Need a kitchen knife!

I have my eye on a Tojiro Gyuto model that uses Shirogami carbon steel at Rc 60 for around 50 bucks. Kind of curious about japanese carbon steels and wouldn't mind seeing how that one performs. As for paring knives, I found my Mora Flex to work splendidly in that regard, and all for 16 dollars. The thin edge geometry is good in and of itself, but the thing that puts it above my Tojiro Flash Paring Knife with VG-10 at Rc 62 is ergonomics. The grip is simply better while the Tojiro Flash makes me feel like I'm holding an 8" Chef's Knife with a pencil for a handle.
 
springnr said:
Looker... I'm interested in knowing what you were going to recommend for a paring knofe
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I’ve come to realize that high quality blades aren’t necessary or desirable with paring knives. Since I never use them against a cutting board or on hard items, much of the advantages of a better blade (edge retention, wear resistance) are irrelevent. Plus, their often thicker and stiffer blades actually don’t follow contours well. I prefer ones that flex a little and have a narrow, spearpoint blade shape.

For less than $10 bucks, I like the Kuhn Rikon quite abit. It has somesort of non-stick coated carbon blade that’s is thin, flexible and finely grained enough to get stupid sharp. If you need a more, the mac pro and misono are great as is the shun classic.


Out of curiosity, how does one maintain (remove scratches) on the Shun premier mirror polished / damascus finish?
 
I do a shed load of cooking and I have to say that my favorite knives to date are Henckels and Wusthof on the traditional knife front and Kanetsune traditional damascus on the japanese knife front(VG10 core). My 3 Henckels are about 30 years old now. The Kanetsunes are about 2.
I have the sujihiki and the nakiri and they are absolutely superb slicers and shaving sharp from the box. I've tried Global, Sabatier and various other brands, but keep coming back to my Henckels chef knife for general duties and the kanetsune's for paper thin slices of whatever. I have a 2 layer Yanagiba (sushi knife) with a shirogami cutting edge which only gets used for sushi/sashimi and mainly only because of the extra length of the blade. Sashimi and sushi needs to be sliced in a single cutting motion, no sawing. I'd love to give the kanetsune version with the VG10 core a try.
 
looker said:
For less than $10 bucks, I like the Kuhn Rikon quite abit. It has somesort of non-stick coated carbon blade that’s is thin, flexible and finely grained enough to get stupid sharp.

Out of curiosity, how does one maintain (remove scratches) on the Shun premier mirror polished / damascus finish?
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Thanks for your thoughts on paring knives, for a ten spot Kuhn Rikon is worth checking out.

I'm just starting with kitchen knives so can't help with your upkeep question on the Shun.
 
My Wustoff 8" chef knife has seen a lot of use but the steel is really pretty bad. Not easy to sharpen and does not hold an edge well. I reprofiled it to 18 degrees per side with my Edge Pro. Was very sharp but the edge would roll very quickly. I know use only customs for my standard chef knife chores. I have also heard great things about the Shuns and will probably pick up a 4" paring knife soon to try out.
 
How old are your Wusthofs?

The new 58 HRC ones are still thick, but they should be able to hold 15 degrees.
 
My Wusthof chef knife is about 10 years old. Not too sure about the hardness but it is an odd combination of difficult to touch up while not holding an edge long. I have gone as far as stropping to remove any burr that could roll.
 
tomsch said:
My Wusthof chef knife is about 10 years old. Not too sure about the hardness but it is an odd combination of difficult to touch up while not holding an edge long. I have gone as far as stropping to remove any burr that could roll.
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Iirc, the classic and other like models are tempered to ~52-56Hrc. They normally do roll / dull easily and feel sortof gummy when sharpening. If you’re experiencing something that’s worse than normal, the steel at the edge may be fatigued. As I understand it, the edge gets fatigued by being bent back and forth through normal usage & honing, and if the fatigued steel is not remove during sharpening, it loses it’s abilty to take / hold an edge overtime. To get it back to normal, you’ll need to remove the fatigued steel (an electric sharpener or a coarse stone) and rebuild the edge.
 
The Miyabi blades using VG-10 are a good value, and I think a rational experiment in a Rockwell 60 if you are moving up from 52-54 blades and want to play with a keener edge. Just a rad thought if your lottery ticket comes through- On the Rockwell 66 end of crazy hard, you can get a Miyabi MicroCarbide "gift" set that includes both an 8" Chef and a 5" paring knife for $199. A teaser price and I just bought the set. The finish is nice, good balance and lightweight as one would expect from the thin blades on hard knives. I don't have usage/wear info to share at this time on the MicroCarbide.
 
Hi SteelThumb.

My friend got a kaizen and I noticed that the Miyabi heat treatment (CRYODUR process) or whatever voodoo they do, makes their vg-10 perform and behave better than other VG-10 knives I’ve used. Any thoughts on how their MicroCarbides compares to other like steels and which model did you get?
 
My wife used to work in a cooking supply store so we've got a LOT of knives for me to choose from. The place she worked let you try all the knives because every hand is different and what I like might be too big for your hands.

I tend to use 2 all the time in the kitchen. I like the Wusthof Chef's knife which comes in different lengths and sharpens up real well.

For slicing where I need to get things real slim, I like the Ceramic Kyocera which also is great to use on lettuce because it doesn't turn the lettuce brown on the edges.

I heard Henckels can be manufactured in several different countries so I'd steer clear of them unless you know they are the good ones...

We also recently bought the Wusthof tomato knife which is serrated and has a fork-like tip. It's awesome for...tomatoes!

P.S. I agree that Forschner is a great inexpensive knife.
 
After 20 years in a commercial kitchen, I'd say that Forschner is the bottom line in kitchen knives, and the Shun classic at the top. I really wouldn't bother with anything else. Most of my brigade used Global by their own choice, but I hated them... There are a *WHOLE*LOT* of chefs I know that swear by Global, though. Get into Williams-Sonoma, Sur la Table, or where ever you can actually get your hands on knives, and see what feels good to you. If you're worried about the looks, maintaining the finish, or anything but the edge itself, you're worring about inconsequential rubbish. It's all about the edge!
 
If you want a thin paring knife get an Opinel. You can find them for under $10 online. They come in either carbon or stainless.
 
I have two custom chef knives and find that I use my Opinel paring knife the most. It can sharpen to hair splitting with very little effort and still keeps a working edge for a long time.


Fanglekai said:
If you want a thin paring knife get an Opinel. You can find them for under $10 online. They come in either carbon or stainless.
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DAGuertin said:
After 20 years in a commercial kitchen, I'd say that Forschner is the bottom line in kitchen knives, and the Shun classic at the top. I really wouldn't bother with anything else. Most of my brigade used Global by their own choice, but I hated them... There are a *WHOLE*LOT* of chefs I know that swear by Global, though. Get into Williams-Sonoma, Sur la Table, or where ever you can actually get your hands on knives, and see what feels good to you. If you're worried about the looks, maintaining the finish, or anything but the edge itself, you're worring about inconsequential rubbish. It's all about the edge!
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As a question, what are your complaints regarding Forschner? I know they aren't fancy, but...
 
I have no question about Forschner - I love them! I only used Fibrox handled ones, though, since everything else went slimy after a while... I only went up to Shun due to the longer edge retention.
 
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