miles717

To the best of my knowledge, Masahiro is the only maker offering a longer santoku. If you check knifemerchant.com, I think they stock them. There is one other option for a "large" santoku, but it's in the wildly expensive realm. Shun makes a Michel Bras "signature" line which sells at Williams Sonoma. It includes a 10" santoku, but if I recall correctly, the set retails for close to $2000. If Knife Merchant doesn't have what you need and you don't want to drop a couple thousand dollars, you can always look into having a bladesmith make a custom piece for you.

My better half became quite fond of it when we spent a couple months in Greece. Whenever she'd run across it in the states, we'd always buy some, but as you noted, a couple months back, we bought some and she was decidedly unhappy with it. We figured it was just a bad batch, or perhaps she just didn't care for that flavor. We tried it again and found the same thing so it's been crossed off our list. I'm glad (kind of) to have been able to tell her why it was so different.

I always put my sponges and scrubbing brushes in the dishwasher everytime I run it. It seems to extend their life quite a bit and minimizes that awful wet sponge/wet dog aroma that develops if a sponge has been wet too long.

Stand back, Chad. I'll take care of the shameless shilling from here. :-) All kidding aside, I've had the fortunate opportunity to read an advance copy of Chad's book. It is informative, entertaining, and filled with Chad's well tuned sense of humor. It will be a fine addition to anyone's kitchen reference and an even better addition to the library of the cutlery challenged amongst the general public and those who should already know better.

The pan certainly isn't deadly unless wielded as a blunt instrument. As others have already noted, the bulk of the cookware in restaurants is plain aluminum. I'd suggest that you send it to Calphalon to see if they'll replace it. Assuming that you have more or less decided to replace it anyway, it may be a far less expensive option than buying something new. Unless you're dying to spend the money, I'd give it a try. They have a good reputation for backing up their warranty without questions or hassles. I have personal experience with them in this regard and can honestly say that it was a great experience. I recently shipped a Commercial NS saute pan back to Calphalon for warranty replacement (NS was starting to wear away and the anodization on the bottom of the pan had been worn through due to excessive "shaking and stirring" on the old electric burners in our last house). I had heard they are quite good about honoring their lifetime warranty, so I figured ten dollars in shipping was worth sending it to them to see what would happen since I simply couldn't continue to use the pan with the NS coating in that state and would have replaced it anyway. Despite the fact that I certainly had gotten more than my fair share of use out of the pan, they shipped me a brand new One NS pan, much to my great surprise and delight. I couldn't be more pleased with the performance of the new pan.

Bob, let me handle this. (I love a good Office Space reference... ) Toufas, Ideally, you should learn how to sharpen with a couple waterstones. They'll do a better job and you'll gain a better understanding of your knife in the process. That said, if you really don't want to invest in stones and the time to learn how to use them, you can use a sharpmaker. It's not the best method, but you probably can get by with it if you occasionally have it professionally sharpened by someone with an understanding of how Japanese knives differ from Euro style knives. Dave Martell at Japaneseknifesharpening.com or would be my suggestion if you want to go in that direction. If you were to use the sharpmaker, I would use the flats only starting with the gray medium and finishing with the white fine stones. I don't recall what Tojiro uses as the factory angle, but paint the edge of the knife with a sharpie marker and try the 30 degree setting first. If it looks close, stick with that, otherwise switch to the 40 degree setting. I'd buy a couple waterstones though. Seriously. It's a far better choice.

Bob's correct about the Hiromoto. It's hard to beat, especially at the price point. If you strongly prefer stainless for your main knife, then that changes the equation a bit. I have the Masamoto 240 gyuto. It's an excellent knife. I don't use mine as often as I once did as I've mostly changed over to using PM steel blades when I want something stainless. I'd go with the Masamoto or give an Ikeda or Blazen from EE a spin. Any one of them will be a very solid performer.

Based on what I was saying about boning knives, take a look at this and see what you think. Like I said, over your budget of $500 but worth considering as the deba would have dual purpose and you'd get a higher quality knife that two lesser ones for filleting and boning. I truely think the Kikuichi is an awesome slicer. So do many others that I know who have them. It's going to be used pretty much entirely on protiens so it will be very slow to for the patina. This set-up would rock your kitchen. Hiromoto AS Gyuto 240mm $132 Kikuichi Slicer $105 Shun paring $45 Korin Ginsanko Deba $244 Total = $526 I truely believe this is probably the best selection of knives for use on just about everything and will make you one happy camper. ←

I'm talking about a complete vertical movement, like up and down. what would qualify as "hard rhined veg" and what do you use to cut those? as for the material, i'd prefer the combo, if the patina's the only con to it. and i probably should've asked this at the beginning, but is $400 enough for a GOOD knife kit? or is $400 going to get me 6 entry level knives? ←

Mac make very good knives. They're very well regarded. You'll see a lot of them in restaurant kitchens. I have several. They don't have the cache of some of the other Japanese makers but they're really solidly made from good materials and feature good fit and finish at a price point which is very working cook friendly. Another good maker if you're looking for stainless knives at a very reasonable price is Tojiro. They can be purchased through Korin Trading. (korin.com) I'd also take a look at japanesechefsknife.com, epicurianedge.com, and knifemerchant.com. The combination of those four sites will give you a very good mix of Japanese makers. I'm not a fan of "kits". I much prefer to find the right knives and not depend on someone's opinion of what would be best for me. That said, you might be better off skipping the santoku since it's so close in size to an 8" chef. If you were to go with a 240mm/9.5" gyuto, then a smaller santoku might make more sense, but it seems a bit redundant. As far as paring knives go, the Shun classic 3.5" parer is very well regarded, although, for a third of the cost, Mac makes a very good parer, as well. Mac also makes an inexpensive fillet/boning knife and a bread knife both of which which I like a lot. My suggestion is that you visit knifeforums.com and foodieforums.com for info on Japanese kitchen knives. There are a couple of threads in the archives which address the question of what should be included in a good starter knife kit. Whatever you do, don't forget to include a couple of good basic waterstones in your budget. They're crucial to making sure those knives are sharp and stay that way.

In that situation, the proper thing to do is to show consideration and good manners by calling the restaurant to let them know that you would be a bit late. Since that is exactly what you did, nothing further was required. I'm sure the host greatly appