Loading…

Just wasted $120 on a chef's knife that can't hold an edge | Chefs - Free To Speak

lily57•1mo ago

Just wasted $120 on a chef's knife that can't hold an edge

I finally saved up and bought this fancy Japanese knife everyone raves about, a Shun with that pretty Damascus pattern. Figured it would be a game changer for prep work. First week it was amazing, sliced through tomatoes like butter. But after maybe three weeks of normal use, the edge just went dull. I know how to sharpen, I've been using whetstones for years, but this thing chips every time I try to bring the edge back. I even sent it to a pro sharpener in Portland and they said the steel is just too brittle for my heavy prep style. Lost $120 on something that looks pretty but can't take daily abuse in a busy line. Anyone else regret dropping cash on a high end knife that didn't live up to the hype?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_parker1mo ago

Jumping in here because I feel your pain. I did the same thing with a fancy Miyabi about two years ago. Looked beautiful on my counter but after a month of meal prep it was chipping like crazy. Took it to a sharpener and they basically said the same thing, those high end Japanese steels are just too hard for how I use a knife. Ended up selling it for half what I paid and went back to a decent Wusthof that takes a beating and sharpens up easy. Sometimes the hype is more about the looks than the actual daily grind.

the_olivia1mo ago

Man, is it really that deep though? I mean yeah it sucks dropping cash on a knife that didn't work out, @the_parker, but it's not like you lost a limb or something. You just learned a lesson about steel hardness and moved on, which is basically how most of us figure out what we actually need.

emmam891mo ago

Oh wow, I gotta jump in here real quick... you're pretty close on most of that but Miyabi isn't really Japanese in the traditional sense like Shun or a real hand-forged blade. They're actually made in Germany by Zwilling, just with that Japanese style geometry and steel. So it's kind of a hybrid thing, which explains why the heat treat can be a bit all over the place. I had one too and yeah, chipped on a bell pepper once, which was wild.