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CookingGuys - Best Knives? (1 Viewer)

Not a serious chef but I do all the prep stuff when we make dinner.

Have a set of the Henckels - Twin Signature. Try and keep them sharp. Works like a champ, had them for probably 15 years. Really only use the 6" and 8" ones out of the set. 

 
The General said:
Not a serious chef but I do all the prep stuff when we make dinner.

Have a set of the Henckels - Twin Signature. Try and keep them sharp. Works like a champ, had them for probably 15 years. Really only use the 6" and 8" ones out of the set. 
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How do you sharpen them?

 
The General said:
Not a serious chef but I do all the prep stuff when we make dinner.

Have a set of the Henckels - Twin Signature. Try and keep them sharp. Works like a champ, had them for probably 15 years. Really only use the 6" and 8" ones out of the set. 
Click to expand...
I own twin select as well and love them for the "heavy lifting".... more hearty cutting.

Use the globals for more precise, delicate cuts.

Uruk-Hai said:
How do you sharpen them?
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tri-stones are best

 
Uruk-Hai said:
How do you sharpen them?
Click to expand...
I use the stick thing (chef term) that came with the set. I run the blade down it 10-20 times on each side every couple uses. 

Not sure how much it does it still slides through onions and harder stuff very easily after years and years of use.

 
Joe Bryant said:
Thanks. Not familiar with tri-stones. Can you describe?
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three levels of coarseness

The General said:
I use the stick thing (chef term) that came with the set. I run the blade down it 10-20 times on each side every couple uses. 

Not sure how much it does it still slides through onions and harder stuff very easily after years and years of use.
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the Steal hones the blades. for about $30-50 look into diamond steals, which also sharpen.

diamond steal

 
Drunken knight said:
three levels of coarseness

the Steal hones the blades. for about $30-50 look into diamond steals, which also sharpen.

diamond steal
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I was just looking up the name of the stick and saw that what I have been doing is honing versus sharpening. I have never sharpened these knives :mindblown:

They are honed very well though :lol:

Will be ordering a sharpening device this weekend.

Useful thread!

 
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Can you sharpen steak knives? :bag:

My father must be rolling in his grave as I ask these questions. He always kept great, sharp knives. One of the many, many things I wished I'd have asked him was how he kept them so nice. I did ask my mother (no slouch around a kitchen) a year or two after dad died, but she didn't know - "I just buy new ones now when I don't think sharpening is helping anymore". Dad had knives for 40 years that cut like new.

 
@Joe Bryant I think there is really no such thing as "best" when it comes to knives. It's really a personal preference issue. Do you like the narrower angle of Japanese knives or the heft of a European style? Is the amazing, if short lived, sharpness of carbon steel enough to overcome the high maintenance? Etc. Etc. Etc.

I love knives, I have to consciously stop myself from impulse purchasing them when I come across something interesting.

And price is not necessarily an indicator of quality either. Plenty of chefs have multiple Victorinox and Rada knives in their kits.

Most chefs don't kit out with one brand, they build their kits over time and are almost always mix-and-match.

Ask 10 chefs what the best chefs knife is and you're gonna get 10 different answers.

I find that the one universal truth about purchasing knives is that you really need to hold it in your hand before you know it is a good knife for you.

 
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Mario Kart said:
American-Made knives. Guaranteed Forever.
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We have 8 Cutco table knives and love them.  We also have one of the utility sets - bread knife, trimmer, carver, paring, and some kind of big whopping knife they said was good for frozen meats (not a big fan of this one).  

We love them, but we don't have the chef's knife (have decent but not great Wusthof) but it should be good.  I like that you can send any of them back for sharpening or new.  

 
Love Shun’s.  Have had my 10 inch classic for 10+ years and use it almost daily.  Have most of the classic line and all are phenomenal.  Wet stone self sharpen is the way to go. 

 
No experience with expensive knives, but I always recommend Victorinox. Been using them for years, and put them through a lot of work everyday (I'm not a high end, trained chef, but I'd put my fine onion dicing skills up against anyones, though my tennis elbow, mostly from onion dicing, has slown me down a tad).

Anyway, Victorinox is awesome. I'm sure expensive fancy knives are great too, but I've never seen a reason to explore anything else as a true workhorse.

For sharpening and maintenance, I use a steel regularly (Victorinox makes a great one), and a 1000 grit whetstone for a real sharpening when the knife needs it (typically, about every 3-6 months). I've always used King stones. They work well, and are pretty cheap.

Another reason for Victorinox is sharpening. Sharpening is a skill that takes some practice. Even a novice is unlikely to do major damage to a knife while sharpening, but knowing the knife an be replaced for $40 eases one's mind as you as you go down that road. And dropping big money on a knife is pointless if you aren't going to sharpen it (though you can always have others do it).

Speaking of sharp knives, my niece lived with me for a few months. Working at the restaurant and cooking together. I did the best I could teaching her proper techniques, and she's solid. Needs more practice and to trust her guide knuckle, but pretty solid. 

