Shun Edo BB1503 8-1/2-Inch Chef's Knife

I just got this knife and had to try it out. When I first picked it up, it felt a little odd in my hand and I wasn't sure how the ergonomics were going to work out. I like to use the classic pinch grip as the bolster of the knife is meant to encourage. However after doing a little cutting with the knife, it quickly started to feel quite comfortable in my hand to the point where in just a minute or two it felt like one with my hand and all of the oddness I felt at first was completely gone.I know the saying goes that a person is far more likely to get cut by a dull knife than they are a sharp knife. However this knife might be one of the exceptions to the rule. The reason why a person normally gets cut by a dull knife is that they have to usually exert more force, then all of a sudden the knife slips and WHOOPS!! you're cut. This knife on the other hand is very very sharp. It is possibly the sharpest knife I've ever used. However it is how the knife behaves with it being that sharp that concerns me. You'll notice that the first 3/4" of the blade closest to the knife edge is polished extremely smooth. Then beyond that you have those dimples that the product description states are to help the knife release the food well. I've used some hollow ground knives before and sometimes it seemed like food stuck to them almost better than the regular knives. After reading the reviews about food sticking to this knife I was wondering if instead of the dimples acting as a means to release the food, that instead they were acting like little suction cups. WRONG!!! Those dimples do their job and do it well, almost too well! The finely polished portion that is closest to the blade edge is what the food sticks too. And because it is polished so smooth it creates a very good suction with the food. However, once the knife blade starts getting to the dimples, watch out! At that point the knife just slices right through with a vengeance. So it feels like it is being somewhat hard to slice through then next thing you know your knife comes rocketing right through. I was doing the horizontal slices for dicing an onion properly and it scared the crap out of me when it all of the sudden came rocketing out the back side of the onion. I never have that problem with my Wusthof Classic 8 inch. With it I apply the same amount of pressure all the way through. I think with some close attention to detail and adjusting where I start the back portion of my knife on the slice it should work out ok though.I ran into the same sort of issue when I was cutting through a thick carrot. I get about 2/3's to 3/4's the way through the slicing motion getting tougher and tougher then all of a sudden, BOOM! it chops through the last bottom portion really fast.This knife is very well balanced. It feels very comfortable and it is VERY sharp. And I think I will find myself reaching for it a lot when I go to cut stuff up in the kitchen. If I'm chopping small or soft vegetables (like peppers, tomatoes, herbs, etc) or slicing meat, then I think this knife is right at or near the very top of the list, because at that this knife is AMAZING. However for denser, thicker root type vegetables like carrots, horseradish, turnips, onions, beets, sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc I think I might defer to my Wusthof or Henckels chef knives.***Update on my review (2/28/2014)***I've had the knife for a few weeks and I recently just added a couple of new Japanese knives to my collection that are easily the best knives I've ever used. And after using them, it made me rethink my review of the Shun knife. I recently got a few Maruyoshi/Hattori HD knives. Hattori and Maruyoshi both sell the same knife. Hattori is the more well known name, but the knives are made at the Maruyoshi knife plant in Japan. After you use a product that really outshines everything else, it helps you to see the true flaws in other similar products. The Maruyoshi HD knives have a finely polished finish like the smooth portion of the Shun. Yet unlike the Shun (which by the way had a very sharp factory edge), the Maruyoshi sliced right through the onion with ease on the horizontal cuts. The difference wasn't smoothness or recesses or whatever. It was the thickness of the blade and the angle of the tapered sides of the knife. The Maruyoshi has a thinner blade with a more gradual taper to the sides of the knife due to being thinner. This made it better in two regards. First, the Maruyoshi knife cut through the onion far superior to the Shun. Secondly, the knife was far lighter. It really made me notice how extremely heavy the Shun knife is. You don't notice it as much until you have a good thin bladed Japanese knife to compare it too.With the heaviness and inability of the knife to easily slice through thicker objects I had to drop my rating down. If you're slicing thin stuff, the Shun Edo will work great. But if you're slicing thin stuff, then why the heck would you want to use a knife that's pretty heavy when a much lighter and better balanced knife makes the job easier. The knife fails because they made the blade too thick and the taper of the blade edges causes the blade to hang up. To use an adequate real life example, think of an axe head. You can sharpen the axe head really super sharp. But no matter what, when the axe head gets so far in it meets resistances because the wide taper of the axe head is splitting and pushing apart the surfaces of what it is cutting through. That's what is happening with this knife I think. The blade sides quickly go from thin to wide. This forces the knife to want to split and attempt to push apart the food rather than slice through it. And that causes it to "stick" once you cut so far in.So when you're shopping for Japanese knives I've found, pay close attention to the blade thickness and blade weight. It makes more of a difference than you'd ever think.

