Top 10 manufacturers of kitchen knives?

Thomas Carey

Thomas Carey

Dealer / Materials Provider
Joined
Nov 26, 2010
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What brands would you say are the very best manufactures of kitchen knives on the market today?
 
Hi TC,

I don't know who would be considered the best but.....I would just buy a quality eight inch Chef Knife and a nice little three/three and a half inch Paring knife and call it good. Then again, I must confess, I've been hitting the "Flea Markets/Yard Sales" and finding vintage Kitchen Knives. In fact, just today, I scored my second (in as many weeks) vintage Carbon French made SABATIER Chef Knife for the cost of a dollar! Whoa! Todays knife is about 110 years old!


Regards,
HARDBALL
 
Shun and Global are good but most of the best kitchen knives are arguably from Japanese knife makers you've probably never heard of. Hattori, Mizuno, Masamoto, Misono, etc.
 
ChrisB507 said:
Best in terms of...?? I've found Victorinox the best value out there.
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This is a good point, there are a whooollle lot of great knives at varying price points, but are you meaning best combination of value and features or best knife period?

Victorinox are sort of the standard "best value" workhorse knives, tons of awards from many culinary aficionados like Cook's Illustrated.

Wusthof, Shun, and Henckels all have great pedigree and name recognition and are pretty good all things considered. Most people I know buy one of them as an upgrade to first "real" knife versus the crappy stamped stuff found in Wal-Mart and Target. I'm personally biased towards Shun because well, I like VG-10, I like KAI, and I like how they feel, but some models don't work well with left handed folks.

The next step for people who really, really like kitchen cutlery seems to be one of the Japanese makers, like Tojiro or MAC. The Tojiro DP Gyuto line especially gets a lot of love because of it's really high quality and excellent ergonomics.

http://www.chefknivestogo.com/todpchkn24.html

(I actually like the Tojiro better than Shun)

Now if you're talking like crazy high quality then uh...well, there's Bob Kramer's lines, and Murray Carter makes a pretty good knife from what I hear.

But out of all of them for the average Joe, I really like the Wusthof Icon and Shun.
 
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Glad no one said cutco.
Mashahiro, Hironto and a few other Japanese seem pretty nice. My wife brought me a santoku from Japan several years ago and I recently learned she paid $300+ for it.

I've never used or seen a Bob Kramer knife and I expect that would be the crem de le crem.
 
Tahamagane Pro line And Misohiro are great value for the average Cook/Consumer in Japanese knives and if you want to go with a Continental style, Lamsonsharp made right here in the USA has several great lines.

"Disclaimer! I do sell these knives"
 
Well if you want the best, I guess price doesn't matter.
Its then a matter of taste, your cutting style, your handle choice and profile, geometry and steel. Some prefer Carbon, some prefer Stainless.
Im an all rounder, so Ive ended up with a lot of different makers that I like.

For artisan kitchenknife makers you can't forget Bob Kramer. He has done a lot for the custom makers in US and the rest of the world. I really like the guy, however I will never afford a knife from him. He truly makes some really nice knives, but its not my choice for profile.

Ive got my list and these makers made it into my kitchen:

Bill Burke
Devin Thomas
Murray Carter
Marko Tsourkan


I also got a lot of japanese knives like Hiromoto, Shigefusa, Kanetsune, Fujiwara,Torjo, Konosuke, Sakai Yusuke, Victorinox and so on.
However there are a lot of makers out there worth mentioning. These guys also hang out on forums just for kitchenknives.

For me knives are like wine. Some days you just got to have white wine, another day Champagne is the best or red wine. It all depend on the situation and the mood Im in.
Its not unusual that I use 3 knives when I make dinner, it just makes me…..happy…. :)
 
If I had to go with Manufacturer made? Mac knives. Other Insert Japanese or German name here brands are all geared towards selling undereducated customers expensive steel they'll never use. Custom's are nice if you can afford them, but at a certain point you are buying an art knife that wont ever see food. Just a pro's perspective from what I use and what other chefs I've encountered over the decade.
 
I make "users." I am not anywhere near the skill of the guys mentioned above, but I make a pretty damn good knife :) :thumbup:. I agree that some get into art knife finish, but a custom maker can get you exactly what you need, and considering these can be once in a lifetime purchases, the price is pretty reasonable for what you get. What else can you buy for $400-$1200 that will last you a lifetime and be an exceptional performer? A weekend away costs that much.

