Knife Thread

Martynt74 · 5 Apr 2013 at 15:13

Does anyone have any recommendations for a knife block/set for under £100 (preferably much under)

I keep seeing some Jamie Oliver ones pop up on Groupon for about £25 which i don't know much about.

At the moment we have a load of GoCook ones from Tesco (around £7 each), and whilst they started off sharp, 2years of being thrown into a drawer has made them blunt and the rubber coating has come off the handles from being in the dishwasher.

My wife likes there because they match the kettle/toaster but i'm dubious as to whether they'd be any good.

I'd love this guy, but again i'm unsure whether the knives would be any good or if its just the novelty value

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Judging from the ops post Stellar Sabatier is a decent brand, would these be any good for the price? Seems a big discount
http://www.cooks-knives.co.uk/acata...ock_Set.html?gclid=CNG51J7cs7YCFVDMtAodygwAmA

Ammeg · 5 Apr 2013 at 18:46

Tbh Morphy Richards make good quality stuff, I'd attempt them

GinG · 5 Apr 2013 at 20:01

In my opinion you only need a few good quality knives:

Please anyone correct me but these 3 should do most of the work:

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/14171/Robert-Welch-Signature-16cm-Cooks-Knife
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/14172/Robert-Welch-Signature-Kitchen-Knife
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/14545/Robert-Welch-Signature-20cm-Carving-Knife

Slightly over the £100 budget and I know not in a block but my god I am impressed with mine.

You could even swap the carving knife with this http://www.lakeland.co.uk/14173/Robert-Welch-Signature-Santoku-Knife

But they would do most things you need.

Glaucus · 5 Apr 2013 at 20:24

it deepens what you do, I like a 6" chefs/utility knife. that's 90% of use a small 3" utility knife. Chinese chopper.
then you might want/need bread, carving, filleting etc.
it really depends if you just chop veg/meat or actually bone out meat/fish, cut bread, have a lot of roasts etc

medium size chef is the most used for me.

Nightglow · 5 Apr 2013 at 20:35

Santoku Knife brilliant knife, I find mine a very useful addition.
I prefer it, to my chef's knife for many things, sadly it's a knife over looked by many.

Martynt74 · 8 Apr 2013 at 10:29

I'd say pretty much all i do is chop veg/cut up meat.

I went to the Manchester Bake Show on Saturday and ended up picking up this for what i took to be a decent price. Also was impressed with the stand as its something a little different to the standard wooden blocks.

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Impressed so far, cutting up chicken and veg last night for a curry and ended up cutting into the chopping board because i hadn't realised i'd already gone through the veg! Also managed to cut my finger and my tea towel when i was drying one of them.

Almost had buyers remorse after buying the above only to then see another stall with some superb looking knives which were insanely well balanced (something the ones i bought are not). Think the brand was Flint and Flame, only to discover they were considerably more expensive than the ones i got.

Razor-BladE · 8 Apr 2013 at 11:10

Just so you know, you can get any knife to be sharp. Even the cheapest supermarket ones are pretty darn sharp when it's new. How well they hold their edge is another thing though; that's one of the factors that makes a good knife. So it'll take a little time before you can see how well it does in that department.

The stand is pretty funky though! Not seen anything like that before.

Martynt74 · 8 Apr 2013 at 11:21

Ah ok, i'll see how i get on with them then. They were a "Show price" deal of £35 with a supposed RRP of £90 so if they turn out to not be great at least its not a huge loss.

-Ad- · 10 Apr 2013 at 13:24

I have a pair of lovely Japanese blades on my luggage after a nice shopping spree in Kyoto today.

Pics when I get the chance.

Glaucus · 10 Apr 2013 at 14:49

Anyone know where decent to get water stones?
No mount, no dual grit and sales 800, 1200 and 6000 grit.

Extra wide ones would be a bonus.

blueboy2001 · 11 Apr 2013 at 00:32

Ranek said:
Just been in to my local TKMaxx and they have lots of J. A. Henckels knives at the moment, managed to pick up one of these:
http://shop-de.zwilling.com/de_en/messer/zwilling-j-a-henckels/zwilling-motion/kochmesser.html

Zwilling Motion 8" inch chef's knife for £14.99 "reduced" from £60.

The label does say seconds on it but all I can see is a tiny mark on the side of the blade which shouldn't affect cutting performance at all.

I couldn't find the range on the UK site so they're likely imported seconds knives so.. did I get a good deal or not?

