Your first kitchen knives...do you still have them? What were they?

[TurtlelaceMAX]

A bit of nostalgia! I can't get rid of it.

One of a set of GINSU original knives from the mid-1980's when I got married, if I remember correctly.

I still use this knife occasionally to slice bread and tomatoes. Made in the U.S.A.

This is the bread knife. I think there were five or so in the set. These were mass marketed on TV, they liked to cut cans with them.

 

[NickMinton]

Yep, still got my first “serious”
Knife as a Tojiro DP 240. After 10 years, my wife still loves it and it’s the house beater / stainless knife

 

[TurtlelaceMAX]

Yep, still got my first “serious”
Knife as a Tojiro DP 240. After 10 years, my wife still loves it and it’s the house beater / stainless knife

View attachment 303587

A nice first serious knife. I think my first nicer knife was an early Messermeister 30 or so years ago.

 

[Naftoor]

So the first knife I ever used, is my mom’s. Luckily she’s still around and using it. She got it for 25 cents at a garage sale. It’s some rolled steel, soft stainless German style with some form of old school composite handle that’s begun to delaminate. She’s only maintained it on a steel, and it cuts fine on geometry surprisingly. The edge is so beat up, that it looks like the side of a slice of bacon when viewed from below.

My first knives were a CCK, a fibrox chefs and a wusthof parer. Nothing crazy by most standards but out of the first pay checks out of college they were a pretty penny to me at the time. Got good use out of them. Until I moved and mistook the bag I put them in as one that needed to go to the dump.

The knife that started the addiction though was a 210 mazaki. Made me realize how much I loved thick spines, distal tapers and knives as more than just tools to cut things with.

The world of coffee is going to need me to a decent chunk of my collection that sits unused, but that one will always stay with me. I’m also quite a nostalgic person so I take it out occasionally to look at the thumb print I put on the steel through patina

 

[TurtlelaceMAX]

Great comments. My mother was a great cook, I have her heavy carbon steel butcher cleaver, which I inherited when she passed. I am going to clean it up and display it some day, it is a beast. She had some very old european carbon steel knives, which I cannot locate, they were the first knives I used.

I still have my old Messermeister and Wusthof, don't use them much, but they mean a lot to me.

Of course the famous or is it infamous GINSU!

So the first knife I ever used, is my mom’s. Luckily she’s still around and using it. She got it for 25 cents at a garage sale. It’s some rolled steel, soft stainless German style with some form of old school composite handle that’s begun to delaminate. She’s only maintained it on a steel, and it cuts fine on geometry surprisingly. The edge is so beat up, that it looks like the side of a slice of bacon when viewed from below.

My first knives were a CCK, a fibrox chefs and a wusthof parer. Nothing crazy by most standards but out of the first pay checks out of college they were a pretty penny to me at the time. Got good use out of them. Until I moved and mistook the bag I put them in as one that needed to go to the dump.

The knife that started the addiction though was a 210 mazaki. Made me realize how much I loved thick spines, distal tapers and knives as more than just tools to cut things with.

The world of coffee is going to need me to a decent chunk of my collection that sits unused, but that one will always stay with me. I’m also quite a nostalgic person so I take it out occasionally to look at the thumb print I put on the steel through patina

 

[Heckel7302]

I still have most of the henckels international set my parents got me in college 25 years ago. Only one missing is the chef knife that a former roommate broke. Plus I gave away the block it came with.

 

[Tekkz]

I've had my set of Mercer knives for 15 years or so. Still use them as guest knives/beaters even though they are pretty thick now. My first "serious" knives were a Yu Kurosaki 240 gyuto and a Newham 390mm sujihiki. Still have both of those!

 

[Cliff]

I have my mom's old 8" Wustoff. My first knife was a clad Goko 240 in white no. 1. I just gave it a little spa treatment and a new handle. Can't find the picture at the. moment.

 

[pgugger]

I had all kinds of random junk stainless knives for years that I got rid of… not even worth keeping as paper weights.

My first good knife was a Masamoto VG 210 mm gyuto. Then I got a Masakage Koishi 240 mm gyuto. I don’t have those anymore but I kept my third knife, Kurosaki AS 210 mm gyuto from CKTG.

I also have my grandmother’s 50-60 year old Henckels chefs knife, which I used with her growing up, so maybe we could say this was my first knife in some ways and I did keep that.

 

[jacobwilder5]

My mom is a great cook and gifted me her zwilling 4star 8” carver and 6” zwilling chef when I moved out. I over sharpened both over the years but they still go strong.

