Bent Shun Classic Chef Knife

Laceration · Jun 16, 2008

Well, I have been wanting a good chef's knife for about a year now. I have a few decent cooking knives including a 10" Forschner that's just a little unwieldy due to it's size. So after looking at Wusthoff, Henckels and Global (handles are too small) I decided on the 8" Shun Classic. I bought it at Williams Sonoma and when I got it home I noticed it had a considerable bend in it. I tried to justify it as some type of Japanese style or a weird illusion based on the D shaped handle but after a couple of minutes looking at it and placing it against a straight edge I realized it just had a big bend in it. I took it back and asked for another one and this time I took it out of the box and looked at it. Lo and behold, this one also had a bend though not as pronounced as the first. I had to look at two more knives before I found one that was straight. I have to admit, I was seriously considering buying another brand because I was shocked that QC didn't catch these. I also noticed that some of the knives bolsters didn't match up with the wood handle. I did wind up staying with the Shun just because I like the looks and I'm a big fan of VG10. I am satisfied with the knife I wound up getting but I can't believe that the QC is so poor with these knives. I love Kershaw and have several of their pocket knives and recommend them to friends and have never had a problem like this with them. I wanted to get a Santoku and paring knife in the same line but now I'm a little wary. Has anyone else noticed this with the Shun line?

SladeGT40 · Jun 16, 2008

i bought my mother the same knife from NGK after looking at the william sonoma pricing and their specific examples and deciding immediately to go elsewhere. her's i was not only able to inspect at newgraham (after a 6hour drive) but i am happy to say was perfect. honestly i don't believe the william sonoma people understand knives well enough to talk about them, let alone handle them. if you know what you want in a shun, i recommend newgraham.com or knifecenter.com. ive dealt with both and never got a lemon for a shun or kershaw.

Stavrou0 · Jun 16, 2008

I bought a Shun Classic 8" about 4 months ago from Williams Sonoma. My experience from Sonoma was good. The Sales Rep happened to be a knife nut.

I brought carrots , potatoes and and onion. and asked to try out some knives. The Shun was the sharpest knife i used that morning.. I also liked the feeling of the handle. My knife was straight. Fit and finish were great as well.

You got a lemon. Take it back to Williams Sonoma. Get a refund and get a new knife or go to another vendor. Your knife should be perfect, especially for the price you paid.

SladeGT40 · Jun 16, 2008

hmm. nice to have different experiences. i guess the williams sonoma near me didn't have knife nuts

Stavrou0 · Jun 16, 2008

SladeGT40 said:
hmm. nice to have different experiences. i guess the williams sonoma near me didn't have knife nuts

Slade,

I think I got lucky. I have been to other Williams Sonoma stores in my metro area, and some of the people there couldn't tell the difference between a knife and a spoon.

, that being said Sonoma is not too bad for highend kitchen supplies.

Laceration · Jun 16, 2008

I bought it at WS because I figured the instant gratification was worth the 10-15$ less I would have spent if I got it off the internet. My problem wasn't with them, it was the fact that I had to go through 4 knives before I found one that wasn't screwed up. I doubt KAI sends Williams Sonoma all their seconds or messed up knives. I'm just surprised that so many knives could go throuh KAI's quality control as they really were not up to standard. I'd expect that from a $20 knife not a $120 one.

SladeGT40 · Jun 16, 2008

Stavrou0 said:
Slade,

I think I got lucky. I have been to other Williams Sonoma stores in my metro area, and some of the people there couldn't tell the difference between a knife and a spoon. , that being said Sonoma is not too bad for highend kitchen supplies.

ah. i do love sonoma for other kitchen supplies. but like you said, some of them don't know anything about the minutia of any given product. its much nicer to be there if you know what you want.

DRider · Jun 17, 2008

I have 4 Shuns, the original style. Fantastic all around, makes you want to cook just to have an excuse to use them. Bent? No way. I can't believe they were selling bent knives. I'm a huge Shun fan and would recommend them to anyone.

Laceration · Jun 17, 2008

DRider said:
Bent? No way. I can't believe they were selling bent knives.

Well, believe it, because they are. After looking around on the internet a little bit, I found two other instances of people getting knives with bends in them right out of the box. One person took it back and the other one bent it back straight themselves. I'm just really surprised this is not a one in a million type thing. I love Kershaw but I think I'm going to look elsewhere for my kitchen cutlery. I just have a hard time believing that knives made by KAI in Seki City would have QC problems like that. Maybe it's happening in transit or people are using the boxes as step ladders in the stores, I don't know. That doesn't explain the handles not matching up to the bolsters though. Oh well, it's starting to sound like I have some type of agenda against KAI which I don't, so I'll shut up. I'm just a little disappointed.

Thomas W · Jun 17, 2008

I don't feel that you're coming off as having an agenda against Kai. You're just expressing an experience you had.

I do think you need to keep things in perspective though. There will always be blades from all manufacturers (wish we were immune) that hit the street that are off, be it a tad or bunch.

The Shun clad blade steel is "flexible" and can bend. That's inherent with this material. It also holds a tremendous edge. So there are trade offs, in this case performance and an appearance take the front stage. The flexibility of the material is a secondary concern. The consumer should know this prior to bringing these blades into their kitchen. These are not forged German kitchen knives. Shun's are fairly lightweight and are anorexic in their geometry. One really must know their tool prior to using.

On extremely rare occasions, blades (usually the longer ones) have hit the streets with a slight bend . You mention 3 cases. In the big scheme of our business, this is a very very small number of complaints. In truth, this is the first time I've ever heard of this particular issue. IMO, to generalize our QC Dept. as a whole over this incident seems like a stretch, but you are entitled to your opinion. We'll certainly keep an eye on both the problems you're reporting on.

In any case, thanks for the support and heads up. Please keep us up to date on how you like your new Shun.

SladeGT40 · Jun 17, 2008

just to offer an alternative point of view. it could be how the blades are handled in box during shipping and after they have been received by the store. i work in receiving and i have seen more instances than i can count of delivery damaged goods and also instances of careless stock people dropping or inconsiderately stacking merchandise to cause damage. i can bet that if a shun had any sort of weight placed on the box at any number of angles it would cause the kind of bending or bowing you speak of.

not saying these arent QC problems. but they could also have happened after leaving the factory.

DRider · Jun 17, 2008

Laceration said:
Well, believe it, because they are. After looking around on the internet a little bit, I found two other instances of people getting knives with bends in them right out of the box. One person took it back and the other one bent it back straight themselves. I'm just really surprised this is not a one in a million type thing. I love Kershaw but I think I'm going to look elsewhere for my kitchen cutlery. I just have a hard time believing that knives made by KAI in Seki City would have QC problems like that. Maybe it's happening in transit or people are using the boxes as step ladders in the stores, I don't know. That doesn't explain the handles not matching up to the bolsters though. Oh well, it's starting to sound like I have some type of agenda against KAI which I don't, so I'll shut up. I'm just a little disappointed.

I can't believe it translates as what kind of bastard would knowingly sell a damaged product as new.

Like I say, I have four, I've certainly handled many more at various shops, never seen anything but wonderful Shun goodness. Excellent quality control, excellent product. The QC issue is really much more of a surprise than re-sellers with damaged products.

I'm sorry you've had a bad experience.