Chef Knives?

[choke]

I've been meaning to do this for a while and finally got around to it.

And yes, I do have a problem.

Top to bottom- Miura Itadaki 240, Sakai Kikumori Shironiko 210, Hitohira Tanaka Yohei 210, Takada no Hamano 210 sujihiki. All of these are forged by Yoshikazu Tanaka.



Yu Kurosaki Sasame 210, YK Shizuku 180, YK Senko 165 santoku, Masakage Shimo 165 nakiri (Kurosaki forged)



Takada no Hamano 210 Ginsan, Masakage Yuki 165 bunka (Yoshimi Kato forged), Y Kato 165 santoku, Y Kato 150 petty, Katsushige Anryu 135 petty

[ColonelJLloyd]

Daaaaang. That's a lot of nice steel.

[9tubes]

I saw choke's post and my mind envisioned a Far Side cartoon where one vegetable peeks out of the refrigerator, sees the knives, and yells to the others: "OH NO! Run for your lives!"

[mzilliox]

sweet collection choke. Y. Tanaka is one of my favorite blade makers.

[mzilliox]

ill post my collection tomorrow. Its light on Japanese, heavy on the Aussies , with a good dose of Americans.

[9tubes]

Choke, would you recommend either of your petty knives? Or would you buy a different one today?

I recently bought my first really nice gyuto and now I'm looking for a petty or utility knife. Breaking down chickens, trimming meat, that sort of use. Prefer carbon steel with stainless cladding, but flexible.

[choke]

Choke, would you recommend either of your petty knives? Or would you buy a different one today?

I recently bought my first really nice gyuto and now I'm looking for a petty or utility knife. Breaking down chickens, trimming meat, that sort of use. Prefer carbon steel with stainless cladding, but flexible.

I'm pretty happy with both of them. I do use the Kato more often but I think that is mostly related to it being a longer blade. Both are carbon with iron cladding.

If you are going to be using the blade around bones a lot you might want to look at a honesuki.

[mzilliox]

here they are
the steel collection by Matt.zilliox, on Flickr

left side top to bottom:
Heldqvistmide 260mm kitchen sword
NorthSouth 240 french fang
Halcyon Forge 235
Bazes Blades 225
Bazes Blades 215
red 5 forge light cleaver

Right side: the aussies
Mert Tansu 250
The9nine 240
the9nine 225
the9nine honyaki 240
Metal Monkey 190
Metal Monkey 165

most are iron clad carbon steel. theres a damscus petty and a honyaki in white steel

[choke]

here they are

left side top to bottom:
Heldqvistmide 260mm kitchen sword
NorthSouth 240 french fang
Halcyon Forge 235
Bazes Blades 225
Bazes Blades 215
red 5 forge light cleaver

Right side: the aussies
Mert Tansu 250
The9nine 240
the9nine 225
the9nine honyaki 240
Metal Monkey 190
Metal Monkey 165

most are iron clad carbon steel. theres a damscus petty and a honyaki in white steel

Holy.....

Wow, what a lineup. Amazing.

[LarryA]

Looking for a smaller (as in smaller than a chef's knife or a nakiri) knife to do slicing and mincing. Ko-bunka's look as if they could fit the bill. Can anyone offer a first hand perspective, or suggest what else I should consider?

[9tubes]

Choke, would you recommend either of your petty knives? Or would you buy a different one today?

I recently bought my first really nice gyuto and now I'm looking for a petty or utility knife. Breaking down chickens, trimming meat, that sort of use. Prefer carbon steel with stainless cladding, but flexible.

I'm pretty happy with both of them. I do use the Kato more often but I think that is mostly related to it being a longer blade. Both are carbon with iron cladding.

If you are going to be using the blade around bones a lot you might want to look at a honesuki.

I thought I'd report back that I bought a Teruyasu Fujiwara Petty from Carbon Knife Company. White #1 steel, stainless clad. That white #1 gets crazy sharp.
https://carbonknifeco.com/collection...ji-petty-150mm

It has a typical cheap handle. I'm looking for a source for an upgrade.

[ColonelJLloyd]

Looking for a smaller (as in smaller than a chef's knife or a nakiri) knife to do slicing and mincing. Ko-bunka's look as if they could fit the bill. Can anyone offer a first hand perspective, or suggest what else I should consider?

Interested in this as well. I had this ko-bocho in my cart for weeks and kept adding stuff and by the time I went to pull the trigger it was OOS. What was attractive to me was the belly profile, blade thickness at the spine, blade steel, and blade height.

[LarryA]

The deed is done. Going with a 130mm Moritaka Petty.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/07...g?v=1568771691

[spopepro]

Does this go in the bread thread? The chefs knife thread? Who knows?

9AF2D551-C379-457C-A143-690D052FA8A8.jpg

The local shop, which was at one point across the street from Tartine, did a 3-way collab for the best bread knife I’ve ever used. It’s a 10” carbon steel sabatier with a little bit of serration just on the tip. Perfection.

