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Bromo33333

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I am slowing down now in acquisition, and being more deliberate, but here is what everyone here has inspired us (directly or indirectly) to buy for our kitchen!

1. Yaxell Dragon 8" Chef (Rocker Supreme)
2. Yaxell Dragon 10" Chef (is a normal shaped Chef knife)
3. Glestain Santuko (on the way)

Looking forward:
We recently got a Wusthof deboning knife, but will likely look for a Japanese one or two (Deba, Honesuki) to fill this out.
Will also be looking for a Nikiri (and with this will likely want something VERY traditional)

Thanks for all the help and the deep forum for reading!!
 
My suggestion, if you like knives, you're better of buying one at a time, learning to sharpen and learning how to cut. You say you want some single bevel knives too? I would think long and hard about that. If you're cooking mostly non-sushi dishes, you're not going to get much use out of them. This the advise someone gave me ten years ago, I though, no i'll use them, get a book and learn to cook authentic Japanese food. Stupid assumption and a big loss of $ on my part. I don't mean to through a wet blanket on your ideas, just heed my words.
 
My suggestion, if you like knives, you're better of buying one at a time, learning to sharpen and learning how to cut. You say you want some single bevel knives too? I would think long and hard about that. If you're cooking mostly non-sushi dishes, you're not going to get much use out of them. This the advise someone gave me ten years ago, I though, no i'll use them, get a book and learn to cook authentic Japanese food. Stupid assumption and a big loss of $ on my part. I don't mean to through a wet blanket on your ideas, just heed my words.

Point well taken.

We are pausing to "absorb" the latest acquisitions. and with a sharpening stone I will be learning how to sharpen, too. Then once we're ready, it'll be time for other things. Agree that single sided edge might not be a good idea - you aren't the first to suggest that might not be the best choice.

Considering I sent most of our Zwilling-Henckels knives to the factory for sharpening a month ago, and they came back nearly ruined (2-3mm removed so for the ones with a full bolster they no longer can sit flat, and the bottom of the blade was not flat and even where flat and even was called for - and Zwilling wasn't responsive to my complaints), I will have lots to practice with (silver lining to a rather dark cloud!) - this prompted me to learn to sharpen!
 
Point well taken.

We are pausing to "absorb" the latest acquisitions. and with a sharpening stone I will be learning how to sharpen, too. Then once we're ready, it'll be time for other things. Agree that single sided edge might not be a good idea - you aren't the first to suggest that might not be the best choice.

Considering I sent most of our Zwilling-Henckels knives to the factory for sharpening a month ago, and they came back nearly ruined (2-3mm removed, and the bottom of the blade was not flat and even - and Zwilling wasn't responsive to my complaints!), I will have lots to practice with! (silver lining to a rather dark cloud!) - this prompted me to learn to sharpen!

Fixing up such knives after that treatment will need coarse, maybe extra coarse stones. Or a lot of very coarse sandpaper

Definitely spend some quality time on sharpening first. It's a highly rewarding skill
 
they came back nearly ruined 2-3 mm removed so for the ones with a full bolster they no longer can sit flat

Jesus Christ, how does one even do that? I have a bunch of ultra cheap no-name knives that I sharpen with my hobbyist belt sander that is pretty powerful and can only run flat out, but when I exercise just the least bit of caution I can produce a surprisingly nice edge and bevel without removing a noticeable amount of steel. It doesn't heat up the edge, either.

They must have forced those knives mercilessly against some industrial strength sander and held them there for half a minute. It wouldn't surprise me if the temper of the blade was ruined also.
 
Jesus Christ, how does one even do that? I have a bunch of ultra cheap no-name knives that I sharpen with my hobbyist belt sander that is pretty powerful and can only run flat out, but when I exercise just the least bit of caution I can produce a surprisingly nice edge and bevel without removing a noticeable amount of steel. It doesn't heat up the edge, either.

They must have forced those knives mercilessly against some industrial strength sander and held them there for half a minute. It wouldn't surprise me if the temper of the blade was ruined also.

I don't know about the temper, but I was very (unpleasantly) surprised.
 
Point well taken.

We are pausing to "absorb" the latest acquisitions. and with a sharpening stone I will be learning how to sharpen, too. Then once we're ready, it'll be time for other things. Agree that single sided edge might not be a good idea - you aren't the first to suggest that might not be the best choice.

Considering I sent most of our Zwilling-Henckels knives to the factory for sharpening a month ago, and they came back nearly ruined (2-3mm removed so for the ones with a full bolster they no longer can sit flat, and the bottom of the blade was not flat and even where flat and even was called for - and Zwilling wasn't responsive to my complaints), I will have lots to practice with (silver lining to a rather dark cloud!) - this prompted me to learn to sharpen!

You need to factor in how often you guys cook chicken (or fish), the full chicken price vs the equivalent in breasts and legs (with no carcass for yummy stock!) and multiply that difference for the number of chickens you cook in a year. That should give you a ballpark on wether a honesuki (or a deba for that matter) makes sense.

