Knife Thread

[Raikiri]

As always, buying a knife set is largely pointless as you won't use most of them. £100 will get you a good Santoku/Chefs knife and a bread knife or paring knife. Unless you have specific requirements (like filleting a lot of fish, for example) that's all you need.

Tojiro are my go to for <£100 knives that are great quality. Victorinox or Henckles for <£50

https://thesharpchef.co.uk/collecti...cobalt-3-layer-vg-10-core-170mm-santoku-knife

Then just go to TK Max and pick up a Petty and Bread knife from Kai, Henckles or Zwilling for £10-20 each.

 

[mattyfez]

As always, buying a knife set is largely pointless as you won't use most of them. £100 will get you a good Santoku/Chefs knife and a bread knife or paring knife. Unless you have specific requirements (like filleting a lot of fish, for example) that's all you need.

Tojiro are my go to for <£100 knives that are great quality. Victorinox or Henckles for <£50

https://thesharpchef.co.uk/collecti...cobalt-3-layer-vg-10-core-170mm-santoku-knife

Then just go to TK Max and pick up a Petty and Bread knife from Kai, Henckles or Zwilling for £10-20 each.

Thanks, yeh I get that, but I want matching knives and I like the japanise asthetic, all I really need is a Santoku/Chefs, a small one - pairing/utility? and a bread knife would come in handy occasionaly, but buying them seperatly is more expensive.

 

[fez]

Never buy knife sets. You will never use more than 2-3 of them. Cheap breadknife will be fine for years unless you start using it for weird things like sawing frozen food (who would do that, certainly not me). Then a santoku, chefs knife or gyuto will cover 99% of everything else. If you ever feel like you need to do fine work, get a petty/pairing knife on the cheap.

I have no idea how some people have 10 or more high end knives and don't just resent the fact they never get used.

 

[nine_tails]

Picked up a Sakai Takyuki Gyuto. Looking for sharpening stone recommendations if you chaps have any.

 

[Rotty]

Just delivered today

Yoshimi Kato R2/SG2 Damascus Gyuto 210mm

 

[mattyfez]

I've read the Damascus thing is more aesthetic as it is basically just a fancy looking jacket bonded around the actual knife underneath.
They do look cool though. But very spendy for no actual improvement in performance.

Damascus steel being very old technology and steel alloys have come on leaps and bounds since then.

 

[EvilRob]

I've been using one of these for a couple of years now and found it will get you 90% of the way towards a sharp knife. Pros are that it is easy to use and cheap to buy. Cons are that the grind angle is not adjustable, the diamond wheels are not (easily nor cheaply) replacable, and it removes metal quickly on the medium and coarse wheels. The diamond wheels don't last long either.

More recently I bought a clone of the Ken Onion Worksharp blade sharpener (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08F2Q8KHP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) which is basically a belt sander with an adjustable blade guide. You may look at it and think wow, it's going to grind my blades to nothing in no time! You'd be correct if used poorly. Thing is, you can quickly select what grade of grit to use, and also use a honing belt to put that finishing edge on. A super-fine belt and honing belt are usually all you need to keep a perfect edge, anything coarser you are probably trying to re-profile a really blunt or chipped blade. The machine does require a bit more skill to use (maintaining the correct pressure, angle, and contact time with the belt) compared to something like the Catrahone but the end result is potentially much better - mainly due to the fact you can choose the grit size yourself.

I just bought this and it's great. Rejuvenated some old battered knifes to feeling like new and sharpened up some newer/more expensives ones to at least as good as factory with the finer belts. Also bought an extra very fine belt as the ones that came with it didnt go fine enough.

 

[Rotty]

I've read the Damascus thing is more aesthetic as it is basically just a fancy looking jacket bonded around the actual knife underneath.
They do look cool though. But very spendy for no actual improvement in performance.

Damascus steel being very old technology and steel alloys have come on leaps and bounds since then.

yes its just decorative, the actual knife steel is SG2

 

[TonyLewis]

My first good quality knife, namely a Yu Kurosaki Fujin VG10 210mm Gyuto.

It really is a beautiful thing, lovely to use compared to my old Zwilling Chef knife!

 

[TonyLewis]

Just picked this up to the sharpen the above, looks like a good bit of kit for the price.

 

[King4aDay]

New board day! Loving it.

 

[arknor]

I've read the Damascus thing is more aesthetic as it is basically just a fancy looking jacket bonded around the actual knife underneath.

they are all just a gimmick anyway you can weld tool steel to a cheap knife then sharpen the tool steel and it would keep it's edge for ages

your just paying for aesthetics or a brand

 

[weringo]

Suggestions for a good all purpose knife for around £50? I was thinking something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorinox...d=1640718619&sprefix=victorinox,aps,78&sr=8-6

Should I also get a sharpener? I currently just have a honer rod

 

[JonRGV250]

I've had the Global's for god knows how long and they've been outstanding, but they need looking after.
I've had the handles snap off two in the past as i didn't dry them properly!
The 2 on the right are pro-cook and some amazon stuff that get abused and chucked in the dish washer..



Sharpening duty is a 1000 grit whetstone and a Minosharp, which is super easy to use and very effective..



There's some great deals on Global knives at the moment, such as..

https://www.hartsofstur.com/global-3-piece-knife-starter-set-g-2-gs-5-gsf-15-g-2515.html

 

[Raikiri]

I've had the Global's for god knows how long and they've been outstanding, but they need looking after.
I've had the handles snap off two in the past as i didn't dry them properly!

That just sounds like manufacturing defects. Not drying them properly shouldn't do anything unless they were a high carbon steel, which would just rust rather than break.

They only use a cromov stainless steel, about 57 Rockwell, so nothing amazing and shouldn't just break. We have a few Globals mixed in with the house knives and they get abused.

I've had a Kanetsune that uses VG10 (60-61 rockwell) steel for about 14 years now. It's been dropped a fair few times and used in commercial kitchens and the worst it had was a slightly chipped tip.

 

[JonRGV250]

Sadly Global blades snapping off at the handle is far from rare (manufacturing defect or not).
I've had two break and so have others i know, including a pro chef.
It does seem that dropping them onto a hard surface isn't recommended.

 

[ik9000]

Hardness comes at the price of toughness. You want hardness on the cutting edge but not elsewhere. If they're snapping on dropping etc that suggests poor metallurgy and an overly aggressive quench/precipitate hardening in the bulk material

 

[jpaul]

Sharpening duty is a 1000 grit whetstone and a Minosharp, which is super easy to use and very effective..

you use the minosharp predominately and finish with the stone ?
stones alone take me ages, like 15minutes a knife, and even then the benefit over steeling blades often marginal

 

[JonRGV250]

Yes, exactly that.
I only tend to sharpen with a whetstone yearly, but do use Global guide rails, which speeds up the process.

 

[mattyfez]

Bought my mate a procook elite AU8 utility knife for christmas, this one for reference: https://www.procook.co.uk/product/procook-elite-x80-utility-knife-13cm-5in

He's more of a cook than I, and says it's superb, best knife he's used, so that went down well! I had a little go with it and it does indeed feel nice to use but as long as a knife is reasonably decent I don't think I'd really know!