What are the best kitchen knives?

S

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Dec 8, 2006
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Looking for a good set of kitchen knives, want to only spend the money once. Suggestions?
 
Not going to happen if you're in the market for 'the best.' That changes from person to person; within one's self as skills grow and tastes change; and within the market as refinement or innovation occurs. Tojiro, Forschner, Misono, Tosa, Carter, Shun/KAI, Al Mar, there are a trillion good choices.
 
thombrogan said:
Not going to happen if you're in the market for 'the best.' That changes from person to person; within one's self as skills grow and tastes change; and within the market as refinement or innovation occurs. Tojiro, Forschner, Misono, Tosa, Carter, Shun/KAI, Al Mar, there are a trillion good choices.
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I realize that. I'm just looking for peoples suggestions of what the "best" are so I can have a research base on which to expand on while I look for my personal "best."

here is another question:

what is the best steel type? Something in the stainless family of steels? Or something along the lines of moly or what?
 
well...i think you need to be more specific....lets put a price on it and see where it goes from there
 
okay...

I'm looking on spending between $100-$300 per knife on a decent three knife set.

Looking specifically for 1 paring knife, 1 medium chopping knife, and 1 large chopping knife.
 
Check some of the cooking/fine food sites too; you'll find plenty of great suggestions from people who use these tools daily.
 
Look on ebay for global or shun 3 piece sets. The global 8 inch chef knife has won a few awards over the years. I got my global set for about $150. It was exactly what I was looking for and I very happy with them!
 
i think it was that guy from Good Eats said that the best set of knives are the ones that feel best for you
 
About eight years ago I bought a 3 piece starter set of Global's for about $150 bucks and they have been outstanding knives. They hold an edge extremely well and the thin blades slice like a dream. I was a bit sceptical of the all-stainless design because I thought they might get slick when wet but due to the ergonomically designed handles I had no problems with them slipping in my hand.

BTW, good luck on your search - there are a ton of great kitchen knives out there now and it can make your head spin a little when you try to sort everything out and make a decision. :D

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I`d look at the Shun. Super sharp, nice looking, and easy to maintain with the proper use of a sharpening steel. Kershaw stands behind the knives if you should ever have a problem and will sharpen them for free. ( you have to send the knives to Kershaw) I`ve purchased mine from Chefsresouce.com. Good discounts , free shipping, and nice people to deal with. The knives have D shaped handles-won`t slip in your hand like many traditional Japanese knives will. You have to order left or right handed knives. My first three choices would be, 6.5" "scalloped" Santoku,a 6' "Alton`s angle utility knife, and a 6.5" Pro Nakiri. I would buy the Nakiri in the tradional single edge "PRO" version. With these three knives you can handle most if not all of kitchen needs and if you ever want to add knives to your"collection" there are plenty of additional knives from Shun to choose from.
 
Most informative thing I've ever read about kitchen knives (from Anthony Bourdain (chef, author, tv host):

"You need, for God's sake, a decent chef's knife. No con foisted on the general public is so atrocious, so wrongheaded, or so widely believed as the one that tells you you need a full set of specialized cutlery in various sizes. I wish sometimes I could go through the kitchens of amateur cooks everywhere just throwing knives out from their drawers - all those medium-size 'utility' knives, those useless serrated things you see advertised on TV, all that hard-to-sharpen stainless-steel garbage, those ineptly designed slicers - not one of the damn things could cut a tomato. Please believe me, here's all you will ever need in the knife department: ONE good chef's knife, as large as is comfortable for your hand. Brand name? Okay, most talented amateurs get a boner buying one of the old-school professional high-carbon stainless knives from Germany or Austria, like a Henkel or Wusthof, and those are fine knives, if heavy. High carbon makes them slightly easier to sharpen, and stainless keeps them from getting stained and corroded. They look awfully good in the knife case at the store, too, and you send the message to your guests when flashing a hundred-dollar hunk of Solingen steel that you take your cooking seriously. But do you really need something so heavy? So expensive? So difficult to maintain (which you probably won't)? Unless you are really and truly going to spend fifteen minutes every couple of days working that blade on an oiled carborundum stone, followed by careful honing on a diamond steel, I'd forgo the Germans.


Most of the professionals I know have for years been retiring their Wusthofs and replacing them with the lightweight, easy-to-sharpen and relatively inexpensive vanadium steel Global knives, a very good Japanese product which has - in addition to its many other fine qualities - the added attraction of looking really cool."
 
I recently picked up some Kershaw Shun classics. Came extremely sharp out of the box. VG-10 core with stainless damascus on the sides. My wife loves them, I love them, and they're in your price range. Unless you are anal about having all your knives from one maker, I also like the Spyderco serrated kitchen knife we picked up. KX-06S
 
I'd recommend the Henckels 4 star series. Or the 5 star which is the same but with a more ergo handle. If you're getting a battery of 3, get a 3" parer, an 8" chef's knife and a 7" filet knife. These knives will do everything you need to do, especially if you keep them up with a Henckels 4 star sharpening steel. I love mine. I also have a number of others but consider these 3 the workhorses. You can get all 3 plus the steel at various internet sites for about $200 total.
 
thombrogan said:
For those, Phil Wilson and Lloyd Harner III come to mind.
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thanks for the nod:thumbup:
supper
got your email and replyed
i can see what your looking for least what you have planed
if you like i can mod style and shape of the blade and or handle to get you jsut what you are looking for
 
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