This is our fourth newsletter and we continue to strive not only to bring specials, but also interesting information about the knives as well. The Kershaw Store now offers Shun Kitchen Knives from KAI. Shun kitchen cutlery could be the best kitchen cutlery available today. We are extremely proud to offer these fine knives. 

Over the last six years, KAI has added new products and advanced technologies in design to the Shun line.

 

 

In fact, recently they have adopted a new strategy to design at Shun. They now consider the phrase, "traditional design" to mean "too lazy to improve". Traditional designs are anywhere from 25 to 150 years old. They are the product of the technology available at the time. There is no law that says that they are the best designs. What they now do at Shun is look at the way modern cooks work, determine what the knife needs to do to work with these new requirements, and design accordingly. KAI now has much better technology that allows them to quickly meet the customer's needs.

The largest series and most popular is the Shun Classic. They call it Shun Classic is because it utilizes classic European shapes. It includes a double beveled edge. Most traditional Japanese cutlery uses a single bevel edge which is available on the Shun Pro line. 

Shun handles are made of Pakka wood. Pakka wood starts out as thin layers of white birch that is then dyed black. These sheets are then layered between sheets of plastic resin then fused together under tremendous heat and pressure. The result is a handle that looks and feels like wood, but is dishwasher safe. Although hand washing is recommended. The other unique feature of their handle is the design. Its called the "D"shape, but in reality, it looks more like a tear drop. It has a distinct ridge that goes down the side of the handle that fits perfectly in the hand and stabilizes the blade which prevents from turning and twisting.

The Alton's Angle knives have all of the same features as the regular Shun Classic line, except a 10 degree angle at the bolster. This exceptional feature improves the performace of these smaller knives. The angle of the Alton's Angle knives gives your fingers clearance and better leverage on the blade creating an efficient slicing action.

 

We move on to the Ken Onion series. As Ken began to consider how to design a chef's knife for use in the kitchen, he realized that he had no real chef experience. This ultimately turned out to be an advantage. He addressed the problem from a totally fresh perspective without any preconceived notions. The first thing he did was to subscribe to Food Network and started studying the chefs. At the time, the two shows that had the most knife skills shown were Bobby Flay's show and Sara Moulton's show. Ken also picked these two because of their different heights and the fact that Bobby is right handed and Sara is left handed. The goal was to create a knife that could be used by both tall and short people and be ambidextrous. Ken would video these shows then freeze them and using a grease pencil and protractor, measure the angles at which they were cutting, and how they were holding their knives. 

 

Lastly, there is the Shun Pro series. The reason they are called Shun Pro is because these are the type of blades that professional Japanese Chefs would utilize. Texture and repetitive consistency are critical elements. This can only be achieved by having a perfectly sharp knife that is exactly the same every day. This is why they feature a single beveled design.   This is just a brief introduction of all of the fine knives that are part of Shun. To learn all about what makes a Shun a Shun,  please click on  "Shun Knives In A Nut Shell". When you see this then you get free shipping on Shun products.

Shun Pro Mandolin