Advice on Shun knife repair

[langod]

Hi All
I have a Shun Chef's knife that I love. It is one of my 2 "desert island" kitchen tools. (the other being my great-grandmother's 100+ year old cast iron pan.)
So imagine my horror when I found a family member using it to hack apart frozen chicken wings. Since I'm not writing this from PMITA prison, there was no actual homicide as a result, but I thought about it.

Anyway, I know that Shun has a life-time resharpening service, but they also exclude damage resulting from misuse. My question is, has any had any experience with Shun's resharpening service? How strict are they with the damage clause?
Any idea how much they would charge to re-machine the edge if they don't cover it under the resharpening service?
A picture of the tragic results is below -- warning... it's not pretty.

 

[Jim]

Assuming you do not want to do it yourself,you could ask the fine folks at Korin to do it for you. I am sure they would charge you, but at least it will be done correctly.

 

[Sullybob]

Why not just sharpen it yourself?

 

[wimbouman]

How about honing it at a 1000# stone and then slowly resore it one an 3000# or 1000# stone?

It will take some time but probably wil work?

 

[wimbouman]

Why not just re-sharpen it yourself?

yep, great minds think alike!

 

[Alacrity59]

Well you could run it through that sharpener on the back of the electric can opener . . . na . . . don't do it. To me it does not look too bad. Good luck.

 

[wimbouman]

Well you could run it through that sharpener on the back of the electric can opener . . . na . . . don't do it. To me it does not look too bad. Good luck.

Yes, some wetstones would do...

 

[ouch]

How about honing it at a 1000# stone

I hope you have a lot of time on your hands if you plan on fixing that with a 1K.

You'll need a pretty coarse stone, ~220, to fix that.

Such a nice knife- what a shame.

 

[Mr_Amazing]

The best way to fix the knife is to send a bill to whoever destroyed it and buy a new one. Maybe that family member will think again before using others objects carelessly.

 

[lamina]

It breaks my heart to see such a nice knife to be treated that way...

Man, don't do anything at home...you have there some big issues, deep deep holes on edge.Go to a professional, grinding machine and so on is the only way...The case is grave.I don't know if that knife will survive the treatment, heating on emery and so on...As you know it, forget it, it's gone know.What you will have will be a new knife with other personality, only the handle will be the same...

And it looks like a Damascus steel blade..or maybe it's just reflection...but if so, your loss is double, because about hardness the Damascus steel is quite hard and do not tolerate rough treatment and very hard to sharpen. And if you bought a Dam' steel it wasn't at a popular price.It means they ruined a Ferrari steel blade...With that kind of family, who needs enemies!! ;-) Psycho shower scene occurs to me...

 

[Fnord5]

I am not a fan of shun knives.
They are great knives, no doubt, but with a nice German blade, that kind of damage would be hard to do.

 

[DougK]

I feel your pain. I have the Shun Ken Onion 7" santoku knife (with Damascus blade) and I'd be heartbroken if anything like that happened to mine.

 

[langod]

I'm not sure I have the skill to repair it on a stone myself. I have the Spyderco sharpening set that I use to keep the edge on my knives, but this damage is far beyond that.

I guess the consensus is that this goes far beyond what Shun will consider "resharpening."

So... what is your advice for repair? Send it to Shun? Send it to another knife professional?
If you suggest sending it to another sharpening pro, please make suggestions.

One way or another I want to get it fixed. I'm not at a point where I can replace a $100+ knife (currently unemployed), so it's this one or some piece of crap from Walmart.


Here's another pic -- it seemed that there was some confusion as to how deep the damage is.

 

[jeffmeit]

I would let the pros handle it, send it away to be sharpened, they have probably seen worse. I think if you try to repair it, you may cause more damage.

I have seen some people use some horrible cutting boards (glass, etc.) they must damage their knives worse then this.

 

[VR6ofpain]

I almost thought I was being ridiculous giving rules on kitchen knife usage to my wife. Now I know why I did it, I was worried something like this would happen.

Sorry bro.

 

[Fnord5]

That's worse than it looked in the closeup.
That would take me a few hours to clear up I think.

I have so many projects going on right now, I don't need another, but I want to offer my services, gratis.

 

[Suzuki]

I feel for you!

I would definitely send this out to a pro - either Korin as mentioned above, or this guy who gets very good reviews.

http://www.japaneseknifesharpening.com/mailorderform.html

If you click the services tab, then the sharpening tab and scroll down, you will see that this guy took a knife that had damage like yours and made it better than new.

His prices seem reasonable for the amount of work involved and the fact that the edge will be hand finished on stones.

I almost thought I was being ridiculous giving rules on kitchen knife usage to my wife. Now I know why I did it, I was worried something like this would happen.

I'll go one better - I actually keep my good knives in a case in a drawer and keep my beater knives (all of which are also very sharp) in the block on the counter - everyone knows that touching my good knives may result in the loss of a digit or two.

I can only imagine how ticked I'd be if someone did this to my knife as I get pretty irate when people abuse my beater knives.

 

[NoFair]

If you don't know how to use a slack belt grinder to make knives I'd send it in.

Damaging temper etc. will be a problem if you aren't good at it. Worst case Shun will make you pay a bit to rebevel it.

There are several knife makers who could also do it for you.

Tom Krein (call don't mail): http://kreinknives.net/home.htm

Bark river knives (I'd call here as well...) will put a great convex edge on it for a price.

It shouldn't be a problem for a pro, I've fixed worse myself.

Had a few family knife incidents so now we have to knife racks in the kitchen, mine and the free for alls

Sverre

 

[DougK]

I'd send it to Shun. This is not something I would want to tackle at home.

 

[Scotto]

If you want to send it to me, I'll fix it up for you. It may take a couple of weeks given my schedule, but I'll take a crack at it. PM me if you are interested.