Today, I want to address the topic of:
Knife Sets
First, the dirty little secret: not one of the brands which offer their cutlery in “sets” / blocks are very good, in that a “set” of knives tries to do everything well, and only partially succeeds. Price is not an indicator of quality because inevitably, one (or more) of the components is not fit for function.
I have one of these, purchased before I knew better.
My summary:
- the bread knife is terrible — it hacks the bread because the serration points are too sharp — and now I use a budget bread knife bought at the supermarket instead. (The included paring knife is New Wife’s favorite kitchen implement: we have two.)
- the carving knives are quite good, but lose their edge rather quickly when you’re cutting things like cooked meat (ahem), so now I grudgingly use an electric carving knife for that purpose, and use the block’s carving knives only for cutting and trimming raw meat and veg.
- the scissors are total shit — they fell apart (literally) after about six months. I replaced them with a Kitchen-Aid pair (note the price), and they’re coming up for their sixth year of (ab)use, without complaint.
- the block’s steak knives are also crappy: they tear the meat rather than cut it.
Takeaway: the Son&Heir worked in the kitchen at both Chili’s and Pappadeaux, and took note of what the pro chefs used there. So when he finally moved into his own place (after sharing with buddies for years), he bought one sinfully-expensive carving knife — I mean, chef-quality — and uses two cheap paring knives (both Zyliss, see above), one serrated, one flat-edge. He claims that those three take care of about 99% of his kitchen cutting needs. (“What about the remaining 1%?” Dunno, he didn’t tell me; knowing him, probably his Al Mar folder.)
The only reason to have a knife block at all is so that the knives’ edges aren’t damageded by clanging against each other in the drawer.
Frankly, if I were starting again, I’d get one of those wall-mounted magnetic numbers, and use it to store my own sinfully-expensive carving knife, a couple-three Zyliss utility knives and the Kitchen-Aid scissors.
For steak knives, I’d go with Victorinox because, duh Victorinox (see also: Schmidt-Rubin rifles #Swiss quality).
Speaking of steak knives, I once had a set of Laguiolet knives, (bought in Paris and modeled, it’s said, on the Pyrenean shepherd’s knife), and they’re awful.
The blades are excellent, but the handles are too thin and they turn in the hand rather disconcertingly. I think I gave them to Goodwill or something.
Frankly, I’d rather get a set of steak knives separately (as opposed to included with the cutlery set) and just store them in the box they come in, like this one:
Finally, I have a small cleaver for when I lose patience and just need to hack something apart (e.g. pork knuckle), and I have this one, which has a touch-up sharpener built into the sheath:
Five years of serious (ab)use, and counting…
I don’t have a butcher knife and don’t know much about them, but the Bearded Butcher guys use Victorinox, so there ya go.
Feel free, of course, to add your thoughts on this topic in Comments.
You are absolutely correct about this.
There are only two suggestions I would add. A medium-flexible boning knife is essential and an offset, serrated slicing knife I have recently found to be way more useful than I thought it would be. I use it all the time … from tomatoes to biltong.
Somehow, over the years, I have acquired two large blocks like the one pictured, although I never bought a set of knives. The blocks are loaded with an assortment of brands. The chef’s knives are mostly Global, a brand I cannot recommend more highly … they just feel great in the hand. The others range from $10 throwaways to some nice Henckels (the boning knife and a paring knife).
By the way, the magnetic rack is a very good idea for the ones you use all the time. I don’t have the space now, but last Winter I stayed at a place that had one and grew to like it very much.
One final thing. One of the secrets to a happy marriage, in addition to separate bathrooms, is separate knives. Wives don’t seem to respect good knives and will destroy them when you are not looking. They’ll leave them in the sink, run them through the dishwasher, cut things on hard surfaces, never steel them, and worse. Buy her some pretty pastel knives from Bed Bath and Beyond, unless she’s a trained chef, and then she’s probably hiding her good knives from you.
Magnetic racks are great for tools in the workshop, but not the kitchen. Why? GREASE. An active kitchen generates lots of aerosol grease, which collects wherever it damn well pleases. And which requires frequent cleaning. Cookware and utensils stored au plein aire are grease magnets (lots of surface area, right?) and make for more damn stuff to clean.
NO KNIVES IN THE SINK! One of the few useful things I learned from my sister the nurse is NO SHARPS OF ANY KIND IN THE SINK. And by extension, all sharps are stored in a separate drawer, away from things that won’t slice or stab you. A knife in the dishwasher is a family crisis.
And yes, most wives, mine included, are not responsible custodians of knives. Whenever a knife has been used in the kitchen, attend to it personally until it is safely stored away.
