What knife purchase do you regret?

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sukenari zdp189 damascus. great looking knife, but it wedged and I didn't want to thin it since it would mess up the damascus. Additionally, the zdp189 held a good edge for a long time, but being a home cook and someone who mostly enjoys sharpening, I'd rather touch up a steel more often to maintain an amazing edge. Luckily I was able to sell it without losing too much.
 
Bico Doce said:
About 50% of my Instagram purchases. Too easy to be seduced by pics with awesome lighting. I try to avoid knives I see on IG if I’m not already familiar with the maker and know what to expect
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Before I was a fulltime maker and I had money, my journey started with collecting high end customs folders. Maybe I went through 50 of them buying and selling.
What I learned is that a knife in the hand is often very different than the pictures. Probably more so with a kitchen knife because it is performance based. Whereas folders that are $700 and up are mostly just looked at.

I think it would be interesting if you (or anyone) care to document your journey in a post and maybe with some of the attributes that you learned about, that could help other buyers and also makers
 
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timebard said:
The only purchases I regret are the false economy ones where I really wanted something else but bought a cheaper alternative, or a knife I wasn't really excited about but pulled the trigger on because it was a good deal.

No real regrets with the knives I haven't enjoyed - my loss was someone else's gain.
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I can definitely relate to that in many aspect, if you want something don't buy the cheap "equivalent" just go for the real one.
 
HSC /// Knives said:
Before I was a fulltime maker and I had money, my journey started with collecting high end customs folders. Maybe I went through 50 of them buying and selling.
What I learned is that a knife in the hand is often very different than the pictures. Probably more so with a kitchen knife because it is performance based. Whereas folders that are $700 and up are mostly just looked at.

I think it would be interesting if you (or anyone) care to document your journey in a post and maybe with some of the attributes that you learned about, that could help other buyers and also makers
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I’ve definitely learned some things over the last 2 years as I’ve bought/sold just over 50 knives. I’ve probably learned about myself and my preferences than more anything else. In the past I’ve been hesitant to share part of the journey because of it’s subjectivity. My knife collection in someone else’s hands could render a completely different assessment. With that said I accept the assignment, I think it would be interesting to do a retrospective and see if I could make a concise summary highlighting some of the things I wish I had known sooner or learned only after spending way too much money.

I feel like I should state now though I absolutely don’t regret buying anything from @HSC /// Knives on IG 😉
 
I think is moritaka deba & lefty sekizo yanagiba. Basically waste of money. I find myself single bevel deba is much easier for me to sharpen & use. Sekizo yanagiba have uneven ura, also took me forever to even the blade road,make me doubt against my sharpening skill, it was my first single bevel, after I got my first quality yanagiba, which is Furinkazan. I know my skill don’t have problem, just the ****ing sekizo knife problem.
 
HSC /// Knives said:
Before I was a fulltime maker and I had money, my journey started with collecting high end customs folders. Maybe I went through 50 of them buying and selling.
What I learned is that a knife in the hand is often very different than the pictures. Probably more so with a kitchen knife because it is performance based. Whereas folders that are $700 and up are mostly just looked at.

I think it would be interesting if you (or anyone) care to document your journey in a post and maybe with some of the attributes that you learned about, that could help other buyers and also makers
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I'm doing that now. Don't get me started on my Shirogorov's.
 
Pretty much all my J-knife purchases had significant research behind them so I pretty much always knew what I was getting; no real regrets there. I always avoided 'lottery knives' so almost everything was a sure thing.

What I do regret is all the cheap junk I bought early on in my journey. Generic brand made in China German steel crap knives... only slightly better made in China VG-10 knives. Sure they were perfectly usable and helped me understand and learn but all of them ended up dissapearing from my house because they served no purpose longterm and were just too inferior to keep around.
While they were cheap enough individually, putting them all together would still have bought a pretty good J-knife, especially at the time (~10 years ago). Hence why my biggest regret is not what I bought but didn't buy. I could have been buying gingas for 150 bucks, Masamotos for 250, Hiromoto honyakis for dirt cheap, etc...

In recent times the only knife that really dissapointed me - even though I bought it at a sale for just half the normal price, was my Wüsthof 23 cm chef knife. I bought it going in with very low expectations on performance since it was intended as a beater knife to cut chocolate, frozen stuff and basically do abuse jobs... but man is that knife unergonomical. Should have just bought a Vnox instead.
 
