The amount of bad information here is unbelievable. This is not a sharpener. It doesn't have a hand guard or a slot. This does not have a plastic handle and isn't made in China. It will not scratch your knives if you use it correctly. It is not too short for a 12" blade.
To my surprise it is capable of turning a chefs knife into a boning knife rather quickly, but if one follows the instructions on the box and uses a VERY light touch for stroking at the correct angle this high end tool will do you right. The handle is the same as on all classic knives. It is made for honing, not removing metal like a ceramic stick.
The angle guide is not to rub your knife against, just to help you get the right angle before you move down & stroke it. Holding it correctly, you do not have to change hands, just spin the steel 180 degrees. The flat part of the angle guide is 16 degrees for Shun knives. The rest of the angle guide is 20 degrees for the cheaper European steels and don't bother honing grocery store steel just pull it through a $1.29 sharpener.
This is a great tool if you learn how to use it the correct way.
Hilditch
I recently purchased this honing steel and perhaps I can sort out some of the confusion. In short, it does not damage your knives (unless you don't know how to use it), it is for honing (not sharpening), and my box says Made In China. The handle looks and feels exactly like the handles on the knives, and according to Shun's website, is made of the same material.
First, the steel performs like it should, and I have no problems with it's performance, design, or construction. I give it 5 stars for these reasons. The guard is handy for its flat side, helping to correctly angle the blade to 16 degrees--the angle at which the blades are made.
This is a honing steel, not sharpening, as has been said before. When a knife is used, the blade begins to develop small bends in the blade. A honing rod simply straightens out those bends, putting the blade back in alignment again. Of course, eventually the blade will no longer have the perfect edge it once did, and will need to be sharpened (that is, removal of material to make a new edge). This steel does not make your knives dull, jagged, ugly, or otherwise damaged. Unless I suppose, you don't know how to properly use a honing steel.
The box I'm holding here clearly says Made In China. My Shun knives are marked on the blade as made in Japan. That being said, I don't believe that it's of an inferior quality--if you handed me the steel I'd have no reason to believe that it was of a lower quality in things like the handle or craftsmanship as my knives at first glance. Also, I can't say for certain, but perhaps different runs of this product were made in different places. That would at least explain the confusion over where this product is made.
According to Shun's website, this handle is made of "Ebony-black PakkaWood". If it's truly made of some sort of plastic, it's indistinguishable from the look and feel of the knives. The only discernible difference I found is that it sounds different when tapped on, but that may very well be from a different size or shape of tang. There is however, a steel on Shun's website with a Co-Polymer handle. It's product number is 9990, and the handle looks very different from this one, almost like a big black plastic piece. The product pictured is a DM0750.
As a note, I have no affiliation with KAI Corp, Kershaw, or anyone similar (noting my reviewer name).
Buy Shun DM0750 Honing Steel Now
I recently purchased some Shun Elite knives. They cut like a light saber right out of the box but after a couple of months they dulled slightly. The Shun honing steel brought them right back to life. I really like the guide on the steel. It ensures you get the correct angle for Shun knives.
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Shun Sharpening Steel
I use Japanese, French and German knives in my kitchen as well as a well known German brand's sharpening steel. I was constantly frustrated by it's inability to hone a blade and assumed I was using it incorrectly. I viewed video after video of correct honing techniques to make sure I had it right but to no avail.
I heard that Shun produced a good sharpener-honer so decided to purchase one. I have never looked back! The minute I put a blade to it, I could feel the difference. It realigns and maintains the edge on both the Japanese and European blades every time I use it.
One word of caution, it has a slot to guide the 15% angle required for Japanese blades, but this can scratch your knife and spoil it's aesthetics.
Otherwise, go and get one, you won't regret it!
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Great honing steel that is a bit longer than others I looked at (seems to help a bit for the bigger knives) and an attractive taper (not sure that matters, but it looks nice). I've had it for a while now and use it frequently. Despite an occasional clumsy collision, this steel slides smoothly and shows no nicks. It straightens the edge on my (mostly) mid-grade knives with ease.
Another reviewer claimed the handle was plastic. Perhaps he was mistaken, or perhaps he had a different version. It does almost "feel" plastic due to the hard resin finish, but mine appears to be the same pakka wood as on my Shun knives (though the steel lacks the metal endcap the knives have).
Aesthetics are open to debate, but I think it looks much nicer than most, and performs better than any other I've used for daily straightening.
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I LOVE LOVE LOVE this knife! It is the best one I've ever owned! I'm so happy that I invested the time to research knives and ended on this being my final choice. It is the best knife I've ever worked with, and I've been thru culinary school. I love the Santoku knives better then a chef's knife. And Wustof is one of the best commercial knife makers, only a few brands are at the same level as far as quality. Also, the Ikon line (in my opinion) is better then their Classic line, the handles feel better in my hand. I will be investing in a full set of the Wusthof Ikon knives once I have the means to do so.