I’m a sucker for good knives, but my wife reminds me that I can only buy things that I can find a place to store. So limits. 🙁
That said, I was blessed with a father who worked at a small slaughterhouse and packing plant when I was a tyke. Dad had the frugal habit of bringing home “worn out” boning knives, those old Chicago cutlery ones with the wooden handles; knives that had been ground and sharpened almost down to the nub. They hold a great edge, and are the bomb for everything from paring to boning to slicing soft cheese. Dad, with his no-nonsense background as a shipfitter, Navy engineman, butcher, and shop teacher, used most of these knives in his tool box, for such refined things as cutting rope, rubber hose, whittling, or digging up weeds. (Hey! free knives, he could do whatever he wanted! No sad faces!) He had so many of these old carvers that a common occurrence at our house was to find a boning knife abandoned in an old toolbox, a bottom drawer, on a framing stud in the garage, or stuck in a tree out in the yard (a year after Dad passed, my sister was still finding wayward knives around the yard and outbuildings). Fortunately, I had prevailed on Dad years ago to send me a few knives, so of course he sent me a set of 8, which I’ve kept razor sharp ever since. Too bad they’re a bit mismatched and not quite presentable for the dinner table. However, I was able to find a kinda-sorta complementary set of–you guessed it–Chicago cutlery butcher-knife style steak knives many years ago, which can also be honed to razor sharpness. Great for steak, and on the off chance that I need to provide 7 of my closest friends with personal weapons, well…
I’m a cooking enthusiast and I had one expensive, heavy, German chef knife for decades, but I’ve become a devotee of the lighter knives chefs favor today. They are so much easier to handle. I have a few Victorinox, but have found the Mercer brand to be just as good and very reasonably priced. For example, the Victorinox 8″ Chef is about $42 at Amazon, the Mercer $25. I have the Victorinos, kids have the Mercer, nearly identical in design and quality.
No sets, I now use individually picked knives like those and a collection of, 8″ Chef, small and large paring, bread, boning knife, and a honing steel will do about all you need to do in the kitchen. I do have a slicer, but rarely use it. I’m not sure it’s necessary if your Chef is sharp. Use the honing steel, it really makes a difference. You don’t have to sharpen much.
I normally go for hand tools, but I finally broke down and bought a decent electric sharpener, the Chef’s Choice Professional. Could not be happier. No more heavy, European style knives for me.
I stick to 2 brands of kitchen knives: Dalstrong and WMF.
Both are quite good, and though both are A brands you’re not paying overly much for the brand name.
Dalstrong are Canadian, WMF are Dutch.
I do all the cooking here at the crib and my wife is banned from touching my knives. I only have 2 regular knives, a 6″ and a 10″ and I use the 10″ the most. These 2 knives have their own house to live in and nothing else goes near them except for a small hand sharpener.
I do magic with these 2 knives.
We have other knives but I rarely use them and really should just get rid of them, but I have a lifelong problem with letting go of stuff. When I do let go, 2 days later I need it. sigh…
We got married in ’83, Ginsu knives were a thing on TV. She thought they were absolutely great. I got stationed in Sicily for our honeymoon – nice place. Maybe two years after we got there I picked up a Wusthof Trident chef’s knife and serrated combo set for $40. Gave them to her and amazingly, the Ginsu set went away. I’ve added to those over the years and always satisfied.
We were shopping in a thrift store one day maybe a year ago and lo they had a Wusthof bread knife in the tub. Picked it up for a dollar, and have found a couple more Wusthof blades since. You never know what you’ll find when treasure hunting.
we bought a set of Wusthoff knives over 20 years ago on our honeymoon. The missus thought I was nuts to spend the money on a knife set that cost about $350 or so. Twenty years later they are still going strong. Keep them out of the dishwasher and keep them sharpened with a good sharpener. We went to their warehouse sale last year when their sale was 60% off. She bought a couple of new knives to add to the set. When we got home, the old knives looked just as good as the new ones. The Wusthof steak knives cut like a laser beam and so does the carving set we added. Yes, Wusthoff knives are pricey but well worth it.
JQ
Good knife steel can’t be dishwasher safe. Can’t be done. And lo and behold, those “Henckels” are nothing of the sort; Chinesium wannabes. In this day and age, a decent chef knife is going to start around a c-note just by itself.
We have a number of Henckels non-serrated steak knives. The later ones must be “Chinesium” as noted by albertosaurus, because they sharpen to a razor edge like the older ones, but don’t hold those edges worth a hoot regardless of the honing angle.
We have some bread, chef’s, butcher and paring knives my wife bought 50+ years ago before we were married, and they hold up well appearance wise, sharpen very well, but their edge holding is mediocre.
I detest serrated edges as a panacea for not sharpening one’s knives. I keep a good set of water stones and a jig to set the angle I like, and don’t allow my wife to use the good knives without supervision, else she’d destroy the knives, countertops and non-stick pans.
MY knife is a 3″ Spyderco lock back, with which I can slice a hanging sheet of paper held in my finger tips, yet that thing’s edge holding is incredible. I confess it gets snuck into occasional kitchen use.
LOL I do confess that some time back I had to carve a roast with my Kershaw skinner. It was at a friend’s house, and I just got sick of watching him try to carve with a knife so blunt that it was akin to using a chopstick to cut the meat.
