My search skills must be terrible. I know I've seen threads on this topic but it's not coming up for me.

Anyway, I'd like to get my wife some new kitchen knives as a gift. I want some higher end knives but not ridiculously expensive. I'm fine buying either as a set or individually. So maybe $500 total +/-. I need some that I can touch up or sharpen myself (yearly?) but want good edge retention. She always complains her knives are not sharp enough and I can't put an edge on her current set, which are nothing special. What do you recommend - specific brand, or steel, where to buy?

Probably needs one maybe two of the following:

Chef - European or Japanese?
Paring
Slicer/vegetable
Other?

Thanks!

You'll need one longer knife and usually those are also thicker and heavier. For serious chopping on big cuts of meat, etc.

My cutlery knowledge is limited.
Have a Henkel's set of 12" French, 11.5" slicer, 8" parer, two 7.5" parers, one 6.75" parer OA with a scissors in a block.
They have faithfully served for over thirty years.
Not cheap, but you get what you pay for.

america's test kitchen does a great job of solving this problem

Santoku Knives are my favorite. This is the one I own and love.

Shun.

I suggest three knives:

A chef or santoku of 8' to 10" depending on her preference. I like a western chef's knife, but a santoku is an option.

A parer.

A bread knife.

For a fourth, a thin bladed 6" or 7" knife that can be a boning knife, or used for other work that the chef's knife isn't good for. Depending on how your cook, you may want this before the bread knife.

You can get three pretty good knives for $500. But you don't have to spend that much to get pretty good knives. Mercer's forged knives are far less than that, I don't know that you get anything a lot better until you spend close to your $500 limit. I think Mercer's knives are as good as the middle grades of the German knife-makers (Henkels, for example). You'll need to spend $100 to $150 a knife to do better.

https://www.amazon.com/Mercer-...er+8+inch+chef+knife

https://www.amazon.com/Mercer-...ercer+paring+genesis

https://www.amazon.com/Mercer-...mercer+bread+genesis

https://www.amazon.com/Mercer-...boning+genesis&psc=1

I only buy individual knives and I agree that three cover most needs (Chef's, Paring, and Bread). I like brands such as Shun, or Global on the lesser expensive side, or handmade Japanese knives from folks like Shinichi Watanabe. Many folks like German knives like J.A. Henkles, and they seem fine as well, but I've not owned any of them myself.

There's three essential knives that every kitchen should have...

Chef's Knife
Paring Knife
Bread Knife

The Chef's knife is your all-purpose tool, if you're going to invest, this is the single item to pour your funds into. Some like the Japanese-style santoku or, the more traditional and popular three-rivet Western style. 8 or, 10 inches is the norm, just depends on what the user is comfortable with. Any smaller and you loose both useful blade length and necessary weight that helps with the cutting. Wusthof and Henkel are popular brands for the Western style, Shun for the Japanese style, Global is a very lightweight, design oriented brand I've never been a fan of but, for others it works. If you're working off a budget, look at Victorinox, most restaurants/food service are using their knives....cheap, satisfy health laws, cheap enough to get thrown into dish washers, holds enough of an edge, cheap.

Paring knife is a specialty tool for small jobs, fruits, vegetables, meat trimming... You should spend very little for these type of knives, no need for a full-tang, that's just a waste. Most kitchen stores will sell a three-pack of paring knives. Kuhn Rikon makes very good paring knives that come with their own sheath and variety of colors, around $10-12/per.

Bread knife is another specialty, get as long a blade as you can find. Nothing worse that trying to cut a round loaf of crusty bread, and the knife doesn't reach across. You can also use this style of knife for cutting certain vegetables and soft items like cakes.

After those three, you'll need to purchase a honing steel to maintain the edge of those knives. Sharpening stones take off material and should only be used for annual maintenance or, if the knives went through a session of chopping. Honing steels will get a lot more use and helps keep the edge.

Other specialty knives that are nice to have but, not essential.....boning knife (fish), slicer (roasts, long thin cuts), utility (looks like a long mini chef knife, sometimes called a sandwich knife), cleaver (heavy cuts and breaking bones).

Above all else, knives DO NOT GO IN THE DISHWASHER. That'll take the temper out of a knife and dull it's edge. Food service can put knives in the washer as they're cheap and satisfy health and sanitation laws. For the home kitchen, it's good habits and discipline to always wash your knife and cutting board once done.

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.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
There's three essential knives that every kitchen should have...

Chef's Knife
Paring Knife
Bread Knife

with that in mind, I bought this set and love it.

https://www.williams-sonoma.co...ping]%20-%20Wusthof]

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
Shun.

