I think I would use HG's credit card and buy a Shun Santouko. Williams Sonoma has them on sale right now (for what he did, buy 2!). I have one and it is my absolute favorite knife. Get HG a machete from the local surplus store to use on weeds!

Hey bbstx, that looks good! Thanks for the recommendation.

I have been teasing the House Guest with the cost of the high end knives I've found on various websites. I have all kinds of yard tools, it's still a mystery why he used my chef's knife.

Cathy is absolutely right about the cutting board issue. We have lots of plastic cutting boards, but only the bamboo cutting board is used with the Santuko.

And your HG is no worse than mine. He used my wonderful little bird beak knife as a screwdriver and broke off the tip that is the whole reason to have a bird beak knife!

I wish I had a Sur la Table nearby, although it is pretty good I do not. I had been looking longingly at the knives sold by Quito Keeto (owned by the author of the 101 cookbooks blog). The one I really wanted (and could afford) was sold out by the time DH got to it so he bought me a Sabatier pairing knife, with carbon steel blade. I am thoroughly enjoying it. He found that there were only 2 places in the U.S. who carried the quality ones (and Amazon). Since then, this knife company has come onto my radar. New West Knife Works They are made in the U.S. I am not sure which I am more enamored with, the fusionwood or the phoenix. Both are lovely. I also wanted to add, that picture is incredibly funny.

Ellen, thanks for your input. I noticed a lower cost selection of Henkels and wondered what that was about. Good to know about the BB&B coupons. I forgot about the plastic cutting boards, thanks for the reminder.

BBTX, Seriously... the bird beak? I hope at least he was doing something useful.

Tishoshenm, Thanks for the information.

I'm going to consider all these suggestions because I'm going to splurge and get some forever knives. I'll give all my current knives to my brother. His house burned down so I am helping him refurnish and reequip his new house when it's built. I

I'm gonna be a little bit contrarian here. You asked 'what knives work best in your kitchen'--if you're willing to put up with the slight amount of extra care that carbon steel knives demand, you might consider those. Why? you can get a razor sharp edge on them very easily, much more easily than stainless. One of my favorite knives is an old Sabatier carbon steel knife I found in a junk shop--paid less than a dollar. And they still make some Sabatier knives out of carbon steel (google 'Sabatier au carbone') because some people prefer them. I use mine for everything except cutting up acidic stuff like citrus or onions.

As far as stainless knives, my favorite is a 12" Trent Deux knife; I don't think they make them anymore, but I've seen them for sale on eBay. My second favorite (and I prefer it to a much more expensive Henckels chef knife that I have) is a 10" Victorinox Chef knife. Cooks Illustrated rated this one more highly than knives costing five times as much. Even if you want to get a super duper $$$ chef knife, you might consider Victorinox for the lesser applications--paring knives, boning knives etc. Their budget line has stamped blades and plastic handles--but the steel is good and holds an edge well. Victorinox also makes higher end knives as well with forged blades and rosewood handles. I have a stiff Victorinox boning knife with a rosewood handle, and it's great.

These are the only 3 knives I use, other than a 16" brisket knife and an heirloom carving set my Grandfather brought home from Germany in the 1930s that's used only for turkey.
The top knife was my Grandmother's. It's got a bone handle and is at least 50 years old. I sharpen it and all my knives before every use with a ceramic stone. This knife is used only for carving cooked meat.
The middle one comes from Bed, Bath, & Beyond. It's my all purpose knife and it cost around $40 when I bought it, 17 years ago.
The bottom is a Henkels cleaver that's used only for chicken wings. It's around 25 years old.

arley, I have to agree on the Victorinox paring knife. I got one from Amazon, maybe this one, and it is my go-to when I need a small knife.

I'm using mostly Japanese knives now - a MAC vegetable knife and a Shun 10" chef's knife. I like them very much, and they are as sharp as razors - you can shave with them. I ordered mine from cutleryandmore.com, and I also bought a couple of whet stones for sharpening them. The MAC knife will cut through tough chili skin like butter, thus eliminating the need to chop chilies skin side down. I prefer using these knives to the mandolin. I was going to buy the chef's knife at Sur La Table, and I went to the store in El Segundo because their web site said that they had them in stock, but all they had was the demo knife, which I did not want, and so I ordered it from someone else. I did buy other stuff at SLT while I was there - they had grill baskets on sale, and so I could not resist them, and I did need them. I also bought a spring-form pan, for making cheesecake but have not used it yet.

