I have a fairly eclectic assortment of kitchen knives. I never have purchased a set of knives, but instead have bought the best I could find for the task I anticipated doing. Well, I have to admit that I buy knives on whim as well. :rolleyes:

When I was in Tokyo in 2005, I stocked up on some really good Aritsugu and Masamoto Japanese knives. I have a number of Sabatier carbon steel knives, Wustof Tridents, Henckles, Mundials, a few from SYSCO, and a half drawer full of assorted other blades.

I have knives from 14 inch Chef knives, to tiny one inch blade garnish knives. Chinese cleavers, Santukos, and about everything in between.

What ones do I use the most?
A 6 inch Henkle Chef
A 10 inch Carbon Steel Sabatier Chef
A generic Chinese Cleaver
A 4 inch Wustof paring knive
A 7 inch Wustof Santuko

I use an assortment of knives, from most to least used

Wusthoff Grand Prix Santoku 8"
Wusthoff Classic 12" chefs knice
Wusthoff Classic 7" boning knife
Wusthoff Classic 3" paring knice
Mundial 12" Serrated bread knife

I also just got a knife as a gift from my parents who were returnig from Tokyo, I have no idea the brand because there is no english on the box or the knive itself. I will try to post a pic, but I am new here so don't know if that is allowed.

I use an assortment of knives, from most to least used

Wusthoff Grand Prix Santoku 8"
Wusthoff Classic 12" chefs knice
Wusthoff Classic 7" boning knife
Wusthoff Classic 3" paring knice
Mundial 12" Serrated bread knife

I also just got a knife as a gift from my parents who were returnig from Tokyo, I have no idea the brand because there is no english on the box or the knive itself. I will try to post a pic, but I am new here so don't know if that is allowed.

I have an variety of European and Japanese knives; Zwilling JA Henckels, F Dick, Victorinox, Tojiro and other sharp tools.

My favourite being an 8" Zwilling Four Star Cook's knife; not the sharpest but my favourite shape and size, I would like a firmer riveted full-tang handle and no bolster that extends down to the heel of blade :crazy:.

The sharpest would easily be my 210mm Tojiro F-520 Gyuto, I get seriously cranky when anyone else touches that knife!:eek:

The fave steel is my F. Dick 12" Dickoron Combi, what a beautiful tool.

Other favourites include...
- Fujiwara Kanefusa Honesuki boning knife which I use to fillet fish
- My cheap Victorinox flat edge paring knife (mini-Santoku)
- Tojiro 240mm DP Western Deba for attacking 'brick'-pumpkin and light effort chopping and mincing
- Monopol 'Rex' peeler

I'm getting a Microplane large ribbon shaver this week for quick and easy parmesan ribbons, should be a new favourite.

I use a 9 inch Victorinox & a smaller one of the same brand, I'm very satisfied :)

I'm left handed so it made a difference for me on what fit my hand. My Henkels 10" is nice but I bought a Kershaw Santuko because it was the first blade (well handle) that really fit my hand. That is my go to knife on almost everything.
George

knives

your knife is such a personal thing- it's what ever has the right "feel" for you and can hold up to the task....

I have an 8" chef's knife from Calphalon, that I just love.. so I bought a 6" chef's knife in the same line... then they discontinued the line.... :(
not expensive but heavy enough and a handle that fits my hand...
so eventually I'll have to go shopping again....

Coincidentally, I was at the small, local butcher and deli today, and one of the "regulars" came in and asked about knives. He wanted to get one for his 84yo mom. There were a few of us standing around and, of course, the owner and counter guy. Everyone had a preferenmce or two, and made good points as to why they preferred the knives they did. But, every one of us said the same thing: it's a personal thing, get what you like for the job intended.

Shel

I have J.A. Henckel's Professional 5-Star 6" Chef's knife, cleaver, boning knife, and utility knife with a 10" steel. I also bought from my school the generic chef's choice 8" chef's knife, bread knife, paring knife, and turning knife. I also keep a sharpening brick with oil in my kit, 5 years running and they're all still sharp as day one.

The only knife block set I own is Chicago Cutlery purchased 30 years ago. Presently, I use only Japanese and U.S. made custom made knives as well as some vintage carbon steel Thiers-Issard Sabatiers. I love them all. :smoking:

Buzz

i owned  mundial primium fully forged for over 9 years very good product and the action with wrist top notch  

today i recived 2 forged 10''chef knife it pays of to have good quality productc

LOL. Gotta lov'ya Richard. You've made your opening post in a thread that's over 3 years old since the last reply. Classic. Here are pics of my 2 main knives:  

 

I think you can find them both on "Clearance" for $10 each. LOL @ ME. 

