I am a college student, and will be moving off campus next year, and since I will be making my own food off campus, I have picked up a few things for the kitchen. Amongst those things are 7 knives of various makes and manufacturers (3 Wusthof, 2 Global, 1 Henckels, and 1 Shun). With this array of different knives, I have a pretty good idea of what a good knife is and what it is not. To start off, all of the knives I have are good knives, but not all of them are perfect. If you should definitely have one knife in your kitchen, it should be a good paring knife, but if you should have a second knife it should definitely be a chef’s knife. A paring knife may be the most versatile knife in the drawer, but the most handy one (and one you will probably use the most) will probably be your chef’s knife, so be sure it is a good one.

What this knife does well.
This knife is a well made knife, and has many nice features.

This knife is a classic shape for a 10 inch chef’s knife. Most people use an 8 inch, but there are some reasons times when it is nice to have those extra two inches. This knife is perfect for slicing ham or a roast, and is large enough to tackle some of the larger vegetables, or really big jobs.

This knife is sharp. While it isn’t quite as sharp as my Global knives, it is a good deal sharper than any of my Henckels or Wusthof knives. This is in part due to the steel used for the edge, and also due to the bevel. Most German knife companies grind the blade at 20 degrees, I think, and this creates a nice edge that is sharp enough for most cutting purposes, but also strong enough to stand up to heavy use. Most Japanese knife companies, which include Shun and Global, grind their knives at closer to 14 degrees, which results in a blade that is noticeably sharper but is not quite as resilient as the German edges. The Japanese knives are made with a different kind of steel to compensate for this. The edge on this knife is not suitable for cutting through bones, but most edges are not suitable for this either.

This knife feels very durable. I have not done a lot of really heavy cutting with this knife yet, but the knife does feel very solid, and I’m confident that this knife will last a long time without breaking.

This knife is very comfortable. My hands are not gigantic, but they are a little larger than average, and this knife does not feel small to me. The grip is shaped so that it feels nice in the right hand. If you are left handed, or use your left hand for cutting for some reason, you should probably look for a different knife manufacturer. The balance of this knife is also very nice. Even though the knife is very long, at 10 inches, it does not feel blade heavy, and is very easy to chop with.

What this knife does not do well.
There are a few things that I do not like about this knife.

This knife is light for its size. If you like light knives, then Shun would be a nice knife to look into, but if you like to have some weight behind your knives, you should look elsewhere. The entire blade is thinner than any good European Chef’s knife on the market. While this does allow the knife to slide easily through what you are cutting, it also makes it so light that you might need to do more work, as opposed to letting the knife do the work for you.

This knife is almost too big for some jobs that should be done with a chef’s knife. If you grew up with a 10 inch chef’s knife, then this one should be a pretty natural size, but I grew up with an 8 inch chef’s knife, and I find myself opting to use my 8 inch wusthof for most jobs, besides carving meat.

Conclusions.
If you are looking for a knife that is sharper than the German knives on the market, and lighter, then Shun makes some fine knives. I feel that my Global knives are better quality than the Shun though, and have a lot of the same advantages. If you can find the Shun knife on sale for a good deal less then the Global, then by all means go for the Shun, but if you can not find it for more than 10 dollars less than the Global (they usually are pretty close in price), then I’d say go with the Global instead, you will probably be happier.


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