Kitchen cutlery

golok

golok

Joined
Oct 20, 2000
Messages
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Where do kitchen knives fit in the discussion of knives? We talked about hunting knives, tactical knives, and folders of all kinds.

But seldom do we pounce on the issue of knives in the kitchen. I believe there is a wide range of magnificent kitchen knives being made and sold out there.

Who knows what are some of the finest cutlery for the kitchen, and where do these come from?
 
I have a 4 inch O-1 chef's knife made by bladeforum member Taz. I've been using it for almost a year and it seems to be working out perfectly. I just have to be careful to wipe it off after I use it.

I don't think that buying big sets of kitchen cutlery is really a great idea. Usually only a couple get used and the rest collect dust.

I'd say that a great wallet friendly starter set would be a small paring knife, a 6-8 inch chef's knife, and a 4-5 inch serrated blade for tough stuff; all from the Victorinox line.

I don't mind using a non-stainkess kitchen knife; but upon reflection this seems to be one application where edge holding is not very important, as you will never be more than a few fet from a sharpener. That is, if you are going stainless 440A is likely as good as (and perhaps better than) ATS-34 or one of the more "extreme steels".
 
There is always a debate in the kitchen knife business between the hard steel-edge holding crowd and the soft steel-easy maintenance crowd. There are merits to both arguments. Personally, I prefer the harder steel Japanese knives for slicing, not because of their edge holding ability but because they can hold a more acute bevel angle and, hence, are sharper. I prefer softer steel European bolstered knives for things like chopping because they are heavier and feel better to me for that purpose. It's actually a fairly personal thing just like any other kind of knife. My knife block is about 1/2 globals and Kai and about 1/2 Wusthof and Sabatier. Each knife does something well and is there for a specific purpose. Take care.
 
There have been other threads on kitchen knives, do a search.

I have several Wusthoffs and Henckels (recently got a new Henckels set), I also have a couple of japanese with one sided grinds and two chinese cleavers, these are all quite good.

I also use hunting and fishing knives in the kitchen.
 
I use a Dozier Canoe as a paring knife, a puukko/leuku combo for medium and large items. I also have my previous large puukko and a large and a medium Opinel, which perform really well.

My overall favorite, do-it-all kitchen knife now is the Camillus CUDA Maxx, bowie style. This is also more comparable than the others to traditional "kitchen" knives.
 
I sell F-DICK knives through our shop from the basic plastic handled variety through to the top of the range forged blades. It appears that the majority of my customers in a professional capacity (including butchers) prefer the 'soft edge'. Although the knives that I have made and sold for the kitchen have been made out of D2 with a 59-61 hardness. These sales have been mainly afficianados who appreciate fine knives and know how to sharpen them. I don't believe I would ever sell a custom butcher knife although I have had some interesting requests from chicken boners who want the best of both worlds but unfortunately are not prepared to pay for it.

:D
 
When a divorce left me without kitchen knives about 15 years ago, my Buck Caper became my utility/paring knife, my Buck Fisherman became my bread/carving knife and my S&W Texas Ranger Bowie became my chef's knife. Only one I replaced with a "real" kitchen knife was the bowie, the others just do the job too well to retire them in favor of something more "politically correct".
 
I have a couple of kitchen knives:

-Spyderco Santoku
-Spyderco 4" paring(plain edge)
-JA Henkels 6" chef's
-Victorinox 3" paring(Fibrox)
-Victorinox 4" paring(Rosewood)
-Thiers-Issard 4" paring(carbon steel-PCD http://www.cutlery.com sells them)

The 4" knives get used the most, then the Santoku.
 
For your Strange But True portion of this, I fill requests for kitchen knives that people don't use. They want a kitchen knife that they can show to company, a knife with an attractive handle such as coral or an exibition grade wood. They want it with a stand made to more or less match so they can place in view for a conversation piece. I have some customers that order a knife every time I have something new or unusual for handle material. Yep, kitchen knife collectors. One of my customers just ordered her third, a fossilized coral handle, and she wants another for Christmas,#4.
 
Originally posted by John Andrews
For your Strange But True portion of this, I fill requests for kitchen knives that people don't use. They want a kitchen knife that they can show to company, a knife with an attractive handle such as coral or an exibition grade wood. They want it with a stand made to more or less match so they can place in view for a conversation piece. I have some customers that order a knife every time I have something new or unusual for handle material. Yep, kitchen knife collectors. One of my customers just ordered her third, a fossilized coral handle, and she wants another for Christmas,#4.
Click to expand...

Kitchen knife collectors!? That's strange ;)

Ok, If I could aford it I would have costum kitchen knives too. :)

I have a set of wooden handle kitchen knives that are 15 years old. They have been put in the dishwasher so many times the handles look like crap.

I would like to get some better kitchen knives.
So many knives, so little money :)
 
There are several kitchen knife threads in the Knife Review and Testing forum. There is also a dedicated forum at KnifeForums (traffic is pretty slow but, it is a focused discussion).

