Initial findings on Shun Elite 8" Chef's Knife by Kershaw/KAI

[thombrogan]

Thomas W has asked me to review Kershaw/KAI's Shun Elite 8" Chef's Knife.

It is a chef's knife with an 8" blade featuring an SG-2 powdered steel core and some sort of damasc stuff on its body. It has a stabilized ebony-colored Pakka wood handle which is oval-shaped with a subtle palm swell. It has a mosaic pin on the right-hand side and the handle ends at an ornate integral ferrule which blends up into a very thin, very sharp edge.

Here are some pics of the knife:

Here is a pic illustrating the beautiful three-layer blade construction:

 

[thombrogan]

The purpose of such a knife is, of course, cooking, but we had already eaten. Found a spud in the fridge, though:

You didn't just get your first Japanese-style gyuto all made in Japan and stuff and realize the difference between high end culinary wares and md-range culinary wares. Don't you judge me. I know a long-time cook who got her first gyuto Chef's knife after decades of using German-style knives and she diced every vegetable and piece of meat in her house and didn't stop until the peas were sliced.

Normally, I'm very ponderous when slicing vegetables. It generally is because I have the hand-eye coorination of a mollusc. That's okay. The Shun Elite Chef's knife doesn't care that I suck. It just asked for the slightest intent and sailed through the spud like it was a guillotine being jumped on by a love-crazed walrus. The knife's edge would rest on the spud and the second my hand moved, a smoothly cut potato wisp appeared. My wifey stuck one of the slices on a detergent bottle to show how well my fledgling efforts were. They'll follow in my next post.

 

[thombrogan]

My wifey made that cool, beaded detergent-bottle coaster in the upper left of this picture.

The spud-slice-mess pictured would normally have taken me 15 minutes and be much blockier. It took me 4 which is slow for people who actually know how to cut and cook, but that's okay, I'm making nachoes tomorrow if I'm lucky and will see more speed then.

My hand didn't actually get even more feminine; that's my wifey holding up a slice to show its thinness.

And another one.

Ajax is so Arranca la Graza that it's wearing a potato face mask to emulate Ghost-Faced Killer of the Wu Tang Clan.

Up yours, soap! I've gots cutting to do!

If any of you know the horrible things I do to knives when I get them (Gunmike1, catamount, soon others), I had no desire to thin out the edge on this beast. It's also the only knife in my house to score a 100 on the Razor Edge edge-tester from ricasso to point right out of the box. The rest needed tlc before getting that score.

 

[noss4]

Now get out there and chop that concrete. They did this with a Ginsu.

I'm joking

Looks like a nice chef's knife. I need to get me some new ones.

 

[thombrogan]

Good thing I already used the lavatory.

The advantage the Elites offer over the other Shuns is that they can take a thinner edge and resist rolling that edge much longer than the VG-10 ones. The wear-resistance is likely to be incredibly insane, too, but that's not something which I can quantify even in my subjective terms.

Have you checked out Kershaw's Ken Onion Chef's Knife? People either love it, don't like it, or could take or leave it; there's no middle ground with that one. The passaround reviews suggest it invades the kitchen like a Romulan warship and de-activates its cloaking device to prep food. If the KAI/Kershaws are too expensive, a lot of folks also recommend Tojiro, Yoshikane, and Misono.

 

[Thomas W]

I had no desire to thin out the edge on this beast.

What!!!!!...........Say it isn't so Thom, check it again for us. I mean this being a Kai product and all. Has to be a ringer, has to be....

It's also the only knife to score a 100 on the Razor Edge edge-tester from ricasso to point right out of the box.

Niiiccceee......


Now, how bout some images of some of your kitty medallions?

 

[thombrogan]

The cat that wakes me up at 2AM is downstairs sleeping for now and the cat who constantly meows and only wants to eat from my wifey's plate is eerily silent. They must have read some emails.

Looking at the fit and finish on the knife, the edge shows no signs of modification to please nitpickers from New England, so I think the knife is less of a ringer and more of a "you want to be done prepping your food and cooking it so you can wash me and stare at me" sort of thing.

I'm just imaging the teasing I'll receive when I use this knife to pare apples.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Nice blade, potatos are easy though, you need some tomatoes, PUSH cut them to the same level of thickness and you have a decently sharp blade.

-Cliff

 

[thombrogan]

It's a nacho day today, so tomatoes will be sliced.

 

[gunmike1]

Looks very nice! Do you have a mic for the edge? Looks very thin, and I can't wait to see the tomato results.

 

[db]

Great review, and goodlooking knife. Only thing really missing is the nacho recipe.
Have you used any of the Mac knives to compare this to? Mac knives are what started my love of the Japanese style kitchen knives.

 

[ADD]

Great review with some personality!

Price and where to find?

 

[OldPhysics]

Good to see the smiling face of Thombrogan...