Anyway, she moved down to Florida back to live with my brother. She had gotten spoiled using good knives at my house, and I couldn't stand the thought of her now having to use crappy knives (they've got what most households have before they care about using/maintaining good knives). So, I sent her an 8" Victorinox, a good steel, and a good cutting board. She was so excited.

The very first night use it, she calls crying. She was in the middle of dazzling my brother and his wife with her knife skills (doing nice work on those green peppers, from what I saw in the pic). And she sliced right through her fingertip. Blood everywhere.

I had a hard time not laughing. She knows the right technique (I wouldn't have sent it if I didn't know that), but it happens. Now, slicing through your hand is never encouraged, but they serve as a great reminder as to why proper technique is important.

From the pic, I could see the mistake she made (she let that ring finger get loose). In fact, it occurred to me that I'd made nearly the exact same cut/mistake (along with many others). And like her, I like to document my screw-ups.

Here is her cut

Here is my cut

She's already my favorite young person on the planet, and I'm not gonna lie, the same finger cut is another cool bonding experience.

 
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pollardsvision said:
No experience with expensive knives, but I always recommend Victorinox. Been using them for years, and put them through a lot of work everyday (I'm not a high end, trained chef, but I'd put my fine onion dicing skills up against anyones, though my tennis elbow, mostly from onion dicing, has slown me down a tad).

Anyway, Victorinox is awesome. I'm sure expensive fancy knives are great too, but I've never seen a reason to explore anything else as a true workhorse.
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There is really only one reason I don’t use these or knives like them and it’s the connection of the tang to the handle. And it’s my personal food insanity, I know it’s not likely to ever be an issue for anyone.

I use Global because I want a solid piece of steel that doesn’t have any places for bacteria to grow between cracks and connections and because I like the extra hard edge from the vanadium. 

 
cosjobs said:
It depends on the type and frquency of usage.

Victronix and Dexter are good value and hard to go wrong. For upper end, I'd want to know more about purpose and function.
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My slicing and filet knives are exclusively Dexter now.  Work great and no fear of damaging them. I do have one big Bubba that I got cheap for cleaning really big fish but that's it.  My "fancy" chef knives get a lot of use (Toji-something, Misen) but they stain easily from acids and I worry more about sharpening them correctly.

 
Chaka said:
I have had my eye on the 8" Glestain linked in that article for over a year.
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Had brunch at a buddy's house today. Dude is, and I mean this in all seriousness, the #1 go-to guy for all things kitchen. For example, this is maybe half of his knife collection. I got to try out three Glestains, he swore up-and-down how nothing sticks to them and to prove it he baked a potato (a little over), gave me all three of his Glestains and told me to slice it. I swear to the Great Spaghetti Monster in the Sky that each slice fell off each blade almost like they were simply repelled by each other. It was really darn impressive. Probably gonna pull the trigger on the 8" in @Joe Bryant link.

But I think the most interesting thing I saw, and there were a ton of things (dude has four smokers AND four pizza ovens), was something I had never heard of called a Gemside Automatic Cooker, which is essentially a "one pot cooker" which was also really darn cool to see in action. It doesn't speak to my style of cooking but, man, to see it in action was really interesting. He prepared a simple marinated shrimp dish that I thought was gonna be hammered because it simmered for about 15 minutes but the shrimp were juicy and tender.  It comes with a really well put together, professionally bound recipe book with tons of color pics, measurements by weight (in grams/milileters) and glossy pages which is unlike any similar product which has essentially a pamphlet of mediocre after thought recipes. Bottom line is it seems to be legit one dish with high quality results.

I know it's off topic but has anyone used something like this? Because I'm ready to buy one but trying the temper myself.

 
We use a pretty standard Wusthof set - the set that comes with the block.  I think the one we got had a few empty slots which we then filled with a few knives we realized we needed after a few months use.  If I recall we added the 8" chef's knife as the 6" wasn't sufficient for large roasts, and I think we added another of the smaller santoku knives as we found we used this the most of any of them.  

I sharpen with the Wusthof 2 stage sharpener that came with one of the sets.  It works well enough.  Not going to say it's the best, but when I run the knives through it, they cut like new again.  I really can't imagine them getting much sharper.  We're hard on our knives.  We run them through the dish washer (not recommended), and some of the more well-loved ones have some chunks of the handle that fell out.  I just super-glue them back in and it's usually fine.  We've had them for daily use for almost 10 years now.

 
I think it really depends on your knife skills. I worked in a kitchen for many years and most of my friends/family consider me the best "chef" they know, but I was never trained on proper technique. I assume a super-sharp straight edge knife is the best for people who really know how to use them since that's what the pros use, but I greatly prefer my serrated cutco no matter what the job. I just feel like I have better control and its ALWAYS sharp. I even take it when we go on any vacation where Ill be doing any cooking because nothing else compares in my book.

 
I bought a $5 French knife from the butcher down the street. They sell them there. Requires a little more attention to sharpening, but oh well. 

I've used a lot of Japanese and German steel (I'm in the industry), but my favorite knife is my GFs mom's Cutco french knife. Thing is perfect. 

 
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