ATOT Kitchen Cutlery Thread

[turtile]

And that is exactly why I won't buy "GOOD" quality Japanese cutlery for our kitchen. My wife would use it...then throw it in the sink...probably full of water.

Sounds like a good way to create an emergency room visit too...

 

[smackababy]

And that is exactly why I won't buy "GOOD" quality Japanese cutlery for our kitchen. My wife would use it...then throw it in the sink...probably full of water.

Or, you can do what any self respecting human would do and wash it when you're done. What is the point of just letting shit sit around dirty? It takes less energy to simply wash a couple things than it does to worry about having 50 dishes piled up.

 

[BoomerD]

Just don't buy a high carbon steel Japanese knife. They won't be affected by water.

But you don't want to throw any nice knife in the sink or dishwasher either, no matter what the steel is. They can easily get chipped - the Japanese more so than the Western knives due to being made of harder steel. You use a nice knife, you wash it and put it away. If the wife can't learn to do that simple habit, get a new wife

ALL out cutlery gets hand-washed...even the cheapo Japanese stuff we've had for 40+ years. (remember, once upon a time, "Made in Japan" meant it was probably cheap junk) HOWEVER, she will still put knives in the sink...whereas, I wash and rinse them, then dry them off.

As for getting a new wife...I'm open to the idea...but as long as I've had this one...it would be a VERY expensive thing to do...and I REALLY don't want to have to train another one.

 

[chefsdreams]

lots of interesting insights here. i recently did a review of the shun classic. you can see it on this page .
like many of you, my knife collection began with a gift. i didn't really know if it was good or bad, i just used it. and i worked pretty well for many years.
but as i got more confident in the kitchen, i was able to ask for more specific gifts. i have worked with wusthof, henckel, shun and others.. my opinion is that the best knife you can buy is the one you will use with confidence.
i like the shun 8" chef knife. i've used one for a couple of years. but did you know they make a 6" blade? very handy.
i have a wusthof 10" chef knife as well, but i also have a very small kitchen and every time i whip out the 10" blade it feels like i'm drawing a katana!

 

[chefsdreams]

ALL out cutlery gets hand-washed...even the cheapo Japanese stuff we've had for 40+ years. (remember, once upon a time, "Made in Japan" meant it was probably cheap junk) HOWEVER, she will still put knives in the sink...whereas, I wash and rinse them, then dry them off.

As for getting a new wife...I'm open to the idea...but as long as I've had this one...it would be a VERY expensive thing to do...and I REALLY don't want to have to train another one.

 

[MrSquished]

I finally found my old knife roll with my Glestain Gyotou 8.2". I'll be bringing it to the knife shop in the city for a sharpening and maybe more care. I'll probably be selling it. It's a $200 knife new so whoever buys it will get a good deal.

 

[gorcorps]

I just bought a Shun Classic Santoku from BB&B this weekend. On sale for $100 + coupon made it $80.

Just used it for the first time, and I just had no idea what a knife was supposed to do. Ignorance was bliss and now everything I own blows ass in comparison. I added their 8" chef's knife to the wedding registry.

 

[MrSquished]

I just bought a Shun Classic Santoku from BB&B this weekend. On sale for $100 + coupon made it $80.

Just used it for the first time, and I just had no idea what a knife was supposed to do. Ignorance was bliss and now everything I own blows ass in comparison. I added their 8" chef's knife to the wedding registry.

It is a pretty impactful experience when you first use an actual really good blade in the kitchen

 

[Crono]

Anyone have a HAP40 steel knife? Trying to decide between this gyuto and this one, and I'm currently leaning toward the Kohetsu.

 

[smackababy]

I haven't used anything made with HAP40, but I believe it is supposed to be really good. It's made by Hitachi and I believe was made with knives in mind. So, take that for what you will. Honestly, as long as it's a good steel and you treat it right, you'll be fine.

 

[DigDog]

we did this very thread maybe 6 months ago if not less.

 

[Carson Dyle]

we did this very thread maybe 6 months ago if not less.

Seriously? You're going to add that observation 9 pages and 200+ posts into the discussion?

Sheesh.

 

[DigDog]

i don't live to watch OT threads.


wait, let me go find it so i can post the same exact thing as that one.

 

[MrSquished]

Anyone have a HAP40 steel knife? Trying to decide between this gyuto and this one, and I'm currently leaning toward the Kohetsu.

Both beautiful knives. The Kohetsu has an HRC of 65. That's some hard fricking steel. Of all the knives I've shopped for I've never seen an HRC that high.

 

[MrSquished]

i don't live to watch OT threads.


wait, let me go find it so i can post the same exact thing as that one.

I did a search for threads with 'knife' in the title. Slim pickings. Of the ones that had to do with kitchen knives, the most recent one was December 2015 about purchasing a knife set. That thread went to 2 pages. Then there was a thread in 2014 about a kitchen knife, that lasted less than a page.

