Need your suggestions.

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chrisronald

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May 25, 2022
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Hi everyone, Hope you are all fine. I want to buy knife, but I am little bit confuse about Henckels and Zwilling knife, can anyone suggest me which one is more better?
 
Better is always dependent on what you’re looking for. Zwillig, as I understand it, is the upper tier. I have one Zwillig chefs knife and I like it very much. I bought a friend of mine a Henkles and it’s good enough for the money, but it won’t set you on fire with affection for it either.

ETA: there’s lots of different collections under each brand, so YMMV, but in general I prefer Zwillig.
 
Although most of my current knives are Dalstrong, I have had owned and used multiple sets of each.

Zwillig is the nicer of the two, most of them are made in either Japan or Germany along with most of them being forged.

Some Henkles are forged, although most of them are stamped. Henkles may/are made all over the world, including China, Spain etc if that matters to you.

Country of origin matters depending on the company... again, I use Dalstrong now, which were more expensive than my Zwillig and are made in China, but I still think they were a big step up over Zwillig. So dont necessarily rule out Henkles knives, just decide what you want to spend.
 
If anyone cares to explain, what is the main difference between Henkles and Zwilling? It seems like Zwillings get forged as per Corton's comment up ahead, but, what's the steel like on these knives? Any brands that are competitive?

I'm looking to re-do my kitchen for my girl (we have the normal non-knife kitchen minus the Spydie Z-cuts I got us) and I was going to get her a set of knives, but I want to do something better than a set of Opinels or Victorinox, which I'm also going to fw heavy, make no mistake.

From a kitchen newbie, though, take into account, "Zwilling" in my mind could be Gerber, could be Spyderco. I don't know kitchen knives. So, what kitchen-knife-brand would someone with thoughts on the matter recommend to me?
 
Zwilling owns several brand names, Zwilling, Henckels, Staub, Miyabi, Demeyere and Tweezerman.
They have factories in Germany, Japan and China for their cutlery.
You can't choose which is "better" by brand name. You have to look at the series under each brand.

All German and French culinary knives, are mostly if not all some Krupp-4116 variation steel. Meaning extremely rust resistant, and generally not hardened beyond HRC 57-58. So the edge is more prone to rolling rather than chipping in general. I have Wustoff and Henckels and they are both fine, although they have the European bolster going down to the heel. Regardless of the brand, get ones made in Germany. They have an "International Series" that used to be made in Spain, but I think now they are all China.
 
Zwilling, Henckels, Whustoff.. Those are the German classic well known "good" kitchen knives. All are decent when you buy at the high end of each brand. Though a bit too thick and heavy and will cause fatigue after prolonged use.
I personally think you get far more bang for your buck when you buy Japanese kitchen knives. Shun is the big name, but there are so many more lesser known knives out there that are just as good, if not better.
I recommend going on Chef Knives to Go and checking out the gyuto models. A little research and you will come away with a really good blade for the kitchen.
 
Henckels is an old German brand going back a couple centuries. Between the wars, when anti-German sentiment was running high in America, Henckels was still sending over knives that sold for more than twice what you could get a similar domestic made knife for, on their reputation for quality.

The ones I have are all pre-60s, don’t know much about the modern ones but am a little suspicious of their quality. As mentioned, they have a thick bolster extending to the heel. No big deal, just grind it back about 40 thousandths. Sometimes you see a used one that’s been sharpened on a powered pull through wheel, with the heel protruding so the first few inches of edge won’t cut. No big deal, grind it back.

German kitchen knives respond well to burnishing with a smooth meatpacker’s steel. Don’t use it on your Japanese knives.

Parker
 
I have a Henkles that I’ve used for probably 14 years.

It’s ok, but far from a favorite in the kitchen, for three reasons:

1) Soft steel. This is fine for cutting a squash or other hard things that might chip a harder edge, but for general cutting it loses its edge much faster than most of my other knives.

2) It’s THICK. I’m not batoning wood with this knife but based on the geometry (and soft steel) it would probably do great. On food like potatoes, onions, apples - not so great. The blade wedges more than it cuts.

3) “Forged” bolster. Looks nice, but after you’ve sharpened it for a few years it’s extremely difficult to avoid a recurve, because you can’t easily sharpen away the material at the bolster. I intend to take a Dremel to mine someday to remove a section of the bolster so I can sharpen it properly.

My suggestion for a general purpose chef knife is to find the thinnest, hardest steel you can afford. (This usually means a Japanese knife to me.) Happy shopping and let us know what you get.
 
If you get a Japanese knife (or knives), take precautions to prevent them falling into the wrong hands. Guy I knew got sent to the sandbox, and was going to pack away his two Miyabi chef’s knives, until his mother said, “Why don’t you just leave them with me while you’re gone?” He did, kinda reluctantly, and found on his return that his two nephews, while visiting grandma, had practiced their samurai moves up and down the hall with them. His mother was sorry, but not in a financial position to replace them.

The one he brought to me, I spent 2 hours grinding it back about 1/4”, and got it back to about 90% performance but it still looks ugly. I think he’ll probably replace it when he finds a good deal.

Henckels and Wusthofs, while not impervious, wouldn’t have sustained as much damage IMHO.

Parker
 
Shun.
Much better slicers.

Both have "lines"
Budget -> mainstream -> high end

Good luck on the hunt!
 
I just did a bit of research on this very subject. This site gives a good explanation of the differences:
https://prudentreviews.com/zwilling-vs-henckels/

A search on ‘zwilling vs henckels’ brings up a few others. One of them even has links that goes deeper into the Henckels International sub-brands, detailing where they are manufactured and what kind of steel they use. you can take that a step further and search for ‘zwilling brands’ and ‘Henckels brands’ to see the different tiers within each.
 
I have both...Zwilling is a major step up in quality from Henckels, which is their budget brand. You can feel the difference. One is made in Germany, the other in China.
 
For kitchen knives it's hard to beat Chicago Cutlery. The industry standard in most kitchens that prep and sell food is still Dexter Russell. Both are considerably less expensive and IMHO the performance equals (or better) of Henckels, Wustoff, Zwillig and about anything else you will find in most kitchen supply stores. You can find any length, blade shape/style and handle material you could possibly want.
 
Victorinox/Forschner is another popular brand in the meatpacking industry around here.

Parker
 
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