Factory Blade on Shun Classic

C

clmayfield

Joined
Jan 16, 2006
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First time posting on this Forum so be gentle.

I invested in a set of Shun Classic kitchen knives. I went to my local knife dealer and he suggested using a ceramic for steeling (because the steel in these is so hard) and that I should check in with him once a year for sharpening. I would really prefer to sharpen myself.

I have a few questions that you all might be able to help me with:

1) Should I be using a ceramic for blade alignment? It seems a bit abrasive. I know that Global offers a ceramic "steel" with their knife sets.

2) I love the factory blade on these, which apparently is a straight 15 degrees. Most of the sources I have read on sharpening recommend bevelling. I like the factory blade a lot... what are the pro's and con's of each?

3) Any other tips you all might have on sharpening these would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
Any sort of ceramic will remove steel from the blade. That would be sharpening as opposed to maintaining. Use an actual steel for the steeling process. If you were to use a ceramic, you would ruin the factory edge that you are so crazy about.
I would not recommend brining your knives to the retailer for sharpening. I would recommend using the Spyderco Tri-Sharpmaker. It will change the angle, but I doubt you would have any trouble with the results. Also, it will be handy for any other knives you have.
I'm sure someone else around here could give you more insight into the matter.
 
Welcome to the Forum. Keep visiting and you'll have more knives than you'll know what to do with.

I have several SHUN Classics and I can eventually see all of my remaining Henckels and Wustoffs rotating to an all SHUN set someday (one last kid in college, yet).

I have a perfectly SMOOTH steel, (no grooves, striations, etc) that I use on any of my kitchen knives before and after using them. As it is perfectly smooth, no steel is removed. This in itself will prolong the knife edge. The key is using a very light touch, generally just the weight of the knife. The other key is keeping the angle of the edge against the steel exactly the same thoughout the draw. The angle itself isn't that critical (as it would be in sharpening). I do 3 passes on each side. Mine came from http://www.handamerican.com/steel3.html.

I also have a 10" ceramic steel that I purchased from Edge Pro,
http://edgeproinc.com/EdgePro Accessories.htm. This is a longer version of the portable one that came with my Edge Pro PRO model and is just incredible for putting a razor edge back to a knife that just needs minimal touchup. Once again, a very light touch but at an agle equal to or a little larger than the factory edge. You could do the same with the UF white rods in the Sharpmaker as referenced by knifeclerk.

My experience with the SHUN at this point is that if you can keep your wife away from them, never use the dishwasher, smooth steel before and after and the very occassional touchup on the ceramic, these edges will last a very long time.

If you have a slot in your knife block, take a look at the SHUN (I think it's a 6" utility) with the Alton Brown angle to it. It'll become your everyday knife.
 
Thanks for the advice. I was considering buying a Mousetrap steel from Razor's Edge to maintain a consistent angle. At any rate, it looks like I need to quite using my ceramic for maintenance. And perhaps not seek advice at this store anymore.
 
You have fantastic knives . I bought Shuns and have retired my Henckels !! You can use a steel 'steel' mine is grooved, works fine.But you won't have to use it often !!
 
The core alloy in the Shun blades is very hard. As Tim suggests you need to be gentle when you steel your knives. The Mousetrap has two problems, it uses small diameter wire for for steeling and you can't adjust the pressure that it applies to your edge. I think that it would damage your edges. It is really designed for softer steel.

I think the guy at your knife shop had a reasonable suggestion for these knives. Light stroking with a fine ceramic rod will remove minimal material and it will allign the edge as well as hone it. You will wear down the blade slightly faster than by carefull use of a smooth steel, but I think that the difference would not be very significant.

I would just buy a Spyderco Sharpmaker system which includes a setup for honing at 15-degrees per side (this is the "30-degree slots which is 2x the honing angle). If you want to "steel" your blade between honing steps I would buy a pair of ultra-fine rods to go with the Sharpmaker. These hardly seem abrassive at all. You could maintain your edge with extremely gentle strokes on the UF rod and switch to the fine or medium grit rods when your blades get a bit duller. If you do that you will never need to take your knives back to the knife shop for sharpening.
 
It sounds like the Spyderco Sharpmaker is a favorite around here.

GarageBoy, are you saying that a grooved steel removes more metal than a smooth steel? I jsut figured that there was a large opportunity for error with the grooved steel, but I didn't think it would actually remove the metal...
 
There is a huge variety in the surface finish of grooved steels. You almost never see one that has smooth ribs along the surface (which would act like a bundle of small diameter smooth steels). Most of the time the ribs have a rough finish or rather sharp sides. In either of those cases the ribs can remove steel. The other issue is that even with smooth ribs the contact area between the blade and these ribs is rather small. With any serious presure these ribs will indent into the edge as it is drawn across them and deflect and overstess the edge. The edge will tend to break down. This was not a big problem with old carbon steel blades since they were soft and tough. They broke down slowly and maintained a somewhat rough edge surface that sliced well. These would be ok for butchers.

A smooth steel tends to simply push steel back into allignment. It has a wider contact surface with the edge and so is less likely to overstress the edge material. It leaves the edge with a smoother finish and doesn't tend to break down the edge as fast. I still would be very careful and gentle when using a smooth steel on a stainless steel blade. Stainless steel will break down faster than carbon steel under steeling. The edge will get work-hardened and brittle.
 
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