Knives, a confusing conundrum

IMHO your ability to sharpen a knife is just as it important, if not even more important than the knife itself. I have a bunch of cheap Chinese cleavers that I've put edges on that will shave arm hair and the knives cost no more than £10 each
 
kevinc said:
Get the Victorinox 8" Chefs knife and the Victorinox boning knife as well.

The boning knife is razor sharp and is really useful for trimming up pork butts given the size, flexibility and sharpness of the blade.

The chefs knife relatively inexpensive, holds its edge really well and the nonslip handle is great when your hands are messy.
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Al Czervik said:
For $50 you could get both the Victorinox chef knife and a 5" or 6" boning knife... I have both (plus a 12" cimeter) and they all serve me well. I have also noted a number of posts in "knife" threads from professional butchers about Victorinox blades and how much they like them considering how much they use them on a daily basis. :thumb:
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Al Czervik said:
Yeah... What kevin said while I was in the middle composing my opinion. :mrgreen:
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Yep, yep & yep! When my son went through his first agriculture undergraduate degree then his DVM, he carried both in the meats & large animal anatomy labs and did more butchering in a year than most of us would do in a lifetime. The Victorinox 8" boning and chef's knives were sharpened daily and stood up to VERY heavy use, I still have them in my arsenal, they still sharpen well and hold a good edge and I have bought a few more, they are great for he price.
 
i have several knifes. BUT my go to is 8"chefs knife .
 
Buy the 8 inch Victorinox Chef's Knife, the Victorinox boning knife and the Victornix paring knife.. that's all you need. The Chef's knife is sharp enough to cut bread--no need for bread knife. Oh and you need a honing steel / knife sharpener.
 
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The 8" Chef knife is the best all around choice. It will handle better and with some skill, do far more than a Santoku. The Santoku is a compromise knife designed in Japan to replace competently, several specialist knives.

The Henckels at BB&B is their mid-grade knife. Worth what you'll pay. I have a 10" Decter-Russel Sani-safe, my preferred workhorse travel knife that I keep to protect my better knife from renter. If you really are a spend once guy, I consider Wusthof or Messermeister the better western style knives. They are far better than any listed so far. Much better than Victorinox or DR. But 2x cost
 
I researched for a long time before I bought my complete set of Henckel knives, and I use the heck out of them every single day. They are very nice. But if I had it to do over again? I'd probably get either the Dexter Russells or the Victorinox, depending on what was available. The DRs would be my first choice.
 
bbqgeekess said:
Buy the 8 inch Victorinox Chef's Knife, the Victorinox boning knife and the Victornix paring knife.. that's all you need. The Chef's knife is sharp enough to cut bread--no need for bread knife. Oh and you need a honing steel / knife sharpener.
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I've found this set on Amazon and have a prime account which is nice for free 2 day shipping. Would the slicer be an okay alternative to the boning knife for immediate use?
Victorinox 3-Piece Chef's Set

landarc said:
The 8" Chef knife is the best all around choice. It will handle better and with some skill, do far more than a Santoku. The Santoku is a compromise knife designed in Japan to replace competently, several specialist knives.

The Henckels at BB&B is their mid-grade knife. Worth what you'll pay. I have a 10" Decter-Russel Sani-safe, my preferred workhorse travel knife that I keep to protect my better knife from renter. If you really are a spend once guy, I consider Wusthof or Messermeister the better western style knives. They are far better than any listed so far. Much better than Victorinox or DR. But 2x cost
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I looked hard at the DR knives and am still considering them. This is the one I was looking at but Amazon doesn't have a lot of information listed on them.
Dexter Russell Professional Forged Chef's Knife

Teleking said:
Department of redundancy Department :heh:
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I caught that after I posted it from my iPad sitting at lunch with my two sons under two. It wasn't worth fixing.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-Classic-Chefs-Knife/dp/B0061SWV8Y/ref=sr_1_2?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1390010363&sr=1-2&keywords=victorinox+8%22

http://www.amazon.com/Swiss-Army-Br...0010073&sr=1-19&keywords=victorinox+vegetable

If you want to go cheap. I wouldn't get the set.
I'd buy these, they will cover most kitchen duties.
The little victorinox paring is used daily by me, peeling, deveining shrimp, coring, many uses, a nifty knife, even for tomatoes.

Cooks Illustrated, I'm not sure what the deal is .... I like and own Victorinox knives and have done so for decades, they are great bang for the buck.
They may even be better than some common higher end western knives, but comparing them to any of my good knives is just absurd.
Like comparing a Ford Pinto to a Audi RS8 or a Veyyron.