Reason I purchased this knife was to replace the old chef's knife that I was using from an old set of zwilling twin pro set. Maybe it's just me but for some reason, I find that a lot of the chef's knives are really dull in comparison to other types of knives, and this one included.I have had the pleasure of owning and using a lot of the big brand name knives (Wustof and Zwilling) for a while now, so when I saw this one's price took a dip, I thought I'd give the Japanese a try. Like most people, I did a little bit of online research before settling with a knife that I was comfortable with in terms of both function, price, and aesthetics. The Shun Edo had me at hello with it's gorgeous Damascus hammered steel and ebony handle. It was like love at first sight. I couldn't stop looking at how beautiful the pattern on the knife was. It also came in a beautiful box and a really neat bamboo knife stand.Right out of the box, the knife was decently sharp, it cut through paper and was able to slice through a really big semi-soft tomato without it being squashed... but something tells me that although it's a lot sharper than my old Henckles, it still wasn't as sharp and as fantastic as the other reviewers.So then I did something unthinkable. Bought another set of Shun knives. This time I got the Shun Premier set, which included a 7inch Santoku. This set didn't come with a fancy bamboo stand and the blade itself wasn't as shinny and the patterns on the blade wasn't as flamboyant, but boy, that thing WAS sharp. It cut through paper like those crazy knife infomercials, and I could even filet a magazine paper sheet horizontally (folded at a curve). Could I do it with the Edo? Nope. I was able to cut a soft cherry tomato into 8 tiny slices with the santoku, but not the Shun Edo chef's knife. Perhaps I should send the Edo back to Shun to have to have it professionally sharpened, but then again, it could just be the way the knife was built and I am just not use to it. But at the end of the day, I am going to keep it because it is really pretty to look at, and I would probably still use it when I need it to cut something of greater proportions, but would I recommend this? No, unless you want it on a display. Ha!

I love this knife! Even decided to name her, lol. Will have owned for a year in July and, although I try not to use her too regularly, the blade is only beginning to need honing. She's got a nice weight to her that I desire in a chef knife and the little nooks definitely help her slide through things a little more easily. Handle with pride.And care! Safety first...**23May2019 Update: While I don't use this thing regularly at all (holiday meal prep, catering events, and that's it, lol), I have honed it once since purchasing it 3 years ago.I'd say it's close to time I dip back into the Shun stockpile for one of their pairing knives!

Grip angle, width and texture are amazing. This knife is wonderful to use, especially when working with large quantities for commercial kitchens. Keeps edge very well with little care needed. Easy to sharpen and hone. First knife I've ever had that didn't knock my knuckles on the cutting board in use, good for people with big hands. Only flaw I have found so far is the blades upper texture sometime sticks to some veggies, like cucumbers and onions. For the money I'd find it hard to argue it's the best knife in its price range. 10/10 would but again.

I have had this amazing chefs knife for about a year now and I couldn't be happier. the handles is big making it easy to use with these big hands and the edge stays sharp for long periods of time.. the one down fall is the knife's spine is pretty thick and is hard to use for those smaller jobs, but that's why i got the shun edo utility also.