Knife porn thread

just to say, I was once bought a Japanese carbon steel knife. I'm terrible at looking after it. Constantly rusty, tip snapped off, tonnes of chips out the blade but my god is it good. 10 seconds with a scourer and a cheap sharpener and it's far sharper than anything I've ever used. I think go carbon steel, even if you're going to treat it like shit

I have a 1oox50 peelable hasegawa but it’s just a bit too big and takes up too much counter top real estate. The newer one will fit easily in the prep sink which will add convenience too.

I think I read somewhere that hasegawa mean their boards are ok in a commercial dishwasher rather than the much longer cycles in a domestic washer.

Definitely wouldn’t want someone using a cleaver or serated blade on a rubber chopping board.

I quite like this site for it's descriptions and this looks like a nice balance for a gift based on my understanding of the ask:

https://cuttingedgeknives.co.uk/collections/santoku-knives/products/tsunehisa-srs13-santoku

They look nice but not in the UK and can't be arsed to deal with customs shit.

Nice, it is pretty good. The knife sites I've been looking at look like AOL era clusterfucks.

I'd go nice stainless, not crazy high rockwell hardness santoku shape with great finish.
I find short gyuto or western shape knives in short lengths a bit odd looking with too much of a curve in the blade. I prefer a broader flatter blade.

Just get some proper zwilling knives. No need to get all fancy something you actually want for yourself but she's never heard of stuff.

Any/Everything you need right here (in stokey)
https://www.kitchenprovisions.co.uk/

can't believe my phone reckoned I only spent an hour looking at this site this morning

My nice Japanese steel knife has had a hard life too, lots of chips which I can't seem to sharpen out, rust from being left wet, but it'll still cut like a scalpel.

My first Japanese knife was a (stainless) Yaxell Super Gou, which came from Divertimenti (I love that shop. So much copper and steel. So little time.) and it was kind of fine (with 'kind of' doing the heavy lifting there). I then bought a carbon steel Petty from somewhere in Coal Drops Yard and Wow! - It was like chalk and cheese - I've never used a knife quite as sharp. I managed to break the tip off it in fairly short order.I then bought a carbon steel Santoku from Blenheim Forge. It is a lovely, lovely knife to use. Would buy again.

New knife added to the collection. Now I think I need a #6...

2 Attachments

Thanks everyone, not entirely sure how you've helped, basically still in exactly the same rabbit hole 😂

I'm quite geeky about cooking stuff, and few years back (after reading this thread), convinced myself that what I really wanted was a hand made Japanese knife - bought as a present to myself a Ryky Tran Gyuto - clad carbon steel, trad Japanese handle. It was discounted as the handle had a slight scratch on it (but still twice the price of any other knife I've bought).

https://burrfectionstore.com/en-gb/collections/ryky-tran

anyway - i hardly ever use it. It sits in a drawer and every now and then I prep some veg with it, wipe it down and put it away again. I just can't get used to it as an everyday knife.

So I'd be tempted by the Wustoff / Henckells / Zwilling route - a couple of these are what I use every day.

Getting a few chips on the blade will help you feel less precious about it

yeah, could be that's what i need to do - just use it and accept that it won't stay perfect.

tbh i find the fineness of the tip a bit scary.

Some options:

https://www.kitchenprovisions.co.uk/collections/knives-150-301/products/gyuto-knife-ginsan-stainless-steel-nashiji-finish-ittetsu?variant=40732290547774

https://www.kitchenprovisions.co.uk/collections/knives-150-301/products/kengata-santoku-knife-vg10-stainless-steel-damascus-tsuchime-finish-sakai-takayuki

https://www.kitchenprovisions.co.uk/collections/knives-150-301/products/santoku-knife-vg10-stainless-steel-damascus-tsuchime-finish-wa-handle-sakai-takayuki

I think VG10 or similar is a good gifting steel. Easier to maintain, stainless, gets very sharp.

A small Japanese petty knife as a paring knife, same brand as above for matchy matchy.

For a bread knife, get a Victorinox bread/pastry knife with Rosewood handle, or maybe the opinel one? I’m not sure high end Japanese steel is needed for bread.

I love it that this is still running.. like it says yeah I wanna a new knife too..
I'm still on a ~13.5cm blade ±1cm at ~3.5cm height - like a jumped up paring knife

This looks sooo much fun ,, but waisted on my domestic use

So, I think I'm going to go for this set of two below, looks like a great price and a way to dip your toe into the world of Japanese knives without going crazy. If she doesn't get on with them I'll get something more utilitarian.

It's funny, we're both big into cooking but have never invested in decent knives, been gifted a couple (my mother in law is a big tuperware pusher) but it's just one of those purchases we said we'd do but never got round to it.

Anyway, she's been asking to get some decent knives for a while now and we'll (hopefully) be get our new place with brand new kitchen just after her birthday, so perfect time really.

Still need a bread knife though, Mrs is French and we live in France so it's a knife that gets a hammering!

https://www.dictum.com/fr/couteaux-traditionnels-japonais-hocho/shiro-kamo-hocho-jeu-de-2-pieces-719956

Looks very nice. I guess you'll figure out whether carbon steel maintenance is something you are quite happy with!

https://www.opinel.com/en/couteaux-de-cuisine/collection-les-forges-1890/bread-knife-les-forges-1890

https://www.opinel.com/en/no-116-parallele-olive-bread-knife

Pretty good for demolishing baguettes.

Cool, I'd seen those before and I actually like the look of the cheaper one a lot more. The thing with bread knives is I struggle to see what makes a knife worth 100 quid more than I do with chef's knives.

Good choice, and nice looking knives which are keenly priced.
If you look upstream, a Santoku and a Petty are my daily knives of choice.

That first one is really nice

Bread knives are a pain as they will go blunt (like any knife) and they are a bitch to sharpen.