Zwilling 4 star 6.5" Chef's and 6.5" Nakiri

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legionnaire

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Our use is chopping veggies, herbs, ginger, sweet potatoes and the like. No meat, bones, fish etc.
I usually get my knives professionally sharpened by a local sharpener once a quarter.
The knives are all hand washed, never in the sink with other dishes and never in the dish washer.
We use one of these henckel/zwillings cutting boards.

Not knife aficionados, just looking for knives that work daily with minimal wrist/shoulder effort.

During a recent sale, I picked up these two knives (Z 4 star 6.5" Chef and the 6.5" Nakiri) for 100$ total.
I have a window to return both unused, unopened.
I am interested in viewpoints on these two knives :
  • how well do they endure such usage?
  • do I need to change how I care for these?
If the money would be better spent on a different knife, I figured I'd check in here with people who know/care more about knives.
 
I think you will find most users will want race cars around here for knives. I have 2 knife blocks full of 4 & 5 star Henckels knives with 8 or so of Wusthof knives. Almost all the Henckels knives were my mom's knives which were passed to me. I sharpen every 3 or 4 months but I have lots of knives to share the load. I only use my knives at home. I would think in a professional setting it would require more frequent sharping's.

I use a Worksharp Ken Onion sharper which makes my German knives a lot easier to sharpen. It takes maybe 5 minutes to sharpen one. Most of the time is to get the sharpener out and setup. I use 15 degrees on most of my knives. I have a really large chef's knife which I still sharpen at 20 degrees because I cut through chicken.

I am pretty careful with my knives but my wife and when we have parties' knives get left in standing water in the sink and all over the place not being cared for. And for me I like big chef knives like 10 inches. I try to use a chef knife for everything.
 
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Personally I'm really not a fan of those kind of super-short chef knife profiles. IMO a classical chef's knife profile works great at 10 inches, but once you go short they become overly curvey and there's just not enough length to make that profile work. Due to the lengthy it's hard to rockchop anything larger than a piece of garlic or shallot, while the profile makes it rather annoying as a push cutter or a chopper.

Nakiri... IMO those 'western' style nakiris and santokus tend to be a bit on the heavy and thick side which makes them underperform.

So personally I'd lean to something else. Doesn't have to be a race car; I'd even pick a larger Henckels over these knives hands down. Or any entry level Japanese knife. In general I'd rather have 1 good knife than 2 mediocre ones.
 
What’s an entry level Japanese knife I can look for? My wife is on the smaller side, so she prefers knives that aren’t too heavy. I figured the 6.5 - 8” length ones are a midpoint
 
And since you seem to be vegetarians, the right answer is a nakiri and a petty. The problem is that it’s pretty much impossible to do that under $100 given inflation. The reason the knives you bought are so cheap is that they are terrible. Maybe something by Morihei but you wont be able to wait 3 months to sharpen them.
 
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Dan- said:
And since you seem to be vegetarians, the right answer is a nakiri and a petty. The problem is that it’s pretty much impossible to do that under $100 given inflation. The reason the knives you bought are so cheap is that they are terrible. Maybe something by Morihei but you wont be able to wait 3 months to sharpen them.
Click to expand...
I don't really agree. Whether you prefer a nakiri or a chef's knife / gyuto or a santoku is more of a personal preference thing. Being a vegetarion doesn't mean you have to be pidgeon holed into a nakiri at all.
Petty is IMO an optional luxury... some people love them, others don't care for them, but there's few things that you do with a petty that you couldn't do with your usual paring knife + chef's knife / gyuto combo.
 
I have a 6" Wüsthof chef knife and find myself using it off the board more than on because it feels more like a heavy duty petty. I don't want to deter you from keeping either knife if you like them. Like @coxhaus said, most of us get excited by knives that basically fall through food. But I still use my German cutlery even though I have a couple of handmade knives.
 
After sharpening many different zwillings knives for family&friends, I hate to admit it but Zwilling santokus are usually much thinner than their chef’s knife. If the nakiri’s grind is similar to their santoku’s, I would say it would be totally usable…just overpriced. The 6.5 inch chefs knife might not be that useful though. You might want something longer for reasons others have mentioned above.
 
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I guess I grew up in a different generation as I don't like low tipped knives.
 
coxhaus said:
I guess I grew up in a different generation as I don't like low tipped knives.
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IMO knife shapes and profiles aren't so much a generational thing, they're just simply a personal preference. Some people like santokus and nakiris, other people don't. Some people prefer 210s, some people prefer 240s, some people prefer 270s. And then there's some people who prefer 180s, and those people are just plain wrong. :p
 
180 is perfect size - for a petty.

When I started this nonsense I had a bunch of Henks 4 Star and a few Wusties. The 6 in chef was my sister's favorite and I gave it to her. I'm on call to sharpen it and have done so many times over the years. Bit of a pia but doable. It works for her (and I've tried to get her into a "better" Japanese knife many times).
 
My mom used a 6-inch Henkels chef knife a lot back in her day. I have not found a use for her knife but I still keep it.
 
I love my 180 gyuto, 180 bunka, and 180 nakiri for small prep jobs. When it’s something like 1 shallot and 6 cloves of garlic, do you really need to pull out the 240 ironclad for it?

180mm also in my head is a good match with stainless steel for some reason; I don’t care if it’s stainless or not for my bigger knives, but something about grabbing a 180mm stainless just feels quick, simple and carefree.

That curvy Western profile in OP’s 6.5” chef’s knife doesn’t look very ergonomic to me though. Lots and lots of steep up and down rocking to make it work. I gravitate to pretty flat profiles at shorter lengths.
 
Jovidah said:
a nakiri or a chef's knife / gyuto or a santoku is more of a personal preference thing
Click to expand...
Right. Until finding this forum, I didn't know about a Nakiri vs Gyuto v Santoku v Petty.

A Petty is nice to have, but I need something at 6.5"+ knife for mostly veggies. It needs to have a durable blade that holds an edge after many sharpenings.

The japanese knives on CKTG and WTS are nice for their attention to detail, their hardness. If I find something for 50-60$ the length of a 6 - 6.5" utility knife I'll go for it. IDK if that is a Santoku/Gyuto or Nakiri. Nakiri may need us to alter our cutting style though.

Hz_zzzzzz said:
Zwilling santokus are usually much thinner than their chef’s knife. If the nakiri’s grind is similar to their santoku’s, I would say it would be totally usable…just overpriced.
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Hard to tell. Specs say the 6.5" chef's and the Nakiri both have a blade thickness of 0.08 in. Given I paid 55$ for each of them totaling 110$, I figured these knives were worth about what I paid.

Jovidah said:
Some people prefer 210s, some people prefer 240s, some people prefer 270s. And then there's some people who prefer 180s
Click to expand...
You lost me there. Uninitiated. I need to educate myself on what these are :) I guess these are referring to knife blade lengths?

Delat said:
curvy Western profile in OP’s 6.5” chef’s knife doesn’t look very ergonomic to me though. Lots and lots of steep up and down rocking to make it work.
Click to expand...
Good point. My wife has to watch out for her shoulder and elbow. So, a steep up-down rocking motion wouldn't really help with that shoulder issue.

Having read a few more posts on this forum, I have decided to return both the Zwillings and spend my money on some japanese knife instead. Thanks for all the suggestions.
 
I can so no reason in buying a short primary knife. I would be lost without my 10-inch chef's knife.
 
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