Best Brand Of Chef’s Knife?
I’ve got tons of knives (all pretty inexpensive under $20) but I can’t get any of them super sharp. I watch these cooking shows and the chefs have knives so sharp the slice onion, tomatoe & meats with no effort. I want one of those knives!!! What brand is the best that is used by professional chefs, where do I buy them and how much should I expect to pay?
Most knives people buy are cheap metal that won’t sharpen or hold an edge. The may have micro serrations to cut well, but that’s not the same having a real edge.
I use Shun (love them), but there’s Global, Messermeister, Forschner, Wusthoff, and Henckel. Go to a store in your area that sells quality knives, try them out. They’re all good, but they have to feel comfortable in your hands.
There are 5 basic kinds of knives; Chef’s (8-10″ – pick best size for you), Paring (3-4″), Utility (5-8″ – pick comfortable size), Boning (4-5″), and Bread (6-12″ – I use a 10″). If you have one of each, you should be set. I have multiples since some are more comfortable/effective for different jobs.
Store them in a wooden block. They’re dangerous floating in a drawer and will dull faster rubbing against each other or other silverware.
Whatever you buy, never put the in the dish washer (too harsh) or submerge them in soapy water (super sharp blades hidden under foam – not smart). Wash them by hand with a soapy sponge (blade away from your hand).
Remember, quality costs money. Good knives will usually be close to or over $100 each. They may cost less but you can’t get the same quality for $20-30. Also, a good knife won’t cut through a can. A hacksaw will.
Seriously the best chef’s knives on the planet are the cheap ones that you can sharpen to a fine fine point. You will have to sharpen them often, but you can sharpen them very easily with a sharpener…and trust me…the sharper the better.
What you don’t want is a knife thats too hard and rusts, or one that is serrated and impossible to sharpen.
With a good cheap knife, you should go through it in about a year or when you sharpen it so much that the blade is worn down to the handle.
If you want to keep your knives sharp for cheap the simple answer is to buy a “steel” Invest in a “smooth” steel or a “fine grit ceramic” steel and learn how to use it. “Steel” your knives before/after every half hour of usage. Have your knives professionally sharpened once or twice a year. Get a recommendation from a friend as you will want a real professional to do the job.
You can pay a lot of money for a knife and you’ll be paying for the name. Try ebay and first do some research on what kind of steel goes into the knives. Sheffield, Swiss and German knives have a good reputation. It’s all about the steel. The best knife I have, that holds a very good edge, is one I bought for $5 dollars at a second hand store.
I personally love my KitchenAid stainless steel knives. They’re great plus they look nice too…all one solid piece. My set is 14 pieces and was about $90 and it was well worth the price, the chefs knife is awesome!! These are a lot less expensive than other sets but I’ll bet they’re just as good.
Try “Chicago Cutlery” or if it’s still made “Santa Fe”.
I don’t know how much they are running now, but you can expect to pay about double for good knives.
When you get them have them professionally sharpened.
For me I prefer “Henckels” knives. They are expensive but with proper care they will last you a lifetime. I even have a set of Henckel steak knives ($10.00/knife) and they are far better than any I have ever used.
Try this website: http://www.consumersearch.com/kitchen-kn…
Hope it works for you!
Most people know the government supplies knives to famous chefs. They are gas powered and effective
pampered chef maybe
Cutco. You will love them.
There is no “best” brand
Whatever will fit your needs and your taste the best that’s the one. There are many very good chef’s knives out there, you just have to pick one.
1) Contrary to their marketing claims neither Cutco, nor Furi make the best kitchen knives. Both are very mediocre knives at best, Furi being worse out of two.
2) Don’t look at pro chefs. Very few of them use really good knives. Just because they’re chef’s doesn’t mean they’re knife experts. Celebrity chef’s are worse. For one, most of the time they use sponsor’s knives, which most likely isn’t the best or even good. Alternatively, they might have vested interest in promoting particular brand. Rachel Ray, who’s a fine cook, uses really crappy Furi knives nevertheless. They carry her name, she gets her royalties. I’d bet 100$ that half of your 20$ knives will outperform those Furis.
