Kershaw Shun/Ken Onion 6" Chef's Knife

[UnknownVT]

This is a true case of photos don't do the looks justice.

Change of background to show the handle shape.

This knife looks stunning to me.

The Damascus steel is very well defined - VG-10 core surrounded each side by 16-layers of SUS410 stainless steel.

Handle is black Pakkawood - 3/4 exposed tang on the spine side with two rivets.

It is very well shaped and fits my hand well - with the blade edge dropping below my knuckles.

Overall feel is very good with the balance just a fraction forward of where my index finger fits - so it's just a tiny bit blade heavy - which is the way I like it.

The blade doesn't just look good it is very sharp - push cuts newspaper easily - right out of the box - better than my oft used Chicago Cutlery Walnut 62S 5" utility knife. Matches the very sharp 3" Victorinox paring knife and my $300+ custom David Boye BDS 6" Chef's knife.

So the edge is very fine - one can hardly see the edge bevel - I would have said it had a "zero-bevel" - except for closer examination under a good magnifying glass - one can just see a "micro" edge bevel.

Just for comparison this bevel is so fine that it's less than the bevel usually found on Opinels when examined closely - and most people would say that Opinels have zero-edge bevels including the official Opinel site.

This means that the blade is ground very thin toward the edge - and it feels thin (pinching the blade and pulling toward the edge).

Although the blade is thin - it is by no means lite-weight - the knife and blade has some heft to it.

Which makes this 6" chef's knife a good combination of for reasonable heavy cutting - yet fine enough for precision cutting. One can of course look at it another way as a "compromise" between a Chef's knife and a vegetable knife. I like this combination/compromise.

mincing garlic and dicing onions -

I adapted to the Shun/Ken Onion 6" chef's knife almost immediately - it just felt right and comfortable for me without having to make any adjustments - this is surprising - because looking at the shape and the handle this knife is a bit of a departure from the normal chef's knife - and this says volumes to me how easily I adapted and felt at home with it.

This is one of those knives that looked attractive, and when handled I knew almost straightaway that it would suit me, and its use in my kitchen has born this out.

Lastly did I mention it is good looking?
- of course I did -
here's the picture from the Kershaw Shun 2007 catalog that hopefully shows the good looks -

--
Vincent
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[Cliff Stamp]

Very nice looking blade. That is a length that I like to use as well. It would be interesting to see a comparison against a similar geometry blade in a much lower price range with a suitable edge regrind.

-Cliff

 

[UnknownVT]

It would be interesting to see a comparison against a similar geometry blade in a much lower price range with a suitable edge regrind.

I cut up some synthetic "cork" from a cheap wine - these are very consistent throughout - I used my other chef sized knives .

The damascus 7.5" chef's knive that I have always thought "too sharp" once again cut through the best.

The others were tied for close second - that's the Shun/Ken Onion 6" Chef, David Boye BDS 6" Chef and the cheapo 7" Chefmate Choice Santoku (see another Santoku (cheap) for discussion of the other knives - and on page 2 Post #24 for similar "cork" cutting comparison)
- as I said previously "I would say close enough that I'd be hard put to choose."

However there is a slight wrinkle -
although the medium ("cork") is very consistent - my cutting obviously isn't -
just for grins I tried a pure push cut without any pulling or pushing or rocking - then the "too sharp" damascus, this Shun, and Boye BDS managed an initial shallow bite into the cork - whereas the cheapo santoku could not without some rocking. These synthetic "corks" are somewhat resistant to initial cuts as they have a smooth/glossy exterior finish (maybe sealed - by coating or melting?).

Anyway subjectively I can cut well with all of these, except for the "too sharp" damascus 7.5" chef - but one probably can put that down to personal bias.

Another observation - although I minced up garlic easily - because of the pronounced curvature of the blade it was not quite as easy to use this Shun 6" chef - that is holding the back near the tip and and rocking/chopping cutting near the heel of the knife -
actually the cheapo santoku was the best at this, since the spine/back was high near the tip.

--
Vincent
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[eyeeatingfish]

I got a set for a very good price, not the ken onion but an 8 piece kershaw. I havent used them yet but I have to say they look and feel great. Plus they are endorsed by alton brown who is quite serious about knives so that makes me trust them even more.

 

[thombrogan]

Great review, Vincent!

I wish all high-carbon stainless steel production blades had profiles and initial edges like those found in KAI's Shun line of cutlery.

 

[UnknownVT]

they are endorsed by alton brown who is quite serious about knives so that makes me trust them even more.

Actually Alton Brown not only has "endorsed" Shuns -
they have some special Alton's 10 degree angle knives -

These look kind of strange - but sort of makes sense.

However the Ken Onion Shun range have some of these off-set angle bias too -

Personally I think I prefer the blades to be in-line with the handle - as this seems to me to be instinctive for a knife - and it doesn't matter even if it is "conditioned" - that's kind of the way I expect a knife to be.....

--
Vincent
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[Cliff Stamp]

Another observation - although I minced up garlic easily - because of the pronounced curvature of the blade it was not quite as easy to use this Shun 6" chef - that is holding the back near the tip and and rocking/chopping cutting near the heel of the knife -
actually the cheapo santoku was the best at this, since the spine/back was high near the tip.

Yeah, with the highly curved blades you need to rock them to make full cuts, it is a slower process as you can't do the rapid fast dicing that you can with other blades. However it does allow cuts through thicker material with less force.

-Cliff

 

[UnknownVT]

Yeah, with the highly curved blades you need to rock them to make full cuts, it is a slower process as you can't do the rapid fast dicing that you can with other blades.

This is true.

However when I first used the Shun/Ken Onion 6" Chef I seemed to adapt to it almost immediately, and had no problems when mincing garlic.

It was only when I examined the blade more and noted the more pronounced curvature that I had this "difficulty" doing the mincing (or fast chopping) with the tip held and chopping near the heel. I think this was merely psychological on my part, as all of my chef-like blades do have some curvature, and doing the mincing or fast chopping one has to hold the tip lightly/loosely and chop down with the heel - so all the blades do have to be rocked -

eg: this Victorinox/Forschner standard 8" Chef's has pretty obvious curvature

- it's just that with this Shun/Onion Chef the rocking is somewhat more obvious - but it is not really a detriment - once I realized that I was holding on to the tip too firmly - that's why on the night the cheapo santoku did best at mincing since the back near the tip was much higher and even though I was probably holding on more firmly it did not restrict the movement as much as the other knives where the spine was lower at the tip.

Sorry for the long-winded explanation - but once in awhile I am not quite as aware of some of the things one does instinctively - and the mincing/fast chopping was one of of these - where I've never taken the time to analyze and just did it - like I said I didn't have any difficulties with the Shun/Onion Chef's more pronouced curvature until I hesitated and thought (too much) about it -

So it's taken (me) a lot more thought to overcome this "hesitation" - so needed this rather much longer explanation.

To summarize (for myself ) for mincing/fast chopping I need to hold the tip lightly/loosely (or even better simply place the left hand fingers above about the mid-point on the spine - ie: over about mid-point of the edge curvature) and allow the chopping stroke to fall naturally, and not try to hold the tip on the board as a pivot since that's "impossible" for any blade with any even slight curvature.

I'm amazed at my own "slowness" sometimes

--
Vincent
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