"Cooking for Engineers" tests chef's knives

[johnniet]

I just discovered "Cooking for Engineers" tonight. Fans of Alton Brown should be delighted.

In addition to recipes with detailed instructions and photographs, they of course have a section on gear! I immediately went to

The CfE Chef's Knives Cutoff

He tried cutting carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, and scallions, with 11 different knives including Henckels, Wusthof, Global, MAC, Forschner, and several Japanese knives.

The bottom line:

Also, as a sanity check, I had several people come over and try out the MAC 8-in. with dimples along with several of the other knives shown in this article. Every single tester agreed that the MAC was the best knife that they had ever used.

Makes me want to try one.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Comprehensive comparison of knives with the initial edges, it is usually worthwhile to do some cutting through thick vegetables and a block og cheeze because this is very different than slicing a tomato or carrots. In addition some of the utility application like cutting garlic. I agree it is worthwhile to comment on the performance of the initial edge, but would agree with several who commented that a comparison after sharpening to optimal edge angles would be of benefit as well. However they all have different optimal edge angles and this is a fair amount of work.

-Cliff

 

[Jeff Clark]

I own a bunch of MAC Original Series knives and they are awfully good. The 6.5-inch utility knife (UK-60) has an edge that is paper-thin and really slips through those crispy fruits and vegetables. I have brought them along when a bunch of us work at the local soup kitchen. I always bring along a bunch of really sharp knives. Once they've tried the thin MAC's the volunteers consider all other knives as dull. It is the thin profile more than the edge sharpness that they are noticing. All the knives are equally sharp, but the MAC's are thinner.

Take a look at the full line at www.macknife.com

 

[tristram]

I'm surprised the Kai Shun didn't do better.
Thin slicers seem to have had the edge over other considerations
And I still prefer the feel of forged knives to overpriced stamped ones.

 

[dpimpc]

I'm surprised the Kai Shun didn't do better.
Thin slicers seem to have had the edge over other considerations
And I still prefer the feel of forged knives to overpriced stamped ones.

It did recieve grades of "excellent" in every category, that's not exactly bad. I own the Shuns, and feel the test pretty much agreed with what I have found. I love them!:thumbup: (I also sent a link of the review to a friend of mine who sells Cutco and is convinced they are the best you can buy.)

 

[beefangusbeef]

Hmmm, I'm currently in the market for a set of kitchen knives and the shun are up there but I've been looking more and more at some of the other japanese knives sold individually. Really I only ever use 5-6 knives even if I have a million piece kitchen set. One knife set I'd like to see a review comparison of are the Pure Komachi kitchen. I've got 3 of the 4 (no bread knife) and they've been outstanding knives so far for the money, 20 dollars each, not to mention they certainly have a unique look to them. All 3 came hair popping sharp! A note on cutco they are nearly indestructible as kitchen knives if longevity is what you're mostly after. I used one the other day to hack my way through a frozen london broil and it survived (I was trying to break it to justify to the wife the need for new ones )

 

[Andrew Taylor]

It did recieve grades of "excellent" in every category, that's not exactly bad. I own the Shuns, and feel the test pretty much agreed with what I have found. I love them!:thumbup: (I also sent a link of the review to a friend of mine who sells Cutco and is convinced they are the best you can buy.)

I love the Kershaw - Kai Shun Santoku too, so I have added my bit to the forum. Good review though.