Shun Vs. Global Santoku

[chunghan]

I'm recently in the market for a santoku, and I've basically narrowed it down to 2 choices. Either the 7" by Global or the 7" Scalloped by Shun. I know a lot about knife choice comes down to personal feel, but I was wondering if anyone had an opinion about which would be better? Thanks for your help.

 

[cape chef]

A lot of it depends on how you will use your knife and it's overall comfort.

Both the Global and Shuns have narrow handles which can fatigue your hand if your doing heavy prep. The pakka wood handle of the Shun gives it more weight. I like the Damascus approach to the blade with the Shun.

There both excellent knives, and like you said, it's about personal preference.

 

[artameates]

i learned of The Beauty today. Shun is remarkable. I held the 8, 10 inch chef knives and the santoku (it caught my eye as the clerk was about to mention it). They have a smoothness, like water. Compared to every other major brand, shun is my choice. I was giddy. Im tempted to drive 80 km to the knife store again so i can hold the others, too. Premiumknives.com has pictures as well as descriptions on the whole line(?). ahhh melt.

 

[anneke]

Just curious: has anyone looked at the Wusthof santokus? The hollow edge 7" is offered at a serious discount on Amazon ($92). If they shipped here I'd order one...

I'm also in the market for a good santoku. I haven't picked one yet but I'll keep an eye out for Shun.

 

[bullyinny]

I would look into Kasumi knives - they have a beautiful 7 inch santoku.
IMO stay away from the Wuesthof santoku.
www.japanese-knife.com is a great site for all types of asian knives. They even carry Masamoto and other high end manufacturers, be prepared to throw your sharpening skills out the window though...they are tough to maintain by German blade standards.

 

[markovitch]

Ksdumid are great but i must suggest looking at the furi santoku as wel as the shun and global. I like furis, they are a lot like globals but they don't hurt my hand as much and they hold an edge longer (harder metal i think)

 

[azrael]

the Wüsthof Santoku is good knife as knives go but it's little more than a Western knife shaped like a Santoku.

Likewise, the Henckels.

 

[anneke]

I agree AzRael. Is that a bad thing though? Can you explain why real japanese santoku is better? (I've never had one...)

 

[bullyinny]

I just got a Furi east west (santoku) and i think its great.

 

[orangebang]

you guys should check out the kitchen forum in knifeforums.com

there are two or three guys there that know more about Japanese knives than anyone I've ever met.

It helps that one guy owns his own shop. The other two...well, they have no other excuse than being downright obsessed.



FWIW, the Kasumi and the Shun knife are almost identical. They are not however, made in the same factory. I don't think you could go wrong buying either one.

I personally LOVE the way the shuns feel and look. I'm not too sure about the fatigue of the Shun though...the handle isn't THAT small...and it is a perfectly balanced blade. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

Depending on how much you want to spend, there are always other brands.

Japanesechefsknife.com or the knifeoutlet.com are great places to get good blades for decent prices. The previous site has high end knives that will have any chef/aspiring chef DROOL with envy.

It really puts western steel to shame, as you can imagine the men making the knives come from a long heritage of samurai sword makers.

 

[hipjoint]

kasumi and shun classic are very similar but the shun has a steel endcap
and the kasumi does not. just the thing for smashing a garlic clove.

and i don't know what the problem is with maintainance of the japanese
blades vs. german blades. if you look at the typical german blade, the blade
tapers down to the edge then the last 1/16" is the actual edge.if you hold
the edge up to the light, you can see the rapid cut to the edge, at mebbe
a 45 degree angle?? on many japanese knives the sides go right into the edge, giving a 25 - 30 degree angle on the edge. no wonder they are so sharp.

the japanese have no qualms about sharpening (and i mean on a stone!!)
every day after work. they realize it is a part of life. and if the knife wears away?? why worry about passing it on to your kids?? let them buy their
own knives!!

 

[artameates]

i just got alton browns paring knife by shun, its so great

 

[mikeb]

I've used the Kasumi Santoku, Global Santoku, Wusthof Santoku but not the Shun. Personally I don't like the Santoku shape at all, but out of those I'd recommend the Kasumi. I have their 8" chef knife, and it's great. If you sharpen it properly and often it's very sharp.

 

[hipjoint]

shuns are very close to the kasumis, hard to tell the difference. why don't
you like the santoku shape? as an experiment, i had a 10" forschner fibrox,
a 10' dexter-russell, and a 10" boker arbolito chef's knives all turned into
a santoku shape by cutting and rounding off the last 2" off the tips. i have
had about a dozen different cooks use these blades and there was universal
approval of them, even among the few that didn't like santokus. apparently,
what they missed most in a santoku was the extra length found in their
chef's knives. what they DID like about the bobbed blades was the precision the tips exhibited compared to a same length chef's knife.
also, a few passes on a #2000 grit ceramic rod is enough to keep them
sharp. regular steels don't work as well.

 

[darkfae]

I recently bought my first Shun, an 8" stainless steel chef's knife. When I saw it on display, I stared, and then kept wandering back to it while my friends were browsing other cookware items. Once I actually held it, and felt its weight and balance, I knew I would have to buy it. I have since scraped and saved and have a 4" paring knife, 7" boning and 9" slicer coming my way.

For me, the handle is perfect, but my hands are on the small/thin side. So uh, yeah. I'm a little biased towards the Shun, heh.

 

[hipjoint]

===== for my brother-in-law's 50th b-day, i bought him the 10' shun
chef's knife, and i bought this over the kasumi because the shun has that
nice steel "end cap" that i had engraved with his initials and "big 5 - 0".
before that he had the usual chicago cutlery hardware store stuff with some
forschner wood handled knives and some other odds and ends. he loves
to cook but never thot much about getting better knives. now he kinda
cusses me cuz he can never go to those knives any more. the shun was so
sharp and sliced so precisely and felt so good in his hands he has now gone
over to japanese knives completely. he travels lots with his job and in tokyo
there are some small hand forged knife shops just above the tsujiki fish market
and he has brought back genuine hand forged japanese steel that you can't
find in the u.s. cuz production is too low for export. holy cow, how
beautifully made and sharp these blades are!! i have written in other threads,
anyone who has actually used these kinds of blades can NEVER say that
their german blades are razor sharp ever again. sure, the german blades can
be sharp, but never to the degree these japanese blades are!!

 

[darkfae]

I have to concur, I am sold on the Japanese blades. I would certainly not mind a hand-forged one... I have family in Japan, perhaps I could ask for a favour!

And the engraving is a neat idea. I may need to pinch that and do it to my knives.

 

[artameates]

yea its more like scalpel sharp

 

[cookingqueen]

I would highly recommend the kasumi titanium santoku knife, I have yet to sharpen mine and have had it for 9 months and it is just as sharp as it was the first day i got it. It is a truly AMAZING knife and the handle is alittle more form fitting than my shun knives. I have several different knives wushtof, henkels, fibrox, global and shun. The only brand comparable to the kasumi is the shun but I have to say that I will be buying the entire kasumi knife kit because it is hands down my favorite. I just wish they had a 10in chefs knife in that collection. Hope this helps!!

 

[jubal]

If this is a concern, global may work out better for you as they are much lighter than the shuns, and will weight contributes a lot to fatigue.

Myself, I like having both on hand. Generally I like my Globals better, but I LOVE the thumb/index finger bevel that the shuns have.