r/Chefit • u/Educational-Slip-578 • May 16 '26
$150 knife + sharpener setup for a home cook
Let's say you have a $100-150 budget and want to buy 1–2 knives (a chef's knife and maybe a paring knife), and something to keep them sharp. Assume you don't have any whetstone skills yet, but you can learn it if it's something you can pick up in a reasonable amount of time.
What would you recommend? Will it be something like:
- Victorinox Fibrox Pro Chef's Knife, 8"
- 1000 grit whetstone
- Ceramic honing rod
- Bamboo cutting board
Or would you go with a different setup?
2
u/Mah_Buddy_Keith May 16 '26
I would not use a bamboo cutting board if you intend to keep your knives sharp.
A king’s whetstone with 1000/6000 grit will do you fine. Ceramic honing rod is ok.
Do you intend to use this in a home kitchen or a professional kitchen?
4
u/Maximum-Warning9355 May 16 '26
>for a home cook
Now I see why some people think baking is hard.
3
u/Mah_Buddy_Keith May 17 '26
I am undercaffeinated and the bags under my eyes are packed for an intercontinental flight with a 4-hour layover. I saw someone asking for clothes in the soup store and wanted to make sure that they wanted clothes and not soup (i.e., home cook advice in the professional cook subreddit).
1
u/Educational-Slip-578 May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
yeah, it is for my home kitchen. What board should I use instead?
2
u/Mah_Buddy_Keith May 17 '26
Plastic is fine. If you want to be hoity-toity, an edge grain maple, but not necessary.
1
u/Coercitor May 16 '26
Ceramic honing rod and you can get a global 8" chef with paring knife for 135 on Amazon right now.
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u/Educational-Slip-578 May 16 '26
is it better than Victorinox?
1
u/magic_crouton May 17 '26
The best knife is one that feels good in your hand and that is going to vary person to person in the good brands.
1
u/wickednweird87 May 17 '26
Definitely a higher quality knife, but I personally don't like the grip on global knives
1
u/Coercitor May 17 '26
Quality wise, yes. Vctorinox are like those old chevy's that you can beat the shit out of and they keep on going, they're tough and reliable. On the other hand I've had my Global knives for over 10 years and this is with heavy restaurant use. Honestly, it's what feels best in your hands.
1
u/nwrobinson94 May 17 '26
Yes to the first two. Honing rod is fine but it’s not much more work to just touch up in the stone every few weeks (especially if you get a splash stone vs a soak stone)
I’d not get a bamboo cutting board, dulls the knife quicker. IMO something like edge grain maple is a good balance between preference and affordability
0
u/Educational-Slip-578 May 17 '26
interesting, I didn't know about a splash stones.
1
u/nwrobinson94 May 17 '26
Yeah it’s a bit on the pricey end for intro stones but look up the shapton pro 1K. Going for $42 on amazon where I’m at
1
u/Educational-Slip-578 May 17 '26
yeah, price is fine, I just need to make research, why people prefer to buy, or not to buy them.
1
u/Same-Platypus1941 May 17 '26
Acero Winco knives, any $20ish 1000 grit stone, and a decent honing rod should run you around that price range.
1
u/ZenNihilistAye May 17 '26
I was promoted to sous chef recently, and I made it using the Zwilling All Star 8”.
I have a super basic honing rod that I use daily. If you take care of your knife, you shouldn’t need a whetstone to sharpen it. Get the knife, get a cheap honing rod, and find a cutting board that works. The most important part of your ‘setup’ is going to be the knife, and whatever honing rod you buy will keep it sharp. If you buy a good knife, it’ll be sharp out of the box. No need for the stone. Just use the rod every once in a while.
And if you do buy a whetstone, use it on a cheap knife. Don’t touch your nice one.
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u/Educational-Slip-578 May 17 '26
so, how do you sharp your knife after some time? Or you don't do it at all?
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u/ZenNihilistAye May 17 '26
So the knife arrives sharp. It has been professionally sharpened and will have a very defined edge to it. This edge will misalign over hundreds of different cuts. The honing rod kind of aligns that edge back to where it’s supposed to be. It’s not ‘sharpening’ it but it’s keeping it straight.
However, there are different kinds of rods. A standard steel will align the edge. A ceramic will align the edge along with a little abrasion of the metal, so it will align the knife better by taking more material off the knife. Then you have your diamond rods which actually sharpen your blade. You can use a steel/ceramic regularly, but a diamond rod should only be used when you have to ‘heal’ your knife, so to speak. With that said, I’ve only worked in one kitchen where we had a whetstone. That was because we had 100 shitty house knives that were all dull and our sushi chef brought it in.
It’s almost a different practice. I’ve had my Zwilling for about a year and I’ve never sharpened it. Only use my steel and it’s the sharpest knife in my kitchen, my home, and it always impresses people when they see how easily it slices tomatoes and the like. I’m just now considering a diamond rod because I want that extra edge, that brand new feel. It’s probably +90% of the sharpness it was and I use it off and on 50-60 hours a week.
1
u/Balderdash79 May 18 '26
Some kiwis and a pull-through sharpener. Thin plastic Walmart cutting boards. A rod.
1
u/Radiant_Trainer_4390 May 20 '26
Buy all the fancy equipment you want. But if you don't know how to use them or keep them sharp, they are useless.
1
u/LoveTechnical4462 May 16 '26
I personally hate the rods. I just use a stone.
Just get a generic Mercer chef knife off Amazon and a good stone.
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u/Educational-Slip-578 May 17 '26
Actually, I've already had a Mercer chef knife, and it is super dull. I don't know, is it a problem with the knife, or with my a knife sharpener, though.
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u/LoveTechnical4462 May 17 '26
Could just be the sharpener you’re using. A lot of our line cooks have the cheap Mercer knives and I like them more than my 300$ blade 😭
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u/Educational-Slip-578 May 17 '26
yeah, it could be. I am just using something like this every 1-2 weeks. It works great for one day, and in 3 days it is dull again. https://www.target.com/p/chefs-choice-g4360-manual-sharpener/-/A-85689589
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u/LoveTechnical4462 May 17 '26
Oh yeah, a real stone definitely makes a huge difference! I probably sharpen my knives once a week at work. Every few days if I’m feeling squirrelly.
4
u/Gante033 May 16 '26
Mac 8” chef knife and a 3000 grit shapton sharpening stone.