Kitchen knives in Thailand - looking for suggestions

I have a trip to Thailand coming up... any suggestions for interesting knives there?

IF you need to buy some inexpensive knives to give a way as gifts, the kom kom brand (high end line from Kiwi) are amazingly good knives for the money.

It is going to depend on what you consider interesting. Kiwi and Kom Kom are the most common. On my last trip I discovered Penguin brand which seems to be favored by more of the serious pros than the first two. There are also the cleavers some call "rhinos" after the point. They come in all weights and sizes from light vegetable knife to heavy bone chopping cleaver. In addition there are the "Laughing Bird" knives but they are about the same as Kiwi. Kiwi and Kom Kom are by far the favorite blades of the street food vendors.

I've wondered about these seen on E-Bay. Really cheap. Anyone used the cleavers?

I have. I bought one for my father's house and one for my mother's. They can destroy them if they want to, but if they don't, then at least there's something that sort of cuts for the two weeks a year I'm there. I also have a bunka bocho shaped cleavery-thing at home for cutting tarts and pies in the ceramic dish. They're very soft steel, but they're very thin. Useful. But you wouldn't ever reach for one in preference to a real knife.

Which knives did you mean Keith? I've used just about every brand they make in Thailand at one time or another.

The kom kom carbon has the highest cutting performance/price ratio of any knife, period imo. I have a "thai chef's" pattern in that line and it's ace.

Edge holding is mediocre relative to J-knives (but a little better than e.g. vintage sab) but it is incredibly easy to sharpen.

Think thin. Like uber-layzor thin.

The stainless ones behave like a layzor too, but the steel is crap.

Noodle Soup said:

Which knives did you mean Keith? I've used just about every brand they make in Thailand at one time or another.

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Thanks kind of a sucker for deep embossed logo & writing on blades. Was looking at the Aranyik Chopper wood handle twin stars embossed on blade 620 grams. 35.00$ free shipping. The cleaver I have been recom. to students is the CCK Carbon Kau Kong Chopper. I own the Medium. Like it because it is compact will fit in a larger knife bag. A couple have purchased the small of same design. Chinatown here has the best price around 50.00 for a quality medium carbon chopper.

The beginning classes at culinary school make stock. Quite a few have come to me in the past with dented banged up Victorinox & Mercers. I asked how it happened chopping up bones for stock. Now I make sure the students do not use their chef knives for that. Tell them to get a cheap chopper cleaver for their kit.

I have a number of those Aranyik choppers in various sizes and weights. I tend to prefer them over the Kom-Kom/Kiwi models because they are just enough thicker to give the blades some stiffness. If you lay a Kiwi over an garlic clove and try to smash it, the blade will actually bend around the garlic.
As for chopping bones with the Aranyik knives, make sure you find one designed for that. Most of them are designed for lighter slicing and dicing chores, even the larger sizes ones. My bone chopping Aranyik is actually one of the smaller size ones. I bought it after watching a lady use that model to chop up chickens in one of the Chiang Mai wet markets.

Where do you get kom kom carbon? I thought they only had a stainless line.

I figured 620 grams is heavy enough, my med. Kau Kong is 590 grams. Your smaller chopper Aranyik if they have it on E-Bay like to check it out. Thanks Keith

Rayuela said:

Where do you get kom kom carbon? I thought they only had a stainless line.

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I wondered about that too as all I've ever seen in Thailand were stainless and I spend a lot of time hunting through the hardware and cooking supply shops. Something from the past?

Thanks all for the input.

I think I'll look out for a heavy cleaver for bone work.

Maybe something for the garden as well... check the current Aranyik catalogue... some fine looking tools in there!

http://www.aranyik.com/graphics/Aranyik-2015-Catalog.pdf

Devon_Steven said:

Thanks all for the input.

I think I'll look out for a heavy cleaver for bone work.

