Shun Premier 6" Gokujo Boning Knife, Handcrafted Japanese Boning & Fillet Knife, VG-MAX Core with Damascus Stainless Steel Cladding, Pakkawood Handle, Meat & Fish Knife for Professional and Home Chefs

I have two other Shun knives, so am quite familiar with the brand. Love them, and love the boning/fillet knife. I recently got into smoking meat, which involves A LOT of prep work and post-smoke cutting. Especially cutting excess fat from a brisket. Yikes! I also needed a good knife for filleting salmon, black cod and other whole fish. The Shun meets or exceeds all my expectations in terms of sharpness and ease-of-use. It is truly a pleasure to use. I feel like a surgeon as I am cutting up the meat. Its sooo accurate. Aesthetically, it is also a thing of beauty. Which is not really important for a knife, but still ... So, Shuns are great ... yada yada yada. But, the point I want to make in this review is to compare it (from the Premier line) with the Shun Classic line. My other two Shuns are both Classics. One a hollow ground Santoku and a Slicing knife. Other than the aesthetics, all three perform equivalently and take a super fine edge. I would be indifferent between choosing to cut with a Premier or a Classic. I bought the Premier on Prime Day, priced $20 more than the Classic, which was not included in the Prime sale. I would do it again. But the current $40 difference ... meh. Maybe a bridge too far. One other thing I will mention is its use as a fillet knife. The Shun has a super fine tip. Great for digging in and making precision cuts. Many fillet knives are longer (e.g. 9"), but more importantly flexible. If you have any fillet experience or watch some videos, skinning a fillet requires getting the knife blade as close to the skin as possible. Bending the blade on the table (skin side down) to make the skinning cut. The Shun is very stiff, and also a short for a larger fish. I may end up getting an additional fillet knife, e.g. a Bubba 9-inch Tapered Flex fillet knife.

I have really come to love the Shun brand as they have beautiful looking knives that also have excellent steels being used for the blades. I usually use this knife as a fillet knife and not so much as a boning knife. While I am sure that it can handle some basic spatchcocking, this is definitely not a honesuki. While the blade has a really nice hardness for the kitchen, I am worried that because it is so thing that I may end up breaking this knife on some hard bones. Overall for fillets this knife is excellent and makes easy work because it is very precise and sharp out of the box and it is also easy to hone and keep sharp until perhaps 6-12 months later when a full on sharpening session may be in order. I also have some of their other knives in this collection namely the kiritsuke and the paring and utility knife. All are excellent pieces and I would definitely rebuy or give as a gift in the future.

Great quality Complete my Shun Premier set

Hermoso.

very sharp and excellent crafted blade with a great handle feel. Beautiful knife!