 

[lxskllr]

I did a search for threads with 'knife' in the title. Slim pickings. Of the ones that had to do with kitchen knives, the most recent one was December 2015 about purchasing a knife set. That thread went to 2 pages. Then there was a thread in 2014 about a kitchen knife, that lasted less than a page.

Not a fan of policing duplicate threads anyway. Everything's already been discussed at some point. If you're gonna ban duplicate threads, you might as well lock the forum, and call it a wiki

 

[DigDog]

well, derp.it's been more than a year. guess time flies.

a knife is (mostly) a chunk of steel. the shape of the edge, and the shape of the blade, affect how the knife behaves, but essentially all you get is a chunk of metal. you will have to come to terms with this and accept that knives need to be sharpened.

having said that, i tried iron knives, chroma knives, carbon steel, stainless steel, and ceramic, and most of the time i just prefer a cheap stainless steel knife.

stainless is soft, and as all soft metals, it is easy to make it really sharp, and it also dulls very quickly. just keep a diamond steel handy, and you are good to go. once a week, sharpen it on a stone or grinder.

carbon steel is hard .. it stays hard for longer, but it's a pain in the ass to sharpen. it can rust.
if you work in a kitchen, then professional carbon steel knives are a good investment, when you do not want to break your concentration to sharpen a knife every second. but they are expensive and you need to dedicate time to use the sharpening stone (also expensive).
most unusual shapes (e.g. sushi knives) are carbon steel. a diamond steel does barely anything to these knives, you need stones.

iron (well, not really iron, but a milder form of steel; all steel is *carbon* steel, that's how it becomes steel and not iron) knives, such as chinese cleavers, are imho really good to work with; they take less time and less effort to sharpen, and stay sharper longer than stainless.
they rust immediately and need daily sharpening, but it's not that bad of a chore.
you are not likely to find any iron knife in any shape other than cleaver and butcher's knife.
stones and diamond.

ceramic is a bad substitute for steel; the knife's blade is way thicker than it should be, they are incredibly fragile, nowhere near as sharp as any of the above, and they do not stay sharp forever, as they say they do. the only thing they have going for them is that they do not affect the taste of the food, so if you work in a super-high class restaurant that deals with that kind of super-delicate food, then yeah, get a set of these.

modern-metal knives (such as chroma, the porsche-built knives; or vanadium-molybdenum alloys, etc..) are great, but they have some practical donwsides which are not immediately apparent.
besides the fact that they are deadly expensive, they all sharpen differently. you could literally eat away your entire knife in 3-4 sharpening sessions if you do it wrong. sometimes they are extremely soft, like the chroma.
(i have cut myself just by gently touching the blade of a chroma while testing it. i have cut myself so many times on those knives, it's ridiculous. and while they are *the* sharpest object in the world, they bend and chip and break so easily you are gonna go WTF I SPENT MY MONEY ON THIS?!?)
you will probably need a special sharpener for each alloy.



so .. tell us what you need, and we can make a recommendation.

as for brands, they are all overpriced.
linky the link because science! http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/InformationAboutSteels.html
more linky link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_blade_materials

some more cutlery + kitchen threads stuff thingies.
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/your-top-5-favorite-kitchen-appliances-and-why.2469662/ top kitchen appliances
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/calling-all-cutlery-geeks.2321232/ knives
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/need-kitchen-knives-chicago-cutlery-any-good.2288001/ chicago cutlery
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/cutlery-recommend-me-some.2126055/ cutlery
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/chef-knives.2456177/#post-37869057 chef knives
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/good-kitchen-knife-set.2456382/ knife sets
https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...chen-equipment-how-do-you-restock-it.2447619/ kitchen gear

 

[mnewsham]

Currently using my Wusthof 4582 26cm (10") chef's knife as my primary blade. It's an older one though as my grandmother gave it to me and she's had it at least 2 decades.

However, I am looking at a Santoku/Gyuto/Funayuki for a mid sized blade around 6-8" in length. (looking at Shirogami #2 for ease of sharpening compared to other high carbon steels) Chefs knives to go seems to have a good selection online, but I have a local Japanese knife store I want to check out before I go hunting online. Anyone have input on single bevel vs a more western style double bevel? I am right handed so I'm not worried about that being an issue but I have heard it can make sharpening more difficult.

 

[MrSquished]

Currently using my Wusthof 4582 26cm (10") chef's knife as my primary blade. It's an older one though as my grandmother gave it to me and she's had it at least 2 decades.

However, I am looking at a Santoku/Gyuto/Funayuki for a mid sized blade around 6-8" in length. (looking at Shirogami #2 for ease of sharpening compared to other high carbon steels) Chefs knives to go seems to have a good selection online, but I have a local Japanese knife store I want to check out before I go hunting online. Anyone have input on single bevel vs a more western style double bevel? I am right handed so I'm not worried about that being an issue but I have heard it can make sharpening more difficult.

