New Knife Design
Danielle wrote a post a few weeks ago on her knife collection in which she talked about Shun knives. Shun has some amazing knives, in my opinion. They’re a modified damascus style that looks cooler than cool, showing ripples of steel along both sides of the blades. The way their standard blades are done is to take a very hard, molybdenum based core that’s hardened to a Rockwell rating of about 61, then 16 layers of stainless steel are clad to each side, and the blade is polished through to look show a damascus-style pattern. Very cool look! Very sharp blade!
One advantage of this type of blade is that it can be sharpened at 16 degrees instead of the typical Western blade being sharpened at 22 degrees, resulting in a sharper blade. The core also, while being stronger, is more flexible, allowing rehoning over and over without losing the steel in the blade. These things are scary sharp!
KAI is the Japanese company that makes these knives. They also own Kershaw, an American knife company that is largely known for folding knives. The primary designer is Ken Onion, who has come up with many innovations in pocket knife design. KAI took advantage of Ken Onion’s talents by having him work on a new type of kitchen knife, using the same blade technology as their standard Shun knives.
The result is a very different knife with an ergonomic handle and blade. The bolster is shaped and angled in such a way as to guide the cook’s fingers to the optimum holding position. Starting with a chef’s knife, the line has now expanded to include paring, utility, bread and santoku knives.
I tried one of these out when I first saw them, and I have to be honest… I don’t like the chef’s knife. However, I love the 5″ utility knife! The problem for me with the chef’s knife is that I’m too used to using a typical chef’s knife, and the Ken Onion knife seems very odd to me. However, I think that for most home cooks that haven’t used a knife a lot, this would be a fantastic knife for them. I doubt if a lot of TV chef’s will switch, but they often use tools that home cooks don’t have or don’t need. I see Bobby Flay use a boat motor for an immersion blender… Ok, not a boat motor, but close to it! I would love one at home, but I get by with my simple little handheld immersion blender instead. Home cooks that haven’t handled a chef’s knife a lot will probably love this Ken Onion version, and, if it works well for them, it’s better than the typical knife that the TV chef’s use.
As with any knife, find a store that carries them and try them out yourself. Now, if KAI is reading this and decide to have me do a hands-on review of their knives, I’m all for that!!!
(Photos from the Williams Sonoma website)
