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Good quality kitchen knives? (1 Viewer)

Helaire-ious

Helaire-ious

Footballguy
I would like to buy a set of kitchen knives that are going to last me a very very long time.

However, I'd also not like to spend a fortune if I can avoid it.

Any suggestions on which sets and/or brands I should be considering?

Also, what's decent in the cutting board arena?

 
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Unless you're spending big money, the quality you get in sets isn't that good. Best bet is to just buy a couple really good single knives that will work for what you need. 

 
Or you could go to a restaurant supply store every 3 years for 18 years to replace the worn out restaurant quality knives 

Sure, they don't look great, but they work very well and are dishwasher safe.  Plus they're really inexpensive.  Usually 20% of the price of a name brand knife. 

Also lots of other great kitchen stuff there for super cheap. Some of it way too large to be useful in a household kitchen, but a lot can be used at home. 

 
The Z Machine said:
Or you could go to a restaurant supply store every 3 years for 18 years to replace the worn out restaurant quality knives 

Sure, they don't look great, but they work very well and are dishwasher safe.  Plus they're really inexpensive.  Usually 20% of the price of a name brand knife. 

Also lots of other great kitchen stuff there for super cheap. Some of it way too large to be useful in a household kitchen, but a lot can be used at home. 
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I buy a set at Costco on sale whenever they get dull.   Costs less than to get a good set sharpened.

 
I got a basic set of Henckles knives (with a block) around 30 years ago.  Great knives that I still have.

Learning how to maintain them is quite important.

 
Not an expert but I feel Victorinox is a decent knife for the money. To start you might consider a 8" or 10" chef knife, a couple paring knives, and set of steak knives. Then build from there as you need.

I like a bamboo cutting board. When using one, for safety, make sure it's not going to slide around. 

 
RUSF18 said:
Unless you're spending big money, the quality you get in sets isn't that good. Best bet is to just buy a couple really good single knives that will work for what you need. 
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That's what I'd recommend as well.  You probably could just get buy with a good chef's knife and a set of steak knives.  I got one of those blocks and I never use most of them.   

 
I now have Victorinox steak knives, utility knives & pairing knives, Mercer chef's knife, Cold Steel chef's knife & Mercer boning knife on order. We shall see how nice they are!

 
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shades said:
The basic victorinox 8 inch chefs knife is what you'd see real pros using in just about every good restaurant in the world. 
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So will I be disappointed w/the Cool Steel & Mercer chef's knives I have on the way? Worst case, I return them I guess since I bought them on Amazon.

 
shades said:
The basic victorinox 8 inch chefs knife is what you'd see real pros using in just about every good restaurant in the world. 
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Got this earlier this year. Love it. We have 6 other knives in a block. I never use any of the others unless someone puts the victorinox in the dishwasher. 

 
Brony said:
Got this earlier this year. Love it. We have 6 other knives in a block. I never use any of the others unless someone puts the victorinox in the dishwasher. 
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I hope I don't regret not buying it & end up having to return the Cold Steel & Mercer to buy the Victo 🤣

 
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Helaire-ious said:
So will I be disappointed w/the Cool Steel & Mercer chef's knives I have on the way? Worst case, I return them I guess since I bought them on Amazon.
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I've used Victorinox for many years and love them, but I've heard great things about Mercer. It seems to the up and coming competitor to Victorinox in the "quality, but inexpensive" category.

I've never used Mercer, but no reason to think you'd be disappointed.

 
Helaire-ious said:
I would like to buy a set of kitchen knives that are going to last me a very very long time.

However, I'd also not like to spend a fortune if I can avoid it.

Any suggestions on which sets and/or brands I should be considering?

Also, what's decent in the cutting board arena?
Click to expand...
Personally, I'd start with a good chef's knife and a wall magnet. I love Victorinox, but there are many great brands. If you find yourself needing another knife regularly, put it on the magnet too. Maybe you need a paring knife, or bread knife from time to time. But for the vast majority of people, they will never come close to filling up all the space on the magnet with knives they use regularly. Added bonus, you don't waste counter space on a stupid knife block (I'd never put a knife I care about in a block anyway).

If you're like most people, you have some old crappy steak knives. That's fine, just throw them in a drawer or cabinet. Quality doesn't matter for steak knives.

I prefer bamboo for veggies and they highest use boards (I just buy whatever's reasonable on Amazon as they wear out). I keep a couple of plastic boards around for raw meats. 

If you have the space, Sam's has some awesome, huge plastic boards that perform well and last forever for dirt cheap. But most home kitchens won't have space for that.

