More Than One Gyuto?

Japanese Knives - by Tokushu Knife
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dafox said:
Get a bigger rack then :)
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ModRQC said:
I'm sure adults do just that too when they visit your house... :)
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Hahaha. That's actually my cousin's house, he collects Brazilian made BBQ knives.

I don't have any of my knives on display—no room in my tiny kitchen. My knives are kept in the bedroom, in a flat file drawer.
 
Bigbbaillie said:
All this talk of wives disapproving of collections makes me low-key worried if I will ever get laid again now that I have a "collection."
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In all seriousness, while my wife might give me some side-eye with all the knives coming and going, she might even silently shake her head in disbelief, but at the end of the day she really does not complain about my hobby.
It may not work for all partners, but we have our paychecks deposited into a joint account, from there we periodically pay ourselves "allowances." These are funds to support our hobbies, entertainment, or whatever. 90% of the knives I've acquired over the past year have come from 'my money.' Ergo, my knife interest deprives her of nothing. She will probably spend hers on camera gear.

It works for us, the only difference is that I will be jealous of her cool camera gear, because that is another of my top hobbies, but she will not be jealous of any of my knives, which of course she is free to use, but doesn't except for one or two.
 
ModRQC said:
It's just the tip of the iceberg my friend.

Basically, you can have three gyutos and justify them: laser, all-rounder, workhorse. Or as you said - for a different cutting feel with strong and weak points which you apply to food you have to cut. You could probably add a few more "types" if you want to really really be specific about that but I consider it cheating.

Then you may multiply by wanting to own one in all popular lengths - say 12 gyutos of the three above denominations, make that 18 if you'll consider 150mm and 225mm must be counted in - albeit a 150mm workhorse doesn't make much sense.

Then you may add some to this because you want:

-particular steel
-particular finish
-particular bladesmith/maker
-particular grinder (say, someone with many Y. Tanaka)
-etc.

And so on and so forth.

Rule of thumb: you are not a collector until two units are a same "type" AND "length". Doubling up in the above further particularization doesn't count, but cannot however nullify the breach of singularity within the two main differentiations. :D
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Yes, if seeking to define basic requirements of knives in an occidental kitchen. Which can go even more minimalist to a chef’s knife and petty.

Contrarily, many cooks that own +10 gyutos will justify each. I know I can.

A friend that’s a pro sushi chef has never owned a gyuto. He only uses sujihikis and a deba. Even for cutting vegetables it’s a suji that gets used.

My aunts and grandmas got by only using Chinese cleavers, whether doing Asian or Western dishes.

If needing to choose 2 knives to cook with for the rest of my life, it would be a 240 gyuto and 150 petty. They’d do pretty much everything.

To me, knife enthusiasts generally over do it with knives and stones. I’m an enthusiast, have way more than what’s required for me to cook with.
 
DitmasPork said:
Yes, if seeking to define basic requirements of knives in an occidental kitchen. Which can go even more minimalist to a chef’s knife and petty.

Contrarily, many cooks that own +10 gyutos will justify each. I know I can.

A friend that’s a pro sushi chef has never owned a gyuto. He only uses sujihikis and a deba. Even for cutting vegetables it’s a suji that gets used.

My aunts and grandmas got by only using Chinese cleavers, whether doing Asian or Western dishes.

If needing to choose 2 knives to cook with for the rest of my life, it would be a 240 gyuto and 150 petty. They’d do pretty much everything.

To me, knife enthusiasts generally over do it with knives and stones. I’m an enthusiast, have way more than what’s required for me to cook with.
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My last Exec Chef used a 5.5" Honesuki for pretty much everything.

This one:

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He just didn't care for knives bigger than that. Pre-pandemic we were doing $25million a year in F&B. So he usually had more important stuff to do than veggie prep. But when he did have to jump in it was cases of produce at a time. And there he is small dicing butternut squash and watermelon and enormous eggplants with this tiny little boning knife. Always made me laugh out loud.
 
Didn’t consider myself a collector until I looked at my knife wall. I did in the past try to only buy knives that had a different purpose (suji, honesuki etc) than what I had already but that quickly got out of hand. Having experienced entry level knives seems to give me an itch that climbing the ladder in terms of cost/steel/maker/grind scratches.

Do I NEED a $600 suji for home cooking? No, I have a perfectly fine 240mm mystery JDM suji. Do I want a comically, unnecessarily long Takeda suji? Hell yeah I do.

I might never end up at the custom honoyaki stage (hopefully not), but I cant imagine not buying more knives simply because I don’t need them.

Wait until you start collecting stones too 🤢. My wife calls them my “magic crystals”.
 
stringer said:
My last Exec Chef used a 5.5" Honesuki for pretty much everything.

He just didn't care for knives bigger than that. Pre-pandemic we were doing $25million a year in F&B. So he usually had more important stuff to do than veggie prep. But when he did have to jump in it was cases of produce at a time. And there he is small dicing butternut squash and watermelon and enormous eggplants with this tiny little boning knife. Always made me laugh out loud.
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Yea its weird working in restaurants and being a part of this forum. So many home cooks on here with more knives than all the staff of a restaurant combined.
Not bashing anyone, I own too many knives as well but its just a funny observation. Nobody really needs more than 2-3 knives even as a pro.
 
