Kitchen Knife-fi - Page 6

I use a Global G2 and it has so far served me very well. Light unlike the German forged knives and damn sharp. I find the handle very ergonomic and its by far the best fitting handle I've used. The balance isn't perfect like the Misono's I've held ( and couldn't afford :P ) but very good. It's back heavy which is better than front heavy I think.

I'm absolutely fascinated by this thread. All of a sudden, I feel the urge to get a nice knife. I haven't really got anything worth mentioning and I recently ruined the edge of my chef's knife using a Henckel's Twinsharp knife sharpener (you know, one of the super lazy ones). Methinks it needs replacing because there are so many burs on the edge it probably wouldn't be worth taking to a shop to be professional sharpened. There's a shop near me that stock Global knives. Judging by online reviews by regular press, they are one of the most well-known, in the same way that other "mass-marketed" products such as Bose, Montblanc and Mercedes are regarded in their respective categories. With so many different brands out there, each with their own celebrity chef endorsements, how does one go about choosing a knife? There is no shop I know that will let me try out the knives on actual food

- If you're considering a knife, go hold it in your hand and see how it feels. This will eliminate some knives right off, which makes things simpler -- and you may find one that feels so right, you have to have it.

- You've used your chef's knife for a while, it sounds like. How did you feel about the weight, the shape and thickness of the blade? Use what you know to shape the characteristics you want in your next knife.

- Realize that if the knife feels right in the hand, you can't go too far wrong. Among the brands you've heard of as being good, there's not much crap. If you want a quality screen, look for forged, not stamped, and a tang that runs all the way through the handle.

- Don't buy sets. Buy one knife at a time, and spend a bunch of time with it, learning, before considering another.

Celebrity endorsements aren't entirely meaningless, if the celebrity in question has some integrity. But if a knife has a celebrity's name on it, it's probably significantly more expensive than it would be otherwise.

I don't feel comfortable with your juxtaposing Global with Bose and Mont Blanc. Global is, IMO, good stuff, not cheaply made, and not overpriced. Whether these knives fit your hand (they fit mine very well), and whether you like their relatively lightweight nature (some pros do, because of fatigue issues; I like thinner blades for many slicing tasks because it's much easier to slice thin cross-sections with a thin blade, but some like more weight, because they use a knife where I would use a cleaver) is another question.

I used to own expensive kitchen knives by Gerber, Henckles, etc. However about 10 years ago I decided to buy "el cheapo" for under $50 a set and replace them w/ another "el cheapo" set every 5 years or so. My knives stay sharp now.

Thanks for your help. I want to buy a short paring knife because I as damaged as my chef's knife is, it still works fine if sharpened. On the other hand, my paring knife is blunt to the point that it is actually dangerous to use. I couldn't even core a broccoli the other day without shedding a bit of blood and swearing profusely because it had slipped. My technique may not be great, but it definitely wasn't my fault.

I didn't mean that Global is just a name, I was just trying to say that it is one of those brands in the knife world that have the same resonance and public recognition as a maker of high quality goods as say Bose and Montblanc would in the audio and writing instruments worlds, respectively. Montblanc, by the way, make quality writing instruments. It's not all show. Bose, on the other hand, well... 'nuff said.

Nothing quite like a good Japanese chef's knife. We have Henkel 5 star's and I recently got a decent Japanese Santoku. What an amazing knife. I went in looking for a Tojiro - Santoku but the salesman talked me into a Togiharu Inox - Santok for only about $10 more.

Here's a link to the mecca of Japanese knives: Korin - Fine Japanese Tableware and Chef Knives

Enjoy,
Bob

I guess I'm old school. Still lovin' Wusthof Classic. Just added a (Wusthof Classic) Santoku to the collection. I'm not a professional chef, so I can't imagine I'll need another set of kitchen knives in this lifetime.

Some people comment that they don't like the handles on Wusthof Classic, but one thing I noticed comparing my older Classics to my newer ones is that the handles are beefier on the new ones. The handles aren't longer, but they're both wider and higher, which suits my large hands well.

Paring knives are a special case. They just have to be both thin and quite sharp, or they can't do (most of) their jobs at all. Then, too, one can get away with a harder steel because you're not supposed to stress them at all, cut into a surface, etc. So my tendency would be to apply a much higher potential-sharpness standard, and go for a Japanese layered steel one (the "sandwich" of hard steel coddled by soft steel layers). Those are not necessarily super-expensive; I got mine about 8 years ago for around US$43.

OK. I am no expert on writing instruments. But I did own a Mont Blanc, and while I was happy with the smoothness of the way it wrote, I was quite displeased with the cheap-looking and cheap-feeling plastic that the body was made of, and displeased, but not surprised, when it broke in half one day when it was caught in a drawer. For my purposes, which tend more toward informal technical drawing than calligraphy, I far prefer the tougher, heavier metal-bodied Rotrings -- or did before I realized that the cheap gel pens like Dr Grip Gel were so good for what I wanted out of a pen that I didn't have a need to chase the fountain pen thing any more.