Yeah, kind of an old thread. But a legitimate question to update: what do people have that they actually use at least 50% of the days of the week? (That formulation should include both pros and home cooks, I figure.)

 

Me:

 

300mm blue steel, unknown maker, semi-custom yanagiba (long story)

225mm white steel Aritsugu Tsukiji usuba

150mm sanmai Aritsugu Kyoto petty

 

I also have a 270mm Masamoto gyuto that languishes because I'm currently hooked on the usuba, a good and a terrible deba, a little 195mm local maker yanagiba that does some work here and there, and a bunch of old Wusthof and other cr*p that I mostly use for brutality, cheese, and to open boxes -- but my wife is terrified of my Japanese knives so she uses them when (once in a while) she cooks something.

I have a 8" Global chef's that I use most often, but I also find myself using my Forschner rosewood chef's quite a bit as well.

8" Global G2 here, and I love it. If you like the steel and thin blade but not the handle, you allso have the GF series which has a 8" chefs knife aswell. that one is more similar to MAC Professional with dimples. All 3 are excellent knives

 

And one think im noticing here, there's a lot of converts from European to Japanese knives, but not the other way around. ;) Except for my stupid roommate chef which has had pretty much all the japanese ones allready and now wants a WUSTHOF 8" for his next. I keep telling him that knife is simply not sharp but he's still gonna buy it once he snaps his next Global =p (And unfortunantly, quite a lot of people have had them snap over these past 25 years. But that might just count for other knives aswell)

Wait... hang on. He wants to move from Global to Wusthof? And there is serious danger of him snapping the thing? Jeepers.

 

Normally, you'd say, "just hand him a truly sharp Japanese knife" -- not a Global but a major-league player -- but with this guy, who knows?

 

My suggestion is, encourage him to buy Forschner and Dexter Russell: same quality he's apparently looking for, but MUCH cheaper.

Over the years i've built a collection of knifes that suit me. Got a victorinox carving knife, tomato knifes, a Sabatier chefs knife, 2 Sekiryu Deba Knifes, a Mac fish filleting knife, Global Swedish Filleting Knife, veg chopper, Paring Knife. Still got a couple of my college issue knife kicking about to. Waiting for a new Global ceramic sharpener to arrive.

Last night I trimmed out about 20lbs. of hanger steak. It was the cleanest job I've ever done. Don't ask why or how because I've got no clue. I used a laser sharp (by my standards/ability anyway) $1.59 petty from IKEA. In a coupla hours I'm gonna grill the stuff up and be even more happy. Go figure. 

I'm going to follow suit and make a first post on an old thread too!

 

Up until relatively recently I was using a Spyderco santoku (this before I knew what a santoku was -- I just bought a kitchen knife from a weapons-knife catalogue!)  It's has never been sharpened, and therefore is no longer sharp.

 

Now:

1. Messermeister Meridian Elite 9" Chef's knife, which I bought under the influence of Chad Ward.  I like it a lot.

2. Wusthof Classic 10" Chef's knife, which was given to me (out of the blue) by a co-worker who "wasn't using it".  This taught me that I should have gotten the Messermeister in 10" in the first place. It is pretty redundant with the first knife.  I use it more if I'm cutting lots of sweet potatoes or winter squashes, where the extra length is helpful for volume.

3. Petty knife from Togiharu (which I'll need someone else to reprofile, or "open up" before I'm ever to sharpen it myself)

4. parers - a Tojiro DP, which is fine for what it is, but I bought it on price point, before I knew I didn't like the tip (too close too sheep's foot, which I like less); a F. Dick 1905, and some plastic-handled cheapies, the best of which is a Capehart Cutlery item that cost a couple of bucks and has been very sharp and pointy from the beginning.  Also a cheap set of chinese-made Henckels that came as a set (a tourne included, and a... I dunno, I suppose it's a tomato knife? A serrated super flexible thing that I have no idea what to do with).

 

90% of what I do is with the Messermeister or with the Capehart parer.

 

Lusting after carbon Sabatiers and various Japanese knives as well after lurking for several weeks on this forum.  Though that feels like an illness.  I really don't have a need to spend money on knives given my limited skill set and the amount of cooking I do.  I did order a combination stone (1000/4000) from JCK and  have some unpracticed knowledge from Chad Ward's book, this forum, and the Korin sharpening DVD.

