What to do with gifted Shun

Japanese Knives - by Tokushu Knife
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easy13 said:
C'mon man, I highly doubt that.

Shuns, especially the newer lines can be overpriced, come in odd designs and are obviously not the greatest brand. I do have a classic 10 inch from when I was in school years ago (a great step up from the school issued Mercer) that did chip when I clumsily broke down a chicken with it, but I fixed it, used it til I moved on to more serious blades and it still sits in the bottom of my drawer and comes out occasionally as a beater or for a friend/employee to use, and it works fine and keeps a decent edge. I would return it for a Shun that you would use sometimes, I dont think that would offend your pops.
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Nope, it is pretty true. I just re-beveled it about three weeks ago (I got a Shapton 2K in the mail and wanted to try it out) and finished it on 0.5 micron diamond paste. I made a salad with romaine lettuce, red onion, tomato, strawberries, and a sherry vinaigrette. The edge was smooth when I started. When I finished the edge had small nicks.

Making the same salad with an HD2 Konosuke with a lower angle on it leaves me with an edge that is only slightly less sharp than I started.

This isn't the first time this has happened to it either. I've become accustomed to having a slightly chippy edge on that Shun regardless of what I do to it. It does, however, make it a fantastic tomato cutting knife. It's not like it's a big issue (e.g. 1 mm or greater sized chips) or that the edge becomes serrated--there just are a good number of small nicks in the edge. It happens regardless of the type of edge I put on it (toothy or polished) or even if I use diamond abrasives all the way to 3 microns or I use waterstones. That is what is going to happen to it. It still cuts well and performs just fine. Like I said, it's not a bad knife by any means.
 
I keep hearing about this chippy stuff, I have a friend who keeps around a shun classic chef for all of his heavy work. Lops off salmon heads and stuff like that, basically just hard work and the edge is fine, I think there are lemons out there with shuns possibly? I have never used one personally, but I think if you can get a good deal on one they aren't too bad. I would personally keep the knife posted, looks a decent sandwich knife, I have a small offset wusthof serrated that doesn't come to work anymore, but sometimes I wish I had it on me when my Mac bread knife feels unecessary. Would be nice for slicing breaded and deep fried items.
 
Shun, Shun, Shun, Shun, Sun. Shun is what got me here. Iv'e recently retooled my kit (pics coming shortly), and I've have three Shun's for sale. I would like to sell them there but I probably won't. Hopefully I can sell them to a fellow student who thinks that they are are the rave, at 25% of what I paid because I have a conscience. Are they chippy? Seems to depend on who you talk to. Do they give you horrible feedback on a stone? Yes in my opinion. Are they the most ugly, ungrateful, spoiled pieces of **** after that faux damascus and label fade? Yes. Are they totally functional after you sharpen them? Yes.

I like the decoy idea, just make sure it looks new at all times. If goods are needed, take it back to WS and say you needed an All Clad pan more, but you really appreciate their gift.
 
Not faux damascus, just as real as any other "damascus" cladding.
 
Maybe it is just language but isn't all Damascus cladding somewhat just surface decoration?Not like an Antique Katana that under soft light you can see many folds.
 
Cynic2701 said:
The edge was smooth when I started. When I finished the edge had small nicks.
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I'd bet $10 that the knife had a wire edge, or you hadn't removed enough fatigued steel (especially if you often use a honing rod) when you sharpened. Or both.
 
EdipisReks said:
I'd bet $10 that the knife had a wire edge, or you hadn't removed enough fatigued steel (especially if you often use a honing rod) when you sharpened. Or both.
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While possible, I sort of doubt it. I have a Shun Classic paring knife that gets virtually the same treatment that doesn't chip out. I also never use a honing rod; I strop instead.
 
I believe if you don't like it you won't use it. So in that sense trade/sell/gift it. If you like the Shun parer then you could trade out for a Hiro one. (it costs about the same as this knife.... ) Ebay is receptive to Shuns at a discount. Hmm maybe return, throw in an extra $150 and get an immersion circulator :D
 
Cynic2701 said:
I have a Shun Classic paring knife that gets virtually the same treatment that doesn't chip out.
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Very different geometry and use pattern between a parer and a chef's knife. Strops are similar to hones, in that they can create a situation where the edge is fatigued and fails, if you don't sharpen that often and strop a lot. Not as quick as a honing rod, in my experience, but it happens.
 
EdipisReks said:
Very different geometry and use pattern between a parer and a chef's knife. Strops are similar to hones, in that they can create a situation where the edge is fatigued and fails, if you don't sharpen that often and strop a lot. Not as quick as a honing rod, in my experience, but it happens.
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Ok. Hypothetically, if what you say is true, then shouldn't all knives I sharpen with this method end up with a "chippy" edge?

My Dad also mailed me a couple of his own kitchen knives (which he is much rougher with than I am) for which I've been the sole sharpener for the past several years.

Here are his Al Mar Santoku (sp?) and Shun Kaji paring knife next to my own Shun Classics:



Since the Shun Kaji is supposed to be made of SG2 with an HRC value in the 63-64ish range if I recall correctly, shouldn't it exhibit chipping issues? While I don't know what hardness the Al Mar's VG-10 has, I'd guess in the 59-61 HRC range since this is typically what we see in VG-10 kitchen knives. Shouldn't this also exhibit chipping issues?

Neither the Shun Kaji nor the Al Mar have any chipping issues--their edges were smooth, if dull from being used.
 
For all I know you are hitting your Shun vg-10 knives against a sink or a brick.
 
EdipisReks said:
For all I know you are hitting your Shun vg-10 knives against a sink or a brick.
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I had hoped you would have had greater insight into what may possibly be giving me the chipping issues I've been having with my Shun Classic santoku (sp?). I've had it for a long time, and I'd love to find a way to fix or at least ameliorate the issue. Thanks for taking your time to reply to me. I'll try to avoid hitting sinks and bricks with it going forward.

