What would you change about this collection

[Rangen]

The most meat breakdown I’ll do is a chicken or fish maybe once a month but my 135 petty has never left me wanting. Do meat/butcher specific knives really do the job better?

For chicken, probably not, though I do often reach for a cheap, soft-steel, plastic-handled butcher knife, just so as not to risk chips in my good knives.

For fish, a thin, flexible blade can be a real advantage when filleting; add "long" to that if you are filleting large fish. I think I get cleaner and more comprehensive fillets with such a tool.

Where I really appreciate my butcher knives is for things like removing that weird-shaped bone from a pork shoulder, or stripping the meat from pork ribs.

 

[Logan A.]

If you find you do everything happily with a gyuto and petty (which your collection indicates) then perhaps get some more Pettys to compliment your gyuto. I find it’s fun to have a collection function as individual “sets” of knives that can be rotated through.

 

[Jovidah]

The most meat breakdown I’ll do is a chicken or fish maybe once a month but my 135 petty has never left me wanting. Do meat/butcher specific knives really do the job better?

Yes, but it's not a miracle cure. With good technique you can break apart chickens, fillet fish and trim meats with just about anything...but having the right tool for the job makes it easier and more enjoyable. It's no substitute for technique though; if you suck at taking apart proteins you'll still suck no matter the knife... and if you're decent at it you'll still be decent no matter the knife.

But I like having them in my lineup...however it also depends on what you buy / your diet. If you never do things you use these knives for it might not make sense. I save a lot of money buying larger cuts of meat that I break down and trim myself... something I really wouldn't want to do with a gyuto.
I buy a good amount of whole birds / bird legs so my honesuki sees quite a lot of use. Similarly my (actually quite cheap) western filleting knife comes out just about anytime I buy fish at the market because no way in hell am I letting them fillet my fish at their cross-contamination board that doesn't get washed the entire day because they have 0 flowing water.

Sujis I'm actually a bit on the fence about. I both quite like them as slicers yet at the same time I have to say a gyuto of similar length doesn't seem to really do all that much worse. Best get both a 270 gyuto and sujihiki to make up your own mind.

 

[captaincaed]

It's a tough question to try to answer for another person. What's the spirit of the question: more of a "what would be useful that I'm missing" or "what would be collectible" or "how would you change it to your own (the respondant's) tastes?"

If it's totally free-form I say sell all the damascus, since damascus is for beginners (except the wakui, you always keep the wakui). Before you do that, find out which of your knives you really liked and want to use all the time. Find out which other knives out there are like that, but better suited to your own style (e.g. Dimensions, weight, balance, etc.) read a bunch of forum posts and ask a bunch of members questions, maybe even ask for a loaner. When you find one you love, go buy one of those. Fall in love. Have a torrid romance that lasts for years and spurs you on to acts of insanity like making your own saya by hand, using a sheet of sandpaper on a granite block and hand sanding for an hour to get the damn pieces of wood flat enough to glue properly then curse yourself when you take a ding out of the interior cavity with a chisel at the 11th hour so now you need a saya pin since the friction fit is lost so you grab a cribbage peg from your set (because let's face it no one wants to play cribbage anymore) and it's the perfect fit for the job and then you put on 175 coats of finish because thats what all the gun nerds say to do with gun stock oil after you're done the wood saya kind of feels like plastic and you wish you'd stopped at like 4 or 5 coats because it would feel more like wood and be plenty protected since it's sitting in a drawer not hunting ducks in fall in New Hampshire but there's no way in hell you're sanding it back down to bare wood and starting over and you make peace with it and you look at it and fall back in love all over again.



Then you sell it because you're a ruthless pirate and someone offered you a Yanick for it NO WAIT DON'T!!

 

[panda]

if you a fan of using push cut technique should try a masamoto ks.

 

[KrnSeoulja]

My current lineup. Take 2 knives away and add 2 knives back to make this more ideal in your eyes ^^

- MSicard Wolfram Spesh 250x55
- Wakui B2 Dama 242x50
- Sakai Takayuki G3 Dama 230x48
- Kagekiyo B1 Dama 228x49
- Munetoshi Bloomery 215x49
- Tetsujin B2 (exMetal Flow) 205x46
- Kikuchiyo Izo G3 205x50
- Moritaka AS 180x60
- Sakai Takayuki G3 Dama 167x45
- Kai Seki AUS8 135x29

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Shudders in rectangle cult*
(Not actually looking to make big moves at the moment without more time with a few of the newer ones but I like hearing about other people’s thought processes and values are when it comes to this hobby)

Maybe add some slicers? I love gyutos but needs some other types of knives. Still a very nice collection!

 

[cooktocut]

If it's totally free-form I say sell all the damascus, since damascus is for beginners

Not all the advice you get on here is good @Blumbo

 

[Genghis_F]

And get an Okubo. You need some thiccness in your life.

Came to say this

 

[rickbern]

if you a fan of using push cut technique should try a masamoto ks.

Ideally a mizuno ks