 
We got this set as a wedding gift in 1995, we use these knives every day.  These are from a small company in northeast Ohio.  We visited this place a couple of years ago, I took the knives with me and I had them look them over, sharpen them, etc. but they had never been sharpened before that.  We added a couple of knives to the set and purchased a counter block to store the knives while we there.  The people there were incredibly friendly and nice and while they're not inexpensive they are excellent quality knives.  I've bought and tossed out a lot of cheap knives over the years but these keep going on and on.

I think I forgot the best part of the story.  When I took my knives in, I said to the woman at the counter "I need to get these sharpened, I know it's late, I can pick them up tomorrow or you can just ship them to me."  The woman said "oh heavens no, you just walk down the hallway there, open that door and you'll see someone in the shop there, they'll help you out."  The shop was pretty big but it was empty that day (it was late in the day, close to closing time) and there were a bunch of stations set up.  I was talking to the guy who sharpened my knives up, each and every knife is hand made and every half-circle you see on the knives is hand machined by a worker.  They really are like works of art and again the guy I took my knives to was extremely friendly and nice. 

 
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pollardsvision said:
Personally, I'd start with a good chef's knife and a wall magnet. I love Victorinox, but there are many great brands. If you find yourself needing another knife regularly, put it on the magnet too. Maybe you need a paring knife, or bread knife from time to time. But for the vast majority of people, they will never come close to filling up all the space on the magnet with knives they use regularly. Added bonus, you don't waste counter space on a stupid knife block (I'd never put a knife I care about in a block anyway).

If you're like most people, you have some old crappy steak knives. That's fine, just throw them in a drawer or cabinet. Quality doesn't matter for steak knives.

I prefer bamboo for veggies and they highest use boards (I just buy whatever's reasonable on Amazon as they wear out). I keep a couple of plastic boards around for raw meats. 

If you have the space, Sam's has some awesome, huge plastic boards that perform well and last forever for dirt cheap. But most home kitchens won't have space for that.
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I prefer the block on my counter. I have plenty of counter space :D

 
OK, I'm a bit of a knife junkie. I had Kershaw Shun as a sponsor for many years and got a TON of knives from them. They are fantastic. Not cheap, but fantastic. Of all their different lines, the classic line is my favorite. The handle is amazing, unless you are left handed. They are asymmetrical which is the way our grips are shaped. They just came out with the classic line with a blond handle. 

After I left Shun I started collecting carbon steel knives. Some of them run north of $700 a knife. Then I went to small batch handmade stuff from different blacksmiths from around the world.

I have a very broad and eclectic collection of knives. I'll give you a couple more brands to look at. But first, I have to echo what was said above. If you buy a block with a dozen knives, you will use 3, maybe 4 and the rest will just be a waste of knives and money. Better to go higher end on those three or four that you will use. I would recommend a good chefs knife (8 or 10 inches depending on which feels better in the hand), a santoku (6 or 7 inched) and a long, slender utility knife (maybe 5-6 inch blade) and then maybe a serrated bread knife. Maybe add a paring knife. The utility and paring knives are usually cheaper for the pair than a single chef knife or santoku. A nakiri for chopping veggies is nice and maybe something with a nice curved blade/rocker knife that allows you to work back and forth in a rocking motion quickly. But those last two are luxuries, not necessities. 

OK, so the other knife brands that I really love and use more than pretty much all of my other knives are, well, I'm gonna have to circumvent the language filter. The knives come from a German company named after their founder Friedrich D1ck. They are called F. D1ck knives. Not sure that will sidestep the language filter so I'll just link them here on Amazon. The Red Spirit Ajax knife is one of my absolute faves. It is like the best of both worlds of a cleaver and a chefs knife. Usually a hybrid knife like that doesn't do either role well. This one does both of them beautifully. 

Another brand is Bokashi Steel. They asked me to do some promotion in 2019 and I liked the knife fresh out of the box, but every knife fresh out of the box is usually great. The better the knife the longer it stays that way. These stay sharp for a very long time. I have their chef and santoku. I love them. And my wife loves them. They are her favorite knives of all that I have. They are not crazy expensive and they are fantastic. 

And the final one, is Heston Blumenthal knives. These are huge in Australia and Europe. I was invited to help with the launch in the States. I liked them so much I bought a bunch of them and gave them as gifts. Again, not crazy expensive, they are really well made and look phenomenal as well. 