Woot : One Day, One Deal (SM)

Shun Ken Onion 9 Piece Knife Block Set

$519.99

Part of a woot-off but it's lingering probably for an hour or so.

Thanks for the Korin link: it's a fascinating shop to flip through.

I've been collecting 6"-15" kitchen knives for about 20 years. I cook, and they have always been a point at which cooking exigencies appropriately intersected with guy-like enthusiasms for collecting gear and owning big sharp things. The fact that they would get used was the built-in justification for not stopping collecting.

I never really had much of a strategy or even particularly discerning principles. I always looked for forged rather than ground knife edges and tangs that ran the length of the handle. Most of my kitchen knives are German and were purchased over time from variants of T.J. Maxx in three different countries, on two continents. Apparently, "T.J. Maxx" is Esperanto for something that can't quite be defined but is, nonetheless, immediately understood everywhere.

Anyhow, I've kept about twenty of the things. My best purchases or discoveries of the past two years were these: 1. I got a small Santoku knife from a direct Japanese importer off Ebay. The Seller advertised it as "the sharpest knife in the world," and we all know how to treat that claim. Nonetheless, the 7" knife is remarkably thin and sharp. It's 10-layer Damascus, hard and sliver-like. I find that as long as I carefully sharpen its blade, it works a treat for *everything* --just like that old magic Ginsu on the TV. Only this *really* works, and can do paper-thin tomatoes just as well as it does paper-thin slices of raw beef. I've read earlier in this thread that the German Solingen knives are heavier, less wieldy, but keep edges longer. This Santoku must be frequently steeled, but it's king-hell on prep when it's sharp, and I hardly need to use anything else.

2. I finally learned how to use a carbon rod to sharpen slightly dulled edges. I won't say anything about the method, other than A. it does indeed look like what butchers do, and if you know a butcher, she may agree to show you, B. it goes fast, C. it takes an incredibly 'light' touch [I've worn strips into my oldest carbon rod by trying years ago to 'grind' the knife-edge down on it--doofus!], and D. you do it bunches and don't mind because it makes a real difference in the quality of your cutting--and the safety, and the speed. Shave three minutes off the time taken to dice 8 big onions, and you'll notice it.

3. I got a couple of small, gray water cuticle stones from a Belgian seller on Ebay. They are very fine quality, and they weren't particularly expensive (all 3 were about $55.00 shipped, I think). I found out that you only use these for blades that have lost their edges significantly ('news to me but probably not news to many who check this thread), and gradually I found out the stroking techniques for whetting more effectively. I say that I've gotten *more effective* because I see that I'll be perfecting this for the rest of my life, but it's a useful thing to know, and it's good to learn that there's a 'right way' because it stops you from doing things the 'wrong way' ever after.

I finally picked up a knife I've had my eye on for at least a year: Tojiro DP honesuki. Good price from an eBay seller in Japan, with cheap EMS shipping. Should be here next week



Oddly enough, I was watching Heston Blumenthal's "In Search of Perfection" not too long ago, and noticed him using this exact knife.

I use a CCK 1301 chinese cleaver and a Tojiro DP 150mm petty, along with a King 1000/6000 combo stone and a DMT XC diamond plate.

 

There must be a hundred knives and sharpening stones and cutting boards that I'm lusting after, but I'm a broke college student. :P

I'm a fan of wusthof, and my entire set comes from them (less my cleaver, which is a Henckel).  They take to a whetstone very well, the handle is amazing, balance is perfect.  I highly recommend these - i used them when I was a professional cook for 2 years, and to this day they are still in tip top condition. 

 

I am bound to believe that spending any more yields absolutely ZERO benefit. I demoed some very expensive japanese knives, and there was no improvement in my speed, accuracy, or comfort. 

Edited by El_Doug - 9/18/10 at 5:17pm

Other than ergonomic and aesthetic preferences, the primary benefit of high end Japanese knives is steel type. A pretty big gap has opened up between the Japanese and the Germans, especially with the introduction of ZDP-189 and Cowry X into the cutlery market. High end Japanese steels now run 10-15 RC higher than traditional German steels. As a result, they can hold much more acute edges (20-25 degree vs 40 degree inclusive) and stay sharper for significantly longer. Whether that translates to a performance difference in the hand is debatable, but there is a significant technical advantage.

 

Course, some of those steels will also rust if you look at them funny (ZDP is a rust magnet) and aren't quite as tolerant of punishment (ZDP is invariably used as a clad steel). Performance is also highly dependent on sharpening skills, and there's a huge difference between being able to keep a working edge on German steel (50-55 RC) and being able to put a good edge on premium Japanese steels (65-67 RC). Even sharpening a mid range Japanese steel like VG-10 (58-59 RC) is beyond the capability of most users.

I have a fairly inexpensive Shun Steel 8" chef knife/4" paring knife as my training set of knives.  It's Shun's least expensive line, with a full one piece steel blade and their D shaped handle, but the blade does have their damascus pattern to it.  Unfortunately, I've gotten a few light discolorations, acid stains, from not diligently washing the blade quickly after use but still a very good knife set up.