[Too Tall]

Does this go in the bread thread? The chefs knife thread? Who knows?

9AF2D551-C379-457C-A143-690D052FA8A8.jpg

The local shop, which was at one point across the street from Tartine, did a 3-way collab for the best bread knife I’ve ever used. It’s a 10” carbon steel sabatier with a little bit of serration just on the tip. Perfection.

Better than a fully serrated bread knife? Do tell.

[spopepro]

Better than a fully serrated bread knife? Do tell.

Yeah, I mean, I think most of the time a chefs knife is a better bread knife than a bread knife. It cuts the bread, instead of tearing it. You can immediately tell because there’s almost no crumbs from cutting. If you’ve never tried it, and have a good, sharp chefs knife handy (that isn’t too fine or thin) it’s worth giving it a go.

But it is true that sometimes the serration helps. Like the hard bottom crust on hearth breads. That’s where having a little serration helps. Also, I think the geometry of the edge is a little more broad to help resist chipping.

[jclay]

I grew up with fairly sharp carbon steel kitchen knives which were generally wiped and sequestered shortly after use; they rarely mingled with other utensils. But marriage to someone not raised as I was put paid to that. I came to reconcile myself to, for 95% of the time, having modestly passable to dull edges. I got used to using sharpening steel for quick, crude but nominally adequate results.

I’ve been digging tomato + S&P sammies of late and yesterday’s tomato just pushed me over the edge. Truly butter knife performance from my 8”, high carbon/no stain (plain vanilla) Lamson chef knife. I've had it with a communally dull chef knife; I’m getting my own and leaving the Lamson to my other half. Carbon steel, segregated from others and used only by me. Since my spouse is fully aware that dull knives are the reason she still has ten complete fingers the politics will be easy. I stopped, didn't bludgeon the tomato; I went to the shop.

I’ve had some decent Japanese chisels and plane irons in my shop which I maintained with 1200/4000/8000 grit water stones to effective, if not pro-grade, edges. I spent an hour rehabilitating my Lamson; it’s been a long time since any kitchen knives had a mirror finish on the edge, in our house; it cut the tomato (a good one) with ease.

So, what to get for a $100 budget, or a skosh more if that punches well beyond additional weight.

I thought Sabatier or some such, then Japanese versions of the Western chef knife; a previously used item would be a bonus (if tools could talk...and same budget) but not necessary. More looking around and knife tech information at the Chef Dojo and a few other places had me starting to think something like a Suisin Gyuto in CS. Then I read some reviews and realized that there are differences not only in the tools but manner of use! That concept was beyond my experience base. The phrase “high impact” was encountered and considered, a metaphorical mirror put in front of my face and I realized that I’m not a fine chef; I don’t do presentation or impossibly thin slices of whatever. I'm a modestly decent, modestly adventurous home cook and nothing more; I use kitchen tools in the Western fashion, and am increasingly moving in a vegetarian direction, or vegan if I learn enough to make it work for my taste buds.

I simply need a sharp, durable edge in a conventional, Western 8" chef knife with a reasonably stout blade; that would seem to make the most sense; it’s also what I’ve been using for the past three decades and am accustom to.

Full circle: Absent compelling advice or alternatives I think that this Sabatier would do very nicely for me: https://sabatieroutlet.com/products/...thentic-carbon

Ping me if I’m missing something….or you have something interesting and used that needs to make way for your current object of chef knife lust. I'm not ordering today; I still have a little more reading and considering to do...but there is a knife out there, somewhere, to which my name will be added as one of it's care takers.

[spopepro]

K sabatier is tough to beat for great workhorse carbon knives at a good price. The one thing I don’t personally love about them is the large bolster. I find it gets in the way when sharpening, but it’s a personal preference thing.

I handled these at the local shop when looking for a gift for a friend and was really, really impressed. Japanese construction, but a less popular metal means a durable blade that is harder than French and German knives but not precious or finicky like aogami. I ended up choosing a knife that is more stain resistant, but these felt like a steal at the price.

[jclay]

Thanks for the tip but wouldn't you know that the 210mm Sakai gyuto is out of stock; but there are a couple of other candidates, and useful information at that site.

[dgaddis]

I can't say enough good things about my Takamura. $160 for the 160mm gyuto, a little more for the larger models. But if you want a stout knife, this isn't it, it's just so thin. But that's also why it's SO good, it takes so little effort to cut damn near anything because that super thin bevel-less edge + thin stock just goes right through stuff. Strop it every once and a while and it holds it's edge for a long time. I'm thinking I'll probably touch mine up once a year and get away with stropping the rest of the year.

Hand made w/the help of machines by a 3rd generation blacksmith. Japanese style blade w/a western style handle. My wife isn't allowed to use this one. It's a fairly stainless steel, but not completely stainless. But take reasonable care of it and no worries with corrosion.