How many kitchen knives do you own?

[YumYumSauce]

See, if I worked in a place where I felt I couldn't bring a $1k knife into, I'd probably look for another job. And buy 2-3 $300-400 knives in the meantime

Fortunately I havent had that experience either. But Ive heard stories and who knows where I might end up in the short term in this current environment. Sometimes Id rather play it safe than sorry.

 

[Leon.B]

I can sincerely thank you all guys. I have 13 (including 2 paring, 1 bread and a filleting knife) and I'll get more, no doubt about it. I don't feel bad at all because buying and using knives to cook (j knives in particular) makes me happy.. but, I have to admit, knowing someone else shares the same experiences, in a small way, make it better.

 

[Chips]

Picture in your mind a hoarders home with barely enough space to walk between stacks and boxes, on two floors plus a garage. I found a listing on Craigslist for some nice vintage Sabs and Japanese woodblock prints here in San Francisco a few years ago. The guy was very old and very, very hard of hearing and had been buying mostly knives for the past 45 or more years. He had 5 of these Craftsman Tools style tool boxes overflowing with just chefs knives and even more in boxes. I spent 3 hours carefully combing thru them (most of them junk) to cull out the good ones that some day I'll restore.

That guy definitely had us beat!
View attachment 107693

So, curiosity got the best of me and I just checked, the guy still has the Japanese woodblock prints he also collected for sale, so I'd assume he still has a few thousand of the knives. I just reached out to him and might swing by again (for the woodblock print). I remember each drawer in these tool boxes being literally crammed full, so I could likely have missed something cool. If I go back, I'll look thru again and maybe pick up a few more if I find some decent ones. Nearly all of them were French chef's knives or American of cheaper style. If I find anything decent, I might consider doing a proxy buy, selling them for a tiny markup for my time.

Way, way buried in the back of his garage was a wooden cabinet with some very old unopened bottles of booze. I told him at the time that I was interested in those!

 

[ian]

So, @marc4pt0, how’s it going?

 

[ModRQC]

From crap to around 20 serious knives, then down to about 10 now - not counting cheap utilities, not counting about 10 other that were either returned or sold within a month or bought cheap as project/practice knives.

With retrospect, I'm now thinking exactly 13 would be the lucky number.

 

[timebard]

About 25 including beaters/junky knives. I believe I'm at 8 "KKF" knives, which is approaching what feels like a reasonable stable of users. Got a couple that aren't getting much love I need to sell/trade and many more on my list to try.

 

[Matus]

Somewhere around 15 with about 10 seeing regular use. Really trying hard not to become a collector. I am mostly settled with the most used knives for now, but sooner or later an itch to try something else will come

 

[RockyBasel]

I don’t think I have anything collectible per se - I top out at a Dalman, a Raquin, a couple of Y Tanaka, a Tou, use em all at work. I’m probably going to get a Kato at some point and use that at work too. But (at least right now) I wouldn’t get something I really wouldn’t want to bring to work.

Which Tou do you have and how do you find it?

 

[tgfencer]

At one stage or another I've had 86 knives pass through my hands, at least since I began keeping records.
Currently have 37 (not including my cheaper butcher knives).
If you subtract all my random single bevels, acquired when I naively thought I could source good fish for sushi in the mountains, and that now that mostly sit in a drawer and occasionally get polished, it's closer to 25.
If you subtract some duplicates and special blades I have stashed away for my future self, then I'm down to 20 or so.
Of that, 5 are either beaters or wife knives.
I rotate pretty consistently through the remaining 15.

 

[GorillaGrunt]

Which Tou do you have and how do you find it?

300mm sakimaru sujihiki, I think I got mine from Tosho, they’re also available from Ai & Om and Munemasa

 

[DrEriksson]

12 Swedish. 13 immigrants.

 

[GBT-Splint]

17. The 18th is in DHL's hands
I use them all eather at work or home.

Except for two of them (usuba and yanagiba). Unfortunately I just don't cook food that these two are made for.. About to cry sorry

 

[9fingeredknife]

10, 3 more coming by the middle of next year though. All but one have seen work inside a professional kitchen, but I still haven't put a handle on my Munetoshi Cleaver...

 

[GBT-Splint]

10, 3 more coming by the middle of next year though. All but one have seen work inside a professional kitchen, but I still haven't put a handle on my Munetoshi Cleaver...

You shouldn't talk about no Munetoshi cleaver.
Whispering *it's just not safe*

 

[marc4pt0]

So, @marc4pt0, how’s it going?

dang, calling me out eh?
~60, which includes my old Wusthot Ikons, Victorinox and Henkel classics etc. So about 50 fancy knives, which is about 1 or 2 too many.
All get used in random rotation.