Lars

I just saw that HG was House Guest. I missed that before.

I have two Schun knives one is 8 inches and the other is 5 1/2. I also have a couple of Wusthoff. What I found is that you have to hold a knife to see how it fits in your hand and how the weight works. I was surprised to learn that larger knives were actually easier to use. Good luck with you choice

The most useful knife in my kitchen is the one that fits my hand, and it can be any one of different manufacturers. As mentioned, I have the Victorinox recommended by Cook's Illustrated and I like it a lot, it's not too heavy and fits my smaller hand. My favorite knife by far is the serrated tomato knife Nancy and Kim got us as a wedding present, it's a Wusthof and will slice the ripest and juiciest tomato, still warm from the garden sun, without hesitation, I love it.

I also have some Gerber steak knives from Peppi that are like scalpels, they cut so well I have to be careful with them, and I store them in their box.

As you can see, I have a collection of different brands, they are purchased only after holding them, some are just too big and heavy for me to be comfortable.

Annie

Everyone needs a Chinese cleaver.

dcarch

I thank you all for your informed input. This is going to be fun, first I will go to the Berghoff outlet near me then down to Sarasota to Sur La Table with a side trip to Trader Joe's while in Sarasota. Then to the Le Creuset outlet in Bradenton. Gonna make a knife shopping day!

When it comes to kitchen knives, Japanese knives are my favourite. To be more specific I just love Mcusta knives. They are the best. In Mcusta series Hybrid VG-10 Sujuhiki 27 cm is my favourite. Its very light in weight and razor sharp. I had just ordered one from Vikingsun online store few days before and happy to get it in just two days after placing the order. Just have a look at it:

5 950.00 SEK seems like a lot for a VG-10 Sujuhiki 27, and I think it would take more than two days to get to me from Sweden. I paid less than $200 for a 10" Shun Japanese Chef's knife, and it was also razor sharp.

Lars

These suggestions have been great. I'll have to check them out -- I've been swapping out my older knives for Wusthof Classic. I like how they feel (and cut) but I should check out some of the others mentioned above, and I do need a cleaver. I do recommend the Wusthof Classic bread knife -- it handles the most problematic of bread like slicing through buttter, with no crushing.

Is it still conventional wisdom that you ought to buy full tang knives, the kind where the metal extends all the way through the handle? All of my Wusthoff knives are full tang. I think the Shun is half-tang or maybe rattail since the handle fully covers the tang, but I can't tell. And the cheap Victorinox is probably just a stub glued into a handle.

Most of my knives are Henckle/wustof, when they were still made in Germany. Now they come from China, so I can't comment on those. My 2 boning knives are Victorinox and I love them. Non-slip handles and sharper than a barmaids tongue.

All new knives are sharp, it is how them feel to you and your hand and how you treat them that really counts. Proper washing, storage and sharpening when needed by the pros count for a lot.

Here are specs on the Shun 10" chef's knife:

•Blade Construction: VG-10 steel core, encased with 32-layer Damascus stainless steel
•Rockwell Hardness 60-61
•Traditional Japanese blade angle: 16°(each side). Full tang, provides strength & balance
•D-shaped ebony PakkaWood handle, is strong, durable and resists moisture

It is Full Tang, and I bought it because I tried it in person first at Sur La Table, and it felt better in my hand than Wüsthof or Henkels, which I was also considering. I did not like the handles of Wüsthof or Henkels, and they were not as sharp, as they have a different blade angle. Also, they were slightly heavier, and the lighter Shun knife felt easier to handle.

Great information all!
I normally purchase my "stuff" online but like most of you, I want to test the feel and balance of the knives. Plus it gives me an excuse to go to some of my favorite kitchen shops.

You have received a few positive comments on the Victorinox chef's knife. I have the 10 inch version that America's Test Kitchen rated extremely highly. 10-Inch-Fibrox-Handle Victorinox It costs under $40, is extremely well balanced, very sharp, and I think every bit as good as my Japanese Damascus Pattern Knife, which costs many times as much.

