a night's worth of prep work a true pleasure.
The third: I used it. The store I was at knew its business. When I asked if I could test it, they brought over a wood block, a potato, and a tomato. I started with the potato. The blade nearly fell through the russet and I got a paper-thin slice to share. You could actually see through the slice. But the real test in my mind is with tomatoes. Their skins can sometimes trick mediocre knives, but the best will just fall through. I was happy to report that I got a little nervous when I started because it seemed to resist a little. When I realized that I was already cutting the wood board, I knew I had found my match.
I tried the Wustoff, the Henckles, the Global, and even a few of the new ceramic toys. The Germans seemed silly after the Shun. Sure you can sharpen any decent knife to a 15 degree angle, but the effortlessness of the Shun made all the difference. The ceramics just didn't compare in ease of use. I must say, I tried the Ken Onion Custom. And if I wanted to spend another 70 dollars on a knife, I probably would have gone for that. So here's my advice. Try it. Try the others. Knives are a very personable thing. Some like heavy, wide blades. Others prefer the ease and speed of the Japanese knives. Still others have larger pockets for the Ken Onioin. My only complaint with the Onion is that it's actually quite short.
And lastly, please watch your hands when taking out of the box. As many reviewers have said before, this is one of the, if not the, sharpest knife out of the box. Happy cooking.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the best knife, December 22, 2003
By A Customer
I just purchased the Shun knife from Kai a few weeks ago and plan to use it professionally. It is amazing. The weight of it in my hands was what sold me. I have small hands but still wanted a large, 10-inch chef's knife. I was considering a Global until the salesperson put the Shun in my hand. I swung it around like a samurai sword and became giddy. The balance, weight, feel of the handle -- all superb. It is a right-hand knife, which means the handle is not symmetrical on purpose, so that cut foods more easily fall off to the side. Alton Brown says this is the knife he would own if he were only allowed to have one. He isn't wrong.
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