The age old question: Which Knife should i buy?

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trailrunner

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Hello All,

I was hoping you could point me in the right direction. In all honesty I'm not a knife enthusiast and may never be, but here is your chance to interest me. I am currently looking for a decent knife that will last me a long while. I enjoy tooling around in the kitchen and on occasion something edible appears on the table. Anyways, I filled out the survey. Thanks for your help.

sWhat type of knife(s) do you think you want? I want a standard chefs knife, a Gyuoto I believe from what I have gleaned from the site. Somthing in probably in the 210 mm range.

Why is it being purchased? What, if anything, are you replacing? I would like to have a good knife that can hold an edge and be sharpened. Since I believe having a good knife makes food preparation safer and more enjoyable. My current knife is a cheap $20 santoku style knife.

What do you like and dislike about these qualities of your knives already?
Aesthetics- Well I do like things that look nice, and my current knife just looks cheap, as well as it is showing rust stains. ( partially my fault.)
Edge Quality/Retention- My current knife can even really be sharpened.
Ease of Use- I would prefer a more defined point on my knife I find the santoku a bit annoying when trying to do more detailed work.
Comfort- I have long fingers so I tend to rest the my index finger on top of the blade but a slightly larger handle would be nice for me.

What grip do you use? I put my index finger on the the blade and support the handle with my other fingers

What kind of cutting motion do you use? I guess I tend to rock somewhat on the tip of the blade because of the santoku shape I currently use. (probably incorrect any tips would be appreciated)

Where do you store them? I store mine lying flat on the counter as i have limited space and no children.

Have you ever oiled a handle? No

What kind of cutting board(s) do you use? The nylon/plasticky kind. I could be convinced to change though if it would be better for the knife.

For edge maintenance, do you use a strop, honing rod, pull through/other, or nothing? I currently use nothing, i have used a pull through type device, I would possibly take up sharpening but would also consider having my knives professionally sharpened.

Have they ever been sharpened? No

What is your budget? $100 - $200 I could be flexible. I would prefer to be nearer the mid to lower half of that budget but you can try and convince me

What do you cook and how often? I cook with a lot of fresh veggies (acidic ones) and meat 3/4 times a week.

Special requests(Country of origin/type of wood/etc)? No preference.

Thanks for your help!
 
There's a ittosai 240mm gyuto for sale on KF. It's a good knife and at that price it is a steal!
 
^grab that ittosai for a great cutter; otherwise I would go for the JCK carbonext, fujiwara fkm, tojiro dp or miyabi 600d/kaizen from SLT. Out of all of these choices, the carbonext has the best steel; the ittosai has the best f&f and frankly, it's just a great cutter. Not much experience with the tojiro or fujiwara and I've only tried the miyabi at slt. The 600d is REALLY nice though.

I would go with one of the knives listed above, a cheap petty knife (fujiwara fkm is only ~$35) and an endgrain cutting board (boardsmith).
 
These are all good choices. The Tojiro has the biggest handles. The rest have smallish handles, imo. It's tough to go up against the CarboNEXT but the standard Ittosai is definitely a better cutter and it's prettier, if that matters to you. The Miyabi is good too but I'd put it a step behind the Ittosai unless you like the handle ergonomics a lot. If you learn how to sharpen or send it to get fine tuned, the CarboNEXT will be your best performer.
 
If the OP isn't going to take up sharpening after all, he can soldier on with his pull-through and, in this case, the Global is the best choice.

The other options require expert sharpening with stones, in which case the CarboNext is the best option by far (in terms of both value, edge retention and cutting performance).
 
Where are some good places online to look for these? I am from Canada so sometimes shipping from the states can be a pain.

^I tried looking for that above mentioned ittosai, but couldn't seem to find it. Does you have a link?
 
It's at knife forums in the buy/sell/trade part of the kitchen knife forum.
 
Where are some good places online to look for these? I am from Canada so sometimes shipping from the states can be a pain...
I would probably go with Koki at Japanese Chef Knives - CarboNEXT for semistainless or Inazuma, if you want stainless.
 
For Canada definitely give the CarboNext a look. http://japanesechefsknife.com/KAGAYAKICarboNextSeries.html these are the current best buy and solid intro into highend knives. JCK offers $7 USD worldwide shipping, great customer service. You can use it as is or send it to Dave Martell at Japanese Knife Sharpening for a tune up. Start off learning basic stroping for maintenance. A pull through sharpener will wreck your carbonext. There are many threads about stroping and numerous YouTube videos.
 
"The resulting blades are optimally sharpened to precise angles for outstanding edge retention."
So THAT'S how you get edge retention!
 
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