If you only had 1k budget... What knives would you buy to use at home?

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stringer said:
Hey now. Y'all are conflating budget categories. I don't know how it works in your household but in mine whiskey and washita budget is settled before we even start talking about knives. What good is a knife if you don't have tools to keep it sharp and some whiskey to drink while you sharpen it?
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Wisdom.
 
Out of the knives I have:
$375: Manaka Hamono Kisuke Blue #1 Gyuto 240mm. Used and still had laquer on it, "test cuts" or something
$439: TF Denka 195mm
$140: Morihei Hisamoto Korouchi White #1 Nakiri 165mm
$40: Henkels classic 4" paring
Total: 994

I don't personally need a stainless blade or a yanagi/suji. A cleaver would be too tall and wreck my already destroyed shoulder, so that's out.
240 for big stuff, 195 for other stuff. Nakiri because it's fun and makes me smile. Paring knife because it's there. I don't like the Henkels paring knife at all to be honest. It came in a set my parents got for me 10+ years ago. I hardly use a paring knife anyway so I haven't yet justified a better one.
 
1k wishlist.JPG
 
Mutsumi Hinoura Kurouchi Gyoto 240mm White 2 - $ 320
Miura Itadaki Gyoto 210 White 2 (Yoshikazu Tanaka) - $ 278
Migoto Nakagawa Sujihiki 270mm White 2 - $297
Victorinox Bonning knife - $25
Victorinox Fibrox 10" (Beater) - $40
Cheap Bread knife - $15
 
adrianopedro said:
Mutsumi Hinoura Kurouchi Gyoto 240mm White 2 - $ 320
Miura Itadaki Gyoto 210 White 2 (Yoshikazu Tanaka) - $ 278
Migoto Nakagawa Sujihiki 270mm White 2 - $297
Victorinox Bonning knife - $25
Victorinox Fibrox 10" (Beater) - $40
Cheap Bread knife - $15
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Where are you finding a 240 hinoura in stock for 320!! Haha
 
stringer said:
Hey now. Y'all are conflating budget categories. I don't know how it works in your household but in mine whiskey and washita budget is settled before we even start talking about knives. What good is a knife if you don't have tools to keep it sharp and some whiskey to drink while you sharpen it?
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Well at least I'm not the only one who thinks, uh several whiskeys in, what a great time to sharpen my knives!
 
As long as I don't have to count wife's knives which I use for hard squash and bread.

Toyama 240 Gyuto, around $450
Dalman 225 Gyuto, around $450
Wakui 150 petty, $130
Victorinox boning, $25

I am over 1k, but it might have made it under if the exchange rate hadn't tanked when I purchased the first two.
 
Few of my own knives (i.e. lots of confirmation bias... :)

Wat pro (Toyama) 210/225 mm - 400
165 Munetoshi petty (mini gyuto) - 150
Herder carbon paring - 25
Pick a 200-300 usd sujihiki (I have a 250mm Masamoto) - 250
CCK cleaver - 75
Mac Pro bread knife - 100
 
stringer said:
Alright I'll play.

Kanehide Bessaku 240 $100
Kanehide Petty $80
Tosa Nakiri $50
Chinese Grocery Veggie Cleaver $16
Chinese Grocery Meat Cleaver $23
Vintage American 12" Beater $40
Cutco Peeler $40
Cheap Oyster Knife $9
Forgecraft Boning Knife $12
Ontario Old Hickory 14" Butcher Knife (for a slicer) $30

And then spend the other $600 on a nice independent maker.
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Love my Forgecraft boning knife. Should have put that in my list. If I’m boning out a pork shoulder, it’s coming out of the drawer.
 
Vancouverguy said:
Crazy to see that 1K can't get you much these days!
When would you grab your CCK1303, vs a gyuto? I tend to only grab a cleaver when I cut things with bone. But the 1303 looks thin!
I don't think we can even get any kippington knives right now he isn't taking any orders on his Instagram


Hopefully this can be a thread to help some folks looking for suggestions for new members to dig deeper into the rabbit hole
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I'm not sure you made it clear when you said "cleaver" whether you meant a western style large bone chopper or the Chinese style knife normally meant more for vegetables and other soft food items. I prefer something larger than the 1303 but a lot of my cooking consists of a fusion of Chinese and South East Asian. That makes a "Chinese" cleaver very essential. Do home cooks ever really need to wack large pork and cattle bones these days?
 
