Chef Knives?

[j44ke]

Ditto.

But I'm not interested in forging my own knives!

Eric Estlund does special order custom knives!

https://www.wintercutlery.com/produc...=false&q=false

[ides1056]

Very pretty work, Eric.

[9tubes]

There's a lot to like about my Wüsthof Chef's Knife, except for the fact that it's more of a hassle when it comes to cutting veggies.

Having used a Chinese style chef's knife previously, I bought another Wüsthof purely on the basis of similar form and ended up buying a traditional cleaver. It's a knife completely wasted on me, as I don't trust myself to swing a sharp blade at ~30 inches away from the item to be chopped; nor does it really cut veggies. I gave the knife to my dad.

Recently, it has come to my attention that Wüsthof does indeed make an actual Chinese style chef's knife. It's probably the one I will purchase next.





I wish we went to this place when we were in Tokyo. I may or may not be able to justify the cost of this damascus nakiri over what Wüsthof charges, but my is it pretty.

Looks pretty. Though I would be suspicious of any knife when the forge does not identify the steel. For nearly $200 for a 170mm nakiri I think you can do better. Many choices, but this might be a place to start: Fujiwara Nashiji.

https://realsharpknife.com/collectio...i-165mm-nakiri

[dgaddis]

My experience with Wusthof is it's not bad, it's well made, decent grinds, solid knife. But you can definitely do better for the price they're charging, they're thicker than necessary and the steel sucks (for the money). SeriousEats is always a good place to check :: https://www.seriouseats.com/chinese-...-kitchen-knife

[dgaddis]

Got some Amazon gift cards for Christmas and just ordered myself a 240mm Misono gyuto in carbon steel. Biggest 'chef' knife I've had, first carbon steel kitchen knife, first asymmetric bevel. Coming from Japan, be here in a few weeks.

I could do without the silly dragon engraving, but it'll wear off over time.

Pic from here :: https://japanesechefsknife.com/colle...d-carbon-steel

[jclay]

Got some Amazon gift cards for Christmas and just ordered myself a 240mm Misono gyuto in carbon steel. Biggest 'chef' knife I've had, first carbon steel kitchen knife, first asymmetric bevel. Coming from Japan, be here in a few weeks.

Enjoy your new knife!

Recently I began making large batches of soup to freeze and find myself chopping enough veg that a chef that size would make some sense. It's not a struggle to get along with my 210mm gyuto and 165mm nakiri and I have no plans for a larger gyuto but suddenly I can see the utility even in a home kitchen with food prep demands that fall well short of Herculean.

What I ought to do is get rid of some legacy/inherited knives that are just taking up space in overflow storage and my brain!

A longer bread knife would be handy but I won't toss the one that's been with me for half of my life. Increasingly I feel an affinity for tools, pedigreed or not, that have quietly done their jobs for me, for decades.

[dgaddis]

It's shorter in height than I expected, but I like it so far. One meal (chicken, bell peppers, onion) + a couple apples and it's already getting some patina.

[Too Tall]

You will get tired of it Dustin ;) I'll help you out by taking it when you are completely exasperated.

GORGEOUS knife.

[jclay]

It's shorter in height than I expected, but I like it so far. One meal (chicken, bell peppers, onion) + a couple apples and it's already getting some patina.

Nice looking knife but, yeah, the heel looks pretty low particularly against the other, shorter one (which looks nicely made and pleasingly proportioned). Doesn't strike me really as a chef but reminds me more of a thin, narrow Sabatier (240mm x 15mm heel) I have which is wonderful for slicing fish and amateur sushi hour, but would be terrible for prep chopping. My knuckles would be smacking the cutting board with that one and the blade isn't up to such use. Is yours a thin blade relative to the usual jobs for a chef knife of that length?

My 210 Masakane heel is 25mm which is fine, but I wouldn't want it to be any less and my old Lamson chef is 30 which was generous but it's a relative beast, and now my spouse's daily driver that I don't generally touch...or touch up until asked. In it's current state it would, and did the other day bc it was out and at hand, drive me nutz; like cutting with the edge of a well used cold chisel.

You guys have me looking again. Quit it already!

[dgaddis]

Patina update. I want to get the 210mm version, just 'cause....but I don't need it.

[vertical_doug]

A well used Usaba Knife.

The guy who owns this knife, owns a Japanese Chestnut orchard in Hakuba. He likes to use this knife for peeling chestnuts.



https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/shows/2054154/

My wife and I have known this family for about 30 years. His wife was telling me how the monkey troop comes when things come in season and how big the troop is now. I told her to make a video this fall and send it to me.

She also talked about how the Wild Boars come to eat the Daikon Radishes too. The boars only eat the top, and one bite of the root.

