Anolon advanced series Kitchen knives

T

Tarantado

Banned
Joined
Oct 27, 2005
Messages
27
Has anybody used these knives? I think they hold an edge quite well. Ive
read somewhere that the steel they use are the same as what Wustovfs use.
Now I m not sure if BF has a kitchen forum?
 
The Anolon knives are made by a company that makes pots and pans. They are made in China. The prices seem kind of high considering where they are made. I sort of doubt that the Chinese actually buy German steel. They may be making steel to a German specification. For example there might be a number on the blade like: 1.4110 which has about .55% carbon, 14% chrome, 1% silicon, 1% manganese, and .65% molybdenum. This is an OK steel, but for top quality I look for Japanese cutlery steel rather than German. Some of the description of the knife fabrication is marketing hype and/or badly translated from Chinese. None of that says that the knives don't work well for their intended purpose. I like to buy kitchen knives from cutlery companies.
 
Jeff Clark said:
The Anolon knives are made by a company that makes pots and pans. They are made in China. The prices seem kind of high considering where they are made. I sort of doubt that the Chinese actually buy German steel. They may be making steel to a German specification. For example there might be a number on the blade like: 1.4110 which has about .55% carbon, 14% chrome, 1% silicon, 1% manganese, and .65% molybdenum. This is an OK steel, but for top quality I look for Japanese cutlery steel rather than German. Some of the description of the knife fabrication is marketing hype and/or badly translated from Chinese. None of that says that the knives don't work well for their intended purpose. I like to buy kitchen knives from cutlery companies.
Click to expand...
Gee Jeff I got one of their "santokus " whatever and I just want to share
to all of you that from my testing is that Anolons $15.99 knife will beat
the Henkels "Classic" $49.00 Knife which I just returned after it s edge
dinked rightafter it glazed the plastic case it came from. The blade
"tings" when tapped which is a proff of forging unless it has bells inside.
Ive done whaking through fried pigskin and plastic with it and was
surprised it wouldnt dink. Now dont get with me with Historics cause
I dont care. I am a U.S. Patriot and hate Madein U.S.A. by ----Illegals
Metalurgy is Metalurgy and Its more tha a thousand years old.
The ones who stick with the old for good fine so long as they are not
beat by the new.:)
 
I hadn't run across the Anolon santoku at that price. It's hard to argue with a deal like that for a knife that performs.

I don't use the German (or faux German "International" labels) as a standard. I use knives made in Japan as a benchmark. The steels are better and hold an edge better. A common variety are Spyderco's kitchen knives that are made by Masahiro in Seki Japan. These are made from MBS-26 alloy which takes an extremeley sharp edge and is several rockwell points harder than German alloys. The Spyderco Santoku costs around $36.00 on the internet. It is not a forged design. I try and avoid forged blades as stylistic pretension. I want thin and light kitchen knives without bolsters to get in the way of cutting and sharpening. It's an awful lot of trouble to grind bolsters off when you sharpen.

http://www.gpknives.com/item/Spyderco-Santoku.html

The santoku that I use the most is a Masahiro G-692 Santoku165mm:
http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/GiftSet.html
 
On a kitchen knife the bolster is extra metal at the heel of the blade between the handle and the cutting edge. Some part of the bolster is often just metal trim at the front of the handle. The bolster (or portion of a bolster) that I object to is a thickening of the blade right at the heel of the blade. This is promoted as a sort of integral hand guard and as a "balancing" weight in front of the hand. That is a very ineffective place to put extra weight (I would rather just have a wider/longer blade) and the end of the blade itself can usually serve just as well as a hand guard. The problem is that these bolsters show up on chef's knives, santokus, and other knives intended to be used on cutting boards. When you use a cutting board you want your edge to be straight or smoothly back-curved such that you can press any and all parts of the edge against the cutting board. You can't press down and cut food where there are gaps. If a bolster extends down as far as your edge you need to grind down the bolster as you sharpen or you develop a hollow in front of the bolster. I have a belt sander and it still annoys be to have to grind off parts of a knife in order to do a proper sharpening job.

Here's a picture of some kitchen knife parts.
http://www.cutlery.com/t3/t11t21t32.shtml
 
when it comes to kitchen knives, of course i prefer on quality and durable knives. Sharp edges are the most important to me. By this information i got, it helps alot of things to me where i can look for more kitchen knives. I have to share this with you, I guarantee www.2-clicks-kitchenknives.com , check this one out.
 
I like Forschner chefs -- thin, light, handle impervious to dishwasher and nuclear war, and very inexpensive. A couple swipes on the steel from time to time and it's good to go. It's handy to have a few of them around (yay for low $) so you don't have to stop and rinse your knife to avoid contamination -- just toss the dirty knife and board in the sink or dishwasher, whip out the clean replacements, and continue.

It's a practical and sanitary approach, and avoids the extremes of using a 20 lb Henckels "prybar" chefs or a Japanese blade of such thinness and lofty pedigree that it rolls the edge if your Firm Tofu is little too firm.

;)
 
It's in the 420 stainless price range. 420 polishes up nicely so it does give a mighty fine edge, but they do wear down faster than more advanced steels. Victorinox Forschner is made of a similar composition, but the Swiss seem to have gotten the HT right when compared to my Farberware knives (which I confirmed through the company is 420). Don't get me wrong, I've always liked my Farberware knives, but they aren't my go-to knives anymore.

My two favorite kitchen knives now are my 6" Tosagata Hocho santoku and my Frosts 10" cook's knife with UniGrip handle. The santoku is not for someone looking for rust resistance, but with a cutting edge of blue steel hardened to 63 HRC, it gets and keeps an astounding edge. For $30, it's one hell of a knife. The Frosts knife is 12c27 steel like all Moras. It's hardened to 58 HRC, so while it's not as hard as top-of-the-line Japanese blades, it is harder than many European and Chinese-made knives.
 
I use Wusthof and Shun Chefs knives. My son is a chef and got me to using the good stuff. Look for ones without the Bolster. It no big deal but they will eventually hinder the performance of a chefs knife.
 
Lots of statements from people that don't use these knifes.
We have three of them. The Santoku, 20cm Slicer and the Cleaver. Apart from Trident and Mundials.
We have had the 20cm Slicer for over 2 years and has been used on a daily basis.
It took 2 years of steeling before the edge had to be re-build. The analon knifes are a very thick steeled knife that cope well with the abuse of the average "housewife". Then using a 120 grid stone, I started to re-grind by hand the back bevel to 15 degrees and set the microbevel at around 20 degrees.
It took between 6 ~ 8 hours over a 4 day period. It's a very good quality kitchen tool that performs it's task well. My wife easily gets 1 ~ 2 weeks of usage out of it before it looses it's hair-shaving ability.
That some of them have a bolster just isn't an issue for me....those knifes will give years of performance before you would even worry about the bolster on re-sharpening/shaping of the edge.
And yes, the Santoku is now my wife's favourite as well.
They are well suited for vegetable cutting of all kinds except the real fine stuff where a thinner blade is more suitable.
For meat slicing and cutting of tomatoes we use the thinner blades like our Trident (Solingen) knifes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top