Question for the Kitchen knife folks and chefs

i4Marc

i4Marc

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Oct 19, 2011
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A good friend of mine wants me to make her a couple of knives so she can gift them to a chef friend of hers. My question is, what are the two most useful sizes/patterns of kitchen knives for a professional chef? If you are in a particularly verbose mood feel free to explain why you feel those choices are the best. Then for giggles, recommend the third most useful as well in case she wants to expand the set.
 
8inch chef knife is number one. Then maybe a paring or smaller utility knife. I say this because I make chef knives and have spoke to a lot of chefs. The larger chef is a favorite because it is quite versatile. Most of them like something they can do fine cuts but not switch knives to do a heavy cut. And only switch when it's pertinent. I like the feel of an 8inch knife. I may be wrong, but this is where my research has lead me. Best of luck! Make it thin and sleek and neat
 
I agree with Viral. Most of the chefs I have spoken to use an 8" chefs knife(like a gyuto) and a 4-5 inch utility for most chores. I just made a gyuto for a chef and the only negative feedback I got was that the spine was not rounded. I put it on the "ole" slack belt and fixed that. He said it would rub a blister after a while if it wasn't rounded. I took it to 1000 so it would be round and smooth! It definitely felt better.
 
the feed back I have received is to be aware of the "Pinch Point" and design it for All Day comfort. I agree with the round spine again another aggravation to a chef using his knife daily is it must be user friendly or will wind up in a drawer to never see the light of day. Most requests I get are for paring knives or utility knives.
 
Traditional Sabaitier chefs knife blade shape, but without the thick bolster that goes all the way down to the edge. Many if not most of the Japanese gyutos are variations of that blade shape. As other have suggested, i would think about going with the 210mm blade size.
 
8-10" chefs knife and a paring knife. I use a 12" but im use to it been useing the same one everyday for fifteen years. The one before that fell off the table and snapped in half :( .
 
Not to hijack the thread but what is the optimal blade thickness used for the average chefs knife or santoku? Smaller than .125"?
 
Most chefs work in cramped areas, so a smaller chef knife and pairing is about all they need unless they have specific tasks, like tourney (spelling).
 
Depends on the steel and what you want. I would say that if you are going to something resembling Japanese blade hardness whic is to say north of 60Rc, then the .110 AEB-L or .095 52100 that Ado sells is an ideal starting for most larger knife applications. For smaller knives, the stuff in the .075 range might be a better choice. We have seen a number of folks make very nice kitchen knives out of 15N20 in the .072 to .095 range.
colu41 said:
Not to hijack the thread but what is the optimal blade thickness used for the average chefs knife or santoku? Smaller than .125"?
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jdm61 said:
Depends on the steel and what you want. I would say that if you are going to something resembling Japanese blade hardness whic is to say north of 60Rc, then the .110 AEB-L or .095 52100 that Ado sells is an ideal starting for most larger knife applications. For smaller knives, the stuff in the .075 range might be a better choice. We have seen a number of folks make very nice kitchen knives out of 15N20 in the .072 to .095 range.
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I was actually just on USAKnife looking at the .095 15N20.....Aldo is currently OOS. :rolleyes: May pick up a few feet and give it a try. As long as I can anneal it well enough as it is all hot rolled there.
 
Great feedback. Thank you. I saw 52100 mentioned and was going to be on my short list with W2. What are your top steel recommendations and HRC targets for this application? I'm not going with stainless this time so carbon steel choices would be appreciated.
 
Chefs come in all shapes and sizes- if you can find out whether this one is a knife freak, it'll be a help.
If he/she is, then a very fine edge will be appreciated. Otherwise, the very best thing you can do is copy a really popular pattern, such as a Hienckels or Sabatier, or best of all the Victorinox working knives. Get your hands on a V-nox Fibrox and take measurements! It's a really cheap knife that consistently gets top marks for practicality, comfort, and cutting ability.
Most people try to reinvent the chef's knife, not realizing that there's absolutely nothing about the good ones that isn't intentional. Every subtlety matters, more in chef's knives than any other type, I think.
 
52100, assuming that you are set up to a lower austenizing temperature heat treat right. W2 also works very well. Personally, I wouldn't leave either of them softer than say 61 Rc. With any of the steels you get from folks like Aldo, you have to be able to deal with them being in a 95%+ spheroidized state which means that you need to be able to get them up to around 1650F to dissolve that nice structure which makes the steel so easy to drill, machine, etc. 52100 is not any "easy" steel, but it will be a less sensitive to quenchant speed compared to W2 or 1095.
i4Marc said:
Great feedback. Thank you. I saw 52100 mentioned and was going to be on my short list with W2. What are your top steel recommendations and HRC targets for this application? I'm not going with stainless this time so carbon steel choices would be appreciated.
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I have an Evenheat KH418 oven and Parks 50 so I can get it hot and soak it. If you guys have a proven HT recipe for 52100 and W2 with similar equipment I'm all ears. I have researched it before and likely have it written in my log book but I'd be interested to hear what you do.
 
as JDM suggested go for a full cycle starting with a real normalization, following to grain refinement. And do it very thin both spine and edge.
52100: 1475°F, P#50 is overkill and a slower oil may help also avoiding warps
W2: 1455-1475°F and Parks50

It seems bestar2519 (1.2519) tungsten steel (1480-1490°F) would be one of the best steel for the very application we are talking about, but in USA seems scarcely available.
 
15n20 is a great steel for cooking knives, kind of underappreciated, comes in all the right sizes from Aldo. Much more user friendly in a very basic HT setup than W2 and 1095.
 
The vast majority of chefs can do everything they need with a decent gyuto and a paring knife.

I'm a big fan of AEB-L, 52100 and 15N20 for kitchen knives.
 
As far as obscure German tool steel goes, 115W8/1.2442 is also very nice stuff
 
elementfe said:
15n20 is a great steel for cooking knives, kind of underappreciated, comes in all the right sizes from Aldo. Much more user friendly in a very basic HT setup than W2 and 1095.
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and also less likely to blow up in a fast quench oil like Parks #50.
 
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