Looking for knives for my wife's birthday

4244 Views 37 Replies 11 Participants Last post by mike9, May 19, 2016

vanillaxtract

Discussion Starter · Apr 18, 2016

First off, this is more for my wife than me. I am a decent baker, but she is the wiz in the kitchen. She is pescatarian, and as a result, so am I when we are home. We buy our fish filleted, so that is not an issue. Looking at other threads, here are some common questions I have seen.

What country are you living in? America (Kansas)

Are you willing to buy from the Internet, or do you want to buy from a brick and mortar store (and if so, specifically where)? I am willing to buy from the Internet. I live in the middle of nowhere, so that is actually preferred.

What types of foods do you generally prepare and cook? Vegetables and fish

What knives are you currently using? Chicago Cutlery (with a Cutco knife). Yes, I read plenty on Cutco, which is how I found this forum.

Currently, what is the longest knife blade you generally use? 8" slicer

What type(s) of cutting surfaces do you currently use? Bamboo

Are you currently sharpening your own knives? No, but I'm willing to learn

Price range? I guess $300-$400 all said and done

Will you be buying other knives in the near future? Depends on how amazing this experience is.

How would you describe your cooking style? American? French? Not really sure what this means. We use a lot of fresh or frozen vegetables. We rarely used canned or process foods.

Do you have good knife skills? Do you pinch grip? Yes, my wife does.

Have you ever owned a good knife? I thought I did until I began skulking on these forums.

After doing my limited research, my budget I think will allow me three decent knives. As I don't know how my wife will respond to knives, I put the following together:

10" Henckels 4 star chef

12" Misono bread knife

MAC HB-40 parer (but I also read that buying cheap paring knives are okay, like Forschner)

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21 - 38 of 38 Posts

kartman35

· #21 · May 7, 2016

The point is not whether it's as good as another method of sharpening or not....The device you are recommending causes DAMAGE and it causes damage faster than any other "sharpening" method out there. There are other pull-through sharpeners out there (IE those round ceramic wheel types) that are not able to thin knives and are not nearly as useful as stones, but at least they don't cause nearly as much damage to blades as carbide.

If you want to keep using that thing that's fine, but to anyone else reading this consider yourself warned.

This is a forum dedicated to kitchen knives....what do you expect people to be talking about here?

Reactions: 2

doctorcornbread

· #22 · May 7, 2016

Under Food and Equipment Reviews on this site, there are 25,670 posts on knives, and only 19, 899 on ALL OTHER cooking equipment. I rest my case…..

rick alan

· #23 · May 7, 2016 (Edited)

DoctorCornbread said:
Under Food and Equipment Reviews on this site, there are 25,670 posts on knives, and only 19, 899 on ALL OTHER cooking equipment. I rest my case…..

Just goes to show you how important knives are to those who cook.

For touchups a ceramic steel or a packer's steel is far superior to an accusharp. And the "Cadillac" of touchup tools for a line cook using a Vic would be something like a DMT Extra-Extra fine diamond plate mounted to a fitting wood paddle.

BTW, for the kind of prep I very often do, and that of many chefs, especially of the Japanese variety, a Vic or any other knife coming off an accusharp would produce nothing but a mess.

Oh but goodness but it seems we are forgetting the OP in all of this. Hope he got something useful out of it all.

Master-chef

· #24 · May 7, 2016

The Misono UX10 Gyutou at 176$ :
Korin Suisin Gyutou at 110$ :
Mac Chef's Knife at 60$ :
Reference:http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/12/equipment-the-best-chefs-knives-gift-guide.html

Master-chef

· #25 · May 7, 2016

For knives, I recommend these:

those 3 turn to be hybrid between german and japanese

MAC MTH-80 at 145$ : http://www.macknife.com/kitchen/pro...ies-8q-chefs-knife-with-dimples.html?vmcchk=1

Misono UX10 Gyutou at 176$ :Korin Suisin Gyutou

foody518

· #26 · May 9, 2016

DoctorCornbread said:
Under Food and Equipment Reviews on this site, there are 25,670 posts on knives, and only 19, 899 on ALL OTHER cooking equipment. I rest my case…..