Agree. I like Shun and have four of them within my overall knife collection - a Shun/Ken Onion 8" chef's, Edo 8" chef's, Premier 8" Kiritsuke and Premier Nakiri. The Japanese are making very, very good knives these days. They are addicting...like holsters.

I recommend you stay away from the santoku knives with the hollow or Granton edge. These types of knives have oval areas ground into the side of the knife. The ovals are ground into one or both sides of the blade to help keep food from sticking to the blade, although I have never found them to release food any better than a regular chef's knife. As you sharpen these knives, the hollow ovals gets closer to the knife edge, thinning and weakening the knife edge.

jhe888 is right on point. Spend some good money on the chef's knife; but not so much on a paring and bread knife. Also, get a bread knife with an offset handle, so you don't drag your knuckles slicing bread, etc.

I also second the boning knife, as I only buy whole chickens (Costco twin packs) and de-bone them myself. They also work well to make cutlets and butterfly chicken breasts.

Keep them razor sharp!

Agree with the recommendations for a core battery of three knives: chef's, utility/paring, bread.

For a bread knife consider the Wusthof Gourmet Crust Buster which gets universal acclaim and is used in most culinary schools. You can find them in as new condition used rather easily.

For a chef's knife there are far too many excellent models to choose from. Find one of excellent blade metal(s) in the length and thickness to suit along with handle ergonomics that "work" for you. Personally I have both thicker European style as well as thinner Japanese Gyuto blades. And in stainless, high carbon, san-mai, and damascus in sizes from 210mm to 240mm.

Same applies to utility / paring knives. Too many to choose from. I have several 4" to 4.5" models.

Santukos may suit some and are considered compromise rather than traditional styled kitchen knives. I have several but find myself using chef, gyuto, and asian cleaver blades instead. Obviously follow your own preferences. Strongly agree to avoid Granton scalloped sides.

Dull knives are inherently dangerous. Keep yours sharp! And hand wash only. Do NOT use a dishwasher!

Forged steel will hold an edge better. I like knives with nice handles.

That said, I use an 8" Wusthof chefs knife for almost everything, and a 6" Cutco serrated for everything else. Serrated knives do not sharpen well, so I might not buy a top-line serrated.

Also in the drawer is the 9" Wusthof bread knife, great for bread and tomatos. The 6" Wusthof "chefs knife" has come back into rotation, but is still in a side drawer. The paring, nearly never; I just plain don't like it. There is another Cutco, a long serrated I use for cleaning pineapple and cantoloupe. Despite what you hear about Cutco, I like their serrated blades and their (nearly) unconditional replacement warranty.

I gave my dad a couple Wustoff blades, their 6" "sausage knife", serrated with rounded tip. And a "sandwich knife", with is the 6" thin bladed knife described by another as very useful. Yes, it is very useful but the sausage blade does not seem as nice as my 6" Cutco. All companies have their standouts.

I'd ask what she prefers in a chefs knife, 6" 8" even 10", and go from there.

quote:

Originally posted by cmr076:

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
There's three essential knives that every kitchen should have...

Chef's Knife
Paring Knife
Bread Knife

with that in mind, I bought this set and love it.

https://www.williams-sonoma.co...ping]%20-%20Wusthof]

That is a good set, but I would add a Santoku chef knife. Both my wife and I love the one we have and use it as much as the standard chefs kife.

https://www.williams-sonoma.co...u-knives&isx=0.0.988

Jim

Do you have a kitchen store that you can go in for a "hands on" test?


The reason I ask is that's how my fiancee and I found the knives that we like. They had several mid to high end brands to compare with. We both liked the Wusthof Classic balance and feel over the other lines.


I've been buying one or two at a time rather than a set. She has a Chef's knife, Santoku, a pairing knife, a utility and a bread knife in the same series. All are used, but her favorites are the Santoku and the pairing knife.

The missing blade...

The classic Chinese Cleaver!

A really good one is less than $100 and as far as I am concerned, indispensable.

I also have the Shun trilogy mentioned above.

I use these when I need to cut a beer can, then a radial tire, then a tomato. No one will freaking eat my salads, and I can't figure out why...

OK... one other item: kitchen scissors!

I have had innumerable kitchen scissors over the last sixty years of cooking. By FAR the best the Cutco!

Try the Cutco and nothing else compares!

Also, lifetime warranty...

Zwilling Henkels clearance site usually has some great deals on knife sets

http://www.zwillingonline.com/33402000.html

This message has been edited. Last edited by: snwghst,