For my birthday my wife gave me the gift of adding another knife to my collection. Ah… my set of Shun knives. How wonderful they are. I never knew what I was missing until I cut something with my very first Shun knife. You see, Shun knives are made special. The are sharpened to a 16 degree angle rather than the standard 20 degree angle– which makes them extremely sharp. Shun knives are made from a special alloy of steel (VG-10) that allow it to retain that 16 degree edge. A traditional knife edge would become blunt very quickly. So, to give it a bit more stability, traditional knives are sharpened to a more oblique angle. (Which makes them not as sharp). I first learned about Shun knives from a promotional piece put out by Alton Brown. To start down the path of being a ‘Blade Head’ yourself, watch the following video.