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Edited August 14, 2021
at 12:33 AM
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You're the first to know. Our big Summer Warehouse Sale starts tomorrow morning at 8 am pacific time. Get incredible savings on gorgeous Shun and Kai Housewares cutlery and kitchen tools.
Warehouse Sale products are closeouts, overstocks, and factory seconds with a cosmetic issue here or there—but nothing that affects how these beautiful knives perform. This is your opportunity to get your kitchen ready for next season at half price!
https://shun.kaiusa.com/
I received t his email today. I still may not splurge for a knife, but this may be a good sale. Starts Aug 10.
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If you don't do a lot of cutting prep regularly, or don't want to spend the money for something like this, the Victorinox line of knives are very affordable and well regarded.
If you do decide you want to get into something more like these, the Chef's knife and Paring knife are usually used the most in food prep, so those are often the two that folks are willing to spend more on to get good utility out of their purchase.
What's also great about Shun is the lifetime free sharpening. I haven't used it yet, I use a whetstone every 6-9 months if needed, but it's good to know I can get a factory perfect finish at any time (only pay shipping costs). If you're on the fence, then go to a Williams Sonoma and try out the knife. Once you try it, you'll probably love it.
If you're on a budget, then just go with Mercer Genesis or Renaissance series.
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I can't think of a single reason to pay so much for a marked up Shun. It sounds like the aesthetic and potentially structural quality that makes them worth what they're worth is going to be compromised.
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What's also great about Shun is the lifetime free sharpening. I haven't used it yet, I use a whetstone every 6-9 months if needed, but it's good to know I can get a factory perfect finish at any time (only pay shipping costs). If you're on the fence, then go to a Williams Sonoma and try out the knife. Once you try it, you'll probably love it.
If you're on a budget, then just go with Mercer Genesis or Renaissance series.
A note on sharpening:
- I do NOT recommend the typical/cheap V-shaped sharpeners where you push your knife down into them and drag the blade along. I tried this at first and I think that is responsible for making little chips along the cutting edge. For this type of steel it doesn't help, doesn't make it sharper, it just messes up the blade. Also, unless you have one with an adjustable angle you'll be dulling your knife since Japanese knives are ground to a narrower angle than European style knives, and the cheap sharpeners are designed for the latter.
- I DO recommend using the traditional, flat whetstones. I bought some of those through SD a while back (these ones [amazon.com]) and they work beautifully on all my knives.
- I have wanted to take advantage of the lifetime sharpening offer, but this requires mailing away a knife we use every day and paying I think $20 for the shipping, so instead I invested in the stones above to sharpen myself for life. :-) But it is tempting to see what the factory could do in terms of renewing the perfect finish (especially now that I know to NOT use the V-sharpeners!).
I'd agree it's a great idea to try before you buy, since everyone's hands are different and how you hold a knife and what you do with it are different. I'd tried out the 8" but not the 10", I wish I'd received a santoku or paring knife instead of the 10", it would have been much much more practical.Send them to Shun's sharpening service. I had several chipped blades and a broken tip, and they were able to put new edges and a new tip on them. Turned out much better than I expected and it's an inexpensive service ($5 for the first knife and $2 for every knife after that). One of the best benefits of owning Shun knives IMO
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Pros:
Very attractive
Can be very sharp
Cons:
Rusting easily, not dishwasher safe, especially if you keep them overnight.
Very fragile, the blade is very brittle. You can't cut frozen meet for example. The edge will not become dull it will chip out small pieces. You can easily have 2 pieces if you drop a knife.
It need special attention to use it and to sharpen it. You need a special hornet to keep you knife sharp. Regular hornet is too soft for Japanese knives.
No chips so far and I don't really baby them that much but I also don't treat it like a German knife either. Sharpening? I send them to Shun for them to sharpen.