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Meals

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I am a finance guy by day, serious home cook by night . I want to upgrade to a real chef knife and work from there. I am a male with an avg size hand. My current equipment is nothing to even talk about and I want to start from scratch. Looking for advice as far as what knife(s), a sharping set (advice on how to learn) and what other knifes I should get. Also, help with where you would buy them!

Help with buying:
1. Chef Knife budget $300 or under, need help w/ size
2. Paring knife $150 or under
3. Yanagi $350 or under
4. Sharping supplies, knife bag, and how to sharpen
I have a: Bread Knife, Chinese one piece steel handle cleaver, junky chef knife and paring knife going to Goodwill

Enjoying helping me spend money!
 
Sorry I am new

What type of knife(s) do you think you want? First of all I am putting together my first real set of knifes
1. Chef Knife $300 or less, not sure on size, I am thinking 8 inches.
2. Paring knife $150
3. Yanagi $350 or less
4. Sharping supplies, knife bag, and how to sharpen

Why is it being purchased? What, if anything, are you replacing?
Replacing what I have, which were purchased at Target, nothing great. I am pretty serious and am a want to be chef. I want to have really good knifes.

What do you like and dislike about these qualities of your knives already?
Aesthetics- Junky plastic
Edge Quality/Retention- Not sharp, not a good blade
Ease of Use- It works somewhat
Comfort- would love a comfort knife, but I'm not cutting all day I have a desk job.

What grip do you use? Pintch Grip

What kind of cutting motion do you use? Rock and Walking

Where do you store them? Maganitic Strip

Have you ever oiled a handle? Nope, I never had wood handle before

What kind of cutting board(s) do you use? Bamboo, I have a few

For edge maintenance, do you use a strop, honing rod, pull through/other, or nothing? Never tried I have $40 knives =[

Have they ever been sharpened? nope

What is your budget? See Above

What do you cook and how often? I am a home cook, and cook everything from Breakfast, to Steak and Sea Scalops

Special requests(Country of origin/type of wood/etc)? I am in Austin Texas, open to anything really
 
Do you know what profile you would like on a chef's (gyuto)?
 
I make sushi for friends, I guess I don't really need it. Its cool, not not really needed, you think I should get something else? basically starting from scratch, I do have a great bread knife and a $10 steel handle cleaver lol
 
My current knife is a German Profile, however I am not married to that profile.
 
My current knife is a German Profile, however I am not married to that profile.

Do you like German heft, in other words would you be interested in something on the lighter side or would you like something more substantial? In J-knives, both will cut like nobody's business but figuring out the weight you like will help to narrow the choices a bit. Also, do you like the traditional style handle (western/yo) or be willing to try a wa handle (usually octagonal, round or d-shaped)?
 
Do you like German heft, in other words would you be interested in something on the lighter side or would you like something more substantial? In J-knives, both will cut like nobody's business but figuring out the weight you like will help to narrow the choices a bit. Also, do you like the traditional style handle (western/yo) or be willing to try a wa handle (usually octagonal, round or d-shaped)?

I have had a heft of a knife, but would like something that is comfortable, med to light weight. Handle I am not sure, I most like will have to try them. I am willing to try a wa.
 
See what you think of something like this It is available in stainless or carbon (can rust) steel, and the owner of the shop is a vendor here--and most knowledgeable too so you could call and get better advice than I can give. He also has a wide variety of knives that may be better suited and will spend time on the phone to help guide you.
Cheers
 
See what you think of something like this It is available in stainless or carbon (can rust) steel, and the owner of the shop is a vendor here--and most knowledgeable too so you could call and get better advice than I can give. He also has a wide variety of knives that may be better suited and will spend time on the phone to help guide you.
Cheers

Ditto.
 
I make sushi for friends, I guess I don't really need it. Its cool, not not really needed, you think I should get something else? basically starting from scratch, I do have a great bread knife and a $10 steel handle cleaver lol

Reason I ask is if you are just cutting Maki you don't want a yanagiba. A sujihiki may be more versatile for you. For a beginner sharpening a yanagiba may prove a challenge as well.

