Who knows kitchen knives?

kberg said:
You apparently know a lot more than me about knife steel - I will look into this knife. Thoughts on the Calphalons? VG-1 steel? I can look up the chemical make up all I want but I really don't know much about it.
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Don't buy Calphalons. Maybe as a starter knife for someone who wants to learn to cook. Maybe. But if you use it a lot, you're going to learn that it wears far too quickly and frankly the fit and finish are not what you should get for the money.
 
kberg said:
You apparently know a lot more than me about knife steel - I will look into this knife. Thoughts on the Calphalons? VG-1 steel? I can look up the chemical make up all I want but I really don't know much about it.
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kberg - I don't claim to know lots and lots about knife steel. Especially about kitchen knives. But I wanted to know the composition of this knife and thought that I'd provide the information.

What I do have is a lot of experience using various kitchen knives in a professional capacity. With over 20 years as a professional cook and chef and 9 years as a wholesale food broker visiting over 200 different professional kitchens a year I thought that I'd never buy another kitchen knife. Ever. I have enough professional cutlery and accessories to furnish several professional kitchens, a bakery and a butcher shop or two, easy. I've used Global, Forschner, Wustoff, F. Dick, Henckels, Dexter, Victorinox, and lots and lots of proprietary brands from distribution companies. Honestly, they've all performed pretty well. As a few others have indicated, I came to prefer knives that were easier to sharpen and would respond to a few passes on a steel over some of the harder blades. But most of all I began to prefer particular blade profiles and handles over particular makes. If the steel is quality then how a knife grips and where the edge meets the cutting board makes a bigger impression after 10 hours in a kitchen than anything else.

Of course you're not selecting your cultery with the same criteria. I'm not familiar with all the brands recommended on this thread, but I think most are probably excellent. In the end you're just going to have to select what works best for your needs. And if it doesn't, well, that's an excuse to go out and buy another knife!
 
Kberg:
Please price out: Shun: 8" chef; Shun 3.5" parer; Forschner 10" bread ( a really good one by the way); 8" carver; a 5"-6" serrated tomato knife..that's on sale on someone's site.

Likely all under $300.00....and you'll like them better than the set you are considering
 
dan oliver said:
Kberg:
Please price out: Shun: 8" chef; Shun 3.5" parer; Forschner 10" bread ( a really good one by the way); 8" carver; a 5"-6" serrated tomato knife..that's on sale on someone's site.

Likely all under $300.00....and you'll like them better than the set you are considering
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That's a good point. I'd considered that, but I'd have to either buy the block separately or go with a magnetic strip.

This may be what I end up doing though
 
In regards to what type of steel for Warthers knives...IDK.

The website is vague it says :

"we use american made high carbon tool steel that is rust resistant"

sorry I couldn't be more helpful.
 
kberg said:
Ok - this is part of the reason I'm only considering the smaller set. The 8 pc set comes with a 3.5 inch parer, 5 inch santoku, 5.5 inch serrated utility (which I would ask if I could replace with another knife) 6 inch slicer, and 8 inch chef's. I would like to trade the serrated utility for another knife if possible as I said, possibly the 7 inch nakiri or santoku.

Thoughts?

But this is all assuming these knives aren't made to look like Shuns, but are actually garbage.
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Thoughts? You are saying what I said. The set doesn't have what you want. You don't need a 5" santoku. It is useless. What you need is a chef knife of 8" or more. You don't need a 5.5" serrated utility. A longer slicer or bread knife will dp the same job faster and more effectively.

Go buy a 240mm Japanese gyuto (chef knife,) a short petty (parer) and a bread knife. Then you can add to that in the future.

The set is cheap Chinese stuff and is all the wrong products. Sets aren't good. Good knives are good. You can buy a block or whatever storage product you like.
 
Knife Outlet said:
Go buy a 240mm Japanese gyuto (chef knife,) a short petty (parer) and a bread knife. Then you can add to that in the future.
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I think this is good advice. But I wouldn't invest a fortune. I'd try the 240mm gyuto for feel. They're a bit longer than euro 8" but the rule of thumb is to move up when moving from euro to J-knives. You might like a 210mm. Petty's are a better choice than a regular paring knife. Don't bother. I'd add that a 10" slicer/carver is handy even though a 240mm gyuto can probably preform that task.
 
We have a set of German Made Knives, not sure of brand but I know there Soligen Steel with wooden scales, but If I am in the kitchen alone I normally just use whatever benchmade I am carrying to prep foods...
 
Kberg: We're getting closer to the answer. Knife Outlet and I aren't too far apart. We're down to personal preferences now and how to stretch your $300.00 budget to include the pieces that would work well for you. I stand by my earlier thoughts. Please do some pricing and then make the best business decision you can.
 
panella said:
I think this is good advice. But I wouldn't invest a fortune. I'd try the 240mm gyuto for feel. They're a bit longer than euro 8" but the rule of thumb is to move up when moving from euro to J-knives. You might like a 210mm. Petty's are a better choice than a regular paring knife. Don't bother. I'd add that a 10" slicer/carver is handy even though a 240mm gyuto can probably preform that task.
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Japanese gyutos are significantly lighter than European chef knives and, for the most part, are perfectly balanced while Euro knives tend to be handle-heavy. A 240 gyuto (9 1/2") would seem like a sports car to someone used to an 8" forged Wusthof.

