Thanks Rick. That really helps me understand your repeated comments. For a straight razor that I put to my face for shaving whiskers I understand your concern. For a cooking knife, I guess we don't share similar experience. That just isn't necessary for cooking. Very cool to a knife geek (intended to be a positive nomenclature) but not for a chef/cook, especially a home cook. But great conversation; I enjoyed it.
p.s. None of my Shun Classic or Premiers have a "severe convex", even considering the factory edge. I've seen that on German knives as delivered but never on a Shun. I never put a micrometer on my knife so I can't comment on the measurements.
When I mentioned Shuns as having a "severe convex" to them, its a relative term, in comparing them to some other knives in the price range. They're certainly not as
severe as a typical German.
The fact is many professional cooks are singing the praises of lasers and other knives of more refined (read "thin") geometry. They are actually a large part of the market for these knives I think. And of course no sushi/sashimi chef is going to be seen without a proper chisel-grind edge. They insist a very fine cut is part of what makes the product.
Myself, I do a lot of very thin slicing in my typical days prep, and the quality of the product just wouldn't be there without a very thin and acute edge. Otherwise I'd be making mush more than anything else in many cases. Even when not slicing real thin, you can just see the difference in the cut. And for raw vegetables that means something, to me anyway, and a considerable [though perhaps still relatively small] number of other folks.
I'm hardly a knife geek. I am half-ways toward being a "practical" sharpening geek though. I'm happy at this time using a thinned Vic Rosewood, with a handle carved out for better fit, for general vegetable chopping. I only bought it to do a review, but it wound up replacing another cheap stainless knife I did a thinning job on.
For the finer work I use a 9" Ikon slicer, picked up before I really knew anything about knives. Too bad I didn't find out about Cheftalk a few months sooner. Aside from the low-end steel, they have decent geometry as is, though of course I thinned it a bit. That one will do till I can find a suitable slicer/suji in one of the CPM alloys I'm partial too. As for the Vic, well eventually I'll be looking to get something also having a finer grain and better edge retention.
Rick