And I enjoyed the review. Much more personal that the sort of technical articles I'm used to. Liked it very much.

Hope you slay those tomatoes with dispatch.

 

[thombrogan]

The tomatoes were all rotted. Grrrrr OTOH, it cut the thick stem part of the lettuce will no discernible effort. Just holding the blade and moving it was enough to do the cutting. Dicing the lettuce was instant, too.

Looks very nice! Do you have a mic for the edge? Looks very thin, and I can't wait to see the tomato results.

My calipers don't go that thin. The tomatoes all rotted. Stupid joah tomatoes.... :grumpy:

Great review, and goodlooking knife. Only thing really missing is the nacho recipe.
Have you used any of the Mac knives to compare this to? Mac knives are what started my love of the Japanese style kitchen knives.

Thanks for the kind words. The nacho recipe is an ancient secret involving tortilla chips, salsa, cheese, and olives topped with diced tomatoes (except for today), lettuce, and sour cream. Oh no! I've said too much.

Aside from some really cool Spyderco kitchen knives, all serrated, this is my first forray into high-end cutlery. Kind of like being a non-smoking tea-totaller all of your life and smoking crack and angel dust on your 80th birthday. The rush was that intense.

Great review with some personality!

Price and where to find?

Good to see the smiling face of Thombrogan...

And I enjoyed the review. Much more personal that the sort of technical articles I'm used to. Liked it very much.

Hope you slay those tomatoes with dispatch.

Thanks, OldPhysics. Good to smile. The lettuce died in its place. Roasts and chickens to follow.

Thomas W gives a list of serial numbers and where to buy them here.

This may come as a shock to a certified INFI pimp, but I'd rather have a Shun Elite lockback folder over any folder with INFI. Yeah, I'd buy the INFI folder, too, but to get the geometry, craftsmanship, and steel of this chef's knife in a lockback folder would be even more impressive.

 

[thombrogan]

With its factory edge, it slices like a knife possessed. Its slicing aggression has the strength of a bull elephant and the precision of a papercutter. The pushcutting, not so much. When I couldn't pushcut a waifer-thin slice of 'mater, I rightly blamed my lack of skills. With a slight draw, I removed a slice so thin it seemed to only have one side. It's in my belly now.

When my wife, the family's chef, noticed difficulty pushcutting eggplant, it confirmed that something was awry. Considering that the Shun Elite 8" Chef's knife had the most glass-like sliding and biting aggression on my edge-tester of any NIB edge I've tested, it's likely that I did something very wrong to the edge during use.

When I sliced up some eggplant today, the knife did care that I sucked, but it let me do my normal, inconsistant cutting much quicker than I do with any other knife. That could be because eggplants are much large than spuds, but the increase in speed was very pleasing. I'm told that the cutting technique on dedicated veggie knives (nakiri hocho, I think) is a slight draw cut, so if that's the way it's done, this knife is nakiri hocho Ichi-Ban. Will most likely get a highly polished edge in a few weeks.

edited to add:

It still scores 100 on the edge-tester from ricasso to tip, so I'm stymied on the push/pull thaing.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

When my wife, the family's chef, noticed difficulty pushcutting eggplant, it confirmed that something was awry.

Eggplant is soft, much more so than potatos and thus is much harder to push cut, over ripe tomatos and plums are about the hardest thing to push cut as they will give almost immediately if the edge isn't perfect. I like the passion in the cooking, you should have your own TV show, the Tao of Thom.

-Cliff

 

[NickZac]

The review is awesome, but the pictures are even better

If my dinners can get that much fun from the blade, I'll buy a truckload!

 

[thombrogan]

Eggplant is soft, much more so than potatos and thus is much harder to push cut, over ripe tomatos and plums are about the hardest thing to push cut as they will give almost immediately if the edge isn't perfect. I like the passion in the cooking, you should have your own TV show, the Tao of Thom.

With the slightest draw, the knife falls through them, so I'm still highly pleased. Thanks for letting me know that the attempted feat was difficult.

FWIW, I'm a horrible cook. My daughter loves how I make macaroni and cheese, but that's the extent of it. My wife is teaching me, though. She'd make a great celebrity chef, but I think she'd kick out the cameras and production people because they'd bring too much clutter to the kitchen.

The review is awesome, but the pictures are even better

If my dinners can get that much fun from the blade, I'll buy a truckload!

Thanks for the kind words. For the knife in question, and its family members, back your truck up to SurLaTable. For other knives in the Shun series, NGK can send the truck to you.

 

[T.K.C.]

Great review!! Thanks!

 

[sodak]

Now I'm hungry, and on a diet. Thanks Thom!

Did any of the veggies scream? Careful with your answer, I've got PETA on speed dial...

That looks like a very nice knife. Is SG 2 stainless? Hitachi?

Thanks!