Need knife recommendations

W

wigleys

Joined
Jun 30, 2003
Messages
6
Ok, I for one had no idea that there could be this much discussion about knives! ;) However, I'm grateful I have found this forum. On the other hand, I'm a little overwhelmed with all the information and opinions on knives, so I really need some advice:

I'm a homemaker. We have two children (5 & 2 1/2). We're vegetarian, and I bake my own bread. Most of my knives are very dull, and I desparately need some new ones. Truthfully, I'm not sure what brands to consider, nor am I really even sure which particular knives to consider.

As you can tell, I'm fairly unknowledgeable in the knife arena. I've always just taken one of out the drawer and cut what I needed to cut, without much regard as to what is the best knife to use for the job at hand.

Hopefully, I won't start too much debate with the following, but I did see a Cutco demo today. Having never bought knives before (the ones we own have been gifts), I was a little surprised at the costs of the sets. Then again, I've read some of your discussions here, and I know many of you pay a lot of money for knives! ;) Since I do bake my own bread, the 9 3/4" slicer knife ($69) looks useful to me. That seems like a lot of money for one knife, though. As I said, I'm a homemaker and mother of two children; I do have to be careful where I spend our money.

To make matters more complicated, we live in a small town, so shopping around won't be easy!

So any advice for me? I apologize for being so ignorant!

Jessica
 
Welcome to Bladeforums! :D

I'm not too knowledgeable about kitchen cutlery, but I can tell you this. Good knives will come at a high price, but they are worth every cent you pay. Don't be put off by high prices. The best advice I've heard is to buy a small starter set initially, and as you have money, pick up new pieces. Good luck!
 
posted by wigleys
Most of my knives are very dull, and I desparately need some new ones
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You don't mention what you current knives are (name of manufacturer and model would be helpful).

When was the last time these knives were sharpened?

As hard as we try, we humans have not perfected the design of a knife that needs no sharpening. That's really where you have to start. Even a crummy knife is made better with sharpening.

I bought my mother an $80 Japanese Santoku about 2 years ago. She thought it was great. I offered to sharpen it for here regularly. Well, that didn't happen as I forgot about it and she did not remind me of it.

Well, about 2 months ago, I went to her place and pulled out that knife. I could have hacked at my wrist and the knife would have bounced off!! Duller than you can imagine. It took me about 1/2 hour on a Syderco Sharpmaker to get it sharp.

If you are going to buy some knives - you gotta have a sharpener and know how to use it.
 
Our current knives say "Rogers Pro Cut Stainless Steel". Ever heard of that?! ;) We got them for Christmas a few years ago, and no, they have never been sharpened. They are serrated. You can't sharpen serrated edges, can you? (see following paragraph for continued lack of knowledge!)

As far as sharpening goes, I know *nothing*! I used to! believe the ads that say "never needs sharpening". I now know better, from reading some here, but where do I start?

I totally agree with Steven Roos that good knives will come at a price. My husband and I agree that if you want something high-quality, you will pay for it! I figure I'll need to buy just a couple of knives for right now, and go from there. Being vegetarian, I cut a lot of fruits and veggies *every day*. Right now, I pretty much use a paring knife or a "steak knife" for those jobs. . . not correct, is it? And then I need a knife for slicing bread and bagels.

Thanks so much!!
Jessica
 
Low price and sharpness is available in the Forschner brand. By all accounts their knives are a great value for the money, sharp, durable and very economical.

Of course, as Architect says, you could just get a Spyderco Sharpmaker and sharpen up the ones that you have. You'll need a good sharpener even if you get new knives, and the practice will probably be useful.
 
Serrations can be resharpened. Depending on how the serrations are set into the blade it might be difficult. I understand that the easiest way is to find one of the ceramic-stick type sharpeners that will fit within an individual serration. A cylindrical diamond hone, or possibly even a butcher's steel could do, too.
And don't feel bad about not knowing a whole heckuva lot about sharpening knives; I've collected for years, and I still hand my knives over to a more competent friend when their edges need to be touched up. Sharpening a knife is like riding a bike; if you mess up, you can get hurt, and some people (like me) never quite get the hang of it.
 
Second the Forschner recommendation. Based on the info here, if I were you I would buy a Forschner chef's knife, paring knife and bread knife and a Spyderco Sharpmaker. You'll have sharp knives for a loooong time at a low price. I'll probably replace the wood handled Henkels and Mundials I have with Forschners one of these days . . .