Isn't this just telling the story about how knives could be considered the tool most frequently unable to do what they need to vs other tools (e.g. bakeware, pots, pans, spatulas, spoons, etc.) in the most (particularly, home) kitchens? If you look at the content of these threads and the questions being asked and how much misinformation is in some of the opening posts, especially some of the older stuff, it becomes evident how this much discussion comes out of these threads. And somehow there's been a marketing or cultural shift to think proper maintenance of knives is some archaic practice vs a not that hard skill to pick up.

There are other forums dedicated to kitchen knives as well with plenty of members who cook for a living...

mjk14

· #27 · May 9, 2016

Yes!

doctorcornbread

· #28 · May 13, 2016

Final word on the AccuSharp (at least from me). Note the conclusion of Cooks Illustrated, an organization with more than a little expertise, about it....

Screen Shot 2016-05-13 at 1.59.34 PM.png

doctorcornbread
May 13, 2016

rick alan

· #29 · May 19, 2016

DoctorCornbread said:
Final word on the AccuSharp (at least from me).

Praise the Lord.

I wonder if I am the only one here who would never look to cooks illustrated for anything knife related.

kartman35

· #30 · May 19, 2016

I might have in the past, but given this new information, their credibility just went out the window.

foody518

· #31 · May 19, 2016

I don't know what lowest common denominator that kind of recommendation is appealing to, but it doesn't say good things about consumers, does it...

kartman35

· #32 · May 19, 2016

Here's a little example of their 'expertise' in the Japanese Gyuto

.

Note their explanation of where the gyutos flatter profile comes from...

It's cool that they liked the Masamoto, (which might be a great choice for the OP if his wife likes lightweight, flattish knives absent of fingerguards with western handles) but it's not called VG10, nor is it made from VG10. It's called Masamoto VG, and the actual steel is more likely VG-5 from what I've read (None of the vendors list the steel type other than to say Hyper Molybdenum Vanadium.

Whatever

millionsknives

· #33 · May 19, 2016

I'm not their target audience at all. I just hate everything Cooks Illustrated / ATK. All their recipes are either simple, best, or ultimate (not really). Their grasp on any of the Asian cuisines is laughable.

Their average customer I guess likes to watch Alton Brown, but wants to cook with the pantry from a Guy Fieri show.

Don't get me started on Christopher Kimball's vermont country boy shtick. He lives in a large suburb city of Boston (brookline or newton i forget)

grande

· #34 · May 19, 2016

I like to get CI. The recipes are waaayyy overcomplicated, but I like to read the fussy trial-and-error parts(better you than me, buddy!), and the equipment comparisons. Sometimes I see a recipe I want to make, but I just do it my way anyway. As for the accusharp, that's the kind of thing I'd buy for the boys to use on the house knives- it better not touch my knives.

Reactions: 1

foody518

· #35 · May 19, 2016

Even house knives might enjoy some oilstone or waterstone TLC :3 well I guess that depends on how many we are talking about.

grande

· #36 · May 19, 2016

The Nella knives from the sharpening service; they get swapped out every two weeks anyway. I can't stand em.

foody518

· #37 · May 19, 2016

Ahhh...sorry to hear. Do they at least start out sharp at the beginning of the 2 weeks?

I'll sharpen however many knives I can get through in a few hours at the community kitchen, and I've had some pretty good luck sharpening NSF type stainless knives with waterstones. Yay for not too thick blades and no fingerguards.
Do the brunt of the repair and bevel setting on 220 and 500 grit, finalize the bevel on 1200, with some light strokes on a splash and go 3k I have just because, but also it helps with stubborn burrs and silly amounts of fatigued metal that accumulate along the edge.
They'll get surprisingly sharp and hold it so-so for the abuse they immediately take. Better than what was being used on them before (either a chefs choice electric or a small tabletop belt grinder, or both). I wish I had some more aggressive stuff to attempt correcting all those reverse bellies though...flat stone struggles

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mike9

· #38 · May 19, 2016

Get a new cutting board as well bamboo is death to knife edges. You can get a very nice end grain maple board for less than $100.

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/prod..._campaign=CI&gclid=CIKajvek58wCFZdZhgodW08AsA

21 - 38 of 38 Posts

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