Enough is enough! Kitchen Knife suggestions?

Gerber knives rock!

The knife which broke was a Henckels? Surprising.

Many chefs on Food Network recommend Wusthoff-Trident.

Regardless of brand, the two main things indicating quality in knives is forged rather than stamped and full tang (the blade is one solid piece all the way through the handle to the end)

Another highly rated brand is Sabatier.

However for a lot of the light everyday stuff around the kitchen I have been know to use Ron Popiels Four Star set and been quite happy with them, especially the price. But I also have a quality chefs knife and boning knife and steel from the brand you don’t want mentioned. However, in defense, I got it from a Restaurant Supply place so it is the higher quality professional series rather than some of the more cheapie ones churned out for the American market as of late—the stamped pieces of crap.

316 stainless is usually not the alloy of choice for cutlery because it’s an “austenitic” steel, which can’t be hardened by heat treatment. Here’s the problem: in cutlery steels, in order for the steel to hold a good edge, the steel needs to be quite hard. But with hardness comes brittleness, hence breakability. While 316 SS would be more resistant to breaking, it won’t hold an edge.

440 SS is “martensitic”, which his hardenable by heat treatment. This is the preferred stainless for cutlery because it holds a good edge. But yes, it is more brittle.

My advice would be to stick with 440, but to buy a thicker blade. You can tell the difference between 440 and 316, by the way, by using a magnet—440 is magnetic, while 316 isn’t.

The knife on the left in this image is my all-time favorite utility knife. I had mine nearly 40 years until my husband disappeared it by accident.

Here’s my favorite little secret about kitchen knives:

http://japanwoodworker.com/product.asp?s=JapanWoodworker&pf_id=05.100.16&dept_id=13170

This $35 santoku with a blue steel core will stay sharper longer than any knife you will ever use. The downside to this knife is that it WILL RUST if you don’t treat it properly. Treat it properly, and it’ll never rust and you’ll need to sharpen it every three years or so (rather than every 6 months or so with the rest of my knives)

Funny thing about knives. The best knife company in the world was Barclay Forge. They, unfortunately, no longer exist, much like the best shotgun company in the world, Stevens. They are only available used.

Now I buy only Chicago Cutlery, as they offer something in a knife I demand, besides a full length tang. All metal handles. I hate, absolutely hate, plastic handles on a knife. Wood is okay, but metal is BEST. If I couldn’t get all steel handles, I’d settle for wood, but if neither were available, (leaving only plastic) then I’d go back to using a knapped flint blade, preferably obsidian. =)

I have three carbon steel knives from the 1960’s. A large chef’s knife, a small one, and a 4” ulitity. I can put a fine edge on them easily. They will rust if left wet, but I cannot find any knife today that equals these.

At my husband’s urging, we bought Cutco when we first married, and I have to say that I have been very pleased with them. We’ve had them for twenty years now, and they have outlasted a number of other knives, and have even replaced my old, pre-marriage carbon steel knives in my heart.

Yes, they do have plastic handles but they are nicely shaped, at least for my hand, and the blades are quite sturdy and have never broken or bent, even though my son has attempted to use them as screwdrivers.

I do have a set of Henckels knives, which are very sharp but the blades are also very light weight.

I like my cutco knives and I think they are guaranteed for life.
OOPs I just realized you said affordable.

Thanks for the responses so far fluther folks.

Note: the knife that broke was not a Henckels; I only mentioned them because so many people have suggested them to me. Secondly I’m really hoping that I won’t have to shell out $300 for a chef knife.

I bought a set of two Calphalon santoku knives (about 7” & 9”) from Target, of all places. I love them. More impressively, my husband – who collects knives of all kinds – loves them, too. It was around Christmastime, so they were on sale for a very affordable price.

Knives are something I invest lots of money into. It is well worth spending $250 on a quality 2-knife set than to pay endless streams of $10 for shitty knives that break and fly at your face…. my eyes are worth way more than $250!!

The brand of knives I buy are Zwilling, they’re a German company. I use the Twin Pro S series knives. They are stainless steel though but I don’t know what grade.

For those who don’t know, you only need two knives in the kitchen to start: a chef’s knife and a smaller paring/utility knife. Then you can extend and add in a bread knife and a flexible boning knife for fish prep, and those four will pretty much take care of anything. You definitely don’t need sixty knives, nor a knife block full of do dads and duplicate knives.

Oh, I just googled Henkels and see that it is what I call Zwilling :) So sorry to have to recommend something you’ve asked not to be recommended, but my advice still stands: In my experience and opinion, you are better off investing the dough for high quality blades than to buy subpar ones time and time again.

The reason everyone recommends them is because they’re so awesome! Yes I too was put off at the high price of their knives, but I timed it so that I bought them when they were on sale and saved a bit of money. But even at full price, if you pay $300 for a Henckels chef knife, it will be with you forever and you won’t have to pay for another again.

Shun.

@erniefernandez I like my Shun knives, but I have to say they don’t hold their edge anywhere near as well as my blue-steel core knives. My day-to-day knife is a $100 santoku with a very very very hard blue-steel core laminated with stainless on either side.

This knife was a gift in June 2006, I’ve used it pretty much every day since, and about 2–3 months ago it started needing a sharpen. I’ve started steeling it to keep it just sharp enough to use, but I do need to give it up for a week to get it sharpened, but prior to this I never steeled it. My Shun knives need a sharpen (badly) within a year of daily use.

I’m not saying they’re magical, I’m just saying that hardened steel at rockwell C 63 keeps an edge better than Shun’s stainless at C 61. =)

Is it possible to find old-fashioned carbon steel knives anywhere? I find them easy to sharpen, unlike my stainless steel ones.

@gailcalled Japanwoodworker (http://japanwoodworker.com/page.asp?content_id=10045 ) sells them, although they are generally japanese pattern, not western pattern.

Their knives vary from $35 to nearly $1000 depending on the maker and materials. The $35 one I linked to above is blue steel core (blue steel and white steel are types of Japanese steels, blue is tougher due to chromium and something else added) with wrought iron sandwiching.

@bpeoples: Thanlk you