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stringer said:
My last Exec Chef used a 5.5" Honesuki for pretty much everything.

This one:

View attachment 122870

He just didn't care for knives bigger than that. Pre-pandemic we were doing $25million a year in F&B. So he usually had more important stuff to do than veggie prep. But when he did have to jump in it was cases of produce at a time. And there he is small dicing butternut squash and watermelon and enormous eggplants with this tiny little boning knife. Always made me laugh out loud.
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My old Head Chef used a Yanagiba most of the time.
 
Koop said:
Why would I have two gyutos in my arsenal? I'm not a collector - at least I don't consider myself one. When I started down this path, I figured I would need a few Japanese kitchen knives for specific tasks. I had a Yaxell/Enso bunka to start this journey and didn't know what that was getting me into. It taught me what sharp really is, then I found this forum and became obsessed.

I gave the Enso to my daughter as I acquired better knives. I bought a honesuki, a couple of pettys, a bunka, a sujihiki from JCK and a Kintaro (Yoshimi Kato) stainless clad white #2 gyuto from JKI. This gyuto is on the laserish end of the spectrum - 215mm heel to tip and 131 grams. I loved the way it felt when slicing a head of cabbage. It floated through it. But then I used it on potatoes and food release was not part of the program. I had to peel the potato pieces off of the side of the blade. It was like they were suctioned on.

A few days ago I bought a TF Maboroshi gyuto. It's a thing of beauty on carrots and potatoes. Last night I cut a head of cabbage with it. I missed the magical feeling of ghosting through the produce that the Kintaro gave me. Now I get it. My Mabs has it place - great feeling and food release on potatoes and such and the Kintaro has it's place - floating through a head of cabbage. That's why I need two gyutos.

My wife thinks I'm a bit nutty, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
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My wife has questioned my need for so many. I looking for a 3rd gyuto to round out my sizing needs. This journey started with the need for a suji, I have yet to buy, still looking but may be on the verge.
 
Bigbbaillie said:
Yea its weird working in restaurants and being a part of this forum. So many home cooks on here with more knives than all the staff of a restaurant combined.
Not bashing anyone, I own too many knives as well but its just a funny observation. Nobody really needs more than 2-3 knives even as a pro.
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Lol this is spot on. I used to work as a cook and everything I did was with the plastic-handled house knives - 9" chef's and 3.5" paring knives that were once a week sharpened because the restaurant had subscription knives. Nowadays I cook for 2.5 people at home, and I have more knives than I'll be able to wear out in my lifetime... I guess that's why it's called a hobby!
 
stringer said:
My last Exec Chef used a 5.5" Honesuki for pretty much everything.

This one:

View attachment 122870

He just didn't care for knives bigger than that. Pre-pandemic we were doing $25million a year in F&B. So he usually had more important stuff to do than veggie prep. But when he did have to jump in it was cases of produce at a time. And there he is small dicing butternut squash and watermelon and enormous eggplants with this tiny little boning knife. Always made me laugh out loud.
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I had a sous chef who only used this weird serrated thing, he was fairly productive with it. He probably always delegated mincing shallots. Could you imagine the tears?
 
chefwp said:
I had a sous chef who only used this weird serrated thing, he was fairly productive with it. He probably always delegated mincing shallots. Could you imagine the tears?
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Things like this are why I firmly believe that some chefs are really just in it to suffer.
 
esoo said:
I've got one free spot and two knives coming in, so the battle will be commencing.
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DitmasPork said:
Personally, I like the luxury of being able to change up the rotation, rediscovering knives that had fallen outta favor with me. I don't have a knife rack or knife block—but just bring out the 1–3 knives I'll use.
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dafox said:
Get a bigger rack then :)
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I'm going to have to do what @DitmasPork (rotate knives) or @dafox (bigger rack) were suggesting - at least for a while. I added three more inbound knives (so now 5 inbound) after I did some stress relief shopping in the last few days. And I'm still trying to decide if I want a TF.
 
esoo said:
I'm going to have to do what @DitmasPork (rotate knives) or @dafox (bigger rack) were suggesting - at least for a while. I added three more inbound knives (so now 5 inbound) after I did some stress relief shopping in the last few days. And I'm still trying to decide if I want a TF.
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From the guy that was supposed to take a break from all this in 2021 you’re rocking steady! 😊
 
ModRQC said:
From the guy that was supposed to take a break from all this in 2021 you’re rocking steady! 😊
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Yeah, waiting for the Massdrop Dalman and still being on the forums didn't quite work out the way I was hoping. Not counting the Dalman (as that was last years commitment), that's 9 knives I've bought so far this year. It really has been my stress relief.
 
captaincaed said:
I just Marie Kondo'd my gyuto drawer since I'm 2 over the number of slots in the rack.
I got rid of 0 gyutos, and a Wusthoff paring.
... I gotta talk with @DitmasPork


I'm starting to understand shoes and handbags...
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Respectfully, I find it odd to limit knife purchases based on available storage. Don't you have a garage or tool shed???!!!
 
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