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Sidearms & Scatterguns Blade repair? I messed up

mzvarner

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 7, 2013
510
379
Spokane, WA
Chipped the blade on my Shun chefs knife separating the wing joint in a goose. This is a nice knife that my wife got me as a gift for a few years ago. Any recommendations as where to send it for a repair?

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Just sharpen as normal and let the chip disappear over time. Why lose a few mm of height to fix it at one time?

If you insist on having it sharpened out at once let me know and I'll send you some information.
 
I would consider that to be a warranty item, you weren't using it as a chisel. I'd contact Shun, if they won't repair/replace under warranty I imagine if it can be fixed they would be your best bet.


Warranty service through the manufacturer, now there is a thought! I posted way too early and before coffee turned my brain on. Ill look into that.


Just sharpen as normal and let the chip disappear over time. Why lose a few mm of height to fix it at one time?

If you insist on having it sharpened out at once let me know and I'll send you some information.

I tried to continue on as nothing happened, but the edges are so sharp it catches on whats being cut which kinda tears more than cuts. I would be curious in what advice you have to offer to help me decide what to do next.
 
I highly doubt Shun will warranty the chip. That's just the nature of high Rockwell hardness. It holds an edge better, but is much more brittle.

If you don't have the tools yourself I would send it into Shun for the free sharpening.
 
I've unfortunately done the same hitting a bone - but not quite as bad as your chip.

Unless you have the skills and tools to do it yourself, go to a professional or send it in to the factory. If you do it yourself, you will either lose the nice texturing on the primary bevel or change the angle of the edge to be less acute. Don't put it on a grinder or belt sander unless you know what you are doing. The heat generated can blow the temper.

My chipped blade didn't have cosmetic texturing, so I just worked it on a rough diamond stone until I had the profile I wanted and then used Japanese water stones to bring the texture back up to a uniform polish.

You may also want to buy a beater knife or two.... I have :) Victorinox makes great knives that are durable and inexpensive.
 
Same here, I didnt chip the blade on my Shun, but I hit a bone Im assuming and basically flattened that spot on the blade. I worked it out with my sharpening equipment. Was not too difficult but I did have to work at it a while. Good luck
 
I use Shun knives. They are very hard and brittle. Not likely a poor heat treat, they are about RC70 by design. Very fragile. My Shun Kaji small santoku has a big chip and crack similar to yours from overaggressively cutting a semi frozen chicken.

Shun maybe be willing to do domething for you, and for me, but my chip was well earned because i was abusing the knife.

Im going to buy a replacement, and have a locale knifemaker grind the chipped knife down to a different profile.


Shun sure makes a pretty knife.
 
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Probably shouldn't use a chef knife as a boning knife or meat clever. Also, the above are all examples of poorly heat treated steel. Cutlery is one of the biggest ripoff industries.

http://ontarioknife.com/cutlery/old-hickoryr.html

I'm a bit unclear what you meant... can you clarify:

What's all the "above examples of poorly heat treated steel"... the chipped knives?

Is the link to Ontario knives your way of saying those are properly or poorly heat treated?
 
Yes, of course those chipped knives. I'm saying those inexpensive 1095 knives that have been around for a century are the better knives. And there are different knives for different jobs. The "nature of the Rockwell hardness" is right but goosed got it backwards. Like those Reeves GB blades will break in half too but they look cool.
 
I'm a bit unclear what you meant... can you clarify:

What's all the "above examples of poorly heat treated steel"... the chipped knives?

Is the link to Ontario knives your way of saying those are properly or poorly heat treated?

They might just be too brittle for what you are trying to do. There are few knives, especially with profile that thin, that will hold an edge forever and come away from bone unscathed.

In the same steel, a higher rockwell hardness will generally create a knife more optimized for light duty cutting tasks that can hold a sharper edge for a longer time. The down side is that the edge often dull by tiny chips over time and occasionally experience large chips like yours. Any thing that might involve impacts or the blade encountering something hard is bad for high hardness blades. Your knife is probably really hard, up near the limits of that steel.

The same steel at a lower hardness will do better at resisting damage but will dull more quickly under the same light use. Softer steels tend to just kind of 'fold' or dent as opposed to chipping. Large impact knives and machetes are an example of this extreme.

The ontarios linked above are really decent knives, but you have to clean and dry them after use, probably also get some beeswax or mineral oil in the handles. They are a soft steel and almost impossible to damage. Being soft, they also respond well to steeling, which really just straightens out the tiny folds in the edge you get from use. Like a cast iron pan, the old hickorys require a bit more care but should last a lifetime if you are willing to maintain your stuff.

I like the old hickories a lot and have a bunch of them. Very easy to throw a great edge on them with a slack belt grinder and they can be kept up with a steel for a long time. It's also not the end of the world when a guest or family member uses them to do something dumb.
 
Shun blades are fragile, hard and chip if abused for sure, and at $3000 for a big set me and mzvarner were pretty foolish for abusing them ?

But, i really doubt its a bad heat treat, or poor quality thats at fault.

I bought my Shun set because they can slice tomatoes so thin that the slies are transparent. Can slice thawed beef paper thin for sashimi, and can slice sushi rolls without pulling rice grains out of the roll. They slice the rice grains in half, leaving them in the nori.

But, theyre s little scary to use. You'll see your fingertip laying on the cutting board before you feel it.?

I used my Shun cleaver last night to spatchcock a turkey. It sliced through the rib bones without noticing them, and went through the thicker bones in the thigh with just a little push. At one point, i got the alignment off a little and it sliced through the spine longitudinally.
 
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