Cooking Knives

start with a global 8" chef knive

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I love dexter russel, and victorinox, both are 25-30 bucks each MAX, and i grab them WAY more often than I do my henkels or shuns.

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interesting advice, especially since i am considering investing in Shun

I think the best thing to look for when picking a knife, especially a chef's kife is balance and weight, but even more important is how it feels in your hand when you hold it. Also important is the width of the blade.

If I were you, I would put more emphasis on spending my money on a really good Chef's knife and then picking up your boning knife, bread knife, pearing knife, etc, as I went along. Spend the bucks on that which you are going to use most often and get your money's worth out of it. All of those package knife kits are garbage really. I would look at Global, Wusthof, Henckel, Messermeister, etc. I prefer a traditional European angled knife to that of an asian as it's easier to keep a good sharp blade. I would also invest in a nice sharpener and honer. It doesn't matter what kind of knife you have if it's dull, and more people are cut with a dull knife than a sharp one, and when you are cut with a dull knife it's nasty compared to a clean cut from a sharp blade.

Just my .02 cents on the matter.

I might get some shite for this, but I got one of these for Christmas and have absolutely loved it so far. My MIL uses consumer reports and other consumer advocacy sites religiously, and found it to be really highly rated and comparable to most of the high end German blades...




The design is, admittedly, very cheezy seeing as its Guy Fieri. But the blade and ergonomics of the knife are great.

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I got a question about knives. I've got a Henckel. I sharpen it with a whetstone evenly. But I find that when chopping vegetables the end of the blade (farthest from my hand) always seems sharper than the base of the blade (closest to my hand). I know I'm not sharpening the end more than the base.

Is this common?

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I would think it's quite common since you're probably cutting more towards the back of the blade than you are on the front so when you're sharpening it, assuming you're sharpening it evenly, you're probably getting a sharper edge on the front of the blade than the back since you're not using the front of the blade as much as the back.

Just a hunch.

I have the Chefs Choice electric sharpened and a diamond honing steel. About every two months or when I feel like it I pull all of my knives out ( about fifty) and sharpen. I use the honing steel each and every time I pull a knife out.

I have an assortment including Wustof, Henkels, Dexter Russel, Cutco and even a few old Chicago Cutlery. All serve the purpose but mostly I use a 9" Cutco and a 10" Dexter Russell chefs knives.

As above whatever you buy, buy a diamond honing steel. It will keep a butter knife sharp.

And while you are shopping buy a few good different sized cutting boards. This is as important when cutting as the knife is.

The heel end of the blade is the part of the knife that gets used most. You can learn/adapt to using the front end for certain things such as slicing mushrooms without loosing flesh or blood, the stuff that you see on TV by speed demons. The trick therein is to curl your fingertips back towards your palm and only lift the knife enough to get above the surface of the food.

Zach, the tip of the knife is sharper, bc most knives have a thinner tip. The back is a little thicker, and stronger.

As for cutting, I'm the opposite. I cut with the back half of the knife, just because I was cutting thick stuff like protein for the first 6 years I learned with a knife. I can rock the hell out of a knife without letting the tip leave the table, but sometimes, I'm all over the place cutting with the tip.

It's different for everyone.