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If I were a pro chef I would want a specific profile, very good all-arounder knife that meets certain qualities (edge retention, reactivity etc.) but I am not a pro chef. I'm a home cook.

So I'm not talking about yanagi, suji, deba, usuba stuff but when you have a bunch of gyutos in your block/drawer/saya bin do you select some for some duties and leave others for different cutting jobs? Or do you use one gyuto throughout during chopping session?

Even though I am looking for that silver bullet knife, in reality I use different knives for different things. My Ealy gets herb duty, my Carter and Tanaka santoku fine chopping duty, my DT ITK somehow gets segmenting fruit and squash duty.

The closest I get to all'rounders is probably my DT ITK 270, my Kikuichi TKC 'rusty', and my Martell.

How do you spread the wealth? Part of me just likes trying different knives every day, but some knives (to me at least) freakishly outperform others in certain areas.

k.
 
I pretty much use my gyutos for the same sorta things. I always use 2 gyutos and a 210 petty so the petty does the things the gyuto can't. There are some simple things like using the rounder profiled knives for mincing herbs, but otherwise they all do the same thing. I also try to use whichever one is less sharp for any sort of rock chopping I need to do but generally mine aren't really specialised.
 
I switch between a Hattori FH 240 and a Moritaka AS 240 or my recently acquired Konosuke Fujiyama 240. The Moritaka has a flatter profile, so I like it for shaving chives and other push cut things. The Hattori is stainless so I will use that on fruit and items that I'm not worried if the blade gets a little beat up. Suisin high carbon 165mm petty for small tasks,

Putting the Kono. through the work out so we'll see where that ends up. Probably my main all around knife since its a good blend of flat with a little belly up to a point.
 
The harder and tougher the material I have to cut, the thinner and more symmetric I go (aside from bones and coconuts). The thinner the slices, the thicker and more asymmetric I go. Anything that sticks, I have to resist the urge to cut with my Glestain.
 
Even at work I use different knives for different things. When I get to work I will unpack at least 3 knives and sometimes as many as 6 and put them in a hotel pan and slide it under the line at my station. Depending on what I feel like using, or what I know I have to do that day.

Dave Martell 300mm Suji or Devin Thomas Spicy White Gyuto for butternut squash.

Hiromoto AS 300mm Suji for slicing and dicing pancetta.

Shigefusa 270mm Kasumi Gyuto for dicing raw bacon.

Del Ealy 240mm Damascus Gyuto for slicing proteins during service.

There are some others but those came to mind immediately.
 
I use 210's on the line; 240's or better on the prep board. Usually semi-stainless on the line. I will grab a white #2 when ultimate sharpness is needed for a quick task; ZDP when I know I'm going to beat the crap out of it; Aogami for most other prep tasks.

I like stainless for bread, boning, filet, honesuki, etc... otherwise I usually choose some form of semi or full carbon.
 
...I like stainless for bread, boning, filet, honesuki, etc... otherwise I usually choose some form of semi or full carbon.
That's interesting. I would have expected the opposite. I like stainless mainly for fruit and other acidic materials. To me, carbon seems nicer for meat.
 
I have played around with a cleaver the last few weeks at work. This is my very first one and I'm impressed about how it performs. Handles tough jobs easily (celeryroot felt like butter) and fine cuts no problem either. That said, I use my Carter funa about 70% of the time, awesome tool :D Both are stainless so no worries about reactiveness ...
 
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