SUGGESTIONS NEEDED: durable chef knife taking heavy daily use (veggies)

I need to order 10" chef knives for daily heavy prep use and I like the victorinox, but my buddy tells me he swears by the dexter ones. Any suggestions? I will need like 100 of these and they need to cut lots of romaine and veggies, but be comfy and not get dull.

Welcome to the forum.

In that genre I like the Wustie Pro, avail in 8 and 10 inch. I assume since buying a hundred you're looking to outfit a crew? May want some of each size.

daveb said:

Welcome to the forum.

In that genre I like the Wustie Pro, avail in 8 and 10 inch. I assume since buying a hundred you're looking to outfit a crew? May want some of each size.

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thanks for the suggestion and the welcome Dave! How is this line compared to dexter or victorinox? My team currently uses cheap "update" brand chef knives and the major complaints are comfort along with getting dull too quickly. I generally use simple vg10/aebl knives at home and i find them easy to manipulate on the stone and the only stamped knife Ive ever used is the victorinox fibrox and it actually wasnt bad.

The issue is my guys will be banging on these 8-9 hours a day (cutting mostly romaine and some other veggies) and the only way to sharpen is with one of those electric ones.

My budget is around $30-40 per knife, but it really just has to be comfortable and hold an edge well. These "update" knives are horrible!

http://www.tojiro-japan.com/products/767/

I bought these for my crew, they are comfortable and have decent steel for the price. I like them for the money for beaters

SteveFromNY said:

thanks for the suggestion and the welcome Dave! How is this line compared to dexter or victorinox? My team currently uses cheap "update" brand chef knives and the major complaints are comfort along with getting dull too quickly. I generally use simple vg10/aebl knives at home and i find them easy to manipulate on the stone and the only stamped knife Ive ever used is the victorinox fibrox and it actually wasnt bad.

The issue is my guys will be banging on these 8-9 hours a day (cutting mostly romaine and some other veggies) and the only way to sharpen is with one of those electric ones.

My budget is around $30-40 per knife, but it really just has to be comfortable and hold an edge well. These "update" knives are horrible!

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum. The use of the term 'banging' brings up an interesting point. Everyone in the world can recommend one particular knife as having the best edge retention but careless use will likely yield disappointing results. An examination of how people are cutting and, very importantly, what they are cutting on could be far less costly that outfitting people with new knives. Comfort is completely subjective. Your best (but not really practical) solution there would be to let everyone choose their own knife. I'm sorry for not being more helpful than that.

You may want to consider buying a few 'singles' and putting them into service before you invest in a big purchase.

I have not been impressed by the UPDATE brand but, it serves a purpose for cheap entry level kitchen wares. Victorinox has always been a bit better overall for me but, the sharpness durability isn't going to be noticeably better IMHO.

I may have to try one of the Tojiro's shown above. It could be just the ticket out by the smoker.

Big +1 on Wusthof Pro. http://www.cutleryandmore.com/wusthof-pro/chefs-knife-p126427

You might find it cheaper elsewhere, or directly from Wusthof (!). Reach out to them. I would seriously consider fitting it into the budget somehow, even if it means only buying 90 knives.

They offer a 8", 9", 10" and 12". I find the 10" and 9" the best profile and length.

The Victorinox is a great player, but it's now outdated. The Wusthof is very impressive in comparison. Victorinox would be my second choice, while Zwilling Twin Master might be my third choice. Personally I wouldn't even consider the Dexter knives. They are a pain to sharpen and quite uncomfortable to use.

That's also a good idea to purchase one or two of each brand and test them for a week. This is what I'd do before ordering 100. :thumbsup:

I'd also look at the Wüsthof SilverPoint knives. They do offer a chef's knife in 26 cm, and the handle is pretty nice to hold, very slim. The knives have also got a pretty good geometry (i.e. decently thin behind the bevel) which is unfortunately not the rule nowadays.

if you are really buying a 100, I would start bargaining with the maker/importer directly. You should be able to work out a very good wholesale price on that kind of quantity. Don't settle for anything close to retail. I'm saying that as someone that used to sell as a disturber on more than one line.

stick with dexter, you can get them cheap, plus theyre really tall. and if you can, find a sharpener who will do bulk thinning.

If LB1000C would be here he would perhaps reccomend this one https://www.samura.org/en/1351-samura-harakiri-chefs-knife-82quot-208-mm-hardness-59-hrc-en-pp.

As a budget edge-for-the-buck choice it makes more sense to me than Wushoff. In my admittedly limited experience the edge retention of Aus8 is noticeably better than Krupps 1.4116.

Don't get me wrong Wusties and Vics are great if you follow the "if you pick up your knife you pick up your steel" style but otherwise tomato worthy edges are somewhat shortlived imo.

Krupps steel is more of a balanced knife steel than a hardcore edge retainer. Dishwasher safe, sharpens easy, takes a very fine edge. If you want to go electric sharpener and bang away why not consider a high carbon larger carbide type of wear resistant tool steel. You can find affordable Aus8 or equivalent knives from pretty much anywhere except Germany or France.

Inexpensive, OK AUS8? I'd say Samura, but they would be a tad flimsy for the use suggested...

Maybe make a deal with the zhen Taiwanese company that uses vg10?

I would be really curios at what price you could get the Zhens in bulk order. Amazon price is a bit beyond budget but......

@merlijny2k lol ... didn't see your post, recommended it two posts later

The thing with these is, thin blade and neck and no true distal taper (what is there is from the spine cut intersecting the geometry. so no, not a kiwi-like scandi-scandal ), and quite light. So, more of a household light beater that doesn't, for that price, completely suck.

@LBC I didn't look at the weight 110 grams is really light indeed. Still there must be some option where you can digress from the basic steel without going way out price wise. Chinese knives typically come with lots of unnecessary bling but still. Something like a Xinzuo 440C might be worth a try https://m.nl.aliexpress.com/s/item/...2g0n.search-cache.0.0.2debd298nr1IrA#autostay
One of the better known Chinese brands that has been around for a while.