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Shun Japanese Kitchen Cutlery - Company History and Product info
Shun Classic came from a utilizes classic European shapes and it has a double bevel edge. The traditional Japanese cutlery uses a single bevel edge like the Shun Pro lines. The Shun Classic do a process to a beautiful pattern across the blade by pound out their roll stock to 3/1000ths that will give a perfect molecular structure. Then take a 32 layers of the steel and put 16 on each side of a layer of VG-10 making a kind of VG-10 sandwich. Then using heat and pressure that will clad these 33 layers together that can make a roll stock. The next step is to place the sheet of roll stock into a press that will look like two beds of thick blunt nails facing each other. The roll stock is then compressed, causing a series of dents or impressions across both sides of the sheet. This will creates a ripple effect in the sheet, like throwing several pebbles in a still pond. This process was inspired by the famous knife making style known in Japan as Kasumi style. It is the same process used to make Samurai swords.
The Japanese learned 700 years ago that there is no such thing as the perfect steel. Hard cutting steels with more carbon in them were highly reactive to corrosion and rust, and could also be brittle. The Japanese would surround these steels with softer less reactive steels to protect and support them. This process would create a pattern in the steel that many people today confuse as Damascus.
The shum knife shapes are cut out of the finished roll stock, and the hand grinding process begins. When the grinding the knives into a "V" shape, which is called flat grinding, the pattern emerges. Then make it visible by using a bead blaster. The bead blasting is what also creates the stick resistant properties of the knife. It does this by creating thousands of little indention on the blade that in turn create thousands of little pockets which of course reduces the percentage of the surface area of the blade touching the food which results in reducing sticking.
The two factors to keep Shun Classic talking is about there edge and the handle. the edge of Shun knife is ground at 16 degrees per side. The Shun Classic lines uses VG-10, which is a new type of stainless steel that has a higher density. This allows the steel to be tempered to a hinger Rockwell, in this case 61, and still have the flexibility and strenth to take and keep a perfect edge. It is also important that the edge of shun classic is a highly polished along its bevel. The handle is made of Pakka wood. Pakka wood starts out as thin layers of white birch that is then dyed, in a case black.
