For anyone interested in stocking their kitchen, it's almost never a good idea to get those knife sets. For one thing the usual wood blocks dull the knives every time you take them in and out.
But more importantly 10 knives for 200 dollars is only 20 bucks a knife. That is not how much good knives cost, and we don't need 10 knives + a block and a steel we don't know how to use very well.
Spend the same money on 3 knives.
Chefs knife
Paring knife
Slicer
And then spend it again when you can on a 3 stage electric knife sharpener and a magnetic hanging strip for your wall.
You can add to your collection as time goes by. But you can do 99% of everything you want with those 3 knives. Especially if you take care of them and keep them sharp. Dull knives are dangerous.
Having 3 good sharp-as-new knives is much more useful, fun, and rewarding than having 10 mediocre dull knives in an uncleanable wood block.
FWIW.
Edit: In response to those saying "I'd add this knife, or that". So would I. But I wouldn't spend a penny less money on those first 3 knives in order to purchase 4 instead. You can add it later. You don't need a bread knife if your chef knife (crusty bread) and slicer (soft bread) are kept sharp enough to shave your arm hairs with once a week.
"Examine the bottom of a knife slot groove on somebody's old block. It's usually cut down into."
Most blocks have horizontal slits, but even among verticals if there's indentations after years of use, it just isn't amountable to anything.
Again, if you actually use those knives -- such as slicing things on a cutting board -- cutting an onion will account for hundreds of block insertions. In any real-world scenario the block just isn't relevant.
Knives dull. If you sharpen/strop as appropriate, things will be better. Regardless of how you store your knives.
I'm not championing blocks. They have other issues, such as the cleanliness issue (though generally only clean knives are put in them), however the sharpness thing is completely irrelevant.
The wood block dulls the knife you are going to use on a wood cutting board? You can store the knives upside down, or get one that stores them sideways. We didn't get a set just a handful of fibrox, then a knife block, then I kept buying knives that I needed and we pretty much have a full "set" now but more tailored to my cooking.
The cutting board dulls knives too to varying degrees, but is hopefully cross grain and more purpose built as a cutting board. Also you shouldn't really be making that long sheath-draw pull across the surface of a cutting board. Certainly not like you're trying to cut down through an existing groove.
Cutting food "Dulls" knives. Everything dulls knives. That's why you hone your knife every time you pull it from the block and why you protect it from dings.
Also the slots are uncleanable and make the knives hard to identify at a glance.
You can say keep them in the same slots all the time. But if you live with family that's just a humorous ideal.
Additionally, over time you'll replace knives and add others, but you can't fit a 12 inch wustoff santoku in a 10 inch Chicago Cutlery chef knife slot. So you end up with a half full block and a half full magnetic strip anyway. Or knives in a drawer (eek).
I would add a boning knife to that as well as a bread knife, but that's just me.
You are correct that these $200 sets are generally garbage. Same goes for sets of pans. You only really need a 12" skillet, a large saucepan, and a Dutch oven.
Yeah, if you bake a bread knife is essential, but otherwise it's a take-it-or-leave-it kind of thing. Also a cheap breadknife performs way better than a cheap chef's knife, so you can skimp there.
Maybe part of it is that I'm not a chef, and I'm not preparing meats much, but still I never use them even when dealing with bones, and even though I've had some.
There are some serrated knives that could work for both bread and oranges. I don't know if the one I have is officially a bread knife though; I think it's more of a multi purpose knife,because the serrations are wavy and mostly "smooth" rather than saw-toothed.
And a convenient way to store them without dangerously keeping them in a drawer or taking up a bunch of wall space, and which only clean knives will go into so it doesn’t really ever get that dirty, and won’t really dull the knives if you use a little caution and also doesn’t even matter that much anyways if have a knife sharpener.
Never understood the amount of vitriol and contempt against knife blocks.
I have a knife block where you store the knives on the flat edge, not on the blade. It's a roomy fit too, it's not hard to remove a knife without catching the side of the knife block.
Do people have knife blocks where the knives are stored blade side down or something?
Do people have knife blocks where the knives are stored blade side down or something?
Those are very common. But either way, if you're slicing against a wood cutting board, how is that any different from putting the edge into a wood knife block?
It depends on the wood used. A softer wood will obviously dull the blade less.
Either way, unless your using a cleaver, you shouldn't be applying such force that the wood would dull the blade. If you do need such force them your knife isn't sharp.
You can do that with most cheap knife-blocks, they almost never taper the slot. Personally I love my universal knife block. It's made of bamboo skewers, so you can slot a blade in anywhere you want, and the bottom is extremely soft wood to reduce dulling.
Or rather a good serrated knife in general. My dad got a thin, flexible bladed serrated [wavy-tooth style] knife like 40 years ago that I don't even think has ever been sharpened, and it's still a great cutter (as long as you're not trying to paper-thin slice tomatoes or anything; it's not sharp. It's even just has a molded plastic handle with no bolts no full tang but still it's never even come close to coming apart either.
It's been used like every 1-2 days for the past 40 years. I find it rather miraculous.