You've got about $800 there, I would say to use up to $250 on a gyuto like this:

http://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/kitchen-knives-by-type/gyuto/gesshin-kagero-240mm-powdered-steel-gyuto.html
or :
http://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/kitchen-knives-by-type/gyuto/gesshin-ginga-240mm-stainless-wa-gyuto.html

You can go under $200 on a suji like this:
http://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/kitchen-knives-by-type/sujihiki/suisin-inox-western-270mm-sujihiki.html

or perhaps something a little nicer for a bit more like:
http://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/kitchen-knives-by-type/sujihiki/gesshin-ginga-270mm-stainless-wa-sujihiki.html

about $110-150 on a petty like this one:
http://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/kitchen-knives-by-type/petty-knife/gesshin-uraku-150mm-stainless-wa-petty.html
or:
http://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/kitchen-knives-by-type/petty-knife/gesshin-ginga-150mm-stainless-wa-petty.html

and maybe like $80 on a pairing knife like this:
http://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/kitchen-knives-by-type/petty-knife/suisin-inox-western-80mm-paring-knife.html

That leaves a good bit left over for a few stones too.

Alsol how great is that bread knife? Is it, this great?
[video=youtube_share;dvNs4zB6zXg]http://youtu.be/dvNs4zB6zXg[/video]
I love that knife!!
 
Thanks for the info, before this I was looking at the Wusthof Ikon Cook's Knife with Blackwood Handle, w/ matching paring knife. Below is the cleaver I have
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UBE7JY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

My current bread knife and Santoku are Farberware. The bread, chef and paring are a cheap J A Henckels.

After seeing this bread knife video, I think the will donate everything I have and start from scratch.

Would you have any recommendations if I wanted a German profiles ? Just want to get an idea of what the other side of the coin would look like with a german profile and a western/yo.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
only knife i can think of with german profiles are shuns. shuns don't get a lot of love on here. =D
 
That's what I have read, my gf said...whats wrong w shuns, SW sells them
 
kasumi brand knives have a similar profile too. they don't get a lot of love here either. oh well
 
Are there any that I knives that I could try at Sur la Table or SW before I from the above site??
 
you could just go on over to the closest place that sells similar knives that you are looking into and have a feel for them in person, it would greatly help in your decision. and if you don't like the knife you see there, at least you've held onto and have at least an idea of what you would want.
 
you could just go on over to the closest place that sells similar knives that you are looking into and have a feel for them in person, it would greatly help in your decision. and if you don't like the knife you see there, at least you've held onto and have at least an idea of what you would want.

I did just that when I was trying to decide between a 210 and a 240 Gyuto...

The 240 felt waaaaay too big to me, so I got the 210, which now seems way too small as almost everyone here said it would.

:)

Hindsight tells me "Listen to advice on here, and follow it."
 
my bad. and yes. listen, but most folks start out not listening to advice. i did. lol.
 
I would check out the Buy/Sell/Trade(B/S/T) section of the forums, there's always lots of good deals floating around.
 
I too started with a 210 thinking a 240 was too big. Now with my main knife now a 240 the 210 feels like a toy. Still use the smaller knives but my Ginga 240 covers pretty much everything I cut.
 
Are there any that I knives that I could try at Sur la Table or SW before I from the above site??

No.

Theory put up some good suggestions. You should call Jon at the store those links go to. They sell everything you need, and he is very helpful over the phone. Except the bread knife which is one of my favorites. Tojiro ITK bread knife. I just bought another one and had it mailed to a friend in Hawaii who is building a custom ukulele for me. I already own one of the bread knives. Hope you at least get a 240mm length on your gyuto. I greatly prefer the wa handle. I have a 270mm Gyuto I use for almost everything.
 
my bad. and yes. listen, but most folks start out not listening to advice. i did. lol.

I listened to people from the other site when I first bought knives. I got bad advice because I followed the wrong people. I didn't pay attention to the details, e.g., specific cutting characteristics that I was looking for versus general comments about performance, how sharp a knife can get. All knives can get sharp, even very sharp. But a sharp knife does not equal a great cutting knife.

It's important to listen to advice from the right, knowledgeable people, not just anyone. Listen to people who have used lots of different knives and pay attention to what they write so you know what kind of knives they like, what they look for in a good knife, and what specific cutting characteristics are good about a knife. Because the knife that one person loves may not be something that you'll like.
 
Also, to give you a complete and honest picture, there are plenty of places that sell a variety of good japanese knives at all price ranges, not just JKI.
It is a fact though that JKI really goes the extra mile to understand your needs and give you important guidance, hence all the (deserved) love in this forum.
 
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