Option 1
Migoto White 1 270 (257) mm gyuto: $510
Migoto White 2 150 mm petty: $200
CCK 1303 cleaver: $60
Victorinox paring: $7

Runnerup for gyuto: Toyama 240 mm Damascus or stainless clad: <$500 for either

Option 2
Migoto White 1 240 (225) mm gyuto: $430
Migoto White 2 270 (257) mm sujihiki: $300
Migoto White 2 150 mm petty: $200
Victorinox paring: $7

Clearly I have a new obsession with Migoto at the moment. Option 2 is theoretical since I don’t own the suji and just ordered the gyuto and petty.
 
lots of people here are choosing to include a stainless and a carbon steel gyuto. why do you feel you need both?
 
zorkieo said:
lots of people here are choosing to include a stainless and a carbon steel gyuto. why do you feel you need both?
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Carbon is fun, stainless is practical. Nobody needs both but IMO a stainless 180-210 and a carbon 225-250 is a sensible combo for home use. Bulk prep with the bigger knife, clean and store, use smaller knife for minor cutting tasks while you cook and then you don't have to worry about leaving it out dirty while you eat. I've got a custom 190x48 on the way I'm hoping can be my go-to for the latter role.
 
timebard said:
Carbon is fun, stainless is practical. Nobody needs both but IMO a stainless 180-210 and a carbon 225-250 is a sensible combo for home use. Bulk prep with the bigger knife, clean and store, use smaller knife for minor cutting tasks while you cook and then you don't have to worry about leaving it out dirty while you eat. I've got a custom 190x48 on the way I'm hoping can be my go-to for the latter role.
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Agree with this. All my knives 180mm or less are stainless, everything over 220 is carbon. My 210s are stainless or stainless-clad carbon. Didn’t realize it till just now, I must’ve just made those decisions unconsciously based on my usage patterns or some weird internal preference. Plus sharpening a big carbon knife is a lot easier than a big stainless.

It does seem like I often forget one or two small ingredients then I grab a 180 to cut them and leave it on the board just in case.
 
I'd use the entire $1,000 on just one gyuto—maybe a 225 extra height denka with a custom handle in koa; or a 1k custom gyuto from a top end western maker. That'll be all I'll need at home—I'll make do without a petty or suji.
 
Shibata Sabertooth-(Tank just sold for $400)
Kobayashi 165 Red Nakiri-$250
Kono 210 HD-$200
Hinokuni 210 Nakiri-$99 (base) $179 after a couple things
If I didn't add the frills it would come in under 1k.
 
I don’t quite hit the $1000 mark...

What I’ve got now:
Ashi Hamono custom White #2 Cleaver ($230, used)
ShiBaZi F208-2 stainless Cleaver ($40)
Tanaka VG-10 wa petty ($55)
Kotobuki carbon Nakiri ($22)
Victorinox Paring ($7)
Tojiro ITK Bread knife ($63)

It comes to $417.

If I had to re-buy it all, I’d probably go with the somewhat-heavier stock Gesshin cleaver, since Ashi doesn’t do customs any more. The ShiBaZi is still the shiznit for a beater, so I’d get that again for sure. And for the petty, I might get the upgraded Knives and Stones version in ginsan with octagonal handle. Or maybe try a 180mm gyuto or something like a Munetoshi or a TF petty. But since the petty and the nakiri are pretty much the wife knives, I’m not sure I can stray too far- she complains when I get something different!

Not totally sure what I'd do about the bread knife. I do make crusty boules from time to time, but I don't really love the Tojiro. Downgrading to something cheaper would probably still work fine, but with the toothy edge, I'd probably want to use the smaller cutting board, rather than my good one, so that's a bit of an inconvenience. Or I could upgrade to the Mac bread knife.
 
I'm going thourgh this process right now, all bought/buying in AUD but converted to USD below. Only dealing with Fruit and Veg so a pretty delicate bunch.

Just picked up
Yoshida Hamono Aogami 2 190mm Bunka - $130
Tojiro DP VG10 135mm Petty - $50

Planning on getting
Leung Tim Chopper 210mm Carbon Veg Cleaver - $50

Deciding on these 3 after getting a hands on feel.
Konosuke GS+ 240mm Gyuto - $265
Kaiden AX 210mm or 240mm Gyuto - $220 or $235
Hitohira Ashi Hamono Shirogami #2 210mm Gyuto - $280

So between $450 to $510 and the rest on Sake
 
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