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How bad did I nerf my Shun?

lemniscate

By lemniscate
in Kitchen Consumer

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lindag

lindag

Posted
Posted

I hope so, that's a lovely knife.

Can you send it to a professional for a repair?   

Laurentius

Laurentius

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, lemniscate said:

Bad decision and now a problem (hit a bone).

 

Shun 7" Santoku.

 

Can it be saved?

IMG_1853.PNG

 

  It's not too serious.  Yes, it can be fixed.  But either send it back to Shun, or find a knowledgeable service.  I can recommend Murray Carter in Oregon.

 

  The reason I caution you to find the right service is that the chip is deep enough that the entire edge needs to be reworked.  And to do that right, it needs to be done slow and cool.  Depending on several factors, the entire blade may also need to be thinned in the process.  And THAT may mean permanently changing that pretty fake "Damascus" look.

 

  Not to rub anything in, but your mishap is also a cautionary tale about steel hardness/brittleness.  Too often and for too long, higher-end buyers (and the sellers who cater to them) have worshipped at the altar of high RC alloys and heat treat.  Thinner J-style blades, high RC edges, and very acute bevels do not make for durability in normal kitchen work.  You might have to touch up a vintage Sab K more often, but it's far less likely to chip out like this.

 

  Good luck.  Please post with how the fix works. 

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btbyrd

btbyrd

Posted
Posted (edited)

That's a relatively minor chip and can easily be repaired by a skilled sharpener. It is likely you'll have to mail it in somewhere, but it's better to do that than trust the knife to bubba with the bench grinder at the farmers market.

 

To repair a chip, you pretty much grind the rest of the knife down to the deepest part of the chip so that the edge becomes unified once more. This will cause the blade to lose a bit of height, but it will also become thicker behind the edge than it was before the repair. That can negatively impact cutting performance. That's why it's a good idea to thin knives that need major chip repairs. If you take it to someone who knows what they're doing, they'll do that automatically as part of the chip repair process.

 

In terms of good mail in services that have fast turnaround times, I can recommend District Cutlery in Washington DC. Chip repair will run you $45, but they do a proper job. Here's an instagram post showing a similar repair to a Miyabi with a bigger chip than yours. The knife looks good as new when it's finished... though the logos and whatever got ground away during the thinning process. And it will cut better than it did out of the box.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/C0tvpCAO7CP/

 

EDIT: I remembered Instagram links auto-embedding here on eGullet, but I guess they don't. At any rate, I hope you can click through and see the repair and know that you have nothing to worry about. I've seen way, way worse.

Edited by btbyrd (log)
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paulraphael

paulraphael

Posted
Posted
On 1/23/2024 at 9:51 PM, btbyrd said:

To repair a chip, you pretty much grind the rest of the knife down to the deepest part of the chip so that the edge becomes unified once more.

This is true, and it's why I suggest you don't do it all the way. At least if it's a big chip. If you you fully repaired every ding, your gyuto would become a barbecue skewer in just a few years. 

 

A good sharpener / repair person can advise on this. I sent a knife to Dave Martell when I borked it trying to sever a turkey neck. He fixed it about 90% (you could still see evidence of the chip with a loupe) and was able to do it while taking off just a fraction of a mm of metal. Dave seems to have gotten out of the biz; I'd trust btbyrd's recommendation.

 

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