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

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Vancouverguy

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I'm curious what people come up with. I know availability is an issue for some knives and inflation / supply / demand....
If you're vegetarian, I understand your kitchen knife needs are different than a person who eats a lot of fish or meat and may not need a cleaver.... or a yanagi

@nakiriknaifuwaifu for an example uses a watanabe pro gyuto as a vegetarian and not a nakiri..., or anything else

General guideline :
1 Carbon Gyuto
1 Stainless Gyuto
1 Nakiri
1 Cleaver
1 Paring knife
1 Yanagi


Current new knives you can buy following the guidelines I set out example not including shipping.
Mutsumi Hinoura 210mm Gyuto $285
Shibata R2 Battleship 195mm Gyuto $245
TF Maraboshi nakiri 165mm 27500 yen $(237 ish)
Arcos Cleaver 180mm $65
Misono paring knife $57
Tojiro w2 Yanagi $63
Total : 952


This is my personal kitchen knife set I currently use on a regular basis. I included the date I bought the knife and the price just for reference as you may have gotten a kato or shig or some unicorn for cheap back in the day.

My current collection that I use:
Zwilling Kramer Carbon 1.0, 210mm $160 used 2022
Shig Ku Nakiri 165mm $285 new 2021
Shiro Kamo SG2 Bunka 170mm $180 used 2022
Shun Paring knife $40 used 2021
Zwilling Cleaver 150mm $75 new 2019
Random carbon Japanese Yanagi 210mm $? new 2018 when I went to japan
Yoshikane family name Garasuki 180mm $? new 2018 when I went to japan
 
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Good question...

If we're going by current (non-sale/bst) prices and starting from scratch:

1 Carbon Gyuto - 230-240mm Kippington workpony in 52100 - $540
1 Stainless Gyuto - 210mm Yoshikane SKD hammered - $250
No nakiri
1 Cleaver - CCK 1303 - $62
1 Paring knife - Vnox - $4
No yanagi
1 Petty - 150mm S Tanaka ginsan - $120

That's $976... Add in a cheapo bread knife and boning knife and we'll call it a grand.

If I get to pick from my collection with what I paid, I'd do these two gyutos and everything else the same:

240mm Kippington workpony in AEBL - $475
230mm Spare honyaki - $320
 
Well, I'm pretty happy with my current kit.

240mm Forgecraft: $60
Gesshin Uraku 210 stainless: $150?
Shun petty: ..... $80 maybe?
CCK 1303: $80
Masahiro 270 suij: $120
Tanaka ginsan: $120
Mystery carbon funayuki: $30
Mercer breadknife: $11
Clyde 12'' carbon monster pizza and watermelon killer: $30

$681 total
 
Good question...

If we're going by current (non-sale/bst) prices and starting from scratch:

1 Carbon Gyuto - 230-240mm Kippington workpony in 52100 - $540
1 Stainless Gyuto - 210mm Yoshikane SKD hammered - $250
No nakiri
1 Cleaver - CCK 1303 - $62
1 Paring knife - Vnox - $4
No yanagi
1 Petty - 150mm S Tanaka ginsan - $120

That's $976... Add in a cheapo bread knife and boning knife and we'll call it a grand.

If I get to pick from my collection with what I paid, I'd do these two gyutos and everything else the same:

240mm Kippington workpony in AEBL - $475
230mm Spare honyaki - $320


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
 
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!

When you feel like it. Different tradeoffs... you can scoop food more easily, smash garlic satisfyingly, and you have more leverage because of the heel height, and a bit more weight for chop-chop. Sometimes the lower height of a gyuto is nice tho. Less sticky, more maneuverable. Just depends on what you want in life.
 