A ridiculous notion in every way .
I let friends drive the Pinto's.:wink:

Now, about boning knives, looks like you can buy one for around $20 from Victorinox.
Again, personal, but I adore the Japanese design for these tasks and would never use a western one again.
That will cost you tho.
 
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The busiest knife in my kitchen is an Ecko Eterna 10" chef. Knife of the week at the grocery store 35 years ago. It has a fat oak handle that fits my (large) hand. Whenever I use an 8" chef, I wish I had the 10". I know people like the Santoku knives, but they are not for me.

I also use a Chicago Cutlery 62S boning/filet knife quite a bit. 5" blade, very strong, good for boning and trimming. Got it 35 years ago also. This one has a fat handle also.

I probably spent $20 altogether on the two. Heavy strong blades, good balance, comfortable handles that don't wear out my hand. Good enough for me.
 
Very good thread so far, and obviously everyone has their own preference on knives. I have a set of lower-priced Henckels, and a forged Henckels santoku I use for chopping that seems to do the job. Based on threads here previously, on other sites, and on Amazon reviews, I bought the Victorinox 6-Inch flexible boning knife (Amazon: 47513), and I have to agree with previous posters, for $30 it is one heck of a knife for things like trimming brisket fat. It's exceptionally sharp and flexible, and is now my go-to knife for prepping meat. It's not going to win any awards for beauty, and if something happens to it, at least I didn't have to remortgage the house for it (...Shun, anyone?...), but if you want a razor sharp knife that will make your life easier when trimming/cutting meat, that's the one.
 
I'll take just one very high quality chef's knife over an equally priced 10-piece set any day. My home kitchen only includes three knives that ever get used these days:

MAC Ultimate Series 9.25" chef's knife (does 90% of the work)
Shun DM0700 3.5" paring knife
Wusthof 10" serrated knife

Then sharpening stones and a MAC black ceramic honing rod.

In total, $600+ for such a small kit seems like a lot. But when you use them daily and want stuff that holds an amazing edge, feels good in the hand, and can last a lifetime, it's worth every penny.

That being said, I keep the restaurant stocked with an assortment of Victorinox and Dexter knives. I save the good stuff for home since knives get abused in a restaurant setting.
 
My go to knife for almost anything is the henkels professional S 31220-180. It's an 8" santoku, feels more like a surgical tool to me than a knife.

Also have the 8" henckels international 31161-200 chefs knife and it primarily used to make larger cuts manageable before switching to the santoku.

I noticed when doing large prep that the lighter santoku is much easier on the hand Aswell.
 
Chopper Duke said:
I caught that after I posted it from my iPad sitting at lunch with my two sons under two. It wasn't worth fixing.
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two sons under two ... redundancy comes natural:roll:

On a serious note I fell for a kin sale on Cutco, but I really love the handy slicer for nearly everything. Sliced up a 1 lb frozen chub of sausage, just this am, as if it were butter. I was impressed again. They are available on fleabay at about $80. Which is better than the kin price!:mad:
 
Henckels make great knives, but they also have a variety of price levels, you can probably guess the difference why. Victorinox make great knives also, but dont cost as much. You can find a Victorinox or Forshner at any restaurant supply store, as well as Henckels too, and can compare the feel. Personally as a chef, I dont own a chef's knife. I have 2 Santokus and a chinese clever. Ask anybody in the business and carpal tunnel is very prevalent in kitchens, one of the reasons is improperly using a chef's knife because of its rocking motion. Most people dont use it properly and then get carpal tunnel. A Santoku doesnt use the rocking motion, rather a back and forth motion that causes less stress on the wrist and easier to pick up with out specific training and practice. I can do anything with my Santoku that I could with a chef's knife.
 
If I had my time over, I'd go with a cleaver.
I had 6 chooks to do into spat chocked and boned and by the time I was doing the third with the Pian knife, everyone had gathered around the table gasping.
Apparently it's good party entertainment too!:laugh:
 
I prefer my Shun's over anything else that I have. The handle shape fits my hand comfortably and they are razor sharp!
 
So I've been looking and comparing and then this morning DVOR decided for me. For those unfamiliar, DVOR is a site owned by Optics Planet that does closeout deals. Typically this involves some kind of optics for rifles or pistols (or both) and then some other stuff usually. Today they had Victorinox knives. I scored a 10" Chefs knife for $32 and a utility set (2 3" pairing and a 4" utility) for $11. I didn't see the 6" curved semi-stiff boning the first time and they only reserve and item in your cart for 15min so I rushed to get checked out as that was the only 10" they had. Opted for it since it was cheaper than the 8" on Amazon. I had a $10 credit from being there over a year and my birthday. Still debating on the 12" round tip, graton edge slicing knife.
 
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