Tried to repay the favor with a Takamura red handle and a Tsunehisa srs13 nakiri. Shes mostly vegetarian these days and loves the nakiri.

 

[Just a DK]

My mom is a great cook and gifted me her zwilling 4star 8” carver and 6” zwilling chef when I moved out. I over sharpened both over the years but they still go strong.

Tried to repay the favor with a Takamura red handle and a Tsunehisa srs13 nakiri. Shes mostly vegetarian these days and loves the nakiri.

Had these for 20-28. Certified dishwasher safe, as at that point in time I have never handwashed a knife. TBH nothing to write home about in terms of any specific quality other than it was made for significant abuse and is dummy proof. My kid is getting one of these to abuse to learn to cook before she gets anything nice from me.

This set is now on display in my house as a testament to how abused these things are and survived.

Funny I also got my mom a red handle santoku and she hates it. Still uses a wusthof older than my sister.

 

[jacobwilder5]

Had these for 20-28. Certified dishwasher safe, as at that point in time I have never handwashed a knife. TBH nothing to write home about in terms of any specific quality other than it was made for significant abuse and is dummy proof. My kid is getting one of these to abuse to learn to cook before she gets anything nice from me.

This set is now on display in my house as a testament to how abused these things are and survived.

Funny I also got my mom a red handle santoku and she hates it. Still uses a wusthof older than my sister.

They’re straight bullet proof man. Mine survived multiple roommates, dishwashers, and experimental sharpening through the years. I needed to grind the bolster down like 4mm, but hey, they still cut. Good idea as a first decent knife for your kid.

Funny you say that about the Takamura. My mom doesn’t use it much at all anymore after she chipped it a few times trying to use it like her German knives. I told her not too but old habits die hard. I think the Nakiri survived because I told her it’s a veggie knife and it’s not long enough to take on her winter squash.

 

[YumYumSauce]

Yep, still got my first “serious”
Knife as a Tojiro DP 240. After 10 years, my wife still loves it and it’s the house beater / stainless knife

View attachment 303587

That was the 1st Knife I ever bought too. Still use mine as the beater too

 

[Some Jabroni]

the first knife i ever personally owned was a zwilling pro 7 inch chef knife, i still own it. i just keep it around for my roommate to use, or if i ever need a soft western knife for something. i used it for years but currently, it's definitely not my favorite profile.

the first knife i ever bought was a yaxell enso sg2 8 inch/210mm gyuto. it's a nice knife for what i paid for it but after buying others i never used it. i have a chef friend who used it and really liked it ( the only knife he ever used were globals and then shuns) so I gave it to him about a year ago. I actually sharpened it for him today.

 

[Some Jabroni]

Yep, still got my first “serious”
Knife as a Tojiro DP 240. After 10 years, my wife still loves it and it’s the house beater / stainless knife

View attachment 303587

I recommend tojiro dp's to anyone looking to buy a knife but doesn't want to spend a lot of money. The geometry isn't too bad and it has a handle that most westerners are familiar with. I've sharpened a decent amount of cheap knives at restaurants, and the tojiro dp seems to take a nicer edge, with less work compared to other knives at it's price point. that being said ii am mostly comparing it to cheap/stainless western knives.

 

[Jovidah]

I started off as a total broke student buying the cheapest crap I could get... needless to say none of those are with me anymore. Then I moved on to .... Chinese made 'German steel' crap because it was recommended by some (as I know now) horrible consumer review because 'hey they're just as good as the Wüsthof that won the test!'. Needless to say none of those are with me anymore.

Then I fell into the trap of thinking all advertised steel with a similar name is the same, so I ended up buying cheap Chinese made VG10 that was.... all over the place, and in hindsight quite horrible. What shames me even more is that I recommended them to some of my friends...and then found out they had huge variation, both in grinds and heat treatment. I ended up passing most of these to my parents because what they had is even worse.

Then I finally stopped being an idiot, bought my first good Japanese knife: a carbonext 240 gyuto. And that thing blew everything before it completely out of the water. It's been tweaked quite a bit (thinned the bevels, and in general this was been my 'practise' knife for a lot of things), but still performs great. It's still with me and is actually still used regularly. It's one of my travel knives that always goes with me if I'm cooking elsewhere.

My main regret is wasting time, money and effort on the cheap garbage before I bought the carbonext in some misguided attempt to save money. If you put all the money I spent on that crap together I could have bought a good knife. The carbonext however... that was my first good purchase. In fact I could sell everything fancier and still get by just fine with those knives.

 

[daddy yo yo]

Nice thread!

