Shun 22-Slot Bamboo Knife Storage Block

I would not ordinarily think of posting a video review for a knife block, but this one is so attractive that I wanted you to be able to see it. There are so many knife blocks sold by Amazon and I found it a daunting task to try to choose one. I had a couple of smaller knife blocks and then acquired another 6 knives Ginsu Shoku 05707 Japanese Stainless Steel Cutlery Set with Crimson Colored Handles and didn't have room for the magnetic hanger that came with them. I also didn't have the space on my counter for three smaller knife blocks. So I decided to get one that would replace the smallest one that I had, with enough space to accommodate the extra knives. I spent probably a week going back and forth between the different options, but I'm glad I finally settled on this one. (A knife block, after all, is something that I'll probably have for a gazillion years and have to look at every day!)

It has the little metal Shun emblem on the bottom that you don't see on the Amazon photo but you'll see it in my video. The color is pretty close to what you see here, but if you use just a little Joyce Chen Bamboo Wood Oil, 8 Ounces which is a food-grade mineral oil it just brings out the wood grain and makes it even more beautiful. Bamboo is so attractive to begin with, but the oil just brings out the patterns in the bamboo. I bought this oil to use on my bamboo cutting board over a year ago and it works very well. I think you'll see that it adds something to the attractiveness of this block. And you use so little that the 8 oz bottle will probably last like forever.

The slots are nice and wide (one of my old knife blocks, the one I re-cycled, had rather narrow slots which didn't work with the big knives.) I have a several little paring knives and little utility knives which I put in the bottom 6 slots, but you could just as easily use that for steak knives.

I hope the video gives you a better idea of what this block looks like and helps you to make a decision. After all that time trying to decide, I'm glad that this is the one I ordered.

I couldn't decide if this block or the Henckels 22 slot would hold my 2 long 11" Victorinox bread knives, 2 Wusthoff Santokus, and 2 small Chicago Cutlery Santokus plus a couple other knives. I ordered them both and compared them side by side. The back corner of the Henckels is "blocked" so it sits 1" closer to the back wall on the counter than this block. However, I found the Shun bamboo wood block more aesthetically appealing and a nicer finish than the Henckels block. Also, the BIG difference is in the width of the knife slots. This block consistently for just about all slots was wider by 1/8" to 1/4" than the Henckels. For me, this small increase in width made the difference in getting all my knives in the block or not. If you have serious knives, then most of them are probably wide, and need this block. If your knives are narrow then the Henckels block would work fine. Both blocks were identical heighth. The steak knives are stored in a horizontal orientation in the Henckels block compared with this block. The large cleaver slot is towards the bottom of the face with this one, and towards the top of the block with the henckels block. As an added bonus, the 4 slots across the bottom on the Shun block are slightly wider than the Henckels block and therefore can accomodate a knife a little larger than a pairing or steak knife. The Henckels block has the same size slots along the bottom as used in the bottom section for steak knives. The opening for kitchen shears is the exact same width in both blocks, however, the heighth of the opening is less in this block as compared with the Henckels block and fits my cheap shears from Walmart better than the Henckels block did although both worked fine. As far as packaging is concerned, the Shun block is packaged better than the Henckels block. Both blocks have identical rubber feet on the bottom (screwed into the block). I assume both are made in China, (the Henckels is for sure). The Shun block is more expensive here on Amazon but worked better for my knife collection.

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I recently bought a Kramer knife that is 2 3/8" wide at the handle. I was hoping, partly based on the reviews, that this block would accommodate it -in addition to my cleaver. No such luck -the slots other than the cleaver slot are only about 2 1/8" wide. If your knives fit in this dimension, it's a very nice block, but I wish the descriptions would give the slot widths.

Read Best Reviews of Shun 22-Slot Bamboo Knife Storage Block Here

The product, the Shun22 slot knife block is superb. I do have to be careful entering the knife into the appropriate slot so as not to nick the surface of the bamboo finish. The even darker than expected color of my unit is most handsome. I think the slot numbers are perfect because any more onenings for smaller knives would be superfluous. It has been admired by friends.

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Issues with the blocks I received:

The first one of these I ordered arrived with a crack above the kitchen shears slot between 2 of the bamboo-board-columns (for lack of better words) all the way down the back. I think the crack was large enough that you could slide a sheet of paper through it, but I didn't even take the block out of the plastic wrap since I intended to ship it back.

The second block also had a crack on the back above the kitchen shears slot, but this crack was only a couple inches at the bottom between two of the "bamboo-board-columns" and then another inch one column over above that. These cracks also weren't as wide as the crack on the first one. In addition to the cracks, this one also had a dent a few mm in diameter in the top left corner (by the honing rod slot). These are slight nuisances but are not so bothersome as the large crack in the first one. As such I plan to keep this one.

Slot widths:

(I won't make any garauntees on my accuracy)

5 slots are 2 1/8 in. wide

3 slots are 1 5/8 in. wide

5 slots are 1 3/16 in. wide

6 slots are 15/16 in. wide

1 slot is 3 15/16 in. wide

and the other 2 slots are the honing rod and kitchen shears slots

Issues with the block in general:

As mentioned by another reviewer, it would be nice if the slots were wider. I have the Ken Onion by Shun 7-Inch Santoku, and it only fits completely into the cleaver slot. This is frustrating because they could have easily made one of the five 2 1/8" slots another 1/8"-1/4" wider, and then it would have fit. If I end up getting a cleaver, I will probably take a power drill to the block so my Santoku fits in one of the other slots. the only other thing is that the honing rod slot is too close to the kitchen shears slot. A have the Shun Sharpening Steel and the Kershaw Taskmaster Shears, and they fight for the same space so that the shears must sit crooked. This isn't a big deal; it just doesn't look so nice. Since Kershaw and Shun are both made by KAI, I thought maybe they should fit better.(UPDATE: The kitchen shears do fit in fine if inserted with the bottle opener side facing right.)

With all that being said, it still basically does what block should do, and I don't expect it to fall apart.

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