Right now I'm liking my small ceramic paring knife...mostly because it feels good in my hand. We'll see how it lasts.

I have an odd assortment of knives, but I always seem to grab one of my old, old LL Bean carbon steel knives. No idea who made them. The guy at the feed store sharpens them beautifully for $1.

I'm looking at the Victorinox knives now and am wondering if I should have gotten one of those instead of the expensive Shun knife that I bought. Too late now, but maybe I will get some of their steak knives, although I'm not sure I need them. At least the knife I have is prettier, IMO, and is easy to sharpen, although I haven't needed to do that yet.

One of the terms I see a lot talking about knives "Well balanced".

What does that mean for knives?

I see a full set of ten "well balanced" knives of varying lengths but with identical handles.

How can all the knives be balanced with same handles but different weights of metal?

dcarch

I take it to mean a comfortable weight distribution that suits the knife's tasks. That set of ten knives of different length blades with identical handles probably wouldn't appeal to me.

Looking at my Wushof set, the handles are not the same, and not just the height but also the thickness of the full tang varies. Each of he larger knives (chef's, santuko, slicer) are balanced at the bolster. That's comfortable for me. Oh, the bread knife is, too, but I wouldn't think that's too important. My cleaver is weighted a lot more forward, as it should be. (A hacking type cleaver, not the Chinese type which I still want to buy.) My paring knives are weighted much more toward the handle, which again is comfortable for me. And it's not just coincidence, as I have other knives - most notably my ceramic knives, which I never use because I don't like the weight distribution.

To ma, the term "balance" is meaningless for knives. It drives me nuts to hear famous knife experts keep using it.

Almost all Japanese knives have the same size non-ergonomic design whether for 13" long Yanagi ba or a 4" Ajikiri. It does not matter how heavy or how light the knife is. same handle, yet we all know that Japanese knives are very highly regarded and expensive.

Your hand is unique, if you feel good with a particular knife in your hand, get it. Don't listen to expert's ratings about how "well balanced" a knife is.

dcarch

Well, Japanese knives may be highly regarded in general, but I've never liked them. Maybe the balance is the reason! I have small hands. One of the things I hate more than a dull knife is a knife that pulls and makes me grip very tightly because it's trying to fall out of my hand. I, for one, much prefer a well balanced knife which requires guidance rather than manhandling.

So we shouldn't listen to experts because you don't get it? Duly noted!

foodonastump: ”So we shouldn't listen to experts because you don't get it? Duly noted!”

That is exactly what I believe. With most knife experts. “Don’t listen to them” is what I suggest to you home cooks.

If there is a shoe expert who goes into a shoe store and tries on a pair of shoes. He finds that pair of shoes fit his feet comfortably and perfectly and he goes on to declare to everyone that the pair of shoes is well balanced and everyone should buy that exact same pair of shoes, regardless of you feet size, what would you say?

It is ridiculous for those “experts” to demand that your kitchen knives must be at least $500 each and be scary sharp, sharper than a surgeon’s scalpels. It is also ludicrous to make the whole business of sharpening knives such a scary high art and skill that would take your whole life time to learn to do well.

Just to be clear, a knife maker myself, I am not mocking knife hobbyists and enthusiasts. It is a very worthwhile and enjoyable pastime to learn and to participate in all aspects related to knives.

dcarch

I think it's very common to read expert reviews on products and weed out what's important to you and what's not, based on personal needs and preferences. Read a car or motorcycle "shootout" type article, where several experts compare a few similar products, and they won't all come up with the same comments and rank them the same. Is that proof that they don't know what they're talking about? No. It's proof that certain qualities play differently in different people's minds. If I humor you and consider you a knife expert, I take no issue with balance not being important to you. I take issue with you suggesting that just because YOU don't care about balance, WE should necessarily not care about balance.

Not familiar with ajikiri (I know, I could google), but yanagiba is a slicing knife, pull-cut like they might use for sushi/sashimi. I could definitely see where weight/balace could play differently than say in a western chef's knife, where one of the most common uses is a rocking push-cut.

While the Japanese are certainly renouned for their knife-making skills, it's also noteworthy that many of their modern knives are heavily influenced by western knives.