 
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Used my Mercer chef's knife for the first time today along w/the Kershaw kitchen shears I got. I am thrilled & impressed. Still returning the Cold Steel knife (did not open it). I might order a 2nd Mercer chef's knife as a backup since I do cook a lot and washing the knife every 5 minutes would be annoying.

Have not tried the Victo utility knives yet. Victo steak knives & paring knives are still on the way.

 
yak651 said:
Bought my wife Wusthof Clasic Ikon Chef and paring knives for birthday and added utility knife for christmas.  Made her a barn board magnetic knife holder to hold them

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJhk0syjFDs/
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That looks cool! I'm always afraid with a knife strip that I (or my wife) would knock a knife off when grabbing another. 

We have two chef's knives, a santoku, two paring a 4-steak knife set, and a serrated knife for bread. They're all standard enough that we actually just got a block.

 
pollardsvision said:
I prefer bamboo for veggies and they highest use boards (I just buy whatever's reasonable on Amazon as they wear out). I keep a couple of plastic boards around for raw meats. 
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I prefer glass cutting boards for raw meats. I'm paranoid about bacteria getting into the cuts that plastic and bamboo cutting boards can accumulate. I too like bamboo boards for veggies, I use them for fruits and cooked meats as well. I just counted I have 5 cutting boards that I use; two glass, two bamboo/wood and one small plastic board. The plastic board mainly gets used if I'm only cutting strawberries and or bananas, but if I'm just cutting a single serving of those for myself I will use a ceramic saucer instead.

 
Dumb question -- is possible to ruin a knife by over-sharpening it?  The reason why I ask is because my wife runs our Wusthof chef's knife through one of those manual sharpeners at least 20-25 strokes every single time she uses it.  I've noticed that it's also dull as hell to the point of being dangerous to cut vegetables and useless for dicing meat.  My theory is that she's effectively removed the blade at this point but I don't know if there's any legitimacy to that or not.  This knife is about 5-7 years old if that helps.

I've already ordered a Victorinox to replace it.  Just checking on maintenance. 

 
brun said:
Not an expert but I feel Victorinox is a decent knife for the money. To start you might consider a 8" or 10" chef knife, a couple paring knives, and set of steak knives. Then build from there as you need.

I like a bamboo cutting board. When using one, for safety, make sure it's not going to slide around. 
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I have the 10" and it rocks.

 
Dezbelief said:
I prefer glass cutting boards for raw meats. I'm paranoid about bacteria getting into the cuts that plastic and bamboo cutting boards can accumulate. I too like bamboo boards for veggies, I use them for fruits and cooked meats as well. I just counted I have 5 cutting boards that I use; two glass, two bamboo/wood and one small plastic board. The plastic board mainly gets used if I'm only cutting strawberries and or bananas, but if I'm just cutting a single serving of those for myself I will use a ceramic saucer instead.
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I've been cutting raw meat on plastic boards for years. No issues. I picked up some bamboo boards with my knife order & now use those for veggies etc. Raw meat still stays on the cheap plastic boards

 
IvanKaramazov said:
Dumb question -- is possible to ruin a knife by over-sharpening it?  The reason why I ask is because my wife runs our Wusthof chef's knife through one of those manual sharpeners at least 20-25 strokes every single time she uses it.  I've noticed that it's also dull as hell to the point of being dangerous to cut vegetables and useless for dicing meat.  My theory is that she's effectively removed the blade at this point but I don't know if there's any legitimacy to that or not.  This knife is about 5-7 years old if that helps.

I've already ordered a Victorinox to replace it.  Just checking on maintenance. 
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Yes. She has destroyed the original shape of the edge and so now it has to be "sharpened" every time just to get a little bit of an edge. Take it to a professional sharpener and explain what happened. They will recreate the edge and it will be good as new. Then, take it to the person who sharpened it every six months and throw away the home sharpener. It might cost you $20 for the repairing of the edge and then less than $10 every time you take it in after that. 

 
Cold Dead Hands said:
We bought a small set of Cutco knives 25 years ago. They came with a sharpener. I have never used the sharpener. We use the knives everyday. Well worth the money.
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Mr R's mother got some of these as a house warming gift back in the 50's.  Still guaranteed and still excellent.  We bought more to add to the set.

Cheap knives are just not worth it.

 
Ordered the 8" Mercer from Amazon to try. I'm sure it's better than what we have now, and assuming this all works out I'll likely end up getting a few more knives and replacing the current mass of junk with a few worthy pieces. The wife will enjoy clearing out both drawer and counter space, which is nice.

