Knife recommendation

Location:

USA

Knife Type:

Chef Knife
Utility
Paring
Cleaver

Right Handed

Either but prefer Western (visually anyway)

10" and 8" for the Chef, standard for the others. Prefer the Utility to be serrated but not required. Or maybe 2, one plain one serrated.

Stainless or Carbon is fine, whatever is sharper and stays that way longer. Nothing that will chip to easily but it has to be sharp.

$200 - $600 for everything, bulk of it on the Chef's knife. Wide budget since not everything expensive is good or needed for what they will be used for.

Knife Use:

Home use but on a semi frequent basis. 3 to 5 times a week.

All those tasks will be done. Some bone work too.

Replacing crappy bargain $1 - $15 knives.

All grips will be used. Finger point and pinch being a bit more common.

Push cut, Slice, Rock, Draw, Chop, Walking. In the order from common to least.

Current knives are garbage "celebrity chef" crap from Big Lots, Walmart, etc. Anything is an improvement.

Function over aesthetics 100% but it would be nice for the knife to look decent and visually look like they were worth the money. Stain resistance. Damascus is beautiful. Knife shape in general. Knuckle clearance on the chef knife.

Prefer lighter knife but it doesnt matter. It just needs to cut very well.

Sharp out the box (I will learn to sharpen soon on stone) And overall needs to be really sharp.

Prefer to go long as possible without sharpening but it doesnt really matter.

Knife Maintenance:

None yet, will be getting whatever is good. Wood, bamboo, rubber, etc. Whatever you recommend for the knives you suggest me.

SPECIAL REQUESTS/COMMENTS:

Finger/knuckle clearance so they dont hit the cutting board at all when using the knives. (Chef knife anyway)

This is all a gift for my mother. She has arthritis (some days its bad) and its painful for her to use her current and any average knife to cook with, especially with meat. So they have to be really sharp and be as easy to cut as possible. She never owned a decent knife and now that I am beginning to make money I want to get something that will make it really easy for her. She loves to cook and she deserves a great set of knives. I will be doing the care and sharpening and maintenance of the blades for her.

While the knives should be focused on quality and being a good knife, it would be nice if they looked stunning as well.

Any decent sharpening guides for the knives and stones and materials along with cutting boards would be great too.

All the above info is based on what I have observed and what she has told me.

Good on you for looing after mum.

Most of the knves recommended here will blow her mind as regards sharpness. The downside is that they have hard brittle edges that can chip when rocked or walked (the problem is sideways forces on the fragile edge) or if used on bones or frozen food.

Are we looing only at stainless knives?

Nemo said:

Good on you for looing after mum.

Most of the knves recommended here will blow her mind as regards sharpness. The downside is that they have hard brittle edges that can chip when rocked or walked (the problem is sideways forces on the fragile edge) or if used on bones or frozen food.

Are we looing only at stainless knives?

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Stainless or carbon. As long as the edge is sharp. As for the cleaver, something that wont break chopping hard meats and bone.

Bumping for visibility

Really nice to see someone doing something nice for their mother. Respect.

To start off right, before knives or stones, invest in a good end grain cutting board. Perhaphs the other members can direct you to a source, but even amazon has a bunch of choices between 50-100$.

Would she be ok with trying Japanese style handles as they MIGHT be easier to grip for someone with arthritis.

Just a suggestion for you, maybe to start get one chefs knife (gyuto) because they are most versatile, in japanese style, possibly something more reactive (will rust easy), to see if 1) the handle is comfortable 2) can keep it dry 3)sharp enough

If 1 & 2 is a no go for her at least you can take it over [emoji14]

Hope that helps a little bit, Im sure anything you buy you mother will love

I'd start with a gyuto and a petty. I use a gyuto for 90% of my prep. A petty and a suji each get around 5%. You can use a gyuto in place of a suji without too much compromise.

I'd start with stainless or semistainless knife unless you are cerain that mum will be able to maintain a carbon knife.

Tanaka Ginsanko Najishi is a good cutter. Moderatly thin with a moderatly curved profile. The stainless G3 steel has reasonable edge retention.

Shiro Kamo Syousin Suminagashi is a little thicker but has better food release. The profile is a little flatter but not completely flat. The blade is quite tall. The stainless R2 steel has excellent edge retention. The blade has an understated damascus pattern.

Gengetsu from JKI is a great cutter. My semistainless (stainless clad) is a little thicker than my Tanaka but with much better food release. Brilliant tradeoff between thinness and food release. Moderately flat peofile. Edge retntion not bad.

Yoshikane SKD hammmered (tsuchime) is a stainless clad semistainless knife which is thicker but with excellent food release. A really flat profile. Pretty good edge retention.

Other knives that are often recommended in this situation are Intomonn (semi) stainless and some of the other JKI offerings. I haven't used any of them so I'll leave commentry to those who have.