Knives

[Furd]

My kitchen knives are embarassing pieces of sh*t. I'm looking to buy a decent knife block set. I'm not afraid to spend a bit for them, but I don't need top of the line cutlery.

 

Recommendations?

 

TIA.

[Jimmy Neutron]

My folks bought us a set of Henckel knives a few years ago and I remain very impressed. Not sure where they fall in the heirarchy of knives, but my folks tend to buy nice stuff.

[Bier Meister]

i really like the wustoff grand prix, henckles twin select (own these), global....

[Caveman_Nick]

My kitchen knives are embarassing pieces of sh*t. I'm looking to buy a decent knife block set. I'm not afraid to spend a bit for them, but I don't need top of the line cutlery.

 

Recommendations?

 

TIA.

 

It would probably be a good idea to go to a William Sonoma and ask if you can look at the sets they carry. Wusthof and Henkel are respected brands, and they carry them as well as one or 2 others. They are all good, and it depends o which one you prefer to handle.

 

I have Wusthof grand prix and like them.

[MojoMan]

Personally, I don't like the sets with the knife block but they represent a reasonable value.

 

You can get something cheap and totally servicable, like a Victorinox although it has a crappy looking plastic handle and it's stamped instead of forged, making it also look cheap. However, they work pretty well, far better than others in the price range.

 

If you're willing to spend maybe around $120 for a chef's knife, you're looking at a Henkels or Wustoff (German knives) versus a Global or Shun (Japanese knives). They're all great knives; it depends what you like and how you intend to use them.

 

The German knives are heavier, with a thicker, softer blade. Hence, they need to be sharpened more often. And they're slightly less good at food like veggies. However, they are strong and you can hack up chickens including the bones and other heavy tasks with abandon.

 

The Japanese knives are lighter in weight, with a thinner, sharper, harder blade. So, if you want to hack through some bone, they might chip and they lack some of the weight of a good German knife. However, IMO, they're better for chopping veggies, etc. For many years, I had a top of the line Wustof chef's knife. My GF needed a good knife and I wanted to try something new so I bought a Shun and gave her the Wustof. The Shun is good but, if you do a fair amount of cooking, I think you'll need something heavier and stronger (I have a cheap Chinese cleaver) for the heavy work.

[detlef]

Personally, I don't like the sets with the knife block but they represent a reasonable value.

 

You can get something cheap and totally servicable, like a Victorinox although it has a crappy looking plastic handle and it's stamped instead of forged, making it also look cheap. However, they work pretty well, far better than others in the price range.

For the first several years of professional cooking, my "knife bag" consisted of a Forschner (Victorinox) 8" chef's knife, pairing knife, and steel wrapped in a kitchen towel. To this day, I still keep an 8" Forschner and use it all the time. It's pretty easy to get an edge on it and, like Mojo says, they're way cheaper than the others. For home use, a wooden handled one is a bit nicer looking.

 

Nobody in my kitchen at work keeps fancy knives. We all use the basic plastic handled ones. We have a service that comes once a week and rotates our stock with freshly sharpened ones but you'll certainly not dull them out so fast.

 

More important that owning fancy knives is just getting a stone and figuring out how to use it.

[twiley]

You really don't need a complete set. I find that I really only use about 5 knives.

 

In no particular order:

 

Santoku

 

Pairing Knife

 

Kitchen

 

Bread Knife

 

Cook's knife

 

I then found this inexpensive universal knife block that will hold all of my knives:

Universal knife block

 

ETA: I have the classic not the gourmet. Fixed the links.

Edited February 12, 2008 by twiley

[Seattle LawDawg]

You really don't need a complete set. I find that I really only use about 5 knives.

 

In no particular order:

 

Santoku

 

Pairing Knife

 

Slicer

 

Bread Knife

 

Cook's knife

 

I then found this inexpensive universal knife block that will hold all of my knives:

Universal knife block

 

ETA: I have the classic not the gourmet. I linked the wrong style but the knives are all the same.