I get mine sharpened at the Japanese knife store in the city near my so I know it's done right. But it's pricey. My brother in law who lives in the burbs gets his done at Whole Foods by him which has a knife sharpener there x days a week. He says he knows how to do a single beveled edge.

But I'd be nervous too. Unless you are going to buy stones and do it yourself, who the hell knows what the local knife sharpener does?

There are some double beveled Japanese knives out there as well. http://korin.com/Knives/Togiharu-V10-Damascus

 

[MrSquished]

I found my 8" Glestain Gyotou from my food truck days and got it professionally sharpened, along with an 8" Togiharu Damascus knife. Both are over 60 on the Rockwell hardness scale and just sharpened. Gonna sell one of them as I don't need two 8" Gyotou's. If anyone is interested on getting a great deal on a knife, close to half price, PM me.

 

[glenn1]

+1 for Wusthof Classics...

So what does the ATOT collective think about Wusthof Classic for a paring knife? At $50 on Amazon it's spendy but looks like the top rated solution on many review boards. Alternatively I could get 5 copies of something like the Wusthof Trident Pro for the same price and just treat them like disposable knifes. Or split the difference and get a ~$20 paring knife like this Kanzen?

 

[WelshBloke]

I've got a mixture of Wusthof classic and Robert Welch signature knives with the paring knife being a RW. It's really nice and the handle is probably a bit more comfortable than the Wusthof.

That said you can't go wrong with Wusthof and in retrospect I slightly wish that I'd stuck to just Wusthof (the bigger knives feel a bit more secure and the two brands are sharpened at different angles which is a pita)

Unless you are really short of cash you'll forget the extra you spent on the knife long before you stop enjoying the knife. I'd get the best that you can comfortably afford if you're going to get a lot of use out of it!

 

[Chaotic42]

I ended up picking up a 7.5" Allezola Professional Chef’s Knife for $19.99 from Amazon. Think it'll be decent? I'm using 17 year old knives from Walmart which have never been sharpened or honed and have been stored in a drawer, so I'm guessing it would have to be an upgrade.

Now I just need a decent non-non-stick pan.

 

[Kaido]

Now I just need a decent non-non-stick pan.

You can pay triple the price for an All-Clad, but I like this OXO even better:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PCI79VS/

I've really cut down on my non-appliance kitchen tools over the years. I own three primary pans:

1. The stainless OXO above
2. A cast-iron skillet (recently got a lightweight Field Skillet & it is amazing)
3. A T-fal non-stick skillet

I also have two primary knives: a Dalstrong 6" & 9.5" (both Shogun VG-10 series). Incredible sharpness for a fraction of the cost of what knives of equal sharpness go for. I've had one or two sets of decent knives in the past, but nothing of this caliber. tbh, I had no idea what having truly "sharp" knives meant, or how much they benefit you in the kitchen in so many ways...you can actually cut stuff EASILY, and they are just a joy to work with. Growing up, we always had crappy knives, and I never knew any better. Even things like making sandwiches was a pain, no joke. Cutting anything was work. I just had no idea. Good tools are brilliant!

So two knives & three pans. Outside of my Instant Pot & Anova, that's pretty much all I use for daily kitchen hardware. I have a few other odds & ends (Zyliss spreader, a cheap curved/serrated bread knife, etc.), but when you get really good tools, it's amazing how little you need to get by with.

 

[Chaotic42]

You can pay triple the price for an All-Clad, but I like this OXO even better:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PCI79VS/

I've really cut down on my non-appliance kitchen tools over the years. I own three primary pans:

1. The stainless OXO above
2. A cast-iron skillet (recently got a lightweight Field Skillet & it is amazing)
3. A T-fal non-stick skillet

I also have two primary knives: a Dalstrong 6" & 9.5" (both Shogun VG-10 series). Incredible sharpness for a fraction of the cost of what knives of equal sharpness go for. I've had one or two sets of decent knives in the past, but nothing of this caliber. tbh, I had no idea what having truly "sharp" knives meant, or how much they benefit you in the kitchen in so many ways...you can actually cut stuff EASILY, and they are just a joy to work with. Growing up, we always had crappy knives, and I never knew any better. Even things like making sandwiches was a pain, no joke. Cutting anything was work. I just had no idea. Good tools are brilliant!

So two knives & three pans. Outside of my Instant Pot & Anova, that's pretty much all I use for daily kitchen hardware. I have a few other odds & ends (Zyliss spreader, a cheap curved/serrated bread knife, etc.), but when you get really good tools, it's amazing how little you need to get by with.

Thanks for the recommendations. I was raised by my grandparents in a little house in the woods and I remember my grandmother getting a new cast iron skillet. Her ritual for seasoning it was insane, building a fire outside and throwing it in with God knows what kind of oil and such, but when it came out it was perfectly seasoned and lasted the rest of her life.

I'm trying to get over my hatred of cooking, so I need to build up a set of basic tools. I don't have enough room in my apartment (let alone kitchen) for all of Alton Brown's basic recommendations.