AFKitchenknivesguy said:
I'm doing that now. Don't get me started on my Shirogorov's.
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Can never regret a good shiro
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I actually don't include my Itadaki among my mistakes. Yes it's reactive as hell when you get it but beyond that I quite like it; it's a nice cutter. Reactivity goes away once it gets a nice patina.
 
Jovidah said:
I actually don't include my Itadaki among my mistakes. Yes it's reactive as hell when you get it but beyond that I quite like it; it's a nice cutter. Reactivity goes away once it gets a nice patina.
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Mine was fantastic in the back 2/3 but the tip was too thick for me. I didn't have the time to take on another thinning project, so my loss was someone else's gain.
 
mgardiner said:
On the other end of the spectrum, the worst was unquestionably the Kamikoto. That thing is damned near fraud. The Misen set I bought when it first came out is decent for what it is (albeit not, perhaps, all they claim it is) however I still use the bread knife. So it wasn't a total waste. Just mostly.
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I had one come in for sharpening....
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It was not the nicest sharpening experience.
 
Single bevels. If I worked a restaurant gig, it might be different. If I could locally source fish I'd like to eat raw, it might be different. Part of me will always want a 300 yanagi and an usuba, but when I actually own them they *never* get used.
 
WellLikedTurtle said:
Mine was fantastic in the back 2/3 but the tip was too thick for me. I didn't have the time to take on another thinning project, so my loss was someone else's gain.
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I had the same initial underwhelmingness about it's lack of taper, especially since the knife before it was a Masamoto KS, but I have to say the Itadaki cut much better than I expected just based on looking at it's spine. Was actually a non-issue in practise, and didn't really feel worse than for example my Yoshikane.
Not sure the more expensive Tanakas are very different in this regard? Most spine shots I saw looked similar-ish.
 
Every Global. They're not bad in use, but I dread the moment when I realize they need sharpening. Vitrified diamond has improved that situation.

The Shun cleaver. I dislike pretty much everything about it except the edge retention -- too slick, too curved, slippery round handle, just irritating to hold.

And, not the maker's fault, but a Takeda cleaver. Awesome steel that takes an awesome edge. The thing could probably split the larger molecules. But I wanted a Chinese cleaver, not a super-tall Nakiri. I'd start chopping with it, and the vibrations would go all the way to my funny bone.
 
Biggest regret was my set of Shun knives, which was the beginning of my venture to "high end" knives. A grand rip-off for the amount of money they charge. The wicked advertising and the false 5 star reviews will surely rake in new suckers continuously. The steel is nothing to proud of, yes its easy to sharpen but it also dulls quickly, and as everybody into knives know, it chips like hell. The damascus pattern is laminated, comes off after a few washes. Con Artists....Truly unhappy.

But this sad experience lead my journey to good knives and good stones that I am truly happy with.
 
Smashmasta said:
Haha, this freaked me out for a second because I saw the thread title first, and I was like, "oh ****, what did I do this time?!" You're killing me, man 😵
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Haha no need to worry, I've been very happy with all my purchases from you Evan! The Tanaka cleaver is one of my favorites
 
Probably a Heiji direct 240 swedish Gyuto as my first serious Japanese Knife. F&F was just not there. It's also bigger than I really need (it's 240++ and thick).

Has gotten no use in a couple years.

Finally getting around to doing some work on it. It has potential but just not a great starter. The JKI route or just something not as big would've been wiser.
 
djacobson said:
Probably a Heiji direct 240 swedish Gyuto as my first serious Japanese Knife. F&F was just not there. It's also bigger than I really need (it's 240++ and thick).

Has gotten no use in a couple years.

Finally getting around to doing some work on it. It has potential but just not a great starter. The JKI route or just something not as big would've been wiser.
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I can dispose of it free of charge for you.
 
Jovidah said:
I had the same initial underwhelmingness about it's lack of taper, especially since the knife before it was a Masamoto KS, but I have to say the Itadaki cut much better than I expected just based on looking at it's spine. Was actually a non-issue in practise, and didn't really feel worse than for example my Yoshikane.
Not sure the more expensive Tanakas are very different in this regard? Most spine shots I saw looked similar-ish.
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I think mine had more of a grind issue since it did not get that thin behind the edge at the tip.

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