Oops i bought a Wusthoff

Earlier this week i ordered a wusthof 16 cm cordon bleu chefs knife. They are on sale, guess since the line is closing so i got a pretty good price. Yesterday it arrived and it's handle heavy. Thought that was only a problem with the small knives but i guess i was wrong. No im confused what to do. I can send it back but then what's next. It's for the wife so i dont want a brittle ***, although i love my own. Hands are quite small and she doesnt like big knives so just fixing the balance by going up in length isnt a good option either. She likes a bolster for hygienic reasons so i cant go for the standard victorinox. Unfortunately none of the manufacturers post balance points for their knives so how to proceed. Any thoughts?

Honestly 16cm is on the small side as well for a main knife.
You could look into the 180mm/210mm size Gyuto for knives like these http://japanesechefsknife.com/MolybdenumSeries.html#MisonoMolybdenumSteel
http://japanesechefsknife.com/ProMSeries.html#ProM
Fairly light and thin, typical western handled style but probably a narrower handle that Wuesthoff. ~5 ounce knife that balances close to the bolster, if I recall correctly. But the hygiene thing makes no sense...Victorinox are used in restaurant kitchens where there are sanitation standards/rules around what kind of handles are allowed and such.

Could you please explain the theory about the bolster and sanitation/hygiene?

As to knives, why not buy an inexpensive J-blade and just return the Wustie? Fill out the 'which knife should I buy questionnaire' and you'll get some nice options suited to your needs. I'm pretty sure you can do much better for the cash. You can get decent fit and finish, good steel and better balance for likely less than you spent.

Cheers

Common occidentals want their knives handle heavy

When you look at the design of a gude you get the feeling this world is indeed home to people who make their knives handle heavy by choice. Cant for the life of me figure out why. As for the bolster, it just looks clean after washing. I know there is no objective advantage to it, but once again, its for the wife and taste is personal, and that is a preference i can sort of get.

As for the money i spent 38 euros on it. Good luck beating that with a *** knife. I wouldnt mind spending a little more if its worth it though. As for the size, i have a 240 carbon for the more serious cutting sessions. Its more for the quick in betweener onion or cucumber. Ill fill the questionnaire though.

Why is ***** replaced by asterixes

???? I give up

merlijny2k said:

a *** knife.

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Explain that in a lot of words that don't get censored and we will be able to tell you why.... heh.

merlijny2k said:

As for the money i spent 38 euros on it. Good luck beating that with a *** knife. I wouldnt mind spending a little more if its worth it though. As for the size, i have a 240 carbon for the more serious cutting sessions. Its more for the quick in betweener onion or cucumber. Ill fill the questionnaire though.

Click to expand...

Look at the Kanetsugu Pro-M 180 gyuto from Japanese Chefs Knife: http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/ProMSeries.html#ProM

Around € 70 plus about € 7 shipping.

Most Wüsthofs are handle heavy. In the Cordon Bleu line though, the 20 and 23cm chef's are not.

Thanks for the tips!

merlijny2k said:

When you look at the design of a gude you get the feeling this world is indeed home to people who make their knives handle heavy by choice. Cant for the life of me figure out why. As for the bolster, it just looks clean after washing. I know there is no objective advantage to it, but once again, its for the wife and taste is personal, and that is a preference i can sort of get.

Click to expand...

Handle heavy is convenient for rock-choppers.
And a plague to others.

Benuser said:

Handle heavy is convenient for rock-choppers.
And a plague to others.

Click to expand...

Gross over generalization, I think.

The asterisks? I think that has to do with the notion that three letter abbreviation for japanese is still considered serious racial epithet by some, and exactly such unintenional use was thought worth mitigating hereabouts.

The average german home cook doesn't pinch grip, might have to do with the word for "a handle" (a non-looped handle, otherwise it would be a "Henkel", not commonly found on even an Henckel knife) and "a grip" being the same, "Griff", so greifing the Messer by anything but the Messergriff sounds absurd to germans

Yes, my insensitivity to the cultural aspects of this abbreviation was kindly pointed out to me in a private message. As for the grip, i only learned using pinch grip after i bought a Eden Kanso 240. Two years prior to that i bought a Carl Schmidt office knife for peeling and cutting up apples, mango's and so on and i ended up cutting off the back of the handle with a hacksaw before it spent even one night under my roof. It was the first time i felt a handle heavy knife too, in my parents, in laws and my house before that it was only heat molded plastic handles and a few two rivet partial tang wooden ones. That day i 'splurged' buying a 12 euro German knife with a bolster and an integrated handle ( like wusthoff ikon). As i said i hated the feel right away, sent an angry letter to the company and cut off the end. Little did i know they even manage to make a small chef's knife handle heavy with a handle design with no endplate. If it was for me i'd have taken it to the basement again and shortened the handle until it balanced right in front of the bolster. Cant really do that with a gift though.

Also, do not forget that hammer gripping does allow for significantly more force transfer, so optimizing knives for that does best considering western sharpening non-practice...

pinch and pointer (depending on what is to be done) came near-instinctively with the first blade heavy, steep angled, asymmetric knife for me.... a light pinch feels unnatural and rightfully dangerous with a handle heavy knife.

It is indeed unbelievable how dull i find the knives in some people's kitchen that are still in full use. Often no sharpening equipment what so ever. What i also find quite often is a drawer with a dozen or more euro a piece paring knives, sometimes everything else got so bad they are the only ones still in use. Its like buying a car and then decommisioning it when the oil needs chainging. But somehow knives got classified in people's head as cutlery, and spoons and forks don't need mainenance so why should knives be any different.

Anyhow, tomorrow the wusthoff is going in the mail again. Got a few fix her uppers coming in for the weekend. Bid on them weeks ago but the guy took a while to notice. Going to concentrate on fixing what i like and giving away what i don't and give myself a while longer to ponder what ill get the wife. Slowly starting to lean towards the Fujiwara's with the pretty red handle's. Not exepensive and you can't really go wrong there for the misses right? Would make a nice christmas gift.

Thanks again to all for thinking along with me and for opening my eyes to those nice normal-steel Japanese knives. I wont be monitoring the thread closely anymore from now on.

Next time, sharpen all their knives - and their spoons and forks.