Boker and Kershaw Kitchen Knives?

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bcknives

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Jun 22, 2012
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Hey guys,

I have been looking into purchasing a kitchen knife. Right now I have the Victorinox Fibrox knife, and it does not hold an edge whats so ever. I have been looking at Boker, and Kershaw Kitchen knives. I know that they make good Folders, so I was curious if their kitchen knife line is any good?
Let me know,

Thanks in advance,

~Ben
 
Japanese knives are very good quality, dont expect the prices to be low.

for a 8-9" gyuto (chef knife) I would not pay under 500 but you shouldnt spend under 100-200.
 
Ben, how about some more information, home or pro user?
Carbon or stainless?
Budget?
Type of knife (chef knife, slicer, paring etc...)

I have no issues with kershaw, the shun was one of my first blades, it is a belly heavy knife, but some really like that. If you are looking for something available at a big box retailer and you can handle them, I would take a Miyabi over the Shun, of course if you really want to go down the rabbit hole I can point you in a whole different direction.
 
I have a variety of makes that I use regularly. One of those is the Kershaw 9900 series, their least expensive. The handles are excellent - soft ridged rubber that is easy to handle when greasy or wet. They don't keep an edge as well as lots more expensive ones. I use a steel every time I use a knife and only have to sharpen them once every month or two. The weight is similar to Forschner, which I like.
 
bcknives said:
Hey guys,

I have been looking into purchasing a kitchen knife. Right now I have the Victorinox Fibrox knife, and it does not hold an edge whats so ever. I have been looking at Boker, and Kershaw Kitchen knives. I know that they make good Folders, so I was curious if their kitchen knife line is any good?
Let me know,

Thanks in advance,

~Ben
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I shy away from Boker, as they tend to be more budget knives from what I can tell. Shun ought to be good, they use VG-10 on their better models, those I would recommend.

This will all mostly depend on:
1) Your budget.
2) Your sharpening skills.

And as well, what it is you're cutting mostly. A lot of people love their carbon steels, but I also tend to cut fruit quite a bit, and my Tojiro Chef's Knife in White carbon steel tends to emit one hell of a metallic stink when cutting any fruit or onions.

My top 2 knives right now are the Miyabi 7000MC with ZDP-189 at Rc 66 and my Richmond Artifex with M390 at Rc 61. Both are edge-holding monsters, and are also monsters to sharpen, though relatively speaking, S125V doesn't pose much of an issue for me so...:D
 
I would give my worst enemy a shun.

You can get a nice knife for around $100 and a real nice knife for around $250-300, beyond that it becomes a little more about the looks than anything else.

As mentioned Tojiro and fujiwara are good starting points.
 
knifenut1013 said:
I would give my worst enemy a shun.

You can get a nice knife for around $100 and a real nice knife for around $250-300, beyond that it becomes a little more about the looks than anything else.

As mentioned Tojiro and fujiwara are good starting points.
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Why's that? They seem a tad overpriced for what you get, but other than that...

I believe Richmond has the best value offering an M390 Chef's Knife for $120.
 
They are very overpriced and have awful heat treatments. They constantly chip and pit like crazy and have some of the most impractical designs I have ever seen.
 
Start with a misono brand knife, you won't regret it.

Probably the best stamped knife I've ever used.
 
I really like the Boker Saga kitchen knives, designed by Jesper Voxnaes. 440C blade steel, which is a lot better than the usual steel in kitchen knives and very nice handles.
If I didn't have my Solicuts, I'd really be tempted.
 
bh49 said:
How good are Richmond knives?
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To be honest, my Miyabi has a better "polish" to it. I've spotted one spot near the tang that seems scratched a bit, and it looks like someone ground it again after having the "M390" lasered in on the blade. It also didn't look like anyone took the time to make one final finishing brush on the blade in order to blend all the lines together and have them flowing in one direction. So aesthetics wise it leaves something to be desired, but function wise there's nothing wrong with it, and the wood handles are very smooth and well done.

My only other knife from them, a Chinese cleaver, is flawless though. But again, their knives tend to be on the heavy side. The cleaver weighs just under 1 lbs, which is kind of ridiculous for a knife in AEB-L seeing as how I'm not going to cut through bone with the thing.
 
For what you are paying for many off the shelf japanese knives you can have a custom knife made to your specs by an american bladesmith for the same price. Japanese knives are very nice but if you know what you like from time spent in the kitchen, you can have someone make a knife to your preferences that will suit you like no other. If you only want it for casual home use or do not yet know what suits you best professionally then many Japanese knives make for a great starting point to discover what works best for you.
 
knifenut1013 said:
They are very overpriced and have awful heat treatments. They constantly chip and pit like crazy and have some of the most impractical designs I have ever seen.
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I disagree with you. I have many Shun knives from a wide variety of their different lines using both VG-10 and SG2. I also have close to 100 other pieces of Japanese production kitchen cutlery from other manufacturers many using VG-10. I've found my Shun knives on par or better than many of these. I don't like some of the Shun lines due to personal preferences but I've had none that were prone to chipping or showing any issues with heat treat issues.
 
Do not buy an American japanese knife. Dont embarrass yourself.

when I started out in sushi thats what most people do to save money. Eventually you buy japanese anyways.

Richmond has nice knives and im sure he researched japanese bladesmith but they just dont perform as well, even at half price.

when its busy, you dont care how much it cost you want proper geometry.
 
Shun is considered low end for kitchen cutlery.

not bad, but certainly not great.

I have a shun yanagi in vg10, very chip prone but keeps edge very long. Prone to bending also, in 5 years it started to bend towards the concave side.
 
HwangJino said:
Do not buy an American japanese knife. Dont embarrass yourself.

when I started out in sushi thats what most people do to save money. Eventually you buy japanese anyways.

Richmond has nice knives and im sure he researched japanese bladesmith but they just dont perform as well, even at half price.

when its busy, you dont care how much it cost you want proper geometry.
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Aren't nearly all Japanese knives carbon steel of one type or another? I don't know if that's something you want to use if you're actually working in a restaurant, with the knife being constantly coated with fish or meat slime.

And indeed in that situation I believe much of the Richmond knives would be out of consideration given how heavy they are, with the possible exception of the Laser series.

"Proper geometry" is indeed something you want with hardcore cutting of one particular item. But if you're just cooking a meal for you and the family, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the traditional Chef's Knife shape, whether it's authentic Japanese or not, and the weight doesn't matter as much anymore since you won't likely be cutting for more than 15 minutes.
 
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