Don Nguyen is making some great stuff too. He is newer, but I anticipate his prices will skyrocket in the next few years. :thumbup:

We discuss steels in Shop Talk all the time. The reality is that most simple steels properly heat treated will outperform the needs of most chefs. Too much alloying, and the grain gets too large. Overheating in heat treat: same problem. I have 15N20, 52100, O1, 1095, and W2 knives in daily use. I can barely tell the difference between them, and I know what I am looking for in differences. On the other hand I bought some Hitachi steels because the exact same knife has more curb appeal with a "sexier" steel. I personally don't trust the larger manufacturers to fine tune the heat treat process like the obsessive custom makers do, so the steel won't be as optimized. You can get consistent middle of the road performance with safe parameters, or you can push to the extreme, but have to test each blade in case you went just a little too far, and have to redo it. Do the factories really do a 4 step grain refining cycle before heat treat? Probably not. My "low end steel" 15N20 knives are typically reported to be the "best knife I ever used" by the people who use them, but they typically don't have anything better than Victorinox or Henkel in their kitchen.
 
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Willie71 said:
I make "users." I am not anywhere near the skill of the guys mentioned above, but I make a pretty damn good knife :) :thumbup:. I agree that some get into art knife finish, but a custom maker can get you exactly what you need, and considering these can be once in a lifetime purchases, the price is pretty reasonable for what you get. What else can you buy for $400-$1200 that will last you a lifetime and be an exceptional performer? A weekend away costs that much.

Don Nguyen is making some great stuff too. He is newer, but I anticipate his prices will skyrocket in the next few years. :thumbup:

We discuss steels in Shop Talk all the time. The reality is that most simple steels properly heat treated will outperform the needs of most chefs. Too much alloying, and the grain gets too large. Overheating in heat treat: same problem. I have 15N20, 52100, O1, 1095, and W2 knives in daily use. I can barely tell the difference between them, and I know what I am looking for in differences. On the other hand I bought some Hitachi steels because the exact same knife has more curb appeal with a "sexier" steel. I personally don't trust the larger manufacturers to fine tune the heat treat process like the obsessive custom makers do, so the steel won't be as optimized. You can get consistent middle of the road performance with safe parameters, or you can push to the extreme, but have to test each blade in case you went just a little too far, and have to redo it. Do the factories really do a 4 step grain refining cycle before heat treat? Probably not. My "low end steel" 15N20 knives are typically reported to be the "best knife I ever used" by the people who use them, but they typically don't have anything better than Victorinox or Henkel in their kitchen.
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Couldn't agree more, most chefs. In that most chefs are on a minimum wage, if that. The more you get into fine dining world I was trained in, chefs tend to spend serious money on knives, not just for the steel, but ergo, oxidation, etc. Thanks for sharing Don's work! My favorite custom knife maker is Aaron Wilburn, from Redding, CA. I enjoy his ability to walk that fine line between tool and art, while still making his creations available at a price point that is hard to reach as a lowly cook, but still attainable. Takeda is doing some interesting things with AS, but they're still doing most of the work by hand.

Re: steel types, I mostly notice on the weirdest things it seems like. Slicing goeduck or working with artichokes. Most likely it's all in my head, but you can "feel" a difference sometimes if that makes any sense. Would love to see some of your work as well!
 
I've got a couple pieces nearing completion, most in 15N20, but I also have Hitachi White#2, O1, and W2 profiled and heat treated. I plan to post some pics as I finish them. Being newer at this, I have a few knives in the hands of a professional chef for feedback. He's had them a bit over a month so I should be hearing back soon. I have had some requests for stainless, and for those I use AEB-L and CPM S35VN. Maybe I'll take some pics of my personal knives. I am always leery of this, as I don't worry about some of the detail work on my own knives. They are tools, not art in my kitchen. :thumbup: :) I think some foods respond better to micro-serrations vs. smooth edges. I would guess that is what you are feeling assuming all other variables are the same (geometry.)

As a chef, do and your colleagues prefer ambidextrous or knives optimized for handedness? I typically do offset bevels, rather than single bevels, flat ground on one side, convex on the other for food release. I am curious what most prefer. Home users like the offset bevels.

I looked up Aaron Wilbur. Great stuff!
 
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