 

+1. You can get the blocks anywhere and put together the knife set you want. I'll put my vote in for the Wusthof Grand Prix II. Very solid knives.

[twiley]

Here's a review on the lines that Wusthof offers:

 

http://reviews.cookingcache.com/wusthof-knives-review.html

 

ETA: They give the Ikon series an excellent rating.

Edited February 12, 2008 by twiley

[Kid Cid]

I had a set of Henckels, they are OK but nothing to write home to mother about. I ended up buying a set of the Calphalon Katana knives. Beautiful to look at, they really hold an edge well and the most important thing, their handle allows for a very comfotable and useful grip. I can't say enough good things about these knives.

 

http://www.calphalon.com/calphalon/consume...ollection.jhtml

[driveby]

I find most of my fine cutlery and quality kitchen utensils at garage sales.

[darin3]

My folks bought us a set of Henckel knives a few years ago and I remain very impressed. Not sure where they fall in the heirarchy of knives, but my folks tend to buy nice stuff.

 

 

I had a set of Henckels, they are OK but nothing to write home to mother about.

 

http://www.calphalon.com/calphalon/consume...ollection.jhtml

We have Henckels and they've been very good.

[wiegie]

You can get something cheap and totally servicable, like a Victorinox although it has a crappy looking plastic handle and it's stamped instead of forged, making it also look cheap. However, they work pretty well, far better than others in the price range.

We have a couple of Victorinox knives and they work well for us. I just checked their website and it appears that now they offer forged knives as well:

 

http://www.victorinox.ch/index.cfm?site=vi...e=42〈=E

[Kid Cid]

We have Henckels and they've been very good.

I'm a knife snob so take what I say with a grain of salt, but over the last 20 years or so the quality of the Henckels knives have gone down. Not so much with the designs but with the quality. Since they moved their manufacturing plant to Spain, the steel they use is decidely less than the best. That's why I went with Japanese steel over European. A much higher grade that takes and holds an edge better. If I could have afforded it, I would have gone with Shun classic knives, but even they are pricey (never mind the Elite or Pro2 series).

[Furd]

Thanks for the comments.

 

I'm probably going to heft a few knives this weekend. Whilst researching the issue, I discovered a set of some economically priced knives that have been touted to a certain degree: OXO Good Grips Professional. Price is about a C-note for 14, which frankly is like 20% of what I had planned on spending. I'm no Bobby Flay, but I surmise that their construction is inferior to most of the better knives. But they may be good enough for my purposes.

 

Any experience with these?

 

And I must find a cheap Chinese cleaver somewhere.

[Bier Meister]

don't know about those

[polksalet]

This is how I get down

 

http://www.knivesplus.com/OLD-HICKORY-KNIVES.HTML

 

get'er done!!!

[twiley]

You don't need all of those knives. Just buy a Santoku, a Kitchen Knife, and a Pairing Knife. It'll probably run you about $200 total and you won't regret it.

[Puddy]

Picked these up on Amazon last week. Just opened them today. They look sweet. Anyone have any experience with them?

 

Wasabi

Edited December 25, 2009 by Puddy

[Kid Cid]

Picked these up on Amazon last week. Just opened them today. They look sweet. Anyone have any experience with them?

 

Wasabi

I can't tell from the photos. Does the tang go all the way through the handle? How is the balance? They have a similar look to Shun knives (round handle, gap between the end of the blade and start of the handle) do you know what grade of steel they are made of?

[gilthorp]

Just bought an 8 inch Global Chef Knife for myself over the weekend. Looking forward to using it.

[rocknrobn26]

I bought a Cuisinart Electric Knife. Yeah...maybe a cop out but read my post above. I carved a turkey breast, a tenderloin roast, an eye of the round roast, and three loaves of bread. It worked great! The wife carved most of the tenderloin and loved it also, even though she used the bread blade. (hope she doesn't read his ) Very consistent straight cuts (tick and tin) w/ minimal effort, but I did cut myself a little. The ER at our hospital has me on their "First Serve" list anyway, so no worries!