Chef's Knife 8" vs 10"

TLA

TLA

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Nov 25, 2002
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I have a bunch of different chef's knives and I'm looking to upgrade to something better in quality than what I have. I was wondering what are the advantages of a 10" chef's knife vs the 8" other than a longer blade. I have been looking at the Ken Onoin Shun series but I can't decide between the two. I want a knife that is not a knuckle buster. I am open to any other suggestions on brands or even custom made knives. I'm not a professional chef, I just like really good knives. Any thoughts and information will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Tony
 
Most of the knife size is personal preference and available space but here is a quick video on size if cutting large amounts of food.

[video]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zq37b1wG-yo[/video]

Personally I find the Ken Onion uncomfortable to use, but to suggest a knife has endless possibilities. Wa, western, carbon, stainless, belly, flat, price range.....the possibilities are endless. I recommend custom makers as long as you know what you are looking for. If going custom, pick one that has a good reputation for kitchen cutlery. Not all custom makers know how to make a kitchen knife. How about a little more information?
 
Avoid the Ken onion shun. Too expensive, and gimmicky handle. There IS a reason you never see working chefs use those.

Go for a plain gyuto. The 12" take a bit getting used to, but once you learn how to use it, you'll never go back. Fantastic for long pull cuts.

Tojiro and Fujiwara are both excellent western style Japanese knives. chefknivetogo has an excellent selection.
 
Three elements you might want to consider:
Long chef knives are more common amongst pros. Would you ever want to sell it, that will be much easier when it's a longer one.
I like a dead flat section near the heel of some 2 3/4" (the width of my Choseras), sharpened symmetrically at an obtuse angle, for rough tasks. This allows a much finer edge for the other parts. With shorter blades the remaining section for common tasks becomes too small.
As with short blades just a small section is being effectively used, expect frequent touch ups and resharpenings to become inevitable.
 
First I want to thank you all for the responses. Kalaeb, thanks for the video as it confirmed for me that I want a longer blade. Right now I’m leaning towards a 10” chef’s knife. I have an Old Hickory 12” chef’s knife that I don’t like as it feels extremely heavy in the hand. Personally it makes me no difference if the knife is made with a carbon blade or stainless steel. However I have noticed that most of the more popular brands use the German stainless steel which is called many different names but it all is pretty much 1.4116 or a 420HC equivalent. Personally I have never been that impressed with the edge holding ability of these steels. For factory knives I have noticed that some of these companies are starting to use VG-10, which is a steel that I like. Today I’m going out to look at some different kitchen knives to get a feel for them. I’m going to look at the Kershaw Shun series and have any of you guys used them and if so what are your thoughts. I will also be looking at other brands to see what is out there.

Custom knife makers: If you all know any of them here on Blade forums that special in making kitchen knives I would very much appreciate their names.

Price Range: I don’t really want to spend more than $400.00 and $200.00 is more likely the price range I would want to spend unless it’s a custom.

Style: I really don’t have a preference as I have a mix right now of Japanese, American and German. I looking for a knife that doesn’t tire out my wrist really fast.

I don’t know if this additional information helps. Once again thank you all for the responses.

Tony
 
I've spent a fortune on outdoor and pocket knives, but just can't bring myself to spend over $100 on a kitchen knife (yet.)

My 10" Henckels chef's is so thick that it's excessively heavy; I use it for splitting and chopping, but not much of a slicer.
It's only 8", but I really like my Henckels Miyabe (I got the german-steel Morimoto, but they make 'em in fancier steel.) They make 10's, too. Useful gyuto shape, nice comfy western handle, plenty of knuckle room, light weight, not outrageously priced.
I also picked up a blue steel Masamoto petty. Great ergos, balance, weight, and quality. Didn't come terrifically sharp, but the carbon steel was easy to get there with a couple passes on the stones. Would love to try that in a 10" gyuto.
After using nice Japanese blades, it's hard to go back.
If I had a bigger budget, I'd spend several hours at japanesechefsknife and chefsknivestogo and see which Masamoto, Tojiro, Hattori or Fujiwara appeals most to me.
Good luck!
 
Well today I found out that Anchorage does not have a very good selection of stores to check out for high quality knives. I checked out the some different models of the Kershaw Shun knives and found that I like the Premier line. I am checking out the websites that you all told me to look at and I'm very impressed with the selection of knives. Once again thank you all.

Tony
 
TLA said:
Well today I found out that Anchorage does not have a very good selection of stores to check out for high quality knives. I checked out the some different models of the Kershaw Shun knives and found that I like the Premier line. I am checking out the websites that you all told me to look at and I'm very impressed with the selection of knives. Once again thank you all.

Tony
Click to expand...

Its not just Anchorage. The only places that have good kitchen knife shops with alot of variety are NY with Korin,LA with Japanese knife imports, and Washington with Epicurean edge. There are very few places to handle knives apart from the usual Shun, Wusthoff etc....
 
Your 12" German style knife will be much heavier than a 12" Japanese. My 12" Japanese blade weighs less than my 8" German chef knife.
 
I think I have found a couple of different knives that I like. They both have a 9 1/2" blades they are a wa-gyuto style. I want to thank all of you for your help and the websites.

Tony
 
TLA said:
I think I have found a couple of different knives that I like. They both have a 9 1/2" blades they are a wa-gyuto style. I want to thank all of you for your help and the websites.

Tony
Click to expand...

Don't hold back, what are you looking at?
 
It just so happened that the knife I was looking at just came back in stock at chefknivestogo, so I purchased it. The model is the Richmond Addict 2 made with CPM154. I think this is what I have been looking for. I like the length and tallness of the blade. My wife told me that she is afraid of big blades, so I told her that I will show her how to handle it. If she is not comfortable with it, then that will give me another reason to buy her a nice kitchen knife for her that I will also get to use.

Tony
 
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