All that said, to me the equation was irrelevant. I want to be certain of what I eat, and it all begins with controling what I buy. I'd rather get a full chicken, break it down myself, portion, cook, make stock, etc. This is some very good make believe to justify more knives!

In the case of fish, my wife and I like doing lots of ceviche, and to me, that's as delicate as sushi. I would never buy pre cut fillets in a fishmonger for the fear of cross contamination, which will be near zero if you buy the fish in full.

I also tried to fillet a fish after having learned to do it with a deba with one of this flexible western fillet knives and I found it horrendous. I love my deba... and my honesuki!
 
I would never buy pre cut fillets in a fishmonger for the fear of cross contamination, which will be near zero if you buy the fish in full.

@guari That's interesting. I know nothing about British fishmongers, but that's something I've never considered worrying about. Maybe I should. What sort of contamination are you concerned about?
 
You need to factor in how often you guys cook chicken (or fish), the full chicken price vs the equivalent in breasts and legs (with no carcass for yummy stock!) and multiply that difference for the number of chickens you cook in a year. That should give you a ballpark on wether a honesuki (or a deba for that matter) makes sense.

You, Sir, are showing a ridiculous amount of restraint by only buying a particular knife when it's fiscally indicated. :D
 
@guari That's interesting. I know nothing about British fishmongers, but that's something I've never considered worrying about. Maybe I should. What sort of contamination are you concerned about?

I'm pretty sure it's an unfounded concern of contamination Dave, but it's the way I was brought up so it's ingrained in me.

For instance, acouple fishmongers I know sell "sushi grade" fish. I asked them both what sushi grade means and they told me that they can't label sushi grade if the flesh has touched, say raw scallops. So what they call sushi grade means it's been filleted on a "cleaner" table.

If I'll pan fry the fish I don't mind that they cut it up as it will get heat anyways..

At least that's kind of my home cook logic..
 
Sushi grade fish is the biggest American marketing ploy BS. I just rolled my eyes when I hear people say sushi grade fish. Because no one even knows what the hell that means. Doesn't matter anyway all fish even if it's cooked is going to be below 165. Somebody help me. [emoji44]
 
Sushi grade fish is the biggest American marketing ploy BS. I just rolled my eyes when I hear people say sushi grade fish. Because no one even knows what the hell that means. Doesn't matter anyway all fish even if it's cooked is going to be below 165. Somebody help me. [emoji44]

Yeah, I'm not advocating "sushi grade" at all, but I do trust my fishmonger when he says he has taken more time and dedication in handling the fish. I personally appreciate that. I usually buy a little bit of that tuna and have it raw with some soy while I prep whatever reasonably sized fish I bought. It's almost therapeutic to me.
 
I don't know about the temper, but I was very (unpleasantly) surprised.
Well at least one temper was ruined then. ;)

You need to factor in how often you guys cook chicken (or fish), the full chicken price vs the equivalent in breasts and legs (with no carcass for yummy stock!) and multiply that difference for the number of chickens you cook in a year. That should give you a ballpark on wether a honesuki (or a deba for that matter) makes sense.

All that said, to me the equation was irrelevant. I want to be certain of what I eat, and it all begins with controling what I buy. I'd rather get a full chicken, break it down myself, portion, cook, make stock, etc. This is some very good make believe to justify more knives!

In the case of fish, my wife and I like doing lots of ceviche, and to me, that's as delicate as sushi. I would never buy pre cut fillets in a fishmonger for the fear of cross contamination, which will be near zero if you buy the fish in full.

I also tried to fillet a fish after having learned to do it with a deba with one of this flexible western fillet knives and I found it horrendous. I love my deba... and my honesuki!

Honestly...calculating the costs of breaking down chicken & fish to figure out whether you should buy a honesuki or deba is total bogus. If you're that concerned about the costs you should get neither; just get a cheap 15 bucks Victorinox boner knife and/or filet knife. They do the job just as well.... just with less pleasure. Honesukis and debas are a luxury.
In the long run, whether breaking down your chicken makes sense depends not so much on how many you eat, but which parts you eat. Over here (Netherlands) no one wants the legs so they're sold priced low... same used to be the case with the thighs, but sadly prices have been picking up. It used to be nonsensical to buy whole chicken just to get thighs because they were already subsidized from the overpriced breasts. Nowadays it only makes sense if you want high-quality label rouge chicken or equivalent. Might be completely different in another country though.
 
i think of knives as more of a lifetime investment as a home cook, so value is spread out across years.

Those knives would add nicely to your collection. Breaking down a chicken feels so natural with a honesuki, and nakiris are great slicers.
 
You can probably do everything you need with a single knife, but there's a different Japanese knife design for different tasks. If you break down chickens regularly, it's a great knife to have.

The straight edge is good for slicing through chicken joints, the triangular point good for getting under silver skin on beef, the edge is good for working around bones including cutting through chicken ribs.
 
I penned a letter to Zwilling with the order number and my complaint - instead of calling again. Let's see what they do.
 
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