Who or what led you here?

[Marko Tsourkan]

A quest for truth... and later a quest for perfection...

Haven't found either, but I haven't quit looking...

 

[CompE]

I got fed up with the junk department store knives that I had and wanted to get something better. I started looking at various German sets, and maybe a set of Shuns on Amazon. All of the reviewers were praising themselves for their wise purchase of the most expensive sets that they could find, and I was getting ready to pull the trigger when I found one reviewer said that they were junk. He mentioned various Japanese entry-level knives as being much better quality for less money. That led to Google searches which led to KF where I spent about a year lurking and reading archives before finally buying a gyuto and some stones.

Being very patient and doing a lot of research before each purchase, I think that I've reached a zen point with knives where I can be content to just buy what I need and know that I don't need to find that ultimate blade of each profile. Instead, I can be content that whatever I buy for a given profile is going to be 90% of the way to my own definition of "perfect". I currently only have 1 gyuto (a stainless-steel laser) and I might get a "mighty gyuto" at some point; but I know that I will never own the dozen or so gyutos that I once wanted.

I wish I could say the same about stones. I don't have a huge collection, but the 10 or so that I have is way more than necessary. I know that I could never part with any of my stones and there's still at least a half dozen more that will eventually get. Fortunately, I've been able to keep myself from getting into natural stones (and don't you enables try to start me on that!)

 

[Amon-Rukh]

I've always liked knives but it wasn't until a few years ago that I actually started being able to buy decent ones. I was really happy with my first good German knives when I got them, but after about a year and a half my interest in pocketknives and folders lead me to KF. And what I found there was some sort of shambles of a kitchen knife forum that had been super vibrant of full of interesting old posts but then something had happened just a bit before I arrived that had resulted in some sort of deranged internet drama which caused a lot of members to flee. And so I set about trying to find the place that all these knowledgeable people had apparently escaped to, and whaddaya know--here they all are!

 

[Cadillac J]

I was researching Globals, Shuns and Wusthofs about 4 years ago after my no-name knives and Chef's Choice electric sharpener weren't cutting it anymore. Originally I wanted the Shuns, but they were the priciest and I was worried about not being able to use a steel on them (from what I read about Japanese being too brittle ), so I purchased a set of Wusthof Classic Ikons instead. When I realized they weren't cutting as good as the Forschner I used at my old kitchen job back in college, I decided to research sharpening with stones, and ordered some Norton waterstones and learned to sharpen decently. This was okay for me for a while after this.

Then, one day my girlfriend and I were going out to a movie and were early, so we stopped into the Sur la Table nearby...tried a Shun and Global out and immediately purchased the G-2 after making a few cuts. I did a search to see if there was anything I needed to know about sharpening the Global convex edge and found KF. I lurked for a bit as I read as much as I could, then I started an account to ask some direct questions and it quickly became an obsession.

 

[Lucretia]

About 20 years ago, I went to a food & wine conference (the keynote speakers were Julia Child and Jacques Pepin. They were marvelous.) Anyway, during one of the Q&A sessions, an audience member asked what knife they should get--the practically unianimous response was--Wusthof. And there were a couple "Henckels is good, too." So here we are 20 years later, and I'm limping along with a couple of Henckels and our wedding present knives (Carvel Hall, anyone? Geniune Molybdenum Steel!) and there was a Wusthof Ikon Santoku on a big clearance at the department store. Since I'd never tried a Wusthof, I snatched it up, and liked it enough better than the knives I had been using that it was time for an upgrade. We ran into a local chef and asked what he recommended--Shun, but he really liked carbon steel. So off to research carbon steel knives. Of course then one starts running across Sur la Table (definitely a level of hell if you go there in person) and the Zwilling Kramer knives. Someone on this forum did a favorable review comparing the ZK to a custom Kramer, and I ordered one. And I like it. A LOT. And found out that there's a lot more out there than department store knives. (Like my Ryusens.) This has been a good place to get educated before the next major purchase...

 

[kalaeb]

About 20 years ago, I went to a food & wine conference (the keynote speakers were Julia Child and Jacques Pepin. They were marvelous.) Anyway, during one of the Q&A sessions, an audience member asked what knife they should get--the practically unianimous response was--Wusthof. And there were a couple "Henckels is good, too." So here we are 20 years later, and I'm limping along with a couple of Henckels and our wedding present knives (Carvel Hall, anyone? Geniune Molybdenum Steel!) and there was a Wusthof Ikon Santoku on a big clearance at the department store. Since I'd never tried a Wusthof, I snatched it up, and liked it enough better than the knives I had been using that it was time for an upgrade. We ran into a local chef and asked what he recommended--Shun, but he really liked carbon steel. So off to research carbon steel knives. Of course then one starts running across Sur la Table (definitely a level of hell if you go there in person) and the Zwilling Kramer knives. Someone on this forum did a favorable review comparing the ZK to a custom Kramer, and I ordered one. And I like it. A LOT. And found out that there's a lot more out there than department store knives. (Like my Ryusens.) This has been a good place to get educated before the next major purchase...

Which Zwilling Kramer did you end up with? 8" or 10". Glad you like it either way, I hear it is an excellent performer, thinking about trying one myself.

 

[Lucretia]

Which Zwilling Kramer did you end up with? 8" or 10". Glad you like it either way, I hear it is an excellent performer, thinking about trying one myself.

I have the 5" utility knife. It's a size I use a lot, and was a less expensive way to try the knife. I've tried one of the chef's (maybe the 8"?) since I got this one, but it seemed a little tall for my taste.