I'm not a chef but here's what I've found works for me over the years:

1) European chef knife, 8". Stainless. Wusthof or Henckels. Four Star or Professional S lines has worked well for the price.

2) Japanese Deba. 6" (8" for me is a little unwieldy). Several brands but I been a using Aritsugu. Extremely sharp and excellent for meats. Would not use for dicing veggies though. I also have a sashimi knife (10"? can't remember - it's great for carving roasts and such).

3) Bread knife / Paring knife: I have Shun but almost anything will work here (ie - H and W brands above, and probably many more). I spend my money on #1, 2 above.

4) Steak knifes: good ones are hard to find for a reasonable price. At the moment, I've settled on Victorinox paring knife. Sharp, easy to resharpen, cheap.

I have other knives but hardly use them. For example, I have a Santoku (W or H brand) but I hate it. I hate the shape.

Not into sets myself. Always end up with knives you don't want.
I use my Santuko more than any other. The heel of the blade is also useful for many tasks.

Lots of good recommendations so far.

I'm kind of liking the Miyabi Artisan series. They are expensive though, up there with Shun in price.

I'm going to keep looking. Keep up the recommendations. Thx.

My kitchen knives are mostly old USA-made Chicago Cutlery:

100S – 3" paring
62S – 5" utility/boning
BT7 – 7" bagel/tomato (serrated)
42S – 8" chef

Possibly they don't hold an edge as well as the Shuns, but I'm well-equipped to easily sharpen them. And I love their walnut hafts – nonslip, even when wet.

The 62S has a thin, narrow blade – excellent for cutting cheese that's too hard for my cheese wire. Cheese wires are indispensable for softer cheese.

And I have a Tojjiro 10" bread knife. It easily cuts the toughest crust, yet scatters crumbs less than other bread knives that I've had.

I’m going to play devils advocate here, before you go and buy $500 worth of knives why not get a good knife sharpener and work on what you have now. I have several knife sharpeners, stones, lansky set, crock sticks and my favorite work sharp (works like a mini belt sander with angle guides). I used to spend lots of time and elbow grease keeping our knives sharp, with the work sharp I can touch up every knife we own in less than a hour (according to how much abuse they have endured). Also always hand wash and dry your good knives, no dish washer. Most of our knives are older Chicago cutlery and they hold a good edge. Between times of using the work sharp I use a set of crock sticks to quickly bring back the edge. Hope this helps.

The electric sharpener I use is $140. So, $500 total would be $360 in knives.

quote:

Shun was mentioned. I have 4 that I bought individually. They are crazy sharp. Alton Brown uses them. Mine have been used pretty much daily for over 6 years and I’ve not had to sharpen or have them sharpened. I do hone mine with the Shun steel. This set would be my recommendation and includes the steel for honing .

That's a very nice set of Shun knives. I bought separately a similar set for my wife (without the scissors). If your wife is to use them, be sure she knows that they are so sharp she can cut off the tip of her thumb, going right through the nail without noticing it. My wife's grew back nicely though.

Cutco

We went to a free county fair and spent $420.oo on 5 knives for the price of 3.

Wife and I were giving two knives for christmas 2 yrs ago and are still sharp. Very happy.

made in america, lifetime sharp guarantee, no BS lifetime guarantee.

https://www.cutco.com/home.jsp...EG&utm_term=52126177

Another vote for Shun.

My wife's favorite is the Shun TDM0742 Premier Nakiri Knife, 5.5-Inch. Details on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...ilpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

No point, but incredibly sharp, hold edge and is great if you do not have a lot of hand strength.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Santoku Knives are my favorite. This is the one I own and love.

I agree. I own the Wusthoff classic steel, 7" santoku and use it 98% of the time for all of my cutting. I RARELY pick up a chef's knife. I have never had to sharpen my Wusthoff Classic set in 6 years, I only hone them with the steel.

In a set (in order of how often I use them) 7" santoku, 4" paring, bread knife, 6" utility knife, 10" chef's knife.

OP= You really need to pick up the knives and handle them.....handle size and balance differ from person to person. You can get a set with Everything you need for $500. I have the Wusthoff Classic set that I bought in 2011 and it's still awesome. But I'd be looking at Wusthoff Classic, Henckels (2 MAN LOGO ONLY, NOT 1 MAN on LOGO), and Shun. I would be looking for forged only, not stamped.

I find a 6" chef's knife more useful than a larger one, but depends on what you're cutting.

Hanging around in the kitchen of my various hillbilly relatives I discovered they used:
Old Hickory Knives.
I have 3. Carbon steel. Old school.
Vintage ones are cheap on E-Bay.

quote:

Originally posted by tleddy:
The missing blade...