From the current knife I own

Gesshin Ginga Cleaver-$330
Yoshikane 240mm SKD gyuto-$360
CCK 1302- $65
Vic paring- $5
Generic meat cleaver-$20
Generic bread knife-$20
Vic beater chef knife-$40
Rest of the money goes to what ever I need, probably more paring or get a Sugimoto no.6 instead of Gesshin
 
From the current knife I own

Gesshin Ginga Cleaver-$330
Yoshikane 240mm SKD gyuto-$360
CCK 1302- $65
Vic paring- $5
Generic meat cleaver-$20
Generic bread knife-$20
Vic beater chef knife-$40
Rest of the money goes to what ever I need, probably more paring or get a Sugimoto no.6 instead of Gesshin

A lot of Cleavers!! I like your style!!
 
Don’t know what that means but I have been saying this for quite a while now. All I really need is one (!) good gyuto. I am happy to know what I like. Everything else for me isn’t worth it…

making us all jealous. Will be up for the next massdrop drop! and for sure look at the B/S/T If there is a day where one gets up there
 
Martell 240 - ~$590 (I think that was my most recent purchase after taxes.)
Mac Pro Paring - $60
Victorinox Boning - $30
Gesshin 2k - $95

$775
 
From my current collection:

HSC/// 270 gyuto - $40 (raffle)
Felippi mini cleaver - $270
Toyama 240 SS gyuto - $370
Wustof Ikon flexible fillet - $110
and…
Misen Chef knife - $60 (can opener)

Total: $850

If I got one of those new Markin’s for $250 it would have made the list
 
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I paid 50 euros for Gekko blue steel #2 kurouchi bunka knife and 70 euros for an used Shun Pro Sho yanagiba. I can do pretty much everything in my kitchen with those two relatively inexpensive knives. The rest I would splurge on some quality wine and Japanese whetstones.
 
I already have home knives. I would spend the grand on a watch. Or camera. Or wimin and whiskey. Or just waste it.....
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Man, gotta make some sacrifices to keep it under $1k... here goes. 2 cleavers and 3 Vics. Forget the Japanese gyutos.

Tanaka Carbon Cleaver $700
CCK 1912 Stainless Cleaver $65
Victorinox 8" $33
Victorinox 5" $15
Victorinox 3.5" $10

Total $825
 
Man, gotta make some sacrifices to keep it under $1k... here goes. 2 cleavers and 3 Vics. Forget the Japanese gyutos.

Tanaka Carbon Cleaver $700
CCK 1912 Stainless Cleaver $65
Victorinox 8" $33
Victorinox 5" $15
Victorinox 3.5" $10

Total $825


wow are you also working out with that cleaver! just wow that looks massive at ~500 grams!! sounds like I should downsize my gyutos and use a chuka bocho instead!!!

I guess there's so much more flare when you're prepping garlic when you're smacking it onto your cutting board and hopes it is 90% slightly crushed, peeled and minced already.
 
Takeda AS nakiri - $350
Toyama 270 sujihiki - $400
Takagi santoku - $120
Victorinox bread knife - $45
Whatever beat up old gem of a sabatier or similar I could get my hands on with the balance.
 
Kippington/Isasmedjan 240 carbon 550usd
Old global g2 40usd
Japanese cleaver 130usd
Sakai Kikumori 260ish gyutohiki 70usd

Rest cheap parers, breadknife, misc sizes from Pallares, zwillings/Vics etc to get the 1k
 
I could easily live with half, say 500€. KAMON serial gyuto (not to be confused with the recent mass drop knife) plus cheap parer, petty, wavy tomato and bread knife. But it wasn’t the question how low we can stay but if we could spend 1k…

I do like the idea of spending some of the budget on really good wine, rum or Sake.
 
I would order a Prendergast chef's of 235mm. I like some weight, its distal taper, still some forward balance, great food release, F&F. Add a vintage Sab slicer, a stainless 180mm petty, a Herder peeling knife and I'm fine.
 
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

I mean, $1k can get you a bunch of cheap knives, or several very good knives... or one awesome knife and a few bang for buck blades to round it out.

Re cleaver: I like the 1303 as a laser more than most laser gyutos, so at the price its a no brainer for this hypothetical. Mine was thinned further from stock and it cuts like crazy, only real downside is the steel is pretty reactive and needs frequent touch ups.
 
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