 

Edit: Just got in a JCK CarboNext 240mm gyuto yesterday, so it's early to tell in any detail, but so far I'm pretty sure it's my "go to" knife aside from splitting kabocha squashes and such.  Super light, thin, sharp blade (I'm sure it'll get sharper when I get to be a better sharpener, too!)

Edited by Wagstaff - 6/1/11 at 6:05pm

nice thread :)

 

i like that the more i read, the more it seems like i need either some MAC Pro or Masamoto knives. Although if i was gonna replace my knives (which up until recently i was very ready to do) i'd probably lean more towards the Misono UX 10 or the Tojiro Sunkou. Cause they look prettier. :)

 

this is my current knife rack: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6634650/COOKING/new%20knife%20rack%20small.jpg

 

yup - they're globals. i'm gonna beat the hell out of them while i learn proper technique and how to sharpen them. then once i feel like i know what i'm doing a bit, then i'll get new knives.

Scanpan classic 4pc knife block set and when I did my traineeship the top chef gave me as a end of working with him present a Zanger Icel chef knife which I gave to my mum to use..It's got a wooden handle and I've never seen a better knife then that one.. It's always sharp, I only sharpen it maybe once a year and my mum uses it all the time.. My mum has been using since 2003.

Spent 20 years dedicated to Henkels (sp?) but have slowly converted to all Japanese Knives.

I have a set of globals at home and am building a set of Michel Bras at work.  I'm up to 5 Bras and am planning on one a month then buying his small wares.

 

Chef's Kinfe/Gyuto:

• 12" K-Sabatier au carbone
• 270mm Konosuke HD
• 10" K-Sabatier au carbone (two)
• 7" Thiers-Issard "Nogent"

 

Slicers:

• 300mm Konosuke HD
• 10" K-Sabatier au carbone

 

Bread:

• 10-1/2" MAC Superior
• 8" (early 70s) Henckels

 

Petties:

• 150mm Konosuke SS
• 6" TI "Nogent" slicer

 

Butchering:

• Forschner 10" Cimeter
• Forschner 7" Wide Fillet
• TI carbon stiff boning knife (desosseur profile)
• Henckels (early 70s) stainless boning knife
• Chicago Cutlery (mid 60s) heavy, carbon cleaver

 

Paring:

• 4" K-Sabatier au carbone
• 4" TI carbon, "German" prototype
• (4) Forschners, including a sheep's food, a bec d'oiseau, and two "couteau office," all of which would need replacement if used for anything besides opening packages and cutting string. 

Linda sometimes uses paring knives, so I keep them sharp and in the block, but I prefer to use use one of the petties or the small, Nogent chef's.  Don't confuse me with super-chef.  If I were cutting fou-fou, garde manger shapes, I'd use a paring knife.  But, thank God...

 

Forks:

• Henckels Meat Fork

 

Peelers:

• Oxo swing type (for my wife)
• 99cent type (for me)

 

Mandoline:

• Joyce Chen

 

Jacard:

• Cuisinart three row

 

Sharpening Equipment:

• Two steels -- 12" Hand American Borosilicate rod, and 12" (early 70s) Henckels fine steel
• Complete 4 stone water stone set
• Complete 4 stone oil stone kit.
• EP Apex "Chosera" kit
• DMT XXC diasharp plate (for flattening only)
• Mid to high-polish loaded strop kit

 

That's just the stuff which gets used.  There's more(?!) boxed up in the garage.

 

BDL

C'mon guys!  What's in your block? 

 

Save me from my thread-kill guilt,

BDL

I was intimidated by your bullet points.  I don't know how to do that, here.  I'm over it.

 

Yoshihiro (stainless) 270mm gyuto

Kagayaki CarboNext 240mm gyuto

T-I Sabatier "Nogent" 10" cook's knife

Wusthof Classic 10" cook's knife (this is not a chef de chef in "real life", but that's sort of its function in this collection).

 

Gesshin Ginga (Ashi) 210mm suji/petty

T-I Sabatier Nogent 6" slicer

Togiharu 6" petty

 

TojiroDP 4" parer (essentially sheeps-foot)

T-I Sabatier Nogent 3" parer

couple of plastic-handled parers, (Forschner and Henckels International I believe) including a bird's beak that is virtually unused.

Some red handled, very flexible serrated thing, "tomato knife" maybe? I think it's a Henckels International that was part of a set with the parer, but I could be mistaken.

 

Board scraper (does this count?)

