Kitchen Knife Designs

[james terrio]

see what i said aobut kitchen knives like a hunter every cook seems to like things just a bit differnt

Exactly. And there's no way on Earth you can ever please all of them, or even most of them.

There are plenty of knife designs that are simply awful for everything, but it is just not that difficult to make a kitchen or hunting or tactical or survival or fighting knife that works well. There's a wide range of designs that perform quite nicely. Unless you just lock your mind into a very strict style and stick with that for the rest of your career (which works very well for some makers), you're gonna have to deal with both lovers and haters no matter what you do. So don't worry about that too much.

Build what works for you, employ the very finest materials, HT and craftsmanship you can, use your knives, and improve them till you can't figure out how to make it any better, and see what sells in the meantime. Always be willing to adapt, change and add new models to reach new markets.

 

[Mike Gesualdo]

How's this?

It's your knife, so do it however you'd like... but if you're asking for opinions, I do a lot of cooking and know what I like

Personally, I the cutting edge profile is fine, but I also think you have a lot of unnecessary meat on the spine that happens to make it look a bit funky as well. I'd rotate the handle "angle" up a tad and slim out that hump. I drew this up in about 10 seconds on MSpaint to kind of show what I'm talking about (do be sure to spend a bit more time than that )

 

[oic0]

The more y'all poke and prod it, the more it looks like a gyuto lol. Not that that's a bad thing though. They are good looking knives and I use one for pretty much all my cooking needs that won't hit hard stuff.

 

[Stark Knives]

Thanks everyone for the input. I changed the design up a bit and will leave it a bit large everywhere so I can refine it when I get them cut out. It's always easier to take off material than put it back on.

 

[butcher_block]

when i make stock knives i shoot for hybrid of east and west. when i fill orders for retailers i know what they want for there market. and when i am doing a custom every thing startign with steel, hardness, grind tyep and blade shape are all worked out ahead.

 

[Willie71]

I have made both eastern and western style chefs knives, and my recommendation is make one of each! Both are useful for different things. When I make 3 piece sets, I alternate styles, ie. western chef, eastern utility and a paring knife, or eastern chefs, western utility and a paring knife. I have 4 sets like this out in people's hands now, plus my own set, and it works well. I also offset the edge depending on the users handedness, which helps with food release if the convex is ground well.

 

[butcher_block]

maybe the most useful set i have come up with is a 12 inch slicer/bread knife, westeren chef 8-10 inch, 7-8 inch nakiri, 6 inch utility eastern, and 3 inch parer

the truth of it tho is since i make my own knives i hardly pick up a heavy blade knife since the HT i do is good and god forbid i ding the edge its an easy fix (for me )

 

[Willie71]

maybe the most useful set i have come up with is a 12 inch slicer/bread knife, westeren chef 8-10 inch, 7-8 inch nakiri, 6 inch utility eastern, and 3 inch parer

the truth of it tho is since i make my own knives i hardly pick up a heavy blade knife since the HT i do is good and god forbid i ding the edge its an easy fix (for me )

My wife just asked me the other day to make a bread knife. . She likes my hobby now that she has a bunch of good knives to use.

 

[butcher_block]

a proper kitchen knife makes food prep a joy. my soon to be wife didnt understand till she tried some of mine (her fav was the monster 8x3 inch "nakiri/cleaver")
im making a cake knife for the wedding so we will have a nice long slicer