reccomend new knives for a UK members

[duncan-s4]

LOCATION

Northern Ireland


KNIFE TYPE

I am interested in two or three knives, at minimum a meat cleaver, one or two chef knives....i do love the look of japanese knives

Are you right or left handed?

Right

Are you interested in a Western handle (e.g., classic Wusthof handle) or Japanese handle?

any handle considered, the most robust handle to last is most important to me

What length of knife (blade) are you interested in (in inches or millimeters)?

any

Do you require a stainless knife? (Yes or no)
Yes.

What is your absolute maximum budget for your knife?

$350 for 2 or 3 knives

KNIFE USE

Used at home everyday, i itened to buy something that will last for a generation.

Home

cleaver for through bones, the rest for general veg etc


What knife, if any, are you replacing?

I bought modern henckels of amazon but they are not the quality they used to be.

Do you have a particular grip that you primarily use? (Please click on this LINK for the common types of grips.)

irish grip lol!



What cutting motions do you primarily use? (Please click on this LINK for types of cutting motions and identify the two or three most common cutting motions, in order of most used to least used.)
Slice or pull. I haven’t seen him rock but can’t rule it out.

What improvements do you want from your current knife? If you are not replacing a knife, please identify as many characteristics identified below in parentheses that you would like this knife to have.)

The knives he has now are just really terrible. It would be great if he had something solid, not easy to chip, keeps its edge and I can sharpen it for him once in a while. Comfort, edge retention are the most important. Aesthetics are not.


Edge Retention
Sharpen maybe yearly or so. He doesn’t cook a ton.

KNIFE MAINTENANCE

wood chopping board

Do you sharpen your own knives? (Yes or no.)

i intend to

Are you interested in purchasing sharpening products for your knives? (Yes or no.)

yes

SPECIAL REQUESTS/COMMENTS

Essentially i would love reccomendations on 3 knives that can do everything. I love the look of the japanese stuff, very pleasing to the eye. I find you can do just about everything with a meat cleaver but would also like something smaller for the wife.

I guess a big issue is i am from the UK, so tax is an issue, and also the poor exchange rate as our economy burns to the ground...however I am from NI, so can have knives deleivered from the EU to where I work in the republic of ireland to avoid eu customs taxes. I also have some amazon vouchers to spend, but I guess knife selection on amazon is limited.

 

[Tethien]

most of the knives I look at are carbon so I can’t really recommend much, but you probably would be looking at oem knives like tsunehisa but if you are open to stainless clad I highly recommend a Kurokaze 210mm, preforms amazing while also having a very convex grind, don’t go chopping through any hard stuff like lobster shells with it tho as it’s still thin bte.
I really don’t know of that many tough j knives, I always tend to look for the most well preforming knives that are usually the most brittle.
Another suggestion is getting a Chinese cleaver, here’s a tough one(looking at the grind) and this is not a bone cleaver
https://shirasagistore.com/product/...ver-steel-3-ginsan-steel-mirror-finish-190mm/

 

[Matus]

$350 is not going to give you 3 nice knives, it may give you 2. If I were now picking 2 knives to 'do it all', it would be either a 210 gyuto and 150 petty, or maybe 240 gyuto and 180 petty (really depends on your preferences).

In UK there is Cutting Edge Knives - Handmade Japanese Knives & Accessories - check them out. Long time ago I got Masakage Koishi from them - check out their other lines.

There are several shops out there definitely worth checking out - but I have not used most of the knives they offer. One place where I have a direct hands-on experience with several knives is Japanese Natural Stones Toishi (Full disclosure - I am friend with the owner). In particular the Kaeru line would IMO pretty much perfectly fit both the budget and requirements. These knives have stainless cladding over SLD steel (better known as D2 - which is like 95% stainless - I never saw a stain on my Yoshikane SLD petty) and have good geometry, edge holding and are fairly chip resistant (no fozen foods or bone chopping though please). I think they are a great value. Compared to most cheap-ish knives out there these have a grind geometry that makes sense, nicely made distal taper and thus sit well in hand.

 

[Qapla']

What do you think of these?

For the gyuto:
https://www.knothandcrafted.com/product/225mm-stainless-gyuto
For the meat cleaver:
https://www.butchersequipment.co.uk/f-dick-7-butchers-cleaver

 

[plantgainz]

For a thick cleaver that can cut through bones you could go dirty cheap and save cash for the rest.
You can check kitchen provisions in UK (they use to have a cheaper brand along with cck don't recall the name though)
For a stainless gyuto I can't recommend more a Koutetsu or a Kobayashi which are on the pricier side. To save cash cleancut has ATM a takamura r2 at a great price.

 

[plantgainz]

most of the knives I look at are carbon so I can’t really recommend much, but you probably would be looking at oem knives like tsunehisa but if you are open to stainless clad I highly recommend a Kurokaze 210mm, preforms amazing while also having a very convex grind, don’t go chopping through any hard stuff like lobster shells with it tho as it’s still thin bte.
I really don’t know of that many tough j knives, I always tend to look for the most well preforming knives that are usually the most brittle.
Another suggestion is getting a Chinese cleaver, here’s a tough one(looking at the grind) and this is not a bone cleaver
https://shirasagistore.com/product/...ver-steel-3-ginsan-steel-mirror-finish-190mm/

Looking at the kurokaze for a while did you get it from cleancut?

 

[Tethien]

Looking at the kurokaze for a while did you get it from cleancut?

I got mine from homebutcher but the one from cleancut looks even better

 

[Jovidah]

Going to throw in my 2 pennies:
-I think the budget is totally sufficient, but you'll have to make your choices. What knives do you really want / need? And then invest most of it in what'll get used most, while filling the other slots with more utilitarian stuff.
-So for example a bread knife that's decent doesn't cost a fortune (just get a Victorinox Fibrox pastry knife for 30 bucks), similar goes for stuff like paring knives (Victorinox or Robert Herder), or knives for meat / fish work (again Victorinox or Mora filleting knife). Then you can save most of your money for the main gyuto / chef knife. At least that's what I would do, but you'll have to figure out your own priorities for what you're really looking for and what'll get used the most. Some people swear by petties and would want a really good one, others only pull them out for niche tasks and would budget less for them.
-A lot of it comes down to personal preference. Preference for stainless (which I think is very sensible) narrows it down a little bit not not a whole lot. There's plenty on offer in this price range and like most I've only sampled some of it.
At this point the standard kneejerk reaction in my mind is 'just get a 240 ginga, can't go wrong with that'.

I'm a bit torn on the Kaeru; would still recommend the 'old' one in a heartbeat, but though I've never tried the new model (with 55mm blade height) I could imagine it's a bit of an acquired taste... it certainly wouldn't be my taste.