Kitchen Knives Experiences

[AA#5]

I'm not much of a chef - I mostly use a chef's knife for making salads. I bought a "Mercer" knife & I couldn't believe how good is was for the low price. I've been using it on a bamboo cutting board for a few months & it's still razor sharp. I got the softer handle. Very comfortable & just the right weight. I was so impressed, I bought three of their paring knives.

 

[P_A_S_1]

Recently went to the Korin store in the city, for those members in or close to the NYC area it's worth stopping in just to check it out. A substantial collection of various traditional and western style Japanese knives and water stones.

 

[Dipti13]

I could never purchase a knife like that...

IMO, wustof, victorinox, Henkel are all good knives for basic home chefs. I would not go cheap, and never buy exotic material for blades like ceramic or what have you.

Stainless is good for durable use, easy to sharpen.
Carbon is good for screaming sharp edges and long edge retention, Harder steel so harder to sharpen.

I would prefer to go with victorinox or cold steel knives. Till now the best kitchen knives set I got from Cold Steel. I hope you will also enjoy it.

 

[kensington]

My wife has always done a lot of cooking but due to recent food sensitivities and general health concerns she has really been getting into it so I picked up a Fujiwara FKM-09 and she loves it. I was going to get a MAC Professional 8" but figured it was a bit much and more maintenance then she would want at twice the price of the Fujiwara.

 

[michiganmade]

Check out Blade Forums, there is a guy on there P. Wheeler that makes great knives. I am very happy with mine.

 

[MrJino]

I would prefer to go with victorinox or cold steel knives. Till now the best kitchen knives set I got from Cold Steel. I hope you will also enjoy it.

I only use japanese knives. Any other style of knife will slow me down.

I'm no a fan of anything cold steel.

 

[xxo]

I'm not much of a cook, but I get a lot of use out of my old plain edged Cold Steel K5 and K4. These have very thinly ground blades that slice real well and their VG1 steel takes and holds a great edge (though it will take a slight patina if not cleaned and dried shortly after you are done using it). The kraton handles on these are not the best, but they a good enough for my use.


I also get a lot of use out of a couple of Victorinox paring knives (plain and serrated), a old Gerber Gator fillet knife (makes a great watermelon knife), a Spyderco Catcherman in MBS-26 steel (holds a great edge).


If I was a Chef, I could see myself getting into the higher end Japanese knives.

 

[Dipti13]

I only use japanese knives. Any other style of knife will slow me down.

I'm no a fan of anything cold steel.

I would prefer victorinox but not japanese knives.

 

[MrJino]

I would love to use this at work, but far too costly.


My work knives

 

[P_A_S_1]

MrJino, very nice knives. The one with the western style handle, the blade kinda looks like a French style. The two rods on the left, knife steels or something else?

 

[MrJino]

The western handled knife is by Misono, a Japanese brand.

French knives are similar to japanese knives, sabitier or something like that? It's a misono sujihiki with Swedish carbon steel.

The 2 sharp things are sushi chopsticks, they're used to pick up and place sashimi so you don't touch the fish with your hands.

My knives have never touched a steel rod! It's blasphemy lol

 

[P_A_S_1]

I was going to ask what those chop stick looking things were .... Funny.

I refresh my edges with a piece of leather instead of steel but I'm using steel that's probably a lot softer then anything you have pictured there.

 

[MrJino]

I've been using these for a decade and will never change haha

 

[FlashKat]

How good are Shun knives?

 

[MrJino]

As a career chef, i wouldn't take a free shun.

Their edges chip frequently, likely heat treat issues. Their handles are terrible for use, very slippery and awkward shapes.

Shun simply goes for looks.

Terrible knives for chefs. Yet home chefs like them, because of the looks.

 

[more_vampires]

As some have mentioned before: Wusthof. Love em, particularly their paring and small utility blades. I have an 8" santoku Wusthof that I love. A girl over at my house decided to use it once and said "This knife is scaring me. Don't you have any duller knives?"

Also, I saw no mention of my favorite larger knife: NSF. You know, the white handled ones? I absolutely love their santoku pattern blades. The fully dropped point seems to help protect the edge from the more inept people who come into my kitchen to ruin my knives. I caught one of these jerks using my medium saucepan and my 8" NSF santoku in the machine shop. Sure, I got mad. Do any good? NO! I know why he did it. He saw the movie "The World's Fastest Indian" and did it because Burt was crap in the kitchen, as well. Believe it or not, you can get the spots off with a pink pencil eraser. The worst spots can get rubbed with tomato juice and green scotch brite scrub pad, then rinsed with water.

Not certain of the steel, but it takes a shaving razor edge. It gets spotty brown when people other than me insist on running them through the dishwasher, so it's obviously not stainless. I like to touch mine up frequenly before/during/after use with a Fiskars rolling ceramic wheel. I hide the largest and sharpest ones.

As many have stated earlier, people come into my kitchen to ruin my knives regardless of what I do or say or how red I turn. My simple and elegant solution? I grabbed a crappy $1 China "Brandware" serrated steak knife and turned it into a smooth edge on a bench belt sander with a fine belt, dipping it into water repeatedly though it's stainless and has no real temper to ruin. Force of habit. Touch it up on the belt sander once every few weeks or months. They are inherently lazy, so I leave it out where they grab it first because they are too apathetic to get the proper tool for what they are doing and use it correctly. Not one of them can sharpen to save their lives, so I end up being the knife sharpener for everyone.

I catch people stirring coffee cups with this modified steak knife. I caught someone scraping crud from the bottom of the fridge with it. Thank god they are lazy and grab the first thing at hand.

OCD IN THE KITCHEN! :mecry:

 

[FlashKat]

Thanks MrJino!!! I almost bought a Shun.

As a career chef, i wouldn't take a free shun.

Their edges chip frequently, likely heat treat issues. Their handles are terrible for use, very slippery and awkward shapes.

Shun simply goes for looks.

Terrible knives for chefs. Yet home chefs like them, because of the looks.

 

[P_A_S_1]

Stopped by the Bowery Kitchen, a kitchen supply shop here in the city, and was checking out some of their knives. They actually have a decent amount of F. ****s knives, a German brand that's pretty hard to find in person. Out of any German knife I've handled it had the best factory edge by far however I wasn't a fan of their '1905' handle, not for me looks wise. While the name always gets a chuckle the knife itself seemed pretty good, not much different from the other big German knives but finished well and less expensive. Would have loved to do some real use comparisons side by side with my Henckles for a week or two .

 

[ganymede]

My work knives

That two Konosuke White #2 in Wa handle are beautiful! My daily beaters are: 1) Hiromoto Aogami Super 240mm gyuto, 2) Hiromoto Aogami Super 190mm Santoku

Yes, they earned their tiger stripes as well (not my pic):

 

[more_vampires]

Beautiful stuff, Mr G.