Some people (me included) like very short paring knives. Frankly, the Japanese aren't into paring knives so those like me need to do a little work to get what we need. Mac, Al Mar and Kasumi all have 3 or 3 1/2" parers. If you like a longer one, then you can buy a petty and be fine. The second most used knife in my block is a 300mm suji or slicer. That's around 11 1/2". I use it for cutting pizzas, melons - anything that benefits from a long blade. I find gyutos that long to be uncomfortable personallyl but the long sujis are really nice.

Obviously, all of these things are a matter of preference. There aren't any right or wrong answers. The only thing I'll say definitively is that the Japanese make the best kitchen cutlery in the world. They really do.
 
You don't need a 5" santoku. It is useless. What you need is a chef knife of 8" or more.
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I would say it's a matter of taste, unless you're often cooking for a crowd.
I have a Global 8" chef knife but I find I use their more compact GS5 vegetable knife more often:

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And also ESPECIALLY a roughly 5" santoku-like Solingen Herder K2 with a deliciously thin blade (1.78mm at its thickest!):

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Light Saber is the correct description of this one, it's around 50 euro over here.

You actually don't need to spend a lot more in my opinion. I have an Opinel bread knife, less than 25 euro, and for smaller tasks I use a Global GS-1 or often the simple Opinel kitchen set (around 30 euro for 3 knives and one peeler):

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Your own cooking skill will probably be more the limiting factor than these affordable knives!
 
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I prefer a slightly heavier knife and the F. Dick 1905 I just received is perfectly balanced. Plus it has a better profile IMO than the gyutos I have seen. When I was cooking professionally I often went for a 10" chef's knife to get the blade depth I wanted so my primary knife was weighted forward. My gripe with higher end Euro knives, especially German made, is the "V" guard/flange that prohibits sharpening at the heel. That made it harder to put a more acute edge on a blade without grinding down the guard. This new 1905 series solves that problem. So we'll see.

I consider paring knives to be "disposable" and have never invested "real money" in them as I don't use them much. (I used to turn mushrooms with a 10" blade.) As for J-knives being "the best"? I'll take your word for it. I've used a few and they're very nice but I've never liked the handles. I'm hoping that I've found my perfect chef's knife already. The sujis, on the other hand, look like the right blade for the job. I really like the blade shape. Much better than European slicers that I've used.
 
Well it looks like I'll buy individual knives.

I can use my bread knife from my current set of Henckels - the reason I don't like them is because they're the Eversharp variety which are all serrated. But for the bread knife, this obviously doesn't matter.

Thanks for all the help everyone - I'm glad I didn't end up with a set that I will regret once I learn more about cooking/kitchen knives.

As for what knife I will go with, I may just have to narrow some down online based on reviews and whatnot, then go to a store and see how they feel.
 
If you don't have some ,
get some nice cutting boards while your at the store , I like the colour coded nylon boards , green for veggies , red for meat etc , and a nice wood one for bread cheese etc.
You would be surprised at how many people use glass boards and even steel or marble , and wonder why they have blunt knives all the time.
 
bigbadboom said:
If you don't have some ,
get some nice cutting boards while your at the store , I like the colour coded nylon boards , green for veggies , red for meat etc , and a nice wood one for bread cheese etc.
You would be surprised at how many people use glass boards and even steel or marble , and wonder why they have blunt knives all the time.
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I agree, wood makes the edge last longer than Nylon or plastic cutting boards as well.
 
Globals are nice and relatively inexpensive.

Definitely don't buy a set, no matter the brand.

thompsonblades said:
Try Cutco. I used to be one of their sales reps. Now, before anybody rags me about that, get over it. I got paid to go to peoples homes and cut stuff up. Can you come up with a better job?
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while I'd never begrudge one for doing what they had to to make a living, and especially if you/they actually like something about the job, make no mistake - Cutco are shit. the AMWAY of knives, preying upon the uneducated and easily impressed. I'm surprised to see them mentioned here.

get over that...

;)
 
In my experience the old high carbon knives are the best. I got a huge butcher knife for $3 and after cleaning and sharping it's like a razor. You can find them in 2nd hand stores for next to nothing. They will rust, but with a little care, they are gems.
 
imo if you like the damascus look and like shuns

get a shun gyuto/chefs knife
grab a shun paring if you insist but the victorinox 5 buck special paring knife is a good performer for the job

and for a breadknife if you want one grab a MAC sb-105 breadknife.

if you want more non mainstream stuff I have other things I like but as is life go off the beaten path and prepare to spend a little more.


there are lots of people with vast knowledge of japanese cutlery at knifeforums.com in the kitchen section and over at foodiesforum.


-will
 
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