In your opinion... Your favorite chef's knife & why?

I'm a traditionalist. 8" Chef's Knife. High carbon blade - stains, but it's usually easier to bring back an edge in the middle of a project with a few strops. Deep belly and guard so there's room for a good grip. That way you can work with the heel of the blade and apply more pressure to cutting chores, if needed. The heel can also be used for precision food work. 8" length is very versatile for most general slicing. Wood handle. Works great in water and grease. I've never cared for the high tech handles including Global, etc.
 
The one I use the most is a sixties-vintage Sabatier 10" chef's knife. It's really light, and has an excellent carbon steel blade. It's almost too light for me. My other two favorites are a CS-bladed cheap Dexter with that's probably thirty years old, and a strange Thai cleaver thing made of 1095 that my wife bought me.

James
 
Shun 8" Chef knife

Very very sharp and stays very very sharp...excellent knife. :D
 
Dojo Blue Steel small slicer. Not quite a chef knife, but a gyoto hocho with a blade that is 150mm long, 40mm wide and 2mm thick. Does everything I need in a culinary knife.
 
I have quite a selection of top quality kitchen knives from top manufacturers, but my favorite was given to me by my son almost 15 years ago and I’ve used it daily since then. I use it for chopping, dicing, carving, just everything but de boning. It’s a 6” chef’s knife hot forged, hollow ground Remington. Its got a nice hefty weight to it and it takes and keeps a razor edge for a long time. I don’t know who actually made it, but it was bought at the Remington Knife store and their name is on it and even that long ago he paid a little over $100 for it. Perfect combination of weight, balance and cutting ability.

EDIT: This is the same knife that I was using to slice up about 20 ripe tomatoes while talking to friends. To make matters worse someone had over served me on the vino and I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been. I always curl my fingertips and use my knuckles to guide the blade but I let the tip of my little finger poke out about 1/2" and cut right through the nail and completely cut off the tip. Didn't feel a thing either because it was too sharp or I was already oblivious to pain.
 
I have a set of J.A. Henckels 4 Star knives which are excellent.
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But if I were to replace them, I think I'll go for the Wusthof Classic Series. Slightly softer steel.

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You can't go wrong with either maker. My personal choice for a chef's knife would be an 8" blade with traditional rivets. Wustof is fully forged and Henckel is partially forged then welded together (my understanding) whether this will ever mean any difference during the course of years of normal kitchen use, I don't know. But for what it's worth, I do a lot of cooking, have taken cooking classes, contributed to a cookbook by a cooking authority and above all watch a lot of Food Network :) and will be buying Wustof next.
 
I have Henkels 4 star - which are pretty decent, but relatively thick bladed and heavy. Easy to sharpen. I like to give them a toothy edge for slicing.

I also have an Al Mar 8" chef knife which is awesome. Thin, strong and extremely sharp blade. Really light. I keep this one sharpened with a fine edge for push cutting. If I ever need more kitchen knives I'll probably stick with Al Mar. I think it's laminated VG-10 - not the damascus looking stuff, just the regular chef knife.
 
I really like this knife. It is one piece, solid SS and somewhat unusual.
The blade is forged in Japan and holds a good edge.

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My favorite kitchen knife is the one I am unable to make for myself right now.
 
I used to love the Gerber Balance Plus line, but they don't make them anymore. I'm currently using a set of Globals and they rock.
 
Anything decently thick, wide, and balanced nicely around the hilt, maybe a little out towards the point. I don't have so much of a preference as far as blade make, but I prefer something flat ground with a decently polished edge.
 
I love my Global chef's knife the best. It's very thin, incredibly strong and holds it's edge like crazy. Balance is great and it's cool looking, oh how cool looking.
 
I have a 10" Dexter-Russell that I like very much. Nice and thin, and it slices like a laser (well, you know what I mean ;) ). If I were to buy another, it would be a Victorinox.

Paul
 
I like my Joyce Chen Chinese cleaver similar to what Martin Yan on "Yan Can Cook" uses. Not very expensive by any stretch, but very sharp, and easy to keep sharp as well.

IMO the big advantage of this design over more traditional Western designs is the extremely wide surface that can be used as a spatula when the food has been chopped, or sliced, etc.
 
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