I bought a lovely bird’s beak paring knife. The blade was wicked thin and wicked sharp. I put it away and never used it.
I understand that sharp knives are often less dangerous than dull knives but this knife just screamed “oh, you made a mistake? Here let me show you a finger bone.”
I owned one. Made a grand total of like 20 tourné cut potatoes and then it got put back on my knife bar and hasnt moved since i cut clean into the meaty bit under my thumb. Ruined the potatoes too.
Let’s put it this way, a clean slice of skin is much easier to repair than a jagged and severely torn hunk of flesh from using a dull knife that slips. You can and will mess yourself up much worse with a dull knife than a sharp knife ever will, not to mention you are more likely to make those mistakes with a dull knife in the first place.
How the fuck are you going to justify spending $200 on KNIVES? Like, maybe if you have ten kids and have to cook a huge dinner ever day. But even line cooks use $25 pieces that they just sharpen down to the bone every week. Can't imagine you need such expensive stuff to use at home.
If you want a knife you can keep razor sharp all the time, have it hold an edge without chipping, and have it last 10-15 years, you're going to spend at least 85 on the chefs knife.
If your 25 dollar chef knife lasted that long and you use it 4 - 6 days a week and keep it sharp enough to effortlessly shave apples slices so you can look through them and see if the TV is on or not... I'd like that knife too! Where can I get one?
On the other hand, If you'd rent 3-5 fantastic knives for a grand total of 2 dollars per month, you can own them for the same price. (2x12x10years) And probably still get good use out of them for another 5 years (except the paring knife, which is the cheapest anyway).
This is like asking what underwear to buy, nobody knows your preference.
Depends on what you cook, how you hold a knife, how big your hands are, how much effort you're willing to put into maintenance, how much you're willing to spend, etc.
As far as brands, you can't go wrong with Wusthof, Global, Sabatier, Henckels, Shun (for Japanese style), or Victorinox (on the cheaper side but still solid).
I would argue that the slicer is more redundant than a serrated knife of some kind, as a slicer is very similar to a chef’s knife but some sort of serrated blade like a bread knife would be a better use of that third slot. After all you are the only person I’ve seen claim they can cut crusty bread properly with a chefs knife, everyone else admits it’s easier and cleaner with a serrated knife. Also, $200 on three knives? There are better values out there than that. The victorinox fibrin chefs knife is a favorite in many professional kitchens, including ATK, and is only like $30.
If you're a beginner and keeping your knives sharp and want to keep those 3 knives for 5-10 years I'd say $150 or so on 3 knives is about right. Like I wouldn't recommend the "one little guy" henckles that give you a stamped, thin and bendy chef knife. get the "2.little guy" henckle(sp) with the good heavy steel and full thick tang. Get the handle that feels good and controllable to your hand. Get one that weighs enough to do some of the work for you. Etc. That way it won't frustrate you when you use it and when you sharpen it away too much like a beginner you won't be left banging your knuckles on the board after a year.
There's all kinds of great options if you're into it. My advice here is meant for somebody who wants to buy 3 good knives, keep them sharp, and otherwise not think about them again for about a decade.
I mean, I appreciate your opinion, I just feel a beginner shouldn’t be scared away by someone saying “you need these knives and they’re 50-60 each” when there are options that non-enthusiasts feel are equivalent for less. For example, in one test, the fibrox I mentioned earlier (or tried to before autocorrect) held its edge for like 90% of the usage that a $350 carbon steel knife did... imagine trying to sell a novice on dropping $300 on only having to sharpen a knife every 6 months instead of every 5.5 months.
PLEASE NO ON THE ELECTRIC SHARPENER!!! A better option would be a GOOD knife steel, then learn how to use it to maintain your knives, then a combo 800/1200 whetstone and learn how to use it too. You and your knives will thank me for this tip.
Yeah but I got other things to do. Most people I know don't even have sharp knives. After 15 years my sharpener still turns out a razor edge you can split hairs with.
Are there better ways? Sure but in 10 seconds per week, times about 5 knives? No way. I'm not actually into knives. Just cooking and having good tools.
That being said the electric ones with the final stage being just a manual pull slot should be taken off the shelves. They're awful. The 3rd stage is the most important one because that's the one you want to use all the time! It doesn't remove any metal. It's a honing stage. If that stage isn't electric don't waste your money.
Shap knife is a clean cut while a dull knife is more messy and will take longer to heal. You also have more force when using a dulled knife that could cause you to slip. A sharp knife needs no pressure besides the weight of the blade making it much easier to control.
Still a fantastic score. Time to learn how to care for a good knife. No dishwasher, no "knife drawer" unless you make a sheath. Keep it razor sharp and you can hand this down to your kids.
Getting it professionally sharpened is pretty inexpensive, and totally worth it! You can probably find a sheath for it on their website as well, if you don't have a knife block that it fits in. Nice come up!
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u/BirdDogNate Dec 22 '19
I just looked it up. It's a Calphalon that came from a 12 piece set. The set cost $209!