quote:

Originally posted by rsbolo:
The guys here have given lots of great advice. I would like to add that you consider buying knives individually.

Our knife block is very eclectic, cheap paring knives to somewhat expensive customs and factory. My go to is a Gerber Balance Plus Utility from the '80s. For factory we like the F. Dick knives, have a few in the block.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get this advice and wasted money on a set. You only need 3 knives and the santoku is redundant to the chef’s knife. Other than the 3 knives, my other knives go unused for months or years.

A few years ago, I was able to do a class with Henkel’s and for 2 hours got to test their traditional knives and Japanese knives. I prefer Henkel’s pro line.

1. Pick one - 8” chef’s knife, 6.5” nakiri, or 7” santoku. In the aforementioned class, everyone was so blown away by the 6.5” nakiri that over half the class bought it including me. Now, I have all 3 due to already owning a Henkel’s set, but the 6.5” nakiri is the knife I most often reach for. 8” chef’s knife is 2nd choice. The Santoku hasn’t been used in years.

2. Bread knife

3. Paring knife

tatortodd nailed it. There's only 3 essential knives for the kitchen, the rest of the knives are specialty knives.

- Chef knife, whether you prefer a Western-style knife or, a Japanese-style like a santoku is where you want to make the investment. I find 8" to be the minimum length to do virtually all cooking needs. A forged steel blade with a full-tang is ideal, these usually have the distinct 3-rivet handle design. If you're price sensitive you can get stamped blade, usually in the price-value food-service assortments(Victorinox, Messermeister, etc).

- Bread knife, get as long as you can find, 8" minimum, forged blade good, but, stamped steel works. This long serrated blade is your tool for bread, cakes, pies, hard-firm but, soft inner foods, like pineapple, tomatoes, melons, and certain squashes.

- Paring knife, the cheapest but most numerous style in the drawer/block. DO NOT PAY A LOT for paring knives. These knives are hand knives, stamped steel knives are fine for this type, if you loose it in the garbage not a big loss. These are my favorites, they hold enough of an edge, comes with a guard and a variety of colors.

Other knife types to consider after the main-3:
Filet/boning knife - filet cuts, delicate cuts, deboning meat, helps with carving
Slicer - similar to the bread knife but, without serrations. As the name implies, long cuts/slices
Scissors - utility tool, handy for opening food packaging, cutting vegetables/herbs
Cleaver - heavy brute of the kitchen, great for breaking up large cuts or, bones. Asian kitchens use the cleaver instead of the traditional chef knife.

Misen knives have gotten a lot of love lately, they've changed up a few things and some people are not pleased, much depends on your hand and grip technique

Henckels Professional "S"
$329.95

https://www.williams-sonoma.co...1EAQYASABEgKVCPD_BwE

We got this set a year ago and love it. We stumbled upon a discontinued model and got it for 150 instead of 350. The sales person was confused as she said they never go on sale, so we took it and ran...great set and very sharp. The chefs knife is all I really use, but the wife likes the smaller knives.

https://www.bedbathandbeyond.c...rd=wusthof-knife-set

The best knife in the world is only as good as your ability to resharpen skillfully.

Kanefusa. Wife recently said: "I love that little Japanese knife the best, where did you get it I'm a going to buy a 2nd one"? I'd gotten it off of Drop.com back when they were Massdrop.com. (Kanefusa Petty)

She found that Drop was running it again and was shocked that it was only $44. or so.

We have Benchmade and Wusthof kitchen knives. Pass on the Benchmades, waste of money. I give a slight edge to the Wusthoff 6" chefs knife over the Kanefusa Santuko, but the Japanese knife is much sharper (I sharpen all the knives regularly).

The other Japanese brands noted upthread are high quality product worth a look. Remember that dishwasher safe is worth something:-)

Great thread.

I'd never even heard of Shun but will look into them.

I was looking at knife sets back in August and had sort of settled on spending the money on Wustof but other priorities came first.

Personally I'm not going to buy a knife set made in China. Nope. Not going to do it.

In addition to all of the great info presented here, let me suggest you add a slicer to your list. Doesn't have to be an expensive one, say $25 - $50 but it will make a big difference when carving a roast or similar.

Here's one I bought for our son and he's been using it for years with good results and he has never sharpened it.

https://www.amazon.com/MAIRICO...id=1607967039&sr=8-5

Since there is a thread running about buying American and avoiding china, how about the American made brand Rada? LINK

I've recently bought a few and am very well pleased with them.

The prices are very very very reasonable.

We have a local store in OKC named American Made Products where I have purchased them.

You might be able to buy them locally depending on where you live.
.

I followed the reviews at America's Test Kitchen & ordered (& which I use frequently) the following:

8" Chef's Knife - Victorinox Fibrox Pro Chef's Knife ~$45 at Amazon
Slicing Knife (bread, roasts, etc) - Victorinox Swiss Army 12” Granton Slicing Knife [URL=Victorinox Swiss Army 12” Granton Slicing Knife]~$65 at Amazon[/URL]
Paring knife - Victorinox Swiss Army Fibrox Pro Point Paring Knife ~$10 at Amazon

I went frugal & also ordered & use:
Santuko - I found a blemished Wusthof 7" for ~$50 (years ago & I can't recall where)
Boning knife - Victorinox Swiss Army Cutlery Fibrox Pro Boning Knife ~$33 at Amazon

The frugal ones were also best buy recommendations from ATK. For convenience I copied the current links from ATK.
All have held edges very well & have lasted at least 6-7 years.

