Shun Classic 9" Combination Honing Steel

Great solid honing steel. I've been using this for 5 years now and it's in excellent shape still. No rusts and still works. Unlike some of my Shun knives that have rusted over the years (not sure if it's user error or just a bad set, but a few of my expensive Shun knives are a bit rusted). Anyways back to the honing steel: get it if you want a high qualify honing steel that may out live you.

Needed a steel for my knife set and this on closely matched the handles of the knife set. The steel itself looks to be of good quality, but I thought the steel was very fine reminiscent of ceramic sharping stick. The is set up to fine tune your knife so don't let the little women abuse the knife to the point you can't restore just with the steel.

This pricey steel is designed for the Shun Chef's knives. A little disk at the top has an angled flat spot that helps you stroke the knife down at the correct unique angle required by the Shun blade. Using this steel will keep the Shun knives cutting edges straight, and therefore sharp, for a very long time. I will probably never need to have the knife sharpened as I am not a pro who cooks a lot daily. PS: Shun knives are fantastic!

Works very well for my home kitchen use. I use this hone 1x per week to keep my Shun Classic's edge true. The built in guide near the handle helps getting the correct angle for the knife. That feature with a youtube video for this product make it easy to use properly. I have been using this hone for about 5 months and there are no signs of wear. It is still like new. This product functions as intended and is of great quality. I am overall very happy with this purchase.

Sharp edges at the handle. Wood is machined separately from the metal ends and they don't match. Poor performance in the fabrication. This company has higher standards than what I have experienced with this product. The final inspector of this unit has brought shame on the company, the staff, the founders, himself and his family.

I love the angled edge on the top of this! I know the angle I'm using for my blade is perfect every time and regret not knowing that Shun made this product years ago. This type of knife has a much narrower blade angle than others, and I noticed a huge difference in using this versus the One that came with my knife block set years ago, which is not right for these angled blades. There's a noticeable difference in my knives after using this everyday and I'm super pleased with the end result.

Let me begin by saying that I want to provide a quick clarification of some issues raised by critical reviewers of this honing steel that is a perfect match for Shun knives. The handle guard serves as an angle guide to align the knife at a 16 degree angle to the honing steel while it is standing upright on a cutting board with the knife being drawn downward toward the board. All of the sides, both curved and flat, provide a 16 degree angle to align the knife. The flat side is to keep the honing steel from rolling when placed on a flat surface. The handle shape is a D or modified triangle. This shape allows for better grip on the handle because a triangle does not rotate easily in the hand. The steel has four equal quadrants. Two of them are smooth for daily honing and two are ridged for more aggressive weekly honing. The differing textures are 180 degrees opposed so that they are directly across for easy alignment when drawing both the left and right side of the knife blade down the steel. I hope this clears up some of the confusion created by the critical reviews and explains why this honing steel is a very good match for Shun knives.

Not from Nippon.Made in China.Returned to Amazon.Not of Shun quality ,good but no cigar.I use Victorinox steel that I found here on Amazon.I need to produce a edge that is not just a 16.My Wustof takes a10 degree,14,and 22.My Shun 16 and 22 degree knifes, they love the 12 and 14 inch length.The Victorinox have very interesting textures that with practice Is allowing one pass on each side to do the technical trick.Intresting that the Swiss Vic's are all made in Sheffield England not In Switzerland, no yodel here!For me the 9 inch is the starting point for honing.The 12 and 14 inch allow better angle freehand with extra length to do it.I know of no knife block that will hold them.Since my familiarity comes from the early Pro Victorinox "For,s" these hold up to Pro quality,with unerring quality.Way heavier Vic,s, than the Shuns with the wood handles.The plastic handle Victorinox 9 inch Black Continental is a great all purpose and in the $20 buck range.If you have a 10' 12', inch blade and is relatively new, the 14 inch Fine Victorinox wood handle would be a great choice.Great is Waaay better than a "good one".I have a collection of Kai whetstones ,that in over a year with Shun have yet to to be used for touch ups.The edge holding of the super steel in so many varieties of Shun knifes is a over whelming genius.Hammer on!

Lo compré para mi esposo, para que afilara su cuchillo Shun. Funciona bastante bien pues no desgasta el acero, solo lo afila enderezándolo. El no sabía utilizar un afilador de este estilo pero viene con un instructivo bastante claro y ahora lo utiliza con todos los cuchillos de la casa.

Seems strong , works great, fast delivery.

Having invested in quality knives, I wanted the right honing steel to keep them in prime condition between sharpening. This steel does just that - for both daily and monthly honing.

Gift was well received. Very good quality

The quality of manufacturing and assembly of this steel is a shocking embarrassment for Shun. It's produced in China and is very poorly made. For example, the fit and finish of the handle and the cap at the top is poor, with these elements being very badly aligned in the manufacture/assembly process. On close observation of the steel itself, this also looks to be of poor quality with a less-than-desirable quality of finish overall considering that it's intended for use with Shun's extremely expensive and high quality Classic knives. My steel was delivered with a scratch/chip on the surface of one of the smooth sides, which of course would completely ruin a Shun blade or any other ultra-sharp knife blade, so it had to go back. Unless my particular item had previously been returned to Amazon for the same reason, I can only think again that such a defect most likely reflects the very poor quality control in the manufacturing and assembly process. In terms of features, the steel itself is round, and has two smooth surfaces and two slightly coarser surfaces running along its length, and hence provides the benefit of two different levels of honing. These are quite close together as they run down the steel, so you would have to take great care to keep a knife on the honing edge of your choosing and to avoid straying onto an adjacent edge. That said, I wouldn't consider this a disadvantage as long as you are careful, which you would be anyway if honing Shun knives, but two different surfaces on opposite sides of the steel (instead of four) would have been more practical in use. The 16 degree angle guide at the base of the handle is also helpful, and is one of the reasons I chose this steel over all others (aside from expecting a better quality product!). Although such a feature is not absolutely necessary if you've learned to hone your knives properly, it does provide some guidance to ensure that you are honing at, or very near to, the correct angle for your Shun Classic knives. But, despite its features, and compared to the exceptional quality of Shun's knives, this is a disappointingly poor-quality product overall, and I had to return mine immediately after receiving and inspecting it because of the slight but important damage on one of the honing edges. Overall this is a disappointingly poor-quality product, particularly so considering that it has a Shun label on it, and I would not recommend it unless you want it just for the badge, as there are far superior steels available elsewhere.