Recommendations for steak knives?

A long time back, my wife and I bought a set of Wustof steak knives. They were fine but quickly became dull and I came to dislike using them. As I learn about Japanese kitchen knives (and am buying too many of them!) and learnto sharpen, I thought that it might make sense to think about getting some steak knives that might hold an edge better and that I could sharpen as needed. We have been using some cheap serrated steak knives that actually seem to work better than the Wustofs did. Any thoughts on this? What do folks around here use for steak knives? Or should I just keep the serrated cheapies and save my money for another 240 Gyuto or three? Thx for any thoughts.

Butch Harner steak knives. The steaks tremble in fear.

If you still have the Wüsthof steak knives, try your skills at sharpening them.

The problem with non-serrated steak knives is that they will dull quickly when used with ordinary china or porcelain plates, and can leave cut marks on the surface of the plate. One "solution" is to get a set of wooden steak plates or platters. Otherwise just stay with the serrated ones, as they won't dull as rapidly, nor will they mark up your china.

If you decide to go the steak plate route, Shun makes some nice steak knives, or you can up the ante and go for a set of customs from makers like Butch Harner, Ian Rogers (Haburn Knives), Pierre Rodrigue or Del Ealy. Another alternative is to buy a set of four (or six) petty knives that suit your tastes.

Rick

Luvwine said:

A long time back, my wife and I bought a set of Wustof steak knives. They were fine but quickly became dull and I came to dislike using them. As I learn about Japanese kitchen knives (and am buying too many of them!) and learnto sharpen, I thought that it might make sense to think about getting some steak knives that might hold an edge better and that I could sharpen as needed. We have been using some cheap serrated steak knives that actually seem to work better than the Wustofs did. Any thoughts on this? What do folks around here use for steak knives? Or should I just keep the serrated cheapies and save my money for another 240 Gyuto or three? Thx for any thoughts.

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I'm intrigued by these Carter Muteki steak knives, and they have bulk pricing available: http://www.cartercutlery.com/muteki-series-paring-steak-knife/

Thx for the excellent responses. Both the muteki and Harner look great, but now I worry about scratching porcelain and needing wooden steak plates. Hmmmmmm. "The more I know, the more I know I don't know"....

I use small Epicurean cutting boards as plates for steak

I went through this same dilemma a few years back. The trick with any steak knife is to have it sharp enough so your guests don't use it with force to cut. I'd say I had more damage with serrated steak knives just because my guests were always sawing away until they hit the plate. For daily Brasserie type plates like Apilco I never had a problem but if you are serving on fine bone China another option is to pre-slice steak for your guests to avoid this sort of damage with any steak knife.
I looked at a lot of knives and many were cost prohibitive but I was determined to have a set I could sharpen. I wound up buying a set of Chicago Cutlery for about $20 at Wally World. It was a bit of work but well worth it in the end. There was another fairly long thread about this so you may find it if you search the archives.

I like the opinel non-serrated stainless steak knives. Cheap and work great, sharpen when needed.

Tojiro has a 4 piece set for the price of one Itou steak knife. But that Itou though. He also has a 3 piece set starting at $640.. They look great and are R2 to boot!!

I have these here: http://www.warthercutlery.com/4-5-steak-knives-in-a-gift-box.html You have to decide whether you can live with the look, but they are functional and the CPM® S35VN tool steel is very nice.

Stefan

I'm hoping to pick up a steak knife or two from Ian (Haburn) this year, but Messermeister makes some pretty nice forged steak knives from about $40 to a real nice olive wood handled one for $70 each. Available regular or serrated.

Victorinox 6-pack of serrated steak knives. Not flashy, inexpensive, but they are awesome...mine have seen heavy use over the last several years, and they are as good as new.

These ones...

http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-48792-Cutlery-6-Piece-Steak/dp/B0009NZ6JS/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1423010713&sr=1-1&keywords=victorinox+steak+knife+set

I use an old butcher's knife, the kind that bulge near the tip. The bottom of that bulge is what contacts the plate, the curves fore and aft are what do the cutting. Ideally I's have the front portion altered a bit, along with an angling down at the hilt, so it would be the tip that hit the plate, but I'd still have the fore and aft curves doing most of the cutting.

I've have seen cheap steak knives this shape. I think it would be cool to have Rich Furrier do it in Wootz, I figure about $600 later I'd have one sweet steak knife.

Whatever you do, don't buy the Shun Ken Onion steak knife.


Rick

if i actually used steak knives i would be keen on opinel carbon. theyre cheap and carbon!

rick alen said:

Whatever you do, don't buy the Shun Ken Onion steak knife.

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I'd amend that to say don't buy ANY Shun Ken Onion "knife." :lol2:

I cut the steak into portions and serve it on a platter. My guests can use their fork from that point on.

lus1: to Mr. Dave.


And above further amended to "Don't buy any Ken Onion Kitchen Knife" lest some forget the "Rain" series.

Reading this thread I had a look to see what is available on the net. There seems to be a fair few laguiole steak knife sets available, and in 3 fairly distinct price ranges.
There seems to be cheap serrated sets for ~$40, non serrated sets for ~$150, and non serrated sets for ~$300 and up.
The $300+ set look to be the same as the $150 set, but with 'nice' handles. At least as far as I can tell with the very limited info on these web sites.
Laguiole come across as being good quality, I'm curious whether anybody has any experience / recommendations as to these knife sets - the $150 set in particular.
Hope this is an appropriate place to post this query, as opposed to starting a new thread.
Cheers
Kev

Kev, since you're in Sydney, have a look at tojiro steak knives from James http://www.knivesandstones.com/steak-knife/ . They should serve you well.

kevpenbanc said:

Reading this thread I had a look to see what is available on the net. There seems to be a fair few laguiole steak knife sets available, and in 3 fairly distinct price ranges.
There seems to be cheap serrated sets for ~$40, non serrated sets for ~$150, and non serrated sets for ~$300 and up.
The $300+ set look to be the same as the $150 set, but with 'nice' handles. At least as far as I can tell with the very limited info on these web sites.
Laguiole come across as being good quality, I'm curious whether anybody has any experience / recommendations as to these knife sets - the $150 set in particular.
Hope this is an appropriate place to post this query, as opposed to starting a new thread.
Cheers
Kev

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Just like sabatier, laguiole isn't a protected brand name witch means that there are several companies making laguioke knives, all in different levels of quality. Among the commonly seen types only two brands are worth buying from if you want the quality knives, laguile en aubrac and forge de laguiole. These are the $300 version witch features the good nicest fit&finish, handy work and quality hope it helps!

Thanks Bigbadwolfen.
I know tbere are many different laguiole brands, I have not heard anything about them unlike the different Sabatier which I have read about.

Hi schanop, I had noticed them.
My shortlist is the tojiro from James, a set of 4 from Shun and one of the laguiole sets.
It may come down to whether I want 4 or 6.

The Victorinox are not flashy but work well. Have used opinel carbons dirt cheap, take a nice patina cutting pork chops & steak. Need to sharpen them often if cutting on a plate. You can saw your steaks quite a while with the Victorinox they work better than some fancy more expensive steak knives.