Every knife, no matter how hard the steel, will get eventually dull with use. A knife’s edge is so finely sharpened that it actually bends and rolls over after cutting and slicing all day. Every knife will do this, whether they’re made of Japanese steel or not. That’s where the Kanso Combination Honing Steel comes in. It straightens out that rolled edge so you’re not cutting down with a blunt blade. It also prolongs the sharpness of a blade until ultimately it will require a proper sharpening.

With Japanese steel, like the material found in the Shun Kanso series, you’ll only have to hone your knives once a week, depending on how frequently you use your knives. That’s because Japanese steel is so hard, it doesn’t dull as quickly as European knives, which can require honing after each use. It’s important that any blade is honed to the angle it was sharpened at, and with any Shun, you’ll want to hone to a 16° angle. To make this easier, Shun placed a built-in angle guide on the handle, set to 16°, so you’ll never have to second guess yourself. The Shun Kanso Combination Honing Steel has two surfaces to help you keep your knives sharp: a smooth one for daily honing, and a micro-ribbed one for weekly honing. This steel was built to match the simplicity of the Kanso line, but will work for any Shun knife.