Another example, Stefan R. lost top chef this year, because he didn’t have sharp/good enough knife to cut raw fish thinly, so he froze it,to be able to cut it thin. Cost him his1st place and prize 100K money.
For more on why chef’s aren’t the best knife choosers, if you are interested – http://www.zknives.com/knives/kitchen/mi…
3) Ignore marketing BS that good kitchen knife must be fully-forged-full-tang-bolstered. NONE of that is required for a good kitchen knife. If you like something with bolster or tang,that’s fine. Don’t pass on the knife because it doesn’t have those attributes. In fact the top-end Japanese knives pretty much never have full tang or bolster. More on marketing stuff here – http://www.zknives.com/knives/kitchen/mi…
Although, some of chefs do have nice pieces. Iron chef Morimoto, his challenger Cimarusti, Matsuhisa, and few others use high-end Japanese knives, more often – Nenohi nenox. However, because of the celebrity factor those knives are so severely overpriced it’s ridiculous. 8-10 chef’s knife will cost 600$ or more depending on the dealer.
You can get better knives for a lot less from other Japanese makers, who are just as good, but not so hyped up in US, and more respected in Japan too.
BTW, the same Morimoto uses Nenoxes only on the show, in his restaurant he has nice selection of other knives, including Aritsugu, Masamoto and others. I guess he can’t take them all to the show.
Given your requirement for sharp knife and edge holding, I’d say you need to go with Japanese knife. As far as cutting goes they’re much better performers than western counterparts.
Just a few facts:
a) Western knives edges typically are ground to 45-50 degree edge, while typical Japanese chef’s knife is 20-30 degrees. And that’s not the lowest. I have a few chef’s knives sharpened at 8-12 degree. Thinner edge than on a razor.
b) Western knives steel tends to be considerably softer than Japanese. 54-56HRC on Rockwell scale compared to 60-62 on low/mid range and 63-67HRC on high end Japanese knives.
harder knives mean you can have a thinner edge and that edge will last a lot longer compared to western knives.
3) Japanese knives are lighter, as usual 1:2 compared to western knives of the same length. I know, the myth says good kitchen knife has to be heavy, let the knife do cutting and all that. The truth it it’s all BS. 200g difference in weight will do next nothing to increase cutting ability of your knife compared to the edge thickness and sharpness. Resting weight of a human hand is few lbs. How much few oz. will add to that % wise? You’ll be lifting extra weight for prolonged time for no reason, plus heavier knives are less nimble.
Also, contrary to the popular opinion, good Japanese knives aren’t that expensive. You can find one fro pretty much any reasonable budget.
Starter knives, still few times better cutters than western knives are around 80-100$ – Togiharu, Tojiro, Misono. Around 200$ there are several stellar performers including Akifusa, Aritsugu, Watanabe, Tadatsuna, Tojiro and others.
As for the knife types, chef’s knives go from 6″- 12″. I’d stay away from utility knives, despite of their seemingly multipurpose name they’re pretty much useless,too long for paring/peeling ad too short and narrow for vegetables, be it rocking or slicing motion.
Couple more tips: Stay away from any mass produced kitchen knife that doesn’t state explicitly what steel was used.Generic “stainless” whether it’s “rugged stainless” or “surgical stainless” in all cases means crappy steel, 420J or worse. It won’t hold any edge and they’re so soft you can’t sharpen them to anything kitchen worthy.
Don’t buy a set. It’s like buying a CD that someone else mixed. Very unlikely that you will get exactly what you want, most likely you’re getting one or more knives that you will never use. You’ll be a lot better on both, money and knife quality going by individual knives.
Read the linked article, it covers a lot of questions you’ll need to answer before picking your knife and has overview of better brands and knives as well.