If You Could Buy Just One Kitchen Steel...?

Eli Chaps said:
I primarily run Wusthoff, Henkels and a Yaxell in BD1N. Good enough for me, easy enough to sharpen and tough enough to not worry about them. :)
Click to expand...

Plenty good for the kitchen! I use a Dexter 8" Chef's kinfe and a 6" Vic utility knife for 90% of what I do. I also have a very cheap Joyce Chen 4" paring knife that works great if only because its so thin.

The Vic and Chen I maintain on coffee cups for weeks on end, the Dexter is good enough steel I take it to a stone/hard strop when it starts to dull, but have been known to use the coffee cup on that too when in a hurry.
 
Last edited:
I'm still using the Borosillicate glass rod I made 25 years ago for $5, back when HandAmerica was trying to sell them for $75. I went to a chemical supply house, told them what I needed, and they had it for me a few days later. It's just a thick-walled glass tube to which I added a handle. Same glass as used in test tubes and retorts, and known to all as 'Pyrex.' Cheaper than window glass, and much harder. So long as you don't drop them, they last forever, and when used regularly during cutting, produce the perfectly refined edge that only needs to see a stone 2-3 times a year.


Stitchawl
 
I’m not nearly as knowledgeable about different steel types as a lot of folks in here and I don’t spend very much time in the kitchen either but can’t help but think LC200N would make an excellent steel for a kitchen knife..it’s highly resistant to corrosion while still having surprisingly good edge retention
 
Just one kitchen steel? Then no doubt about it, the geman professional's one and only choice would be the DEGUSSIT kitchen 'steel' (now owned by Kyocera). It is widely distributed in gemani (also by Böker) under the product name "Sieger Long Life" and used and loved by professionals in kitchens/forums/workshops. With 80eur amazon price a bit on the expensive side, the spare part (if you dropped and broke it) retails at 66eur.

I am waiting for the manufacturer to mass produce Sharpmaker-compatible rods (triangular rods with rounded off long edges) in this material: I'd be more interested in a "204DF" (Degussit Fine) than in this 'steel'.
 
Last edited:
First Choice: Old Hickory or Russell Green River with 1095 carbon steel blades.
They work well (for going on 200 years), take a "razor edge", hold an edge for a descent amount of work, and are easy to keep sharp.
They also take on a nice patina. :)

(I also prefer and use only wood cutting boards and cast iron pots, pans, griddles, dutch ovens, etc. :.. OK, I do have a couple porcelain on steel pots, and a ceramic slow cooker that I use, too)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top