 

Gesshin 400 grit stone

Combo 1K/4K stone from JCK

Gesshin 5000 grit stone

12" ceramic rod

 

Things in a cupboard that don't get much use -

a 10" very (very) wide chef's knife made by a local sharpener guy, cost 12 bucks, would be a recommendation to those who are on a budget and won't do their own sharpening.

a CCK carbon cleaver, not sure model number.

at work: MAC 8" professional series chef, MAC 10 1/2" superior series bread, Henckel 14" super fection series hollow edge slicer

Mac Pro 250mm gyuto

Messermeister Meridian Elite 9" chef's

Hattori HD 150mm petty

Shun classic 7" Santoku

Tojiro ITK 270mm bread

Chicago Cutlery 3.5" parer

I run on the lower $ side of the market.

 

 

A 10" Henkels I bought to replace the 10" wusthof I snapped when I dropped it. The Wusthof was better, but the Henkels is OK. Probably the oldest knife in my block, 12 years or so.

10" Forschner bread knife

9" New West Bread Knife

8" Forshner chef's knife

8" Ikea VG10 chef Surprisingly good knife for the price. Would love a 10" version. Kinda ugly though.

8" Forschner Chinese Chef

Two 6" petty from New West

Forschner paring knife

Ikea parer, in the same line as the VG10 chefs, but not in VG10. Still a pretty good vanadium steel and I like the blade shape a lot.

 

There are a few other blades that make appearances now and then.

An all steel Chinese chef/cleaver for bone hacking. Thicker than a true Chinese Chef, but not as thick as western cleaver.

A carbon steel "French Peasant's Knife" from Lee Valley

A junky 7" boning knife. I keep putting it in the good will box and my wife keeps pulling it out to do something in the kitchen.

 

 

• Mac Pro 240mm gyuto
• Tojiro DP 210mm gyuto
• Tojiro Shirogami ITK 210mm gyuto (waiting for the 240mm)
• Wusthof Classic 8” chef
• Wusthof Classic 6” chef
• Mac Chef series 8” chef

 

• Mac Chef series petty
• Tojiro DP petty
• Tojiro Shirogami ITK 120mm petty
• Sabatier Nogent 6” petty
• Wusthof  Classic 6” slicer
• Wusthof Classic 8” slicer
• Henckels Twin Cermax 5” utility
• Carbon steel 270mm yanagi
• F. Dick ham slicer

 

• Wusthof Super Slicer
• Tojiro ITK bread knife
• Wusthof Classic bread knife

 

• Wusthof straight boning knife
• Forschner flexible straight boning knife
• Norpro flexible filleting knife
• Wusthof serrated tomato knife

 

• CCK small cleaver
• CCK Bone Cutter cleaver
• Mac Pro nakiri
• Deba

 

• Assorted cheap paring knives (Forschner, etc)
• Forschner Birds Beak Rosewood paring knife
• Wusthof Classic paring knives in several sizes
• Tojiro DP paring knife
• Couple pairs of Wusthof kitchen shears
• Poultry shears
• Assorted peelers, although the one I like best is an old, cheap Ekco with a carbon steel blade - the current Ekco carbon steel model is terrible and not worth purchasing

 

I've had the Wusthofs forever - got a few as a wedding gift 34 years ago and picked up a bunch more when a local department store clearanced them to replace them with Henckels.  Been buying mostly Japanese knives for the last 8 years or so.  Some of these live in my traveling knife roll that gets taken camping, visiting relatives and to time shares, etc. - handy to have a set of knives already arranged for that purpose.

 

Edited by pohaku - 1/13/12 at 2:13pm

 

• Wusthof Classic 10" Chefs
• Henckels Pro S 8" Chefs
• Henckels Pro S 6" Chefs
• Wusthof Classic 7" Fillet
• Henckels Pro S 3" Paring
• Henckels Pro S 9" Bread
• Henckels Pro S 7" Boning
• Henckels Pro S 10" Slicer
• Henckels Pro S 5" Utility

 

• Bron Mandoline

 

I had a Global Chef knife, around 8", and it was sharp, but didn't like the handle. The Henckels and Wusthofs feel right in my hand. I also have a set of Forschners I bought for school, as I was told that knifes can walk away. They're decent and do most jobs well, and if someone steals them, so what?

 

I've had the Henckels for a long time, and bought them when they were relatively cheap compared to now. I bought the 6" Henckels chef  just a few years ago when a store went out of business and I really like it. I take it with me when I go to people's houses that may not have any decent knifes, and I can do just about any job with it. Of course, it almost never gets used at home.

 

I've used other people's knifes and I really like the MAC Pros, they are close to a European knife in feel, and are very sharp. Of course, I have no problems with sharpening knifes as I have been doing it for years, and I am happy with the way my Henckels and Wusthofs cut.