Ultimate Kitchen knife duo, what's your choice?

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Jun 2, 2020
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Any style, western, eastern, home cook, professional.
If you were shopping for a knife combo, consisting of only 2 blades to take care of 99% of your kitchen cutting, which knives would they be.
Example: 1 Classic western large chef knife. 2 Small Japanese Usuba

Is there a duo that can do it all, or close to it.
 
The problem is that "all" is very individual.
A person who bakes crusty breads benefits a lot from a good aggressive bread knife. IIRC a finer serration is better for pastry.
Briskets? Long slicer of some sort.
Also most people would be better served with a nakiri or Chuka-bocho than a usuba.

So first define the range of tasks.

For most people a main knife like a chef's/gyuto/santoku/Chinese Vegetable cleaver (pick one) and a petty knife takes care of most things. Then a cheap paring knife.
 
This is not for a specific task, this is to collect data for market research, to see which knife combo sets are popular, so that I can match the general custom knife buyers expectations and needs.
There is only a limited number in a set, be it 2, 3, 5 ,7, 9 There are numerous kitchen knives from many cultures some for very unique and culture specific needs. I have already decided on my 5 set, my 3 set and my 7 set. I could not make my mind up on best duo combo, so I wanted to conduct some market research.
I hope that is enough info to correctly direct your answer.
 
medium chefs knife and a large paring knife in stainless. not all stainless is the same, some wont even take an edge while others sharpen up amazingly well. price of blade is not always indicative of quality. they must be kept sharp. i use a cheap oxide stone with dish washing liquid, it washes off the knives and stone really easy.
 
chanced upon a supermarket stainless chefs knife, cheap but awsome, sharpens like a razor blade, out perfomes the global, caveat emptor🙃
 
I'm probably in the minority here, but my choice of kitchen knife duo would be:

210mm kiritsuke (symmetric bevel)
70mm petty knife

Preferably at least semi-stainless steel (ZDP189 or something similar) on both with HRC of 65+. Yep, definitely in the minority.
 
This is not for a specific task, this is to collect data for market research, to see which knife combo sets are popular, so that I can match the general custom knife buyers expectations and needs.
There is only a limited number in a set, be it 2, 3, 5 ,7, 9 There are numerous kitchen knives from many cultures some for very unique and culture specific needs. I have already decided on my 5 set, my 3 set and my 7 set. I could not make my mind up on best duo combo, so I wanted to conduct some market research.
I hope that is enough info to correctly direct your answer.
I like a combination of a santoku and a paring knife, but any large knife with thin geometry and anything from moderate to almost no belly, combined with almost any medium to small knife with a point would work pretty much equally well.
 
I'm probably in the minority here, but my choice of kitchen knife duo would be:

210mm kiritsuke (symmetric bevel)
70mm petty knife

Preferably at least semi-stainless steel (ZDP189 or something similar) on both with HRC of 65+. Yep, definitely in the minority.
Might be in the minority, but it's a minority of 2, your choice is very professional level, and more along the lines of what a head chef would of chosen.
 
For me it would be a 7-9 inch Chinese Cleaver and a 3 inch or so paring knife. We eat a lot of vegetables in my house. A lot of meat also. However my wife prefers her vegetables chopped up small. For whatever reason I don’t know why I like chopping veggies more of a Chinese style vs rocking.

I find myself reaching for my Chinese Cleavers way way more often than any of my “chef” knives. I only have one “chef” knife a Zwilling Pro on my go to knife magnet. I’ve got 3 Chinese cleavers. 🤷‍♂️
 
I'm probably in the minority here, but my choice of kitchen knife duo would be:

210mm kiritsuke (symmetric bevel)
70mm petty knife

Preferably at least semi-stainless steel (ZDP189 or something similar) on both with HRC of 65+. Yep, definitely in the minority.
Might be in the minority, but it's a minority of 2, your choice is very professional level, and more along the lines of what a head chef would of chosen.
I would be inclined to agree with you if it were a traditional single-bevel kiritsuke. However, my preference is for the symmetric bevel (aka double-bevel) version, otherwise known as bunka.

Here is a picture of a JCK Original Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan Kiritsuke (double-bevel):
3u5ucFF.jpg


Below is a picture of a Shirou-Kunimitsu White Steel #2 Kurouchi Series Special Edition SK-4SP9 Bunka:
w5fccYx.jpg


Both of the knives shown above have symmetric/double bevels. As you can see, there is virtually no difference in their blade shape.
That's because double-bevel kiritsuke is essentially Bunka. Most Bunka that people are familiar with (shown below) tend to have a more rustic finish (Kurouchi) and a slightly taller blade akin to a cleaver.:
karaku-as-bunka-180mm-171.png



Symmetric-bevel kiritsuke requires no more skill level than Bunka to be used properly with the same level of proficiency.
Traditional single-bevel kiritsuke, and all single-bevel kitchen knives in general, are a different story.
 
I would be inclined to agree with you if it were a traditional single-bevel kiritsuke. However, my preference is for the symmetric bevel (aka double-bevel) version, otherwise known as bunka.

Here is a picture of a JCK Original Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan Kiritsuke (double-bevel):
3u5ucFF.jpg


Below is a picture of a Shirou-Kunimitsu White Steel #2 Kurouchi Series Special Edition SK-4SP9 Bunka:
w5fccYx.jpg


Both of the knives shown above have symmetric/double bevels. As you can see, there is virtually no difference in their blade shape.
That's because double-bevel kiritsuke is essentially Bunka. Most Bunka that people are familiar with (shown below) tend to have a more rustic finish (Kurouchi) and a slightly taller blade akin to a cleaver.:
karaku-as-bunka-180mm-171.png



Symmetric-bevel kiritsuke requires no more skill level than Bunka to be used properly with the same level of proficiency.
Traditional single-bevel kiritsuke, and all single-bevel kitchen knives in general, are a different story.

I don't think the Bunka is really a Japanese knife anyway, it's like the Santoku in that respect, more of an influence of foreign knives, most traditional Japanese knives from the old periods were shaped like Sujihiki, the Santoku and Bunka are very new styles of knives they don't come fromt he traditional lineage of thin long slicers, the petty is more similar to the old japanese knives than Bunka or Santoku, even though that was also inspiration, the shape is still very classical japanese, long slender, flat near heel but gently upward sweep towards the tip.
 
240mm gyuto and a 120mm paring knife. I have others in between but theses are the two that see the most use. Oh, and my 270mm bread knife!
 
you would be hard pressed to do better than a standard 8" French style chef knife and a good 4" paring knife. I don't much like Japanese style knives in the kitchen.
Of course I would never have just two knives. :rolleyes:
 
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