Based on price, was this a good deal?

My biggest hobby is cooking and I love just about every aspect of it, recently I realized that a good portion of the struggle I was facing while cooking was due to poor knives, which resulted in slow preparation, to just about everything else that makes a knife a chef's best friend. So I began researching knives, and I frequented this site, along with others to find some decent knives at a decent price. I'm still in school so money is always tight, but since cooking is a passion of mine, I try and put money towards items that will not only last, but that I can benefit day in and day out.

My first purchase was a two piece set of Wusthof Classic knives. An 8" chef's knife, and a 3.5" paring knife which I bought for $65.

My second purchase was a 3 piece set of Shun Classic knives. 8" chef's knife, 6" utility knife, and 3.5" paring knife which I purchased for $165.

As someone who knows that there are better knives for the price in regards to both Wusthof and Shun, did a get a good deal on both of these purchases? I frequently hear that Shun are over priced, but is that in regards to MSRP? I really don't have much market sense in this aspect.

Additionally, I'm looking to add to my line up. Really the only other knife I own is a victorianox 10" fibrox that I use for cutting bread. What style of knife would you recommend to supplement my small set of knives? Really looking for style here, not necessarily a specific knife, but if there is a stand out knife that you would recommend, I'm all ears!

Thanks!

Aren't the knives you already have doing what you need them to do? If I were you, I would not go looking for more knives until I've learned how to sharpen them freehand with waterstones and to tune their geometry for maximum performance. Once you are familiar with sharpening and have gotten a feel for the steel, then you can start looking for knives with better steel.

Yes, chef's knife, mid-size general purpose knife and a parer is really all you need in a home kitchen for 99% of stuff. If you really want to add to them I'd recommend a cheap cleaver and/or a boning and/or a filleting knife. Otherwise I'd invest any free funds into some decent stones. A 300-400 and 1000-1500 combo stone and a 3000-5000 fine stone for finishing the shuns. Maybe a balsa strop with an abrasive compound on it, too.

mhpr262 said:

Otherwise I'd invest any free funds into some decent stones. A 300-400 and 1000-1500 combo stone and a 3000-5000 fine stone for finishing the shuns. Maybe a balsa strop with an abrasive compound on it, too.

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I've looked into the sharpening stones on the forums and noticed that there are two kinds. Soak and splash and go. What's the trade off here? Aside from time of soaking of course.

I really appreciate the feed back on the levels of grit I should be buying. Is a 400, 1000 and 4000 a good line up? I've read that the 300-400 can really destroy a knife if sharpened poorly. Should I just stick with the 1000-2000 and a 4000?

Also, would these stones be adequate for both my wusthof and my Shuns?

Last question, would it be best to sell my shun classic knives and buy 2 knives from Jon at JKI ? I'm just considering my options since the Shun knives are still NIB.

Thanks!

The general consensus on here is that you can do better than Shuns, for the same money. Depending on whom you ask, you might be able to do a little or a lot better by spending a little more. That being said, there are quite a few people out there that love their Shuns, and they do well with them. So, selling them and starting over depends on how much you'd get for them and whether you're willing to take the loss now.
I'd also suggest that many of us on here started off wanting to get "one really good knife." Now, with a much lower bank account balance, I have far more than one.
You probably don't need a coarse stone (300-500) to start off. They will take off a fair amount of metal quickly, and are needed for serious resetting of bevels or chip repair. You may need one eventually, but probably not right away.
You can get by with only a medium stone that is around 1-2K.
A fine stone that is 4-6K can refine the edge from the medium stone.
Whatever waterstones you'd get for the Shuns could also be used on future Japanese knives, so that wouldn't be a sunk cost.

I appreciate that info. From what I've seen on eBay, in could get like $280 for my Shun knives. So I would probably be in the ballpark of about $300 for knives and water stones. Am I looking at one knife and stones? Two knives and stones?

Since I'm selling my Shuns, I want better quality that what I already have. Would it be helpful if I posted the sticky post of all those questions?

I would have to disagree about not needing a coarse stone as a beginner to sharpening. A coarse stone gives immediate feedback on what you are doing to the knife and is much more efficient if you have to do any serious sharpening. Feedback is very important in the process of learning how to sharpen. You can always start sharpening with cheap knives most people have before they get the good ones. Most cheap knives are also too thick to be performant and it is quite gratifying to get them to just slide through food once they've been thinned down.

personally, i think you got a great deal on the shuns and if anything, you'll struggle to find a better paring knife for that little money. if you somehow manage to flip that set of shuns for $300 and make a stunning $135 profit, i suggest you buy more of the same shuns and repeat the process.

otherwise, even at $300, i'd struggle to find a chefs, utility and parer that would outperform the shun significantly and also have something leftover to spend on stones.

since you already have some knives, my suggestion is to just use them and as you cut more stuff, you'll realise what else you might want/need. most likely, you might hanker for a slicer or something heavyduty for chopping bones or breaking down things.

if you really did sell your shuns, you'd be looking at probably a 1k/6k combo for ~$50 and a ~$250 210mm or 240mm gyuto from a whole buncha places. or alternatively 2 stones for $100 and 1 gyuto for ~$200. it's always better to have separate stones instead of combos but that eats into your knife budget. i prefer not to make any exact suggestions because i really think the best option is to flip shuns for a living or failing that, use what you already have.

also as to the stones, soaking stones tend to be softer and shall we say, more beginner friendly to actually use but not necessarily so. splash and go stones are user friendly in that you just kinda use them straight away but the drawback is the tend to be harder and if you make mistakes, these are further amplified. a lot of people also just keep their soaking stones in a container with water all the time so they never really need to wait to use them. beyond this, it's all about feel and preference.