Recommendation? Kitchen knives

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Feb 4, 2021
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I gotta say since joining this site I have learned a lot. Thanks to all who take the time to post!
We do a lot of craft shows selling woodcrafts and soap, this year since my new passion is knifemaking we are adding that to the list. My question is what would you think about kitchen knives, sets, or just individual knives? If single which knife might be more popular to sell? We have been going back and forth trying to decide on this. Thanks for any advice!
 
If you are going with a single design, the western chef knife is a great way to go. You can always do different lengths. Good luck to you.
 
Agree with the above (mostly). A 6-8" chef's knife, a smaller paring knife; I would add a 4"-ish utility knife. I prefer non-serrated blades, but you can go either way. Brands? I'd suggest Victorinox and/or Old Hickory. Neither brand is expensive. Stainless or carbon is your choice, I have some of each. Carbon of course requires more care. Having some good SHARP kitchen knives is a must. (I have a drawer full of them ;))
Rich
 
The western Chef knife is very popular and with good reason : it can do nearly all that is needed in the kitchen. Add a small Paring and you have a two knife set that will cover most needs.

This is exactly the combo that I use most often. If I were looking to upgrade to nicer knives than my Victorinox ones, I would probably look for a set with a 6-7" Chef's knife and maybe two paring knives.

OP, if you want to sell them, you may want to give your customers some choices. I know many prefer the 8" chef's knife, but I find that too big sometimes, and my wife uses our paring knives exclusively, because she dislikes how big the chef's knife is. Maybe offer a 8" and 6" chef's knife and then some paring knives in the 3"-4" range.
 
Just a thought or two. If others use the knives, GF wife, you have to consider what they find comfortable too. I have an eight inch cooks knive that the GF never uses, it's too clumsy for her. I'd prefer a larger one if I was buying again. A bread knife is cheap and useful especially if you like to maintain a nice edge on your cooking knives. The off set ones that look like a Z work better then the straight ones IMO. So basically a midsize cooks a parer and a serrated off set bread knife covers a large swath of users.
 
What brand would y’all recommend for a kitchen knife set that’s in the middle of the road between soft and hard? I want to get a cutco set, but if they’re very soft, I’d rather look into something else with a little more edge retention.
 
What brand would y’all recommend for a kitchen knife set that’s in the middle of the road between soft and hard?
I’ve been super happy with my ENSO HD’s. I prefer high carbons and they’re VG10… but the wife doesn’t believe in maintenance so stainless is necessary for my situation. But I haven’t had a single chip in like three years and with some quick stropping they’re razor sharp again.
I agree that a full knife set is a bit of a waste. 95% of my kitchen cutting is done by my 8” chef’s, 3” paring, and bread knife. The only other two I occasionally use at a 4” utility and a 6.5”nakiri
 
That sounds great! Looking forward to some pictures!

I almost always cherry pick my kitchen knives, never buying sets. My most frequently used knives are as follows:
6.5in santoku (great chopper/cutter)
6in chef (sharp tip, nimble cutter)
4in pairing (condiments, small cuts of meat)
6in meat cleaver (bones, corn, tough stuff chopping)

Have a whole bunch more, but rarely use them. I like a combination of belly and straight edge for different kinds of cuts; people seems to always forgo this and just get different length knives thinking that's all they need.

Then again, I have seen Asians survive on just 1 Asian style cleaver for everything...

What brand would y’all recommend for a kitchen knife set that’s in the middle of the road between soft and hard? I want to get a cutco set, but if they’re very soft, I’d rather look into something else with a little more edge retention.

Not to hijack this thread, but Cutco makes me barf, dont mention their stuff please. Dont fall for their ad and live demo campaign. Get a good brand of knives, Shun, Wust, Henckel... they have sub brands too that are nice.

I recently took a leap and bought a QSP chef knife and a Bestech Xin kiritsuke-ish, both turned out way above expectation at 60-70$. So if you're on a budget, give those a shot.

Cheers
 
I definitely second anyone who says 8" western chef's knife + pairing knife.

I think the pairing knife has some room for personal flair.
I've had great success with a 2 - 2.5 " sheepsfoot pairing knife, though various blade shapes could be equally serviceable.
IMHO a pairing knife that's much longer than 3" is no longer as useful.

Good luck! I wish you well.
 
I like a 10-inch chef's knife over an 8-inch. I use a Henckels 4star 10-inch chef's knife. But I have 30 kitchen knives to choose from.
 
A 10" or so chef knife and a 3" paring knife are what I use most.

Victorinox has the best kitchen knives for the money IMO.
 
Well in that price range (Victorinox is a solid choice), you have also Zwilling / Henckels, Friedrich Dick, Böker and Sabatier (French, hey !). Just to cite some because, frankly, the offering is huge and they all, more or less, use the same steel (X50CrMoV15) or close. In short, a steel focused on being stainless and easy to sharpen. The determining factor, then, will be the design. Buy something that appeals to your eye / hand, try it out, modify your choice, rinse, repeat. I have a host of kitchen knives, all fine and dandy, but some just call to my hand when I have food to cut. That's the marker !
 
Try Due Cigni (sorry if I misspelled) too! I just got one of their santoku-ish knife in 12c27, pretty good geometry and handle.
 
With everything I’ve learned from here, I decided to give Wustof Classic Ikon a try… Best knives I’ve ever used in a kitchen! The only question I have for everyone: Has anyone ever had a wustof knife break simply by dropping it on the floor, or putting it back in the knife block wrong and breaking it by accident? I love these knives like crazy, but I’m terrified of breaking them.
 
I have about 8 Wusthof classic knives not the Ikon for say 10 years. Never broke one. I have 20 or so Henckels 4star knives some of these were my mom's so they are around 50 years old. I have only had 2 accidents. One was a Henckels 11.5-inch chefs knife which I dropped and broke the tip off, just a small piece. The other was my wife used a Henckels 4star boning knife which she used to cut a parmesan cheese block fresh out of the refrig and it broke in half. It was the wrong knife for the job. Henckels replaced the knife under warranty.
 
I have a 7 knife set of the Dexter Russel white handled sani-safe knives that were given to me a long time ago. Realistically I only use maybe three of them regularly, and the rest seldom except for special uses. They are good knives and from what I hear they aren't really expensive.
 
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