Cooking knives
 

Anyone know anything about cooking knives?

Helping the wife with more and more cooking, and trying to use the knives she has is like trying to rebuild a carburetor with a Gilbert Erector Set!

Not interested in a steak knive set. Looking for GOOD paring knives, bread knives, whatever the knife is called that one uses to chop carrots, etc.

Brands that are good?

Sets, or individual knives?

Any help would be appreciated.

Jon

My wife does a lot of cooking. We have a basic set of J.A.Henckels knives. My parents, who were product quality (and status) conscious had one or two. The original knives were German made. Now I believe they may be China and elsewhere made with German steel. Top quality chef knives ($$) would be Zwilling J.A. Henckels made in Germany and Spain. My wife also has a couple of no name knives specifically made for paring. Their blade is 2-3" with a concave cutting edge.

Are her existing knives good and sharp? That makes a huge difference, even with cheap cutlery.

Thanks - have shown the wife a number of these, and will buy whichever ones she wants.

Paring knife, and chopping knife are the two most needed.

Jon.

No, and that is the problem. Some of the cheaper knives, or even some of the higher priced knives cannot be sharpened.

Jon.

Get a 3 sided stone, stone, stone oil, you can sharpen cheap knives razor sharp.

X2 on the J.A.Henckels knives. The 'Twins" model are the better quality made in Germany. We still use a set given as a wedding present 27 years ago.

The Henkles are good. I do most of the cooking in my house. When I took over duties a few years ago I was surprised at how crappy the knives were. I got a medium priced one at bed bath and beyond (which has a great selection) and I also got a diamond sharpener. I use 2 knives for just about everything. 1 smallish paring knife and a large knife (no idea what its called). I run them through the sharpener a few strokes every time I use them and they are always razor sharp. I cringe when I see someone else use them.

Well, guess I will get out the stone, and see how our existing knives will take an edge. Do my pocket knives, and my hunting knife OK. Maybe I can improve what we have.

Thanks for all the responses.

Jon.

RADA knives. Made in USA

Those ones that’s like a grip don’t work well. I can sharpen my Stanley planes razor sharp. The old timers at the shop would have a leather belt for the final step. I’ve never done that myself.

I use ceramic and a final lap with a leather strop for my wood chisels. They will finish out with a better than razor sharp edge. I dont strop the kitchen knives.
My brother has what was my grandmothers favorite knife. I would surmise at one time the blade was about 1-14 wide it has been sharpened so many times over the last 80 yrs that its about 1/2" wide in the middle.

X? for Henckels. I have the 4 Star German made knives and they are excellent, had them for probably 15 years.

You don't always need to sharpen a knife, sometimes the blade is just bent over and all you needs is a sharpening steel to straighten the blade. I only sharpen my blades once per year and use the steel in between sharpenings. This saves the knife from constantly taking off material every time you use a sharpener.

Mark

Our Henckels are over 30years old, I bought them one or two at a time for her as additional anniversary or Christmas gifts in our early years of marriage, Not very romantic but as a second gift, she didn’t mind, We have 3 pairing knives, 2 sizes of Chefs knives ,2sizes of utility knives and many of the rest of a set. The handles on some of them are looking rather beat up now, but the blades are still great.

I bought an easy to use pull through sharpener that Henkel sells so she could keep them sharp, but she forgets. So about once every 2-3 months I sharpen the ones that get a lot of use. and the rest as needed. The serrated edge bread knife and tomato knife are a pain to sharpen, I use a round steel on them (each tooth separately) about once every couple of years.

There is another German brand that are likely just as good and a little cheaper, The best Japanese ones are worth a look too. The big department stores here would have 25% off sales at Christmas and buying sets of two or three can save some money as well.

The other German brand you may be talking about might be Wusthof.

Mark

Shun. restaurant supply stores will sell them or Amazon. They're Japanese. And you can send them back once a year at no cost other than shipping to have them resharpened. Buy a the hone while you're at it. Most knives aren't really dull, they just need to be honed to realign the edge. It's the brand I used until I started making knives. Now I use the ones I made specifically for myself. My wife still uses the Shuns and loves them.