 

[TM001]

Home cook, I currently have 13 knives including a bread knife.
2 Gyuto, 1 petty, 1 bunka
2 Sabatier chef, Sabatier paring, Sabatier stiff boning, bread, Henkel Chef, Victorinox flexible boning, Victorinox parer
I regularly use seven of them; the four J knives, flexible boning, bread knife, and a Sabatier chef for tough work. Three or four will be given away soon.

Forums are great for when wife says I have too many knives.

 

[Pensacola Tiger]

More than I care to count...

 

[pgugger]

20 "good" ones, plus a few cheap stainless paring, bread, and steak knives.

 

[rogue108]

Everything is around 27. 20 gyutos if you take out the petty's, paring, and Honesuki.

It's still too many for me. Some of the entry level J knives will be gifted and unused ones need to be sold. It should get me down to 13 gyutos.

 

[landshark]

Some where north of 60, in every day use maybe 8

 

[Ensis]

I admire the restraint of some of you here. I have around 25 KKF quality knives, mostly 240 and 210 gyutos, all Japanese. I enjoy the hobby and using them a lot. However, I think if the knives talked about here were not made in such limited quantities and were always available I probably wouldn't have so many. I guess that's part of the fun.

 

[preizzo]

12 Swedish. 13 immigrants.

, Sounds a bit strange

 

[preizzo]

I think around 150 being selling a lot last 1 ,5 years

 

[JAKsQandBrew]

I count myself as one of the lucky ones to get your "scraps" ... would love to know what you have decided are 'keepers' ... will have to get down to see Mr Ian and stop in after the whole C-19 BS ...

One of the things I love/hate about using really nice things is how many levels of nice things there are. I consider the stuff @MontezumaBoy lets go on BST to be my dream level knives. But if the stuff you let go are the scraps of someone else's scraps then I'm dreaming too low ;-)

 

[F-Flash]

20 in total...
11 gyutos
2 pairing
2 petty
2 cleavers
2 sujis
+ Munetoshi slicer

Could go down to 15, 10even if I had to for some reason.

 

[Hz_zzzzzz]

Have 35 now. Used all but 2. Regularly use maybe 5-10.

 

[DrEriksson]

, Sounds a bit strange

What can I say? I don’t discriminate based on nationality. (Actually I do. The Swedes live open in the kitchen, the immigrants are stoved away.

 

[ExistentialHero]

Maybe two dozen serious knives, plus a few beaters. I didn't intend to become a collector, but there's so many knives and they're so pretty... but everything I own gets used.

 

[dafox]

At one stage or another I've had 86 knives pass through my hands, at least since I began keeping records.
Currently have 37 (not including my cheaper butcher knives).
If you subtract all my random single bevels, acquired when I naively thought I could source good fish for sushi in the mountains, and that now that mostly sit in a drawer and occasionally get polished, it's closer to 25.
If you subtract some duplicates and special blades I have stashed away for my future self, then I'm down to 20 or so.
Of that, 5 are either beaters or wife knives.
I rotate pretty consistently through the remaining 15.

In the same land locked boat as you, wish I lived where I could easily buy fresh whole fish for sushi but I've not had any luck sourcing them in northern Colorado. All I can find is salmon and ahi tuna fillets from Whole foods and use a yanagiba for final prep, wish i could break down whole fish with a deba and source other types of fish. The only whole fish I can easily get are from an asoan supermarket but they don't look fresh enough for sushi and I dont trust how they have been handled, I'd only eat them cooked.

 

[Chips]

So, curiosity got the best of me and I just checked, the guy still has the Japanese woodblock prints he also collected for sale, so I'd assume he still has a few thousand of the knives. I just reached out to him and might swing by again (for the woodblock print). I remember each drawer in these tool boxes being literally crammed full, so I could likely have missed something cool. If I go back, I'll look thru again and maybe pick up a few more if I find some decent ones. Nearly all of them were French chef's knives or American of cheaper style. If I find anything decent, I might consider doing a proxy buy, selling them for a tiny markup for my time.

Way, way buried in the back of his garage was a wooden cabinet with some very old unopened bottles of booze. I told him at the time that I was interested in those!

Should I start a new thread? I feel like a dork quoting myself. But I thought for sake of continuity of the discussion I'd keep it together.

I just got back from the guys house again. Someone came thru a month ago and bought about "300" knives from him. Nearly all he had left was hundreds upon hundreds of Henkels and mostly stainless steel stuff. When I told him I was mainly interested in Japanese knives, he ran upstairs and came down with 4, 2 really beat-up debas and two thick bevel yanagibas. I bought the better of the two yanagiba, he estimated made maybe in the 1950's. The steel is very nice on it, not too used up either. Also got a Hiroshige woodblock print from him and a few old bottles of champagne, port, etc from the 80's and 90's. Fun morning!