Well, I suppose this thread has gone off topic from what I originally had been asking. I guess we can start talking about the relative merits of cast iron vs stainless steel for making popcorn.
 
have you tried putting a microbevel on your shun yet? ive sharpened lots of shun classics and ive noticed many of them are chipped.
also, the consensus has spoken.cast iron is the way to go for popcorn.
 
Yeah, a good percentage of the time there's a small microbevel on the Shun. Whenever I sharpen it (usually every three or four months) I'll form an edge with a small microbevel and maintain it with stropping until it starts needing a sharpening. A few times I've tried making an edge straight from the bevel with no microbevel, but this seems to make the chipping issue worse.
 
Cynic2701 said:
I had hoped you would have had greater insight into what may possibly be giving me the chipping issues I've been having with my Shun Classic santoku (sp?). I've had it for a long time, and I'd love to find a way to fix or at least ameliorate the issue. Thanks for taking your time to reply to me. I'll try to avoid hitting sinks and bricks with it going forward.

Well, I suppose this thread has gone off topic from what I originally had been asking. I guess we can start talking about the relative merits of cast iron vs stainless steel for making popcorn.
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I was being less sarcastic than I probably appeared to be: my point was that I don't know your environment, and your uses, and your sharpening, so, from my perspective, you might as well be hitting bricks. I've seen a lot of chipped Shuns. I have friends who use them, many, and they often send them to me to be sharpened. After I sharpen, and completely de-burr the knives, the next time they come back, they are dull, and have the occasional chip or bent tip, but no more than any other knife that gets used heavily and sharpened once a year (if that). I've owned, and own Shuns, and they aren't chippy. Maybe yours are particularly chippy. I don't know. Having seen as many as I've seen, though, I reject the idea that they are chippy. I don't reject the idea that they are harder than many knives to de-burr, but it's not a big deal once you get it down.
 
Cynic2701 said:
Yeah, a good percentage of the time there's a small microbevel on the Shun. Whenever I sharpen it (usually every three or four months) I'll form an edge with a small microbevel and maintain it with stropping until it starts needing a sharpening. A few times I've tried making an edge straight from the bevel with no microbevel, but this seems to make the chipping issue worse.
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how much material are you removing when you sharpen? Are you noticing that your edges start out very sharp and seem to degrade fairly quickly? Are you noticing the edges roll? Rolled edges are less common with harder steels, but I've seen Shuns with rolled edges, usually owned by people who don't sharpen their knives a lot, but instead do edge maintenance some other way (usually a ceramic hone, but I've seen it with knives that are stropped a lot, especially on hard leather).
 
EdipisReks said:
how much material are you removing when you sharpen? Are you noticing that your edges start out very sharp and seem to degrade fairly quickly? Are you noticing the edges roll? Rolled edges are less common with harder steels, but I've seen Shuns with rolled edges, usually owned by people who don't sharpen their knives a lot, but instead do edge maintenance some other way (usually a ceramic hone, but I've seen it with knives that are stropped a lot, especially on hard leather).
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For the first few years I had my Shun Santoku (sp?) I was probably taking off too much steel when I sharpened. I sharpened on DMT diamonds for a while. Then I started getting into ceramics (Spyderco coarse/fine/ultrafine) as finishing stones. I picked up an Edge Pro and some diamond stones all the way up through to 3 microns. More recently I've gotten into waterstones (Shapton).

While it is probable/possible that a lot of the problems that people run into is the "burnt" on OOTB edges (although some may think this to be an urban myth, I've had it happen on pretty much all of my knives: the edge doesn't stabilize and degrade in sharpness consistently until one has sharpened enough steel away to get the the "fresh" steel underneath) I'm fairly certain that I've eaten through enough steel with my amateurish sharpening efforts from years back on diamonds. It's probably 2 mm shorter than when I first got it.

Now I'll typically flatten the bevel a bit (maybe one minute or two) on a 1k Shapton, move to the a 2k Shapton, then to a 5k Shapton. In the past month or so I've become enamored with the edge that I get from going directly from the 2k Shapton to edge trailing strokes on a Spyderco ultrafine benchstone. I'll maintain that edge with a 1 micron diamond paste loaded strop or a strop with 0.5 micron diamond spray until it starts getting to be a few too many strokes on the strop for my liking to bring the edge back.

The edge stays sharp for a good amount of time. I'll typically not need to strop the knife for a week or so (I'd use it 2 - 5 times a day), until I feel like I've lost the scary sharp edge and bring it back with a few passes on the strop. The edge that doesn't chip out stays sharp and in truth it shouldn't bother me since it doesn't really have much of an effect for the majority of the stuff I'm cutting. Again, it's just a sprinkling of chips on the edge.
 
You might just have bad knives (it happens), or they just don't work for your uses (that also happens).
 
when i sharpen co workers shuns i finish with green brick and strop. i liked that edge better than rika 5k or other higher grit stones i use
 
I've had 3 shun chef knives. One I never used and the others 8" classic and 'western' chipped to hell OOTB and are missing tips. One fell to the floor and the other got tapped on the table as I was raising it to put on my bag. The classic has been sharpened on stones a few times and is now OK. The western one sharpened once on stones and has 2 decent chips near the heel. I found using a steel destroyed them. I hated seeing chips cause I never knew where they went. OH well I don't use them anymore and keep one in my bag if I think I'll need a knife but there's a chance to be knocked around a lot. It's funny cause it's still one of the sharpest in the kitchen I'm in now but they wonder why there's accordion cuts :)
 
Shun - curing iron deficiency since 2003
 
I have a Shun that used to be my prized possession, now it is my beater knife.
 
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