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Author Topic: Kitchen Knives  (Read 31963 times)

Offline MDixon

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Re: Kitchen Knives
« Reply #60 on: May 16, 2011, 07:37:57 am »
I just noticed the Ryusen I purchased is sold out at JCK. The Sakura is available on ebay or via a Yahoo site, either way it's coming for Ori Pas in Israel and ebay is less expensive http://www.kitchen-chef-knife.com/buy_now.html (EDIT - should mention the Sakura is more German in styling than Japanese, reminds me a lot of my Pro S from Henckels)

On Japanese Chefs Knives there are TONS of items. I got mine off the Specials page http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/SPECIALS.html but there are page after page (left hand column) for various manufacturers.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2011, 09:53:35 am by MDixon »
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Offline euge

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Re: Kitchen Knives
« Reply #62 on: August 19, 2011, 11:42:21 am »
Thoe thmoove!

Awesome!

I'm looking askance at my pathetic little Henckels. :-\
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Offline punatic

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Re: Kitchen Knives
« Reply #63 on: August 19, 2011, 11:59:19 am »
Funny, I was sharpening my wife's 15 year old Wusthof knives for her yesterday evening, and thought about how this thread had died off. 

Cause and effect?  Coincidence?  ESP?

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(the knives are in great condition still, after 15 years of daily use).
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Offline euge

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Re: Kitchen Knives
« Reply #64 on: August 19, 2011, 12:09:01 pm »
I might have mentioned my $8 8" chef's knife? Bought it in the kitchenware aisle at the local supermarket. Remember thinking these cheap Chinese made knives are looking pretty much like the mid-range Henckels... So I bought one and proceeded to put an edge on it- a proper one.

At first I thought this knife's steel is too soft and it won't hold an edge. Wrong! It's my favorite now and it'll shave the hair right off toot sweet. Scary. Banging out cheap high quality knives at a quarter of the price of even the low-end "quality" blades? Probably the same factories that're banging out drop forged Henckels' Fine Edge Pro or International.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. -Richard P. Feynman

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Offline punatic

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Re: Kitchen Knives
« Reply #65 on: August 19, 2011, 12:12:44 pm »
Two words:
Solingen Stainless
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Offline MDixon

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Re: Kitchen Knives
« Reply #66 on: August 19, 2011, 12:18:07 pm »
I have a dollar store German knife (probably bought at some kitchen store for a song) and I ran it nearly into the ground and have sharpened it back more than a few times.

I will say once I got a hold of one of the Japanese Damascus knives and realized just how sharp that thing was, I was hooked. I looked at the Kramer Shun, but it was heavy and not what I was after.
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Offline nicneufeld

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Re: Kitchen Knives
« Reply #67 on: August 19, 2011, 01:34:03 pm »
I think the perfect balance for me between thriftiness and quality is Forschner...a good chef's knife around 30 bucks, and I use it daily, love it.

Now, I can't look down my nose at you guys with your 300+ dollar knives...to me its just a tool and simple and reasonably replaceable is the order of the day for me, but I understand the desire to have the nicer quality things for your hobbies.  I mean, you guys might be OK with a cheap tourist Calcutta sitar, whereas I dream of a nice finely crafted Hiren Roy or vintage Kanai Lal... :D

Offline MDixon

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Re: Kitchen Knives
« Reply #68 on: August 19, 2011, 02:17:55 pm »
I am one frugal SOB, but frugal doesn't mean cheap. I've still got an old Farberware chef's knife I could use as a hammer if I needed to and the beauty is if I need to cut a pumpkin and do need a hammer, I can pull that puppy out. We have two Henckels which are ice hardened with very thin SS blades which are in truth all the knives we would probably ever need, but they will never be able to slice a rolled piece of magazine paper. My ProS Henkels are nowhere near as sharp as my Ryunsen Damascus knife (earlier in the thread). I can see that Kramer in my knive drawer already... ;)
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Offline denny

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Re: Kitchen Knives
« Reply #69 on: August 19, 2011, 04:27:38 pm »
I think the perfect balance for me between thriftiness and quality is Forschner...a good chef's knife around 30 bucks, and I use it daily, love it.

I'm with ya....after I saw that it was the knife ATK used and recommended, I bought the 8" chef's knife.  AMAZING!  Within a week, I was back buying a Forschner paring knife....$6 and it's one of the best knives I've ever owned.
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Offline MDixon

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Re: Kitchen Knives
« Reply #70 on: September 23, 2011, 06:14:28 am »
Haven't pulled the trigger on that SLT Zwilling Kramer yet, but did get the wife a Knuckle Sandwich "Big Stick" and "Dragon Dagger". Cool looking for sure, but the shape doesn't thrill me much. Of course there is only one person they need to appease ;)


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Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Kitchen Knives
« Reply #71 on: September 23, 2011, 09:06:56 am »
I was at a craft fair type thing the other day and saw a blacksmith who was making his own damascus steel kitchen knives. Ooooh I wanted one of those. It was $250.00 for a small santuko type knife but given that he said it took about 14 hours for each knife that sounds pretty reasonable to me. and pretty
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Offline MDixon

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Re: Kitchen Knives
« Reply #72 on: September 23, 2011, 09:44:29 am »
I've got a couple of damascus. One is a Japanese design with a super thin super sharp blade. The other while Japanese is really a German design with a thicker, more hefty design. Both are great and both were reasonable, but no exactly inexpensive.

I'm really aching for the Kramer from SLT, but $320 is a bit on the pricey side for something to cut vegetables and meat ;)
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Offline 1vertical

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Re: Kitchen Knives
« Reply #73 on: September 24, 2011, 11:38:59 pm »
I have an eggerling Damascus Protech Brend II...but it ain't in da kitchen  ;)
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Re: Kitchen Knives
« Reply #74 on: September 25, 2011, 08:33:31 am »

My wife was using the chef's knife about a month ago and while cutting green onion caught the corner of her left index finger cutting through the nail and the skin and the pulp and essentially amputated a cleanly cut chunk out of the corner of her finger. Since there was no blood supply to reattach the excised piece and no flap to stitch we had to go get the angled edge chemically cauterized to stop the bleeding.

I did this exact thing last weekend!  Stupid... but in my case it was such a shallow glance that the bleeding stopped with some pressure.

This was with a new Calphalon 7" Santoku from BBB... $29.95.  Sharp as all hell, although I don't know if I like the feel as much as an 8" chef knife.

« Last Edit: September 25, 2011, 08:40:00 am by narvin »