The classic Chinese Cleaver!

Not to be confused with the meat cleaver! I just picked up Henkels vegetable cleaver, mainly to fill the gaping void in my knife block, but also because it’s just plain cool.

Aside from staying away from the dishwasher, make sure that you wash AND dry your expensive new blades. Water left on the high carbon steel will cause them to rust overnight. If you’re as zealous as I am, you’ll also want to give them a light wipe with mineral oil (the kind you get from the drug store.) You wouldn’t hose off your rifle, and then just throw it in the safe, would you? Same thing applies to knife care.

Great info in here. Lots of good recommendations. America's Test Kitchen for good, objective, non-biased advice. I tend to go for Wusthof, but have a few others. Get a good electric sharpener, and hand washing is a must.

I actually found a great VG10 steel core chef's knife, clad in Damascus steel for about $50. I use it the most. Can't find it on the website now, though.

I have way too many kitchen knives. They follow me home.

I've some of pretty much every brand and type, and having said that, the Victorinox Forchner brand makes some very good knives, especially for the money.

I did give up sharpening my knives, for the most part. My local Williams Sonoma store has a guy who sharpens them razor sharp, without ever messing up a blade, for $3.00 each. I gladly pay him.

I agree with the previous posters three forged knives recommendations. I wish I had heard it before buying a set, and only using the 3 knives.

As far as your main chef's knife, I have three drop forged Henckels and my order of preference:

6.5" Nakiri. This thing is awesome as it has the blade profile of a 10" chef's knife, but the tip has been removed so it's a handy 6.5" chef's knife that mows through vegetables. I took a Henckel's knife skills class a couple years back and 50% of the class bought this knife.

8" traditional chef's knife. This was my go to knife prior to purchasing the Nakiri and I still use it if the Nakiri is dirty.

7" Hollow Edge Santoku Knife This just sits in the block and only used once every couple years.

---

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
I'm not a chef but here's what I've found works for me over the years:

1) European chef knife, 8". Stainless. Wusthof or Henckels. Four Star or Professional S lines has worked well for the price.
2) Japanese Deba. 6" (8" for me is a little unwieldy). Several brands but I been a using Aritsugu. Extremely sharp and excellent for meats. Would not use for dicing veggies though. I also have a sashimi knife (10"? can't remember - it's great for carving roasts and such).
3) Bread knife / Paring knife: I have Shun but almost anything will work here (ie - H and W brands above, and probably many more). I spend my money on #1, 2 above.
4) Steak knifes: good ones are hard to find for a reasonable price. At the moment, I've settled on Victorinox paring knife. Sharp, easy to resharpen, cheap.
I have other knives but hardly use them. For example, I have a Santoku (W or H brand) but I hate it. I hate the shape.

When I need buy some replacements for knives that don't fit in the set, Professional S is what I'm getting more of.
Already have 10" chefs, 8" carving, 7" Santoku, 4" paring (no longer listed) & 2.75" boning . Not crazy expensive and good enough quality that I have never felt I needed anything more to cut with.

For steak knives, Henckels makes some amazing all stainless steak knives that are about $10 each. These are wicked sharp and stay wicked sharp and are incredible knives for the money.

https://www.bedbathandbeyond.c...enckels+steak+knives

I have been really happy with my Zwilling JA Henckels Four Star II knives purchased individually from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Bought them while on sale, then applied the 20% coupons so got for fantastic prices. Highest single knive price I paid was

Much better knives (quality, balance, sharpness, edge) compared to the Cutco knives I’ve used.

In addition to the ones in the pic below I have the 4” Pairing, 5” Utility, 8” Bread, and 5 1/2” Boning knives as well as a sharpening steel that was a promotional freebie when you bought a certain dollar amount of ZH knives.

Your budget should get you your “starter” knives (Chef, Slicer, Pairing) as well as at least on more. I’d suggest the 6” Santoku or the 5” Utility.

Then you can add additional ones as you go. I’ve had mine coming up on 5 years and have been very happy with them.

8” Chef, 8” Carving, 6” Utility, 7” Santoku
Henckels by Lone-Rider, on Flickr


I also keep a Victorinox 12” slicer on hand that I am really happy with...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...ilpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Selecting and buying kitchen cutlery is worse than deciding on which AR to buy! You got your 6920, BCM, DD, and Noveske of kitchen knives. I'll try and get out and about Friday to handle some different brands (of knives). I've got a DD and other nice guns. No reason I should get my wife anything less in the way of knives.

dwright1951 - I tried various sharpeners on our current set that we got from Macy's or somewhere similar 12 years ago. They were made in China but say German steel. I've always hated the damn things.