Maybe something for the garden as well... check the current Aranyik catalogue... some fine looking tools in there!

http://www.aranyik.com/graphics/Aranyik-2015-Catalog.pdf

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Cool site carbon garden tools rule, just clean & oil when pau.

The only problem with Aranyik.com is he is usually out of stock. Only goes to Thailand once a year or something like that. I bought a very large natural Thai water stone off him about 2 months ago when he came back from his most recent trip.

Noodle Soup said:

The only problem with Aranyik.com is he is usually out of stock. Only goes to Thailand once a year or something like that. I bought a very large natural Thai water stone off him about 2 months ago when he came back from his most recent trip.

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Ah, so I'm unlikely to find any of this stuff actually in Thailand..?

You can find it where they make it about 30 miles north of Bangkok. The website you mentioned is a guy in Hawaii that brings a load back around once a year. I didn't many of these for sale in Chiang Mai but they have their own varieties of choppers up there. My hunting around Bangkok has been more limited and I was looking for kitchen rather than outdoor type knives.

Ordered the Deep embossed double star Aranyik Chopper. 7.25 X 3.5 4mm thick. 620 grams around 1lb 5oz. 5160 high carbon steel. 35.00 free shipping. Looks to have good geometry for a medium weight cleaver. Looking forward to putting it to the test it's a pretty cool looking blade.

I'm heading to Chiang Mai for 5 days and Bangkok for two in January, want to get a follow on this. Also, I kind of want a halfway decent cleaver for when I make stock, I won't use my blazen on bones. My wife grew up in Thailand and we have extended family there, so having Thai stuff in my kitchen that's actually useful and economical would be pretty cool.

I mean, for 12 bucks it probably sucks, but if it does the one small job I need it to do, it doesn't have to be amazing.

Try exploring all the shops in the huge market north of the American consulate. There is a pretty good knife shop in the Warowat market and elderly lady that sells knives off a blanket in one of the entrances too.

keithsaltydog said:

Ordered the Deep embossed double star Aranyik Chopper. 7.25 X 3.5 4mm thick. 620 grams around 1lb 5oz. 5160 high carbon steel. 35.00 free shipping. Looks to have good geometry for a medium weight cleaver. Looking forward to putting it to the test it's a pretty cool looking blade.

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That is the one I have. I haven't it used it on anything heavier than chicken bones but it works great for that.

Noodle Soup said:

Try exploring all the shops in the huge market north of the American consulate. There is a pretty good knife shop in the Warowat market and elderly lady that sells knives off a blanket in one of the entrances too.

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Just to make my comment a little clearer. The Warowat market is maybe a half mile south of the American consulate along the river. It is where most tourists end up. I don't know the name of the market across the street on the north side of the consulate but it is huge and more of a place for the locals. There are also a number of wholesalers at the far end. I know of at least three other wet markets in Chiang Mai but I never found much for knives in any of those.

I purchased these two Aranyik Cleavers for students. Sold both already at cost. 5160 steel believe is good for bone cleavers. hardens 56-58 area. Tungsten & Chromium give it toughness. It is also used with Hatchets & Axes.

They coat the handles with some type of Lacquer. I left it on top cleaver, stripped it off bottom one because no relief for pinch grip & wanted to see how would come out. sanded off sharp edges & coated with Tung Oil & Clear Shellac mix.



Opposite side shows sapwood. They put this nice wood on handles then cover with stickers & Lacquer. After I sharpened them up cut some chicken bone thigh & leg for each cleaver. I use a slight forward push cut that slices through the bone, clean cuts no splinter. Both are thick behind edge, able to get a burr without much effort.

Bottom cleaver with rounded heel put on a more steep angle like a all purpose cleaver so can tackle bone with thick edge.

Can't see the pics..!

I bought some kom kom brand chef knives when I was last in Bangkok, they don't seem available in the US but I was quite impressed with them, I think they were about $6 each and had a nice grind, soft but easily sharpenable stainless, reasonable fit and finish and a sabatier profile.