How good are the Kershaw Kai Shun Onions really?

[Zombie Zeke]

I don't like the "Alton Angle" on any of the KAI Shun line to be honest its gimmicky at best. To be honest in practice as well I used an 8" Ken Onion for a week it was used because a friend (Now working at the Fat Duck) wanted to try the Tojiro. Here are the observations:

the Ken Onion design is good for prep work getting your mise en place out of the way and bombing through the carrots, onions and celery for stocks. Its also good for quick chopping of herbs and making the precise cuts of paisanne, brunoise and macedoine, no doubt the sharp, thin blade wide near the handle is a good time honored and well balanced design.

Where this knife lacks is general usability when I have a knife in my roll it has to do more than look good and chop vegetables. The Santoku design of which this is a version of is a vegetable chopper, that is what its designed for. This knife was uncomfortable breaking down large sections of protein, sides of beef and hog is where the wide sheepsfoot type blade became unweildy and impractical. When fabricating yellowfin I had to change knives as the waste from this blade was impractical.

I know what you are thinking that a boning knife is the way to go and for the most part you are right that is the secondary knife that I carry, it is a 6"Forschner with a fibrox handle and granton upswept blade. It is a laser when fabing out protein.

But the caveat is that like most in the industry, I DO NOT like switch knives in the middle of a fire. My 12" Chef knive has been used to tourne zuccini, carrots and potatoes then get washed, dipped and used to breakdown an entire hog. I would not do this with a Ken Onion designed chef knife.



But then again for ease of use and quality I use either a Tojiro gyuto or a Forschner Rosewood 12" chef knife depending on if I am on the line in a restaurant or in someones home during a demo.

Here is the main thing to consider when speaking of a knife that you actually use everyday "Expertise". This comes from the time honored tradition of using your knife as your tool day in and day out for 12, 14 and 16 hours a day. Your knife is the fulcrum on which leverage is the name of the game, a smaller knife = less leverage, to a lesser extent the belly of the knife works in the same fashion.

Messermeisters chef knives (San Moritz in particular) have a great design of knife for use daily. However the metal is a letdown in particular the realigning that has to be done throughout the day is too time consuming. Nonetheless the design of the knife particularly the 10" is very close to perfection and its what I use at the house.

The longer blade you use the less work you do, the sharper your knife the less work you do and the better your cuts for appearance sake are.

I hope this helps.

Le Cordon Bleu graduate
working chef since 1995.

 

[knarfeng]

The Chef,
Appreciate the professional's view. I also appreciated Anthony Lombardo's views. It is always great to be able to hear differences between a vocation and an avocation. Each has its own perspective and its own judgement criteria.

Could you post links to show pictures of which knives you actually find most useful?

Pocket knives I know. Kitchen knives I do not.

Thanks,
Knarfeng

 

[Zombie Zeke]

Here is the 330mm Tojiro gyuto with a recycled material composite handle and sandvik steel blade along with the rosewood handled forschner that has been recut down to about 11.5" after a kitchen mishap.

Links to them:

Tojiro
http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/DPSwdenSteelWoodenHandleSeries.html
Forschner
http://www.keywestchef.net/catalogs/catalog.asp?prodid=1919316&showprevnext=1


Boning Knife Forschner

 

[knarfeng]

Thanks.
Mercy. That's a KNIFE.

 

[wuyeah]

I go Hittori for Kitchen knives. It was a hard decision to make between Hattori or Shun PRO series.

But I go Hattori. Never use Shun due to my decision making, but Hattori is a great knife to choose from. Very pretty too! :thumbup:

 

[Bladeandbarrel]

The Chef actually highlights my two OTHER favorite styles- a large Guyoto and a medium sized boner.

Since we rarely break down a complete side of beef or a whole hog at my home, the large guyoto is rarely used. I have a Shun Guyoto that is the sharpest knife in the house. I like to use it on big, thick items occasionally, but it doesn't get used as much as the large Onion..


In our home, as we are amateurs like most people, our kitchen knives are primarily used for chopping loads of stalky veggies for stews and such along with herbs and tubers and root veggies. Most meat cutting chores are slicing related, not dejointing or breaking down entire carcasses.

One thing I really like about the Onion knife is that it is fairly compact compared to my huge guyoto but gives up little in cutting power due to the curved edge.