"cheap" paring knife?

J

Jon

Joined
Nov 8, 1998
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Any pro's/con's on either the Old Hickory or Forschner paring knives? I'm looking for inexpensive general utiliy kitchen knife that will sharpen easily & hold an edge. I have a Gerber 5" blade "high carbon stainless" (440/440A?) knife that won't sharpen easily nor hold an edge.
I'm not much of a cook :), & figure a decent paring knife would be a good replacement.
Thanks.
 
Try to find a Victorinox paring knife. They are about $5. I've heard some guys put them in a sheath and carry for light woodcraft.
 
Get AG Russell's Paring knife, with the wide blade. You'll love it! It is the Best one I've ever used. $13.
 
You won't go wrong with Old Hickory knives that's what I mostly use in my kitchen. A Mora would also be a good choice.
 
If you want American try Lamson and Goodnow from Mass. They have a few styles with wooden handles.
 
Forschner/Victorinox paring knife is a steal. It's on the soft side, so aquaint yourself with a honing steel and it'll work great. We have an even smaller paring knife with a slightly better handle that's even better. Don't know the brand, only that it was made in the USA (probably from the Lamson folks brownshoe recommended).
 
The Old Hickory knives I own have cheap unfinished wood handles. Even after sanding, I find them unpleasant to use.

The blades stain if you get them anywhere near food. I suppose depending on your taste in knives, this could go on either the pro or con list.
 
Thanks folks, appreciated.
Superc, any recommends on brand names at Walmart? I looked online for the other brands, but don't feel like paying $8 shipping for a $5/6 knife.
 
Just an FYI for anyone who wishes to order the Forschner, Swissknifeshop.com has free shipping. I just ordered a long handle "regular" & a sheepsfoot paring knife.
Again, thanks for info.
 
My wife dragged me into Linens & Things yesterday, so I picked up a couple of cheap parers ($10 each):
- Henckels 4" parer marked "Ice Hardened no stain".
- Farberware Pro 3-1/2" parer.

No real use yet, but the effort required re-edge both blades (both relatively dull out-of-package) indicates very different steels.

Effort to re-edge the Henckels was similar to re-edging 60 RC S30V. I expect excellent edge-holding. I expect good things from this knife.

Re-edging the Farberware Pro was suspiciously easy. Seems pretty soft. I suspect it's pretty much junk.
 
If you can get a Henckels Friodur paring knife for $10.00 it is one heck of a bargain, conversely $10.00 is way too much to pay for Farberware. Here's a cool U-Tube link showing the Friodur cryogenic heat treatment sequence. I really like Friodur blades. That cyro quench gives you a fine grain structure for finer edges. This is distinctly better than Victorinox/Forschner for example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBW_KpGy9DI
 
fishtale said:
Try to find a Victorinox paring knife. They are about $5. I've heard some guys put them in a sheath and carry for light woodcraft.
Click to expand...

Excellent paring. They are so cheap I have 3 of them with kydex sheaths. The kydex sheaths are available at deep sea fisherman's shops for $7. I take them camping for food prep only. I also use mine steak knives.

You can get'em in red, orange, black and probably white.
 
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