New Kitchen Knife

Grimspoon

Grimspoon

Joined
Nov 23, 2007
Messages
2,198
Made an impromptu stop off at the local food service equipment store on the way to school earlier today, ended up walking out with a new knife.

I'm taking a culinary skills course at the college since I've been laid off work (Tool & Die) and thought I might as well invest in something halfway decent. Here's what I bought:

MAC.JPG


I'ts going to have to do until I can source a Busse XXXL (or thin) NICK - or until Busse turns Amy's chef's knife into a production model! ;)

I'd love to hear about what some of the Culinary Hogs here are using in the kitchen!



Edit: I nearly forgot to mention, I did use it in class today and it ROCKS! It was like I took the training wheels off and now I'm flying! Compared to what I was using before this knife is a dream!
 
sweet knife. I got a mac bread knife and it owns. I am not a big fan of santokus or but the model looks great. Currently im using a hiromoto 240 gyuto as my main utility knife.
 
*googles*

That Hiromoto looks awesome.

I've really not taken any position regarding Santoku vs French, I just wanted to try the Santoku and it's smaller than my french knife - 6.5" vs 8". It feels very nice.

I'll probably continue to use the french knife for heavier cutting tasks.
 
That is a great looking knife. I have been using a Chris Reeve Sikayo in the kitchen recently and it has been great. Love the ergonomics of it. And calling it sharp would be like saying Megan Fox is OK to look at. This knife slides through whatever you put in front of it.
 
Grim--- I have cooked professionally for 16 years. The Wilkins Ryback chef knife is the FINEST knife knife I have EVER used. :)
 
We have a Wusthoff Santuko very similar to your MAC. Very happy with it. We also have Wusthoff 8" Chef, and a Kasumi 5.5" Utility. And a variety of smaller paring and utility knives. While I have toyed with the idea of a Custom kitchen knife (almost pulled the trigger on a Koster Mater), those three knives work so well that I am hard pressed to justify spending big $$$ for what is likely only a small gain, if any, in performance.
 
Grim, nice lookin' Mac you got there. Mac's are kind of unusual in that the ones I've seen and used are a little beefier spine thickness than lots of other Japanese knives.

Most of my Japanese kitchen knives are like 1/16" spine or sometimes even less. Of course, the chefs over there aren't typically breaking up beef carcasses and the like, as we western folks do. If you like Japanese style knives, here are a couple other makers you may want to keep on your radar screen.

Murray Carter -- He spent something like 25 years studying the craft in Japan and now lives in Oregon. Stunningly sharp knives. He has a few different levels of knives, from basic to pretty fancy with commensurate prices (ya get whatcha pay for). However, note that some of his stainless laminate (Hitachi white or blue steel inner, stainless outer) can be gotten for well under $200. He can make pretty much any style knife you want, so far as I can tell from his offerings at Blade West and other shows. IMHO there are none better -- he is the top of the heap. And he's a very friendly guy to hang out with as well. And yes, my Carter kitchen knives will be staying with me thank-you-very-much. ;) :D
http://www.cartercutlery.com/

Shoichi Watanabe -- His english may be a little funky, but his craftsmanship is impeccable. One of the two sharpest out-of-the-box makers I've ever seen (Murray being the other). Watanabe's prices are a little lower. I haven't gotten anything from him for a few years (his are lifetime knives too), but he used to have scary-fast shipping from Japan to the USA, almost as fast as other vendor's in-country shipping within the USA. As nice a young man (Hey!! He's younger than me) as you'd want to meet and/or get scary sharp knives from too.
http://www.watanabeblade.com/english/
 
I've been spending all my Busse money on Japanese kitchen knives lately. It's another disease with the same end result, unhappy credit card syndrome. On the other hand, onions fear me. It's a big revelation moving from thick and heavy German knives to a 2.5mm thick, 270mm long chefs knife and having veggies actually slice rather than break apart.
 
A lot of great comments here. I think I'm going to have to be happy with what I've got for now, I see another long road of endless spending if I don't keep my impulses in check!
 
I love the style, the Santoku is such a versatile blade. Plus, the addition of the gratons make slicing really quick (they are like blood grooves for food). I have been a really big fan of the Shun knives lately and the Shun Santoku and pairing knife get the most use in my kitchen.
 
It's depressing... I have a ten dollar set up walmart knives, so my busses do my kitchen duty. You'll find me chopping up onions with my zilla on any given day, it gets the job done though! Some day i'll invest in some good kitchen knives.. some day.
 
I'm not a professional chef, but I'm a good cook.
I've been gradually building up a set of Ken Onion Shun knives. The 8" chef's knife is awesome, I also have the utility knife which sees a fair amount of duty. The ergonomics and grip options are outstanding, and VG-10 in kitchen cutlery, laminated with a stainless faux-damascus, is pretty awesome. Just picked up a 4" chef in this style, haven't yet used it.
I don't like santokus.
I have a ceramic 4-5 inch utility knife, these have really come down in price in recent years, and I have some ceramic peelers and whatnot that are awesome. Super sharp and long lasting edge, but you don't want to scrape/pry with these, and you're pretty much throwing it away once it gets dull (you can send it to the factory for sharpening, but...)
I haven't tried the Wilkins Ryback, and now I'm salivating. Damn. Damndamndamn. I need to stop hanging out here, too many ways for me to spend lots of money really fast ;)
 
Lycosa said:
Grim--- I have cooked professionally for 16 years. The Wilkins Ryback chef knife is the FINEST knife knife I have EVER used. :)
Click to expand...

I realize it's subjective, but can you articulate why you like them best?

RokJok said:
Shoichi Watanabe -- His english may be a little funky, but his craftsmanship is impeccable. One of the two sharpest out-of-the-box makers I've ever seen (Murray being the other). Watanabe's prices are a little lower. I haven't gotten anything from him for a few years (his are lifetime knives too), but he used to have scary-fast shipping from Japan to the USA, almost as fast as other vendor's in-country shipping within the USA. As nice a young man (Hey!! He's younger than me) as you'd want to meet and/or get scary sharp knives from too.
http://www.watanabeblade.com/english/
Click to expand...

I love Watanabe's blades. I have two, and have given three away as gifts. Pretty inexpensive for what it is, and damn fine knives. Nice to see him get some nods.
 
My favorite over the germans; but I would love a US fine crafted knife. . .something similar to a black paper BAD but an inch longer, inch wider and a razor thin edge. . .

The Wilkins Ryback look very nice.

DSC_9210.jpg
 
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The Ryback fits my hand like no other chef knife.
It has the perfect balance and weight!
The Becut steel still holds and edge like no other chef knife I've owned. Becut steel will not chip-out when abused... sound familiar?? :) :D
 
+1 for Global knives. I love their one-piece design. We own seven of their knives, four of which form a set of steak knives, and my favorite for food preparation is their seven-inch Santoku with flutes (G-48).
 
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