You can search "Sharpmaker" here and get a month's worth of reading. It is a really easy to use sharpening system.

FWIW I would not buy Cutcos. I don't want to start a flame war, but if you search "cutco" I think you will see why.
 
Spyderco makes a couple of nice kitchen knives and so does victorinox.

Spyderco here

Victorinox, I have a link at home, but I can't find it here at work.
I'll post again if no one else has.

N2
 
Hi Wigleys,I'm not all that knowlegable about kitchen cutlery either,however,I have had the experience of dull serrated kitchen knives.I would pick-up a half decent non-serrated "all purpose"size knife and work from there.There are a number of inexpensive sharpeners you can buy to freshen the blade.Also,if you know anyone in the food service business ask them or ask to speak to the chef next time you go out to dinner...you should see these people freshen up a knife with steel sharpening rod:eek:
 
Good evening, Mam. I also recommend Forschner as outstanding cutlery at bargain prices. Try Hantover.com, or Blade Matrix, or other internet discounters. You could do worse than CutCo, but you would have to make a conscious effort at it. A conical DMT sharpening hone (fine) for about $17 will restore your serrated edges in no time. The Spyderco sharpening system is highly regarded hereabouts, but I haven't tried it. I should though, 'cause they say it's idiot proof. You done good coming here.
 
I highly recommend the Spyderco Santoku. My wife gave it to me for our wedding anniversary. I have sliced many vegetables in the past month & it is still very sharp.
 
wigleys - another important criteria in selecting kitchen knives is whether you want them to be showpieces or not.

Something like the Spyderco Santoku is very effective, but the appearance is strictly functional.

I have a number of kitchen knives in MBS-26 steel, and they are very effective. All of mine are plain edge. I have used both the European and Japanese styles. I prefer the Japanese-styles because they are generally of thinner blade stock. They are also lighter than the European styles, with the exception of the Sabatier carbon-series knives.

In any event, any blade style you can think of is offered in variety of handle types. If you want to "display" your kitchen knives, that will narrow down your search considerably.

Most of the department-store type brands tend to use mysterious knife steels. Steels to look for would include MBS-26, AUS-8 or AUS-10, 440C, VG-10, or, if you like traditional, plain old non-stainless carbon are pretty damn good. Anything stating "ice-hardened", "surgical stainless steel", or the ever wonderful "never needs sharpening" are to be avoided at all costs.
 
Avoid Cutco. Their products are extremely overpriced. I can't emphasize this point enough. There is not even two dollars worth of steel in a typical knife. I mean this literally - the cost of the 440A steel that they buy in rolls is about 70 cents a blade for that particular model. It's not any kind of wonder metal. The injection molded plastic in the handle is the one of the least expensive materials you can use in manufacturing. They charge extra for shipping, too.

I can go on, but the point is that for 70 bucks you can get a really great knife like a Wusthof Trident Classic and still have cash left over. But from the sounds of it, you don't even need all that great of a knife. I agree with the Forschner reccommendation. If you buy it from a knife shop, they'll probably even sharpen it for free when it's needed if you ask.
 
hi wigleys,
you don't really need more than 4-5 knives in the kitchen, IMHO.

Generally, I would get a chef's knife (maybe 8 inch blade with a belly), a fillet knife (this can be el cheapo), a paring knife (under 4 inch blade), a bread knife (serrated) and a cleaver (for whacking through frozen meat or bones). In fact, my chef's knife sharpened on a slightly coarse finish slices bread damn well too!

This way, you can spend a lot more on each quality knife, as opposed to buying multi-knive sets. If I had a budget, I'd get the best chef's knife I could afford and stinge a bit on the other three/four.
Also, wooden handles may rot over time, so I'd go for synthetic handles.

HOwever, the most important thing is to learn how to sharpen your knives. All knives dull with use and unless you learn how to sharpen your knives (whether freehand or with tools like the spyderco sharpmaker), your great razor sharp knives will soon become dull knives left in the drawer. If you really can't sharpen freehand (hey, not all of us can - I know I suck at it :p ), try getting the spyderco sharpmaker - it's a lifelong investment at $50. Personally, I think kitchen knives are easier to sharpen (as they are usually softer steels) and I usually sharpen mine on a cheap stone ($2-3) with a finer grit.

I think Henckels, Sabatier?, Spyderco, Global, Kershaw are all good for chef's knives.

oh, and welcome to the forums! You'll definitely find lots of help and information here :)
 
Originally posted by spyken
and a cleaver (for whacking through frozen meat or bones).
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sorry, I just re-read your original post and discovered that you're a vegetarian! :o well, the cleaver is great for whacking through pumpkin, squash, radish, carrots, yams, sugar cane etc too!
 