The kitchen knife thread pops up regularly. The consensus 'best bang for the buck' is Victorinox/Forschner w/ Fibrox handles. They work well, are moderately priced, designed for heavy restaurant use, and are even dishwasher safe.

I have many kitchen knives including: Wusthof, Zwilling Henckels, Shun, and other premium brands made in Solingen, Germany and Seki City, Japan. I have a Victorinox 10" chef knife and use it as much as any of my other more expensive knives.

As others have noted, despite my large collection of cutlery, there are only 4-5 that I use on a daily/weekly basis and another 4-5 that I use on a monthly basis.

Wusthof knives, when they go on sale at various times of the year.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
Great thread.

I'd never even heard of Shun but will look into them.

Their Classic 7" Hollow Ground Santokuis their most popular style. Their Damascus-lines and relationship with Williams-Sonoma and Sur la Table helped establish their popularity and introduce Japanese knives into the American/Western market.

Global Knives was the other Japanese brand to gain wide following in the US, whereas Shun blended Western style and familiarity, Global went very stylistic and design oriented with their minimalistic appearance and ultra-light and thin design.

quote:

...and are even dishwasher safe.

I cannot understand why any sane, smart person would put their kitchen knives in the dishwasher. The caustic chemicals aside, I would consider it a serious safety concern.

I have never understood the popularity of the hollow-ground santoku blade (Granton edge). I have one and it has sat in my kitchen drawer for decades, unused. Does it make cutting easier? Not in my opinion - a properly sharpened chef's knife will make cutting easy. Does it keep food from sticking to the blade? Not in my opinion - potato, onion, apple - it all stuck to the blade. If the ovals are ground into the blade too close to the edge and it is sharpened enough, your cutting edge is now into the ovals, thinner in spots and could potentially chip, depending on what you are cutting.

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:

quote:

...and are even dishwasher safe.

I cannot understand why any sane, smart person would put their kitchen knives in the dishwasher. The caustic chemicals aside, I would consider it a serious safety concern.

I have never understood the popularity of the hollow-ground santoku blade (Granton edge). I have one and it has sat in my kitchen drawer for decades, unused. Does it make cutting easier? Not in my opinion - a properly sharpened chef's knife will make cutting easy. Does it keep food from sticking to the blade? Not in my opinion - potato, onion, apple - it all stuck to the blade. If the ovals are ground into the blade too close to the edge and it is sharpened enough, your cutting edge is now into the ovals, thinner in spots and could potentially chip, depending on what you are cutting.

I guess I'm a deranged, mad man. When I had a dishwasher years and years ago I'd put them in there. Not always, but I would. If it says dishwasher safe or isn't wood handled, put that bad boy in there when you're feeling lazy. Put it in there in a manner that it won't contact metal or glass. I promise you the knife will not explode.

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:

quote:

...and are even dishwasher safe.

I cannot understand why any sane, smart person would put their kitchen knives in the dishwasher. The caustic chemicals aside, I would consider it a serious safety concern.

Multi-fold answer....safety for sure, reaching in, you end-up slicing yourself.

The temperature of the hot water over a wash cycle can affect the temper in a blade. That said, all dishwashers aren't the same so, some washers are lengthy and prolonged in their cycles, others are short. Unit water heaters will also be different.

The water pressure hitting the knife blade will dull the blades. If hitting directly, the jet of hot water over a 30-60-90 minute wash cycle will eventually dull the edge.

Exposing the handles to prolonged water under high-heat will damage the handles. The material will split, crack and/or, the rivets/adhesive will loosen up. Wood or, synthetic handles will have a protective finish, it's not too hard for the wash cycle to remove the protective finish. As an example, take a basic aluminum sheet pan and run it though a wash cycle, the dish washer will scour the tin finish off the pan, dulling it and pitting the surface.

For the chef’s knife, I highly recommend the MAC MTH-80 professional series knife. It is extremely sharp and stays that way for quite some time if you use a honing rod. There is an inexpensive Fiskars sharpener MAC recommends that I found returns the knife to almost factory keenness.

This is a tomato slicing all-star, however, it shouldn’t be used for boning as the blade has a thinner profile.

Some awesome discussion. Thanks all

So likely chef's knife, long bread knife, paring.

And a nakiri because I want one.

I do use the Santoku I have a lot, mostly because my ex never used so it still has an edge as opposed to all the others.

I received a 3 piece set of Henckels Professional S (8" chef, 5" utility and 4" paring) knives for a work service award a few years back.
I've added several others, including a bread knife, vegetable knife and a 3" paring knife.

Realized I wanted a Santoku as well, so I did some shopping and never found one in stock that matched the set.
At the time, they had a sale going on Shun knives...

Picked up a Shun Classic 6.5" Nakiri that has become my absolute favorite when doing prep work on vegetables.

If I had to start from scratch, I wish I would've gone with Shun from the onset.