re: Where's a good place in B.R. to find chef's knives?

So now that that's out of the way, pick a style you want. If it's the German one you're after, then it will be very difficult to top any of Messermeister's Elite series (Oliva, San Moritz, or Meridian - the blade/quality is all the same, the only difference among them are the handle designs). Those are simply the best German style chef's knives I've come across.

If you're going to get a French knife, this is where my huge caveat from above comes in. Unfortunately, I've found that most of the knives coming out of Thiers (Sabatier, Nogent, etc...) are substandard. They're not even what they used to be (boy I'd love to get my hands on a vintage Sabatier). Fortunately, about 20 years ago as Japanese chefs began looking to the West for influence and cooking more non-traditionally Japanese food, knifemakers began to try to combine the best aspects of Japanese knives with the best aspects of Western knives to create a brand new knife called a "gyuto."

But don't worry about what the Japanese call it; let's call it what it is: a sharp arse French design. These knives are completely Western in essentially every way except their blades are thinner and usually made with much harder steel, though not as thin and hard as traditional Japanese knives - this is a good thing though. You don't want your knife to snap when you're deboning a chicken. A super thin and hard knife is perfect for slicing sushi, not so much when you're chopping everything from onions to butternut squash to duck.

So these "hybrid" knives (and to be honest they're about 90% Western, 10% Japanese) really present with a "best of both wolds" kind of knife. They can get razor sharp, but the steel is still soft enough so as to not worry (too much) about snapping when you put it through any tough tasks.

The best brand for these IMO is MAC. I have a 10 inch MAC Pro, and it's scary sharp even on a bad day. I will admit that I'm not the biggest fan of the grip (the handle is fine, but the lack of any bolster means my middle finger is digging into a right angle of hard steel - eventually I will get around to sanding that part down to round it out).

Also, while I trust that this thing is as durable as they say, I'm not going to lie: I'm pretty afraid of my $250 knife snapping. I'd never have that concern with a Messermeister (which admittedly will not be as sharp, but the softer, hardier steel is much more forgiving). So whenever I have a really tough job I just break out the ole Victorinox.

And with that said, I think everyone should have a Victorinox no matter what - I use my "backup" pretty often, especially since I don't care about maintaining its edge as much or it getting dull. I'll just run the Accusharp on it and get it right back up to speed.

Finally - resist the temptation to fall for a knife because it seems sharp. Sharpness is literally just the angle of the knife; it's not magic and has nothing to do with the metal. You can make a piece of tin as sharp - temporarily - as the highest quality knife made with VG-10 steel. Shoot, scalpels are sharper than anything in any of our kitchens, and those are just crappy steel (and discarded after use).

Also, almost all knives can and should be made sharper than how they come out the factory. I don't know why they don't sharpen them to their fullest extent, but any high quality Western knife should be sharpened down to a 15° angle (they're usually 20° or even 25°), and any high quality Japanese knife should be sharpened down to a 10° angle (with the hybrids maybe somewhere in between the two). Don't go lower, though, because the steel just won't be hard enough to prevent that tiny angle from bending all over the place.

When it comes to sharpening, I recommend either finding someone who knows what they're doing and uses whetstones or learning how to sharpen on whetstones yourself. I'm still working on this last part (another good use for my Victorinox... no way I'm going to start grinding my MAC knife on whetstones right now at my level). I'm trying to get good at putting a compound bevel on the knife (basically makes the entire knife width thinner, which is a good thing becase less resistance = less force applied = not slamming the edge on the cutting board as hard).

FINALY (if you're still with me), if you invest in a really good knife, you MUST get a ceramic hone (and try to use before each use - at least 3 times a week) and might as well add a leather strop as well. Always cut on a decent cutting board (doesn't have to be a $100 end grain or anything, but for the love of God don't chop on glass), and store your knives correctly (either in a wooden block (preferably that breathes through the other end) or a magnetic strip (and be sure to gently put them on there). What most people don't realize is that your knife dulls faster due to things other than chopping (banging into other knives, smacking into the counter, etc....).

And one last thought (I promise): if you're going to spend a lot of money on a knife, it might even be worth buying a custom knife. I recommend [link=(this guy)]https://www.weigeknives.com/[/link] in Austin - he could be selling his knives for twice as much, but that's not what he's going for. And I'm not saying get some hot rod conversation piece; I'm talking about getting the exact knife you want. Honestly if I had to do it again I'd spend a little more and go with someone like him instead of even my MAC. And while it seems a lot to pay for a knife, it's really not a lot in the grand scheme of things if you truly enjoy cooking and will be using it for the rest of your life. It will make your cooking experience much more enjoyable. People regularly spend a lot more money on golf clubs and no one bats an eye. It's one of the reasons I'd like to start custom making my own knives for sale: as more people begin to embrace cooking as a hobby I think they'll be looking for something better than their crappy Henckel's.

tl;dr: Messermeister (one of the Elite series) if you want German style, MAC if you want French style. But thin about a custom knife.