Looking for first good knife

What type of knife(s) do you think you want? Chefs knife

Why is it being purchased? What, if anything, are you replacing? Cooking, prepping veggies and meat. Victorinox chefs knife

What do you like and dislike about these qualities of your knives already?
Aesthetics- pretty important
Edge Quality/Retention- most important
Ease of Use- meh
Comfort-meh

What grip do you use? I don't know.

What kind of cutting motion do you use?chop with heel of blade

Where do you store them? Want to get mag strip

Have you ever oiled a handle? No

What kind of cutting board(s) do you use? Oak

For edge maintenance, do you use a strop, honing rod, pull through/other, or nothing? Pull through

Have they ever been sharpened? Yes

What is your budget? Less than $200

What do you cook and how often? Grill and braise meats. 4 times week

Special requests(Country of origin/type of wood/etc)?no



Want a high quality chefs knife to be my main go to knife. I'm not experienced at sharpening, but I'm not opposed to taking good care of this knife. Been looking at Japanese knives for a while. Can't make sense very well of all the options. Want something that looks great and works well. Thanks!

Greetings! I am guessing you would prefer stainless?

You will be able to get a very nice knife within your budget, though you will have to ditch the pull-through as it will wreck a J-blade.

Cheers!

welcome!

ou'll have to drop the pull through and pick up a waterstone so should we include that in your overall budget or can you stretch it a few bucks?

I think we need to revise the questions to include some questions that almost always come up, like the following:

1. What kind of steel are you interested in? Carbon, semi-stainless, stainless monosteel knife; carbon-clad, semi-stainless clad; or carbon damascus or stainless damascus?
2. What length of knife are you looking for?
3. Western or wa-handled knife?
4. Are you looking for a thin, medium, or thicker knife?
5. Standard height or a taller knife?
6. What performance characteristics are most important to you (in order of importance)? Food release, smoothness of cutting/lack of wedging, edge retention?
7. Do you use whetstones to sharpen? If not, are you willing to invest and learn how to use whetstones to sharpen your knives?

Are you left handed?

mhlee said:

I think we need to revise the questions to include some questions that almost always come up, like the following:

1. What kind of steel are you interested in? Carbon, semi-stainless, stainless monosteel knife; carbon-clad, semi-stainless clad; or carbon damascus or stainless damascus?
2. What length of knife are you looking for?
3. Western or wa-handled knife?
4. Are you looking for a thin, medium, or thicker knife?
5. Standard height or a taller knife?
6. What performance characteristics are most important to you (in order of importance)? Food release, smoothness of cutting/lack of wedging, edge retention?
7. Do you use whetstones to sharpen? If not, are you willing to invest and learn how to use whetstones to sharpen your knives?

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I think some of those questions are good and should be added, however some may be a bit too much information for newer membership who just don't know enough to form an opinion between the different options. 2 cents.

ThEoRy said:

I think some of those questions are good and should be added, however some may be a bit too much information for newer membership who just don't know enough to form an opinion between the different options. 2 cents.

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Agreed that some of the questions are too specific. I was just throwing them out there because the standard questions leave a lot to be desired. And, of course, I obviously forgot an extremely important one: Are you left or right handed?

Thanks for all the replies so far! I'll try to answer the follow ups.
I'm right handed.
Yes I'll ditch the pull through. What does a good stone cost?
I'm not sure what steel I'm interested in. I think edge retention over sharpness is my preference.
I love the look of the wa handle.
Like the thinner knives and probably standard height. I was thinking 240 cm.

Camwesttexas said:

I was thinking 240 cm.

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GOOD GOD MAN HOW BIG ARE YOUR HANDS! !!

:biggrin:

Just giving you a hard time. I'll be the first to suggest to give Jon from Japanese Knife Imports a call. Should be able to give you a variety of suggestions and have a few items well within your price range.

For $200 or less, lots of really nice knives... the hard part will be picking what you like. Hopefully the well informed opinions on this board will make the choice a bit easier, cheers!

So far I'm thinking maybe the Gesshin Uraku 240mm wa-gyuto and a king 1200 stone. Total about $185 plus whatever shipping may be. Right under budget.