Welcome to the forums, wigleys.

My cousin's husband is a chef and he highly recommends the Forschner knives as being both practical and economical. My normal knife in the kitchen is a Henckels classic 7" chef's knife that I use for pretty much everything--even slicing soft bread. I prefer not to have any serrated knives at all, but a serrated bread knife would probably be the best thing for cutting bread--just a pain to sharpen. I would recommend visiting a local supermarket and asking them if they sharpen knives (I think a number of them do this nowadays). For all around utility the Santoku style is my favorite--I'm still looking for one to replace one that I gave away. A good paring knife is also really useful for a lot of things. Good luck--I hope you find what you're looking for.
 
As for Santoku style knives, make sure they're full tang?

some of them are not, and the blade can come undone with a full swing (I've seen this happen once).
 
Welcom to Bladeforums wigleys! My first suggestion is to get a Spyderco Sharpmaker and watch the video that comes with it. It's extremely easy to use on kitchen knives since they generally have very thin edges. Also, once you get a set of sharp knives, be very careful the first few times you use them! Any time I'm home and sharpen my mother's kitchen knives I warn her first due to a few bad past experiences. Most especially don't cut fruits or vegetables against your thumb with a sharp knife. This can result in severe scarring. OK, that said, here's my recommendations:

I've heard great things about Spyderco kitchen knives and based on my experience with their folders I have no doubt that they are outstanding.

A.G. Russell's kitchen knives (available here) are reasonably priced and perform well. I have the 6" cooks's knife which has worked very well for me. The steel is a little softer than I expected, but that makes resharpening easier and it's still far and away better than anything you will find at Wal-Mart for instance. I have also recieved excellent service from A.G. Russell and they have an great garauntee. If you aren't happy, return it for a full refund, no questions asked.

You may also want to look here. I think you would be satisfied with the performance of any of the knives offered on this page; Fallkniven, Al Mar and Kershaw in particular have great reputations based on the other knives they sell. Bottom line; you don't have to spend a fortune to get a decent set of kitchen cutlery, but you will pay a lot more than you may have expected to. Trust me, it's money well spent, as you seem to have already determined. Just look at all of the suggestions you've gotten and are sure to continue to get here and go with the ones that have the most appeal to you personally, becasue ultimately you are the one who must be pleased with your purchase. Good luck, and don't be stranger! Let us know how they work out for you.
 
I can't endorse cutco as I own plenty (brother used to "sell" for them and we ended up eating the demo kit and his expenses.), they're fine kitchen cutlery but are seriously overpriced.

In the realm of quality kitchen cutlery the best value is probably Spyderco's kitchen line, but they don't do steak knives, so if you need those Henkels does real well.
Wustofs are also quite excellent and I've never tried them but I hear Messermeister knives are real high quality as well.

If you look at Henkels you will probably realize pretty quickly that there are two lines: the mainstream line (very expensive) and the "international series" (shockingly affordable). The international series knives are usually made in either Japan or China but are of shockingly good quality for their price (my friend owns some international steak knives that are almost as good as our cutco and we own a set of their forks/spoons/spreading knives which are also very good).

If you must have the best though, I recommend the 4/5 star line.

But again, feel free to look at Wustof's and Messermeisters as well, but expect their prices to be competitive with Henkels main line.

Good luck and enjoy the world of quality cutlery.
 
I too have little experiance with kitchen cutlery, but I have to admit, my experience with Cutco knives left alot to be desired. They lost thier edge rather quickley. And the shape of their handles can become rather awkward after a while in your hand. IMO.

I may start an inferno here. But my folks and I ordered a set of the Miracle Blade Perfection Series knives, and have been quite pleased. They came terrificly sharp. And they really do exactly what is show on the adds. Granted they will go dull if you use them on a metal draining board. (my grandmother has little respect for her knive :( )
But other than that, they seem to hold a good edge. And they fit my hand rather well. The price wasn't steep either. About $70.00 for the whole set shipped. The big slicer goes through bread very well, and leave nice clean edges.

I do love my Spyderco folder. And I have no doubt their chefs knives are high quality. Hope I helped.

And welcome to the Blade Forums. Of course now you'll never be able to leave. You should be hooked afetr your third or fourth visit. Good Luck and Good Knives
 
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