Golok,

It really depends what your are looking for and what you are trying to cut in the kitchen.

In general, I do not like the Henkels pattern (the good ones, not the crap made outside of Germany and sold at Walmart and other mass market discounters). The Henkels are made from Cintered metal which seems to be brittle. The Chef's knives do not have a curve for a rocking cut/chop, instead they are made for a vertical cleaving cut. Personal preference in that I like a rocking cut better in a chef's knife in general.

I like the pebbled handles on the Wustoff Grand Prix series of knives better then any other handle I can recall on a factory knife at the moment. I also like the curved pattern chef's knives, and serrated slicers (AKA Tomatoe or Sausage knife). I recently acquired a Granton edge Santuko that I will testing in the coming weeks (hopefully later today ;) )

The Spyderco kitchen knives are among the best available in the cheap price class and remind me very strongly of the Global line. The only bad thing I can really say about them is that the handles are too small for my hand. With extended use, those small handles are hard on my hands and wrists (too much time on the computer keyboard ;) ). Their thin blade profiles make them wicked good cutters and a tad flexible. I never found the flexibility to be a problem but, folks used to the overly thick over built German knives will most likely complain about this feature alone.

Murray Carter Muteki knives are awesome. I also have one no-name Japanese utility knife too. It's worth the upgrade in price to get the better handle materials in the Muteki's but, even that cheap no-name blade is wicked sharp. As mentioned above, the laminate steel process with a very hard core allows a very acute edge to be maintained which cuts like you wouldn't believe. The other thing to note is the light weight of these knives. No fatigue with extended use and great if you hands and wrists hurt.

Forschner - very good for a general utility grade of knife. If your kid takes it out to the yard to dig and pry with, you won't cry too much if it breaks, gets dulled and scratched, etc. Good, heavy, and cheap blades have their place. :)

The TRACE RINDALDI TTKK is the one blade that really got me addicted to steel dust and custom knives. My first set of knives where a $100 block of Chicago cutlery. Their deeply hollow ground edges would take a wicked sharp edge but, the soft steel didn't retain it well. Dicing potatoes was as much an excercise on the sharpening steel as it was slicing the potatoes. Then I got a BG-42 TTKK from Trace. Wow! What a surprise when I diced my first 10 pound sack of spuds. :D

There are others but it's time to give my typing a rest.
 
Kyocera ceramic, extremely sharp and excellent for deboning fish and cutting through delicate ingredients
 
Dear All,

I have a beautiful knife by Mundial that slices vegetables better than anything else I have ever had, plus a large el cheapo cleaver from the local Asian store ($4.50 Australian) that chops pumpkin just fine. I have to admit though, the best bang for my buck that I ever got for the kitchen was a set of 3 knives bought from the local pharmacy one day. I took a short cut through the shop and noticed these sets of 3 blades for $10 Aus!!!! I thought what the heck, as I had just moved out of home and had no kitchen gear worth mentioning. Much to my surprise they turned out to be superb. The stainless steel blade held its edge pretty well and sharpened easily when necessary. Twenty years later the biggest, and hardest used, is still going strong. The rest are lost or "borrowed". I think they were by Wilkinson Sword.

I have to say the worst kitchen knives I have ever owned are those Staysharp knives which are slid back into a "self-sharpening" holder. Those holders wear down real fast and start to blunt the knives instead of sharpening them.

Stay cool, Neophyte.
 
I have seen those high-end kitchen knives in some of the most exclusive shops. Henckels sells some of these stylish-looking knives at exorbitant prices.

Once, I was at a downtown cutlery shop. Saw a whole range of kitchen knives which were mainly priced at between $5 and $30. Then, there was one that stood above the crowd, it was priced at $160!

I asked my wife: "Do you want to have that? Shall I buy it?" My wife's reply: "Why do you want to buy a $160 knife to carve up a $7 chicken?"

I was at a loss of words. Some people just don't understand good stuff. :D
 
My favorite KK is Camillus Talon... and then set of Spyderco kitchen knives (plain edge).

David
 
I have a full set of Henkel kitchen knives that lay in the drawer since I bought some of J.P Holmes 10V kitchen cutlery.Great stuff at a great price.Holds an edge and keeps on chopping..:D :D
 
I might as well add my favourites into the melting pot. I have 3 favourite knives in the kitchen. Firstly, a wooden handled F-Dick 6" straight butchers blade, a very multi-purpose tool. Secondly, my all time favourite a self customised Green River 6" straight boner. I did a set of these up for my family many xmas's ago. No problems with the carbon steel blade, a couple of swipes on the steel and I am back in business. My paring knife is one of my own handcrafted D2 utilities that I carry with a 2-3/4" blade. I did have in my collection a 12" Ch3ef's knife, carbon steel, made in France (forged) but I was made an offer I could not refuse by a collector. It was a wicked on Queensland Blue pumpkins.
 
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