They had everything from Paring (£7) and Vegetable knives up to carving sets all reduced quite considerably and no visible damage/mistakes on any of them.

Thought it might be helpful to someone, particularly if like myself you're about to move out and wanted some "decent" knives on a budget. I'm far from a master chef but wanted something that will hopefully last a bit longer than the standard supermarket fare.

Thanks for the heads up. I picked up a Henckels Santoku and slicing knife to fill the gaps in the block I got with my Zwilling One set at Christmas. They had loads of stock at the Preston store.

First impressions is that they are very light compared to my others, but they cut very well. The Santoku has a visible 5mm scratch on the blade well away from the edge, and the carving knife has a little moulding flaw where the handle meets the blade but it took 2 of us scrutinising them for 10 minutes to spot these and neither will affect the usability.

These are not top the range ZJAH knives, and the RRP's are pushing it a bit but £16.99 for a 20cm Henckels knife is a bargain and it'll last a lot better than anything you'll get for the same money.

Ranek · 11 Apr 2013 at 22:12

blueboy2001 said:
Thanks for the heads up. I picked up a Henckels Santoku and slicing knife to fill the gaps in the block I got with my Zwilling One set at Christmas. They had loads of stock at the Preston store.

First impressions is that they are very light compared to my others, but they cut very well. The Santoku has a visible 5mm scratch on the blade well away from the edge, and the carving knife has a little moulding flaw where the handle meets the blade but it took 2 of us scrutinising them for 10 minutes to spot these and neither will affect the usability.

These are not top the range ZJAH knives, and the RRP's are pushing it a bit but £16.99 for a 20cm Henckels knife is a bargain and it'll last a lot better than anything you'll get for the same money.

Glad it was of use to someone. I'd already bought a cheaper Santoku knife (Viners clearance) along with some other Paring/Utility knives so didn't take advantage of the rest of the deals on offer!

It's reassuring to hear that someone else couldn't see any other defects with them beyond some minor cosmetic damage.

Moobert · 15 Apr 2013 at 17:59

I seen those in tk maxx today and almost bought the paring knife and one of either the chefs or santoku. I'm currently using a Richardson block of knives from argos and one chefs knife from tescos last coupon thing. I really want to get a decent way to store any decent knives I may get, but don't know if block or strip would be best.

molinari · 25 Apr 2013 at 12:57

Could someone kindly recommend me a knife sharpener please. I have relatively cheap knives (compared to most in this thread) that need a good sharpen. Something easy to use and not too expensive, but not something that will break or ruin the knives.

haaammit · 25 Apr 2013 at 13:13

molinari said:
Could someone kindly recommend me a knife sharpener please. I have relatively cheap knives (compared to most in this thread) that need a good sharpen. Something easy to use and not too expensive, but not something that will break or ruin the knives.

I use the Lansky sharpening system - http://lansky.com/index.php/products/dlx-5-stone-system/

I use it for my kitchen and field knives - it takes a bit of time the first time as you re-profile the edge, but it's quick after that.

I can't be bothered to learn to use a whetstone so this system is ideal for me - I think I got mine from ebay

e: Yeah - they're £37 or so

Xelene · 26 Apr 2013 at 20:08

My Goto knife is a Kasumi 7" Santoku Chefs Knife, the other standard knives in my arsenal barely get a look in anymore - this thing is just a great size and weight for slicing and dicing vegetables, dismembering a chicken or boning a joint. You only need maybe 2 or 3 other knives with it, something for delicate work, a bread knife and a cleaver.

-Ad- · 28 May 2013 at 22:36

Picked up these lovelies from Aritsugu in Kyoto last month for about £130. Both are a steel core clad in stainless with a japanese handle.

1. Large Santoku Utility Knife.
2. Little choppa general purpose knife.

booyaka · 28 May 2013 at 23:04

Those are a thing of beauty!!

Rexxar · 8 Jul 2013 at 18:37

Just discovered this thread (thanks Glaucus)

Could a mod "Pin" this please?

Jano · 9 Oct 2013 at 11:27

I'd have to second the pinning idea!

We currently only have a ceramic knife set which unfortunately is useless at cutting meat, so I have been toying with the idea of either getting a nice carving/chefs knife for this duty but really don't have any idea where to start. The GF is also dead against having a wooden block on the work surface - too many scary movies and she thinks someone will break in and use them against her - so I am thinking of a wooden drawer insert to store a few "nice" knives.

Any ideas?