I have been known to pull out the Spyderco when faced with typical, dull, restaurant knives.
Me too – just don’t rat me out, OK?
Ditto this with my Kershaw. Gets me a few worried looks every now and again when I flick open the assisted opener…
My all time favorite kitchen knives are my Spanish made Arcos Maitre 4″ utility knives, followed by an OXO 7″ Santoku. I have a Chicago Cutlery chef’s knife and boning knife that have been good to me as well, but they’re 28 y.o. No idea if newer mfg. Chicago Cutlery is of similar quality. My bread knife is an inexpensive Mercer. It’s sharp enough to scare the bread into slices…
The missus has been trained to NOT put them in the sink or dishwasher. They remain on the counter next to the sink until I wash them, on pain of death.
The Arcos:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0044R87YQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Over many years I’ve noticed something about knives in general:
– A knife that is easily sharpened also dulls very quickly.
– A knife that holds an edge for a long time can also take a long time to adequately sharpen.
Our best large kitchen knife is a 10″ no-name with a full-tang blade that’s right in between easily sharpened and hard to sharpen. It holds its edge for a fair bit of time, but then I’m going to have to spend a minimum of 15 minutes putting a good edge back on it.
My hunting and fishing knives are Buck “General” and “Pathfinder” respectively with blades made of steel that must be incredibly hard. Hold an edge forever…once you get it on there. I’ve sent my first 105 Pathfinder back to Buck for re-profiling (10 bucks plus shipping) once after 40 years of use and sharpening; it came back with an edge like new and a far better job than I could do.
Our bread knife is a no-name bargain-bin find with tiny serrations and cheap wooden scales, but it’s better than any fancy one we’ve been given.
Man, all this talk about kitchen knives and not a single mention of Cutco! https://www.cutco.com/
Not inexpensive, but definitely worth it in my experience. Come in sets too.
I forgot/typo my wife’s 50+ year old knives I mentioned above are indeed Cutco. They are certainly durable, highly rust resistant, with good ergonomics, sharpen OK, but don’t hold an edge for long. I noticed when they’ve been returned after Cutco’s free lifetime resharpening that the edges have been ground, but I can see striations in the edge from the grinding stones. For really sharp, the grind should be finer.
I have a nice knife block with a 30 year old set of Zwilling J.A. Henckles knives that I use daily. I have several stones I keep next to the block and it contains a good steel so my knives stay sharp and clean. After each use I clean and dry knives and then they return to their resting places. For steak knives my wife and I each have a designated five and a half prep Zwilling knife that always receives nice care. Nothing sharp in our house goes in the dishwasher and my wife has her own collection of inexpensive grocery store knives she keeps in a drawer and when they seem too dull she purchases some more. My chef’s knife is the most used knife I have and it does a great job, perfect size and because I use good oversize chopping blocks, two of them which are well washed after each use my knives retain most of their edge and just need a touch up from time to time.
I never had a German pair of scissors, we use a pair of grocery store kitchen scissors which are replaced every few years, usually when I have taken them on my annual Dove hunt and stored them kind of messy after dressing out my doves in the field. Blood and guts on a sharp edge left that way for a few weeks is not good and I try to remember but forget about cleaning up those scissors when I am hot, dusty and it’s time for a bit of a drink when the guns have been put back in their cases. Life is good.
Have had a set of Mundial knives as daily users for 30 odd years. Have mixed in a selection of Global knives, a parer, santokou, big carver and ham/salmon slicer.
When I’m in the kitchen I have a set of three Shun knives I just love to use.
I have a custom made sharpening station with a set of diamond plates and a range of Japanese water stones. I restore and sharpen tools as a hobby, so everything in our house is surgically sharp
Being a penny pinching Swede (makes a thrifty Scott look profligate) I mostly use the cheap carbon steel hand me down knives that I think were bought by my grandfather for my grandmother in the 1920s. Carbon steel with rivetted wooden handles, they look kind of like the Ontario Old Hickory line, but not exactly like the models I see on Amazon. In addition I have a cheap discount brand chef knife, soft stainless, but at least it is easy to sharpen.
Fix your comments!!!!
Just a few knives will do the trick. I have a decent chef’s knife, an excellent pairing knife, and just bought a nakiri for chopping.
I’m a knife guy. For most purposes I make my own, but my two main kitchen knives are an 8″ gyuto and a 5″ parer, both hand made in Japan by a little old man in has back yard forge. They both consist of a fillet of Hitachi blue paper steel between two layers of softer steel. Two knives is all you need.
They both look pretty dodgy because they still have the black forging remnants covering most of the blade as a protective coating. This is known as kuro-uchi and works a treat. Both knives are very thin and light and will retain an edge forever.
Overall, Japanese kitchen knives shit all over their European counterparts. The best bang for your buck are made by Tojiro, which aren’t as fancy as the big names like Shun, but they’re what the chefs actually use…good working man’s tools that will last a lifetime. My wife isn’t allowed to use my knives, but I bought her a couple of Tojiros, and she’s happy.