If anyone is ever in Hakuba and wants a good Soba recommendation, ping me. I will send you their way. But cash only and don't embarrass me.

For all my searching, I only found one lone monkey by chance in Kinasa. I will have to look again next year

[dgaddis]

So I decided I do in fact "need" the 210mm Misono, it came in today. It's the new work work horse I imagine. Great length, a bit more managable on a home-size cutting board than the 240mm and it has more knuckle clearance. The Takamura is thinner.

I knocked the edge off the spine before using it.



Before:


After:




Made an eggplant and peppers thing out of a Milk Street cookbook tonight.

[zetroc]

Looks great!

[ColonelJLloyd]

Great Misonos and beautiful eggplant dish. I agree on 210 length and personally prefer the 205-225 lengths. I bought a new 210 this week in a new steel to me (SKD aka SK12/A2).

Untitled by ColonelJLloyd, on Flickr
Untitled by ColonelJLloyd, on Flickr
Untitled by ColonelJLloyd, on Flickr

Also recently experienced my first chip and on my favorite knife. Hurts.

Untitled by ColonelJLloyd, on Flickr

[dgaddis]

Also recently experienced my first chip and on my favorite knife. Hurts.
]

Ouch!! How'd that happen?

Patina is fun.

[ColonelJLloyd]

Ouch!! How'd that happen?

Patina is fun.

I was shaving some country ham for a guest and didn't notice that I hadn't trimmed the skin back on a small section. Three year old ham and the skin is incredibly tough. I use my trusty old Wustof to trim the skin away. The blade went into it and effectively got twisted so there was a very concentrated area of lateral force. It's a danger with very hard steel and a super thin grind.

Yeah, I also enjoy patina.

Untitled by ColonelJLloyd, on Flickr

[jclay]

^^^Nice collections, all.

As we have adopted a self enforced, "no net accumulation/get rid of unnecessary stuff" phase of life, there are no new kitchen things (or much of any material stuff) in my future....but I still look from time to time.

A couple of things: In the "if I had a knife selection do over department" has crossed my mind though (and will remain un-tested): I might have preferred the 135mm nakri to my 165. I never go through anything that comes close to requiring 165mm of length (though maybe eggplant one day, just occurred to me) and find more security and speed (not that I fly, but, still) by biasing my veg cutting towards heel. I think 135 would might have been a better ergonomic fit. Something to think about if anybody's looking.

The world has tons of excellent kitchen knives! For my little quiver, the 165mm Kaji-Bei Nakri (iron clad Shirogami 2) and 210mm Masakane SK (don't know which version) 210 gyuto quietly continue to do their jobs; easy to sharpen (rarely need to), are sharp as blazes and just work wonderfully. Scaling the Masakane up to 230mm would have been nice but it's in no way worth replacing.

Having the heavy Lamson to twist avacodo pits out with is handy.

[AngryScientist]

Good thread. Lots of nice stuff in here. It's a joy to use a nice sharp knife in the kitchen.

On the other hand...

When traveling, staying at AirBNB, etc - good god are there some terrible knives out there. What a killjoy when trying to make a fun dish while on holiday and pull the generic kitchenaid knife out of the butcher block that cant slice a tomato without crushing it. Makes us appreciate a good sharp edge even more.

[dgaddis]

Good thread. Lots of nice stuff in here. It's a joy to use a nice sharp knife in the kitchen.

On the other hand...

When traveling, staying at AirBNB, etc - good god are there some terrible knives out there. What a killjoy when trying to make a fun dish while on holiday and pull the generic kitchenaid knife out of the butcher block that cant slice a tomato without crushing it. Makes us appreciate a good sharp edge even more.

If we're traveling and plan to cook, and we're driving, I take a knife and a pan. The knives anywhere else are just about useless, and the pans usually suck too, they're all super scratched up non-stick.

[Bobonli]

Good thread. Lots of nice stuff in here. It's a joy to use a nice sharp knife in the kitchen.

On the other hand...

When traveling, staying at AirBNB, etc - good god are there some terrible knives out there. What a killjoy when trying to make a fun dish while on holiday and pull the generic kitchenaid knife out of the butcher block that cant slice a tomato without crushing it. Makes us appreciate a good sharp edge even more.

OMG yes!! We travel with a small ceramic chef's knife. Sharp. Inexpensive. If I lose it, I'm not terribly upset. Like Dustin, if we are vacationing with our car we bring a knife, small assortment of cooking utensils and usually a non-stick pan, along with spices. Some Air BnBs, like the one I just rented in Charleston, have almost nothing in the kitchen which in my mind defeats the purpose of the Air BnB

This thread reminds me my knives are a hot mess. Took them to one of those van-based "chefs" sharpening trucks and the dude may have made them worse! Never again.