I need advice for a good kitchen knife and butcher block set for my wife.

[William Yanda]

Old thread but I want to express thanks for the knowledge shared. I support my hobby by reselling yard sale/thriftshop/etc finds. Knowledge gained here has expanded my specialties from cookware to cutlery. Recently sold 4 Salvation Army finds for mucho dinero. The only downside is that my wife saw one of the knives-Henckles 5 star with label- and feels bad because I sold it. Of course that's the one that sold for the highest price.

[MaryB]

Get her a Forschner Fibrox 10" chefs knife. Holds a decent edge when used on a proper cutting board(mine gets used daily!), the handles do not require any special treatment and can be washed and dried with no worries of a wood handle being damaged. http://www.cutleryandmore.com/victor...fs-knife-p1755 or if she has smaller hands the 8" (this set is a bargain, the bread knife is super sharp and I use mine a lot!) http://www.cutleryandmore.com/victor...fe-set-p113726

[bullet maker 57]

I have Henkels and Cutco. Cutco stays sharp forever. I have the Henkel steel. It puts a very sharp edge on any knife I have used it on. I like both brands. Each has it's place in the kitchen.

[Love Life]

A sharp knife has no friends, lol.


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[David2011]

Update: went Bed Bath and Beyond. Got her Calphalon Katana series 18 piece cutlery set. 450 with 20% off coupon, 50 dollar gift card and free cheese board and knife set. It got great reviews and looked and felt as good as the Wustof or the German knife. Have a Chicago Cutlery set that the ex ruined putting in the dishwasher. She also kept the block. Thanks for all the help and advise. Hope I did ok.

Just read the whole thread. SWMBO and I decided to buy ourselves some better knives 2 or 3 years ago. We went with the Calphalon Katanas as well on the advice of a friend that's a professional chef. They're well balanced and as the name implies they're folded steel. They're reasonably easy to sharp for stainless blades. I touch them up with a ceramic stick every time I use them. She doesn't. I have never resharpened them. We decided on an 8" chef's knife and a 7" Santoku and have been very happy with them. They may not be as good as CutCo, Wusthof or Henckle but they are a vast improvement over the cheap knives we had used for years. The cost was close to CutCo so I may buy one of them if we think we need another knife.

When I have game meat to carve up or any large meat like a roast that's going to become chili I still like to get an old large carbon steel chef's knife out and put a good edge on it. She doesn't like to put the effort required into taking care of carbon steel so they're seldom used. It's hard to get rid of the drawer full of little used knives even though we only use 6 or 8 that are kept on the counter. Bed Bath and Beyond had a block that has fine nylon rods instead of being all wood. We got one of them and it's gentle on the blade edges.

[Bert2368]

What you will like is very dependant on what you have previously experienced. Your skills in both using & maintaining blades have a great deal to do with brand preferences.

I have owned, sharpened and used Henckles, Forschner, Sabatier, Ontario knife works, Shapeley's, Old Hickory, Victorinox, Chicaco cutlery plus others that escape me at the moment.

I've still got 3 of my Henckles 4 star knives from around 1984, they have held up well, I can't complain. But I mostly buy Japanese knives now. Many of the Japanese brands are just amazing, if you understand how to use and can maintain them.

For an introduction, you could do worse than the Tojiro/Fujitora DP Cobalt knives. VG 10 cores laminated to highly rust resistant, softer "stainless". These knives cutting edges are HARD, RHC 60 - 61. They are thiner bladed, lighter and sharpened to a narrower angle when compared to most European knives.

Ballance and feel, you have to experience to understand. Going from my good old Henckels 10" chef knife to a Japanese 270mm gyuto is like switching from operating a Kenworth tractor on I-80 to driving a porsche down the Pacific coast highway and "enjoying" the curves. They'll both get you there, but which would you prefer on a nice day?

[jaysouth]

I was a working chef for may years in various restaurants that I owned. My all time favorite knives are 7" santukos by Wusthoff or Messermeister and an 8" chef knife from Wusthoff. You could start off with a 6" utility knife and an 8" chef knife, either from wusthoff or messermeister. Can the butcher block, it is only good for spreading e. coli and other germs. Mount a magnetic bar on the wall in your kitchen. I am convinced that knives kept long term on a magnetic bar are easier to sharpen. Make sure you have a butcher steel to go with the knives. In my kitchen, I picked up the steel and hit it a time or two before any cutting. When putting the knife away, I dipped it in hot water, wiped it down and hit the steel a couple of times.

For paring knives, I lose so many that I buy cheap ones and expect to go through them. Forschner and Dexter russell make good one under $10. A serrated bread knife is handy for bread, but is not needed for anyother chores.

[EDG]

[David2011]

Update to my previous post. We’ve been using the Katana knives for 2 years now, fully satisfied with them. I’ve learned that they sharpen best for me using a white Arkansas stone wet with soapy water. I still touch them up with a Lansky ceramic stick and they stay very sharp. We wash them with hot soapy water and dry them promptly after each use. We also have a Henckel 5” and a Kamoto 8” (iirc) single bevel chef’s knife. I like the Kamoto but sharpening it is very different from conventional double beveled edges and the techniques are not interchangeable. I prefer the double beveled (normal, typical edges) for veggies and anything firm. The Kamoto is awesome for meat and chopping smaller vegetables but I don’t like to cut large onions with it because it’s hard for me to control in large ones. The conventional knives cut straighter for me in onions.

[10x]

Victorinox knives

Got a set as a wedding gift over 45 years ago. Used daily for 45 years.
Only ever used a steel to keep the edge.
Wife broke the filleting knife coring a cabbage.
Still sharp enough to slice a ripe tomato with only a slide across the steel

Been used to butcher deer, lamb, beef.

[Elkins45]

Victorinox. You’re going to pay 4x more to get the same quality. Or maybe Kershaw.

I own a gazillion knives but in the kitchen the Victorinox and Forschner (sp?) are the ones I use.

[10x]

Victorinox. You’re going to pay 4x more to get the same quality. Or maybe Kershaw.

I own a gazillion knives but in the kitchen the Victorinox and Forschner (sp?) are the ones I use.

+ 1 on Victorinox - 45 years with the same set of knives and they cut like they are brand new.

[Rubino1988]

I could not begin to advise you on knives...but a local to me custom woodshop makes beautiful cutting blocks with different woods - glued/laminated together than polished up for $20 each..

cutting boards for 20 sounds too good to be true

[StrawHat]

I hand sharpen knives, for a living. I recommend you buy the knife that is most comfortable in the hand of the user. You don’t need a whole block of knives. Those are built to sell at a price point. You need a good paring knife and a good chef’s knife. After that, what fits your lifestyle? Do a lot of baking? Then you need a good serrated bread knife at least 10” long. Hunt and fish, a good filet and/or boning knife. Build your set to fit what you need. I dislike serrated steak knives so we have a set of straight edges for that duty. In our block we have two chef’s knives, one for Herself and the one that fits best for me. Same with the paring knife.

As a sharpener I tell folks every day, I can sharpen any blade you bring me. I can not change the handle to make it comfortable in your hand.

Brands, I like made in USA. This limits your options but LampsonSharp (Mass), Cutco (NY) and Warther (Ohio) are all very good with forever warranties.

Outside of USA, Victorinox, Wusthof, Sabatier, and Shun are all excellent.

The most important thing is make sure the knife is comfortable in your (or her) hand.

Kevin