 
TheFanatic said:
And the final one, is Heston Blumenthal knives. These are huge in Australia and Europe. I was invited to help with the launch in the States. I liked them so much I bought a bunch of them and gave them as gifts. Again, not crazy expensive, they are really well made and look phenomenal as well. 
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Those are gorgeous knives. Need new steak knives, my handles are wearing out and cracking on my current ones.

 
TheFanatic said:
They are sexy. I saved a big carver for myself. Carved the bird from Thanksgiving with it. 
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What length of blade do you prefer for turkeys? What is your opinion of Victorinox Forschner? Those are available at my locally owned restaurant supply store. I tend to buy local if the pricing is similar considering shipping and handling vs online. My 8" chefs knife has started to loosen at the handle. Should I add a couple of inches? The following knives are available locally, but their website doesn't list prices. A lot of businesses around here serving commercial businesses have several pricing structures often charging the little guy more than the chains.

https://www.osograndeknives.com/catalog/kitchen-chefs-knives/victorinox-forschner-5200725-chefs-knife-10-inch-2.125-inches-wide-at-white-fibrox-handle-8614.html

https://www.osograndeknives.com/catalog/kitchen-chefs-knives/victorinox-forschner-40021-chefs-knife-rosewood-handle-10-inch-blade-8186.html

https://www.osograndeknives.com/catalog/kitchen-chefs-knives/victorinox-40020-chefs-knife-8-inch-blade-rosewood-handle-8185.html

https://www.osograndeknives.com/catalog/kitchen-chefs-knives/victorinox-forschner-40520-chefs-knife-black-fibrox-handle-8-inch-blade-8349.html

I like the looks of the Heston Blumenthal. I asked my wife what she thought about me spending a hundred dollars on a knife, she wasn't very receptive to the idea. However I haven't gotten my Christmas present yet... Whatever knife I get I will use until I wear it out before getting another knife. 

 
I have mixed set of mostly Henckel Pro & Pro-S for with a few specialty Miyabi Fusion Morimoto's.  I don't think I'll buy another knife in my life.  

 
TheFanatic said:
They are sexy. I saved a big carver for myself. Carved the bird from Thanksgiving with it. 
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My main knives are a set from the Miyabi Hibana line. Santoku, Chef, 10" slicer, utility, bread and paring. But they don't have steak knives.

 
Anyone know which knives are recommended by America's Test Kitchen?

I saw the episode, but don't remember which ones they were.

TIA

 
Dezbelief said:
What length of blade do you prefer for turkeys? What is your opinion of Victorinox Forschner? Those are available at my locally owned restaurant supply store. I tend to buy local if the pricing is similar considering shipping and handling vs online. My 8" chefs knife has started to loosen at the handle. Should I add a couple of inches? The following knives are available locally, but their website doesn't list prices. A lot of businesses around here serving commercial businesses have several pricing structures often charging the little guy more than the chains.

https://www.osograndeknives.com/catalog/kitchen-chefs-knives/victorinox-forschner-5200725-chefs-knife-10-inch-2.125-inches-wide-at-white-fibrox-handle-8614.html

https://www.osograndeknives.com/catalog/kitchen-chefs-knives/victorinox-forschner-40021-chefs-knife-rosewood-handle-10-inch-blade-8186.html

https://www.osograndeknives.com/catalog/kitchen-chefs-knives/victorinox-40020-chefs-knife-8-inch-blade-rosewood-handle-8185.html

https://www.osograndeknives.com/catalog/kitchen-chefs-knives/victorinox-forschner-40520-chefs-knife-black-fibrox-handle-8-inch-blade-8349.html

I like the looks of the Heston Blumenthal. I asked my wife what she thought about me spending a hundred dollars on a knife, she wasn't very receptive to the idea. However I haven't gotten my Christmas present yet... Whatever knife I get I will use until I wear it out before getting another knife. 
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It is totally a preference thing. If the local restaurant supply store carries them, go to the store, hold them. Get a feel in the hand. My preference might not be the same as yours. 

 
Hawks64 said:
My main knives are a set from the Miyabi Hibana line. Santoku, Chef, 10" slicer, utility, bread and paring. But they don't have steak knives.
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That's about all you need. My steak knives are super cheap. Plastic handles. I usually just use one of my utility or paring knives. 

 
I got a set of ceramic knives a few weeks ago.  Need as all-purpose as steel but a few advantages including supposedly stay sharper much much longer than steel if used properly.

I'm not a knife guy but so far I love 'em 

 
So far all the Victo & Mercer knives I got are great. So os the chef'schoice manual sharpener I got. It sharpened my old crap knives & even my EDC Kershaw knife pretty well

 
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