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Pros: Sharpness, Material Quality, Overall Quality, Construction, Durability
Cons: Sharpenability, Design, Construction
A pretty awesome Chef's knife
I cook professionally. I spend 6 days a week in a commercial kitchen, 10-15 hours a day. Needless to say, my knives need to work. I have a pretty extensive knife roll and this is neither my first chef's knife, nor is it my first Shun. I actually purchased this knife to be kind of a beater. I really, really like my other Shuns and I don't own any other kitchen knives with this specific blade shape, so I went for it. Been using this knife for over a year now and I'm not at all disappointed by the way it preforms. I've found the blade shape and edge geometry lend themselves very well to certain butchery tasks. Generally I use a few different knives to break down large fish or large hunks of pork or beef, and this has become one of those knives. As a general use chef's knife the Kanso also preforms wonderfully. The only reason I've given it 4 stars instead of 5 is because there are certain design elements of the handle that leave openings where food can get stuck. This makes it slightly more annoying to clean than some of my other kitchen knives. If you work in a commercial kitchen it's easy to just take the knife over the the dish sprayer and get any stuck in food out. At home without a pressure sprayer, it's a little more tedious to clean. Still, not a huge deal though. Also fair warning to those of you who aren't that great at sharpening knives. This knife has an extremely tiny edge bevel. I sharpen my knives weakly, freehand, using Japanese waterstones. I like to think I've gotten pretty decent at sharpening over the years. Because the bevel is so small, it is tricky to find and hold the perfect angle while sharpening this knife. Overall I like the Shun Kanso and I'm happy I bought it. KnifeCenter was awesome, as always. Hands down my favorite place to buy knives online. Great prices, great costumer service, super reliable all around.