Yeah, I still have it for sentimental reasons. My mother who was a fantastic cook gifted it to me probably 30ish years ago. I used it exclusively during my time at university.

Wüsthof Dreizack Classic 4582 in X50CrMoV15

Only after graduating could I afford my first Japanese knife… And then it went downwards!

 

[TurtlelaceMAX]

Nice thread!

Yeah, I still have it for sentimental reasons. My mother who was a fantastic cook gifted it to me probably 30ish years ago. I used it exclusively during my time at university.

Wüsthof Dreizack Classic 4582 in X50CrMoV15

Only after graduating could I afford my first Japanese knife… And then it went downwards!

It's in good shape. Nice to have things from our parents.

 

[shoestring]

Bunka 180mm

 

[aporigine]

My first serious kitchen knife purchase (Henckels Four Star 9 inch, more than 40 years ago) is still with me, despite my disastrous thinning campaign.

Old Ugly still kills pizzas and avian rib cages. It will be with me among all the ethereal and refined J-blades, and their massively evolved Western progeny, that now grace my several blocks of knives.

My first true J-knife, a Masahiro yo santoku, also gets select jobs at least monthly.

These blades are family, standing tall alongside the wondrous chefs d’oeuvre I have since acquired.

So, part is blade quality — and part is shared history.

This is my knife. There are many like it — but this one is mine.

 

[sumis]

some swedish Fiskars. then global g2. still have a Fiskars filet knife and the g2 (now more of a sujihiki).

.

 

[M1k3]

Yes I do. 6" Wusthof Grand Prix II.

I didn't have much money to spend, new cook, kids and wife....and didn't know better that such a small knife, would be such a struggle on bigger products.

It's seen and been through a lot. Not the best knife, very sentimental to me though.

 

[MittenMan]

Shun Classic 8” hollow ground was my first knife purchase and then was handed down this Old Homestead knife set which has turned into sharpening practice.

 

[aporigine]

Still have my first serious purchase: Henckels 9” chef.

It has undergone a diasastrous thinning at my hands but still campaigns as Old Ugly.

 

[Beerzebub]

When I was a kid we had a couple of knives in the house that I liked best and used, one was this nakiri that was stainless clad and carbon core that my parents probably bought in the early to mid 80s or so. I asked my mom and she still has it and uses it and sent me this pic. It's had that chip as long as I can remember, one of us kids may have put it there.

The other one I liked as a kid was a small Gerber Walnut Classic chef knife, not sure what size, probably 6 or 8 inches; don't know if it's still around.

My dad had a big carbon Sabatier of some sort that had been his mom's, I was in awe of it and not sure if I ever used it, I think he still has it. My mom's parents mainly used smallish carbon Old Hickory knives. So both of my parents were used to using carbon steel knives and I guess I learned not to be afraid of them from an early age.

One of my first decent knives was an SK 'Peasant's chef knife' from Lee Valley, my (American-Canadian) aunt had one and it was her favorite knife, and I bought one after trying hers. I ended up reshaping the handle and choil, and at some point gave it to my mom. My mom (she's in her 70s) says it's her favorite knife and uses it all the time, and sent me this picture:

My other first decent knife was a Wusthof Classic santoku which I still have and use almost solely for cheese, and I like cheese so I use it regularly. Bought in the early or mid 2000s. Its misshapen visage is a constant reminder of why I learned to sharpen my own knives (which led to getting better ones): to not take them to the farmer's market guy.

 

[darkamage]

my first kitchen knife was a cheap random made in japan stainless from Daiso. i probably still have it somewhere.
gf/wife went through a bunch of cheap knives that never last and when i got more serious into home cooking i looked into made in japan knives again and bought a Miyabi. I still have that Miyabi and my wife still use it once in a while. it's not bad actually, fc61/aeb-l that gets sharp easy and cut decently. it has that uneven Miyabi bolster but fortunately the blade is straight.

 

[darkamage]

my first kitchen knife was a cheap random made in japan stainless from Daiso. i probably still have it somewhere.
gf/wife went through a bunch of cheap knives that never last and when i got more serious into home cooking i looked into made in japan knives again and bought a Miyabi. I still have that Miyabi and my wife still use it once in a while. it's not bad actually, fc61/aeb-l that gets sharp easy and cut decently. it has that uneven Miyabi bolster but fortunately the blade is straight.

dug around and found my Daiso knife lol

 

[bsfsu]

Mundial 240mm circa 1995

The last of my original chef training set.

 

[ckwan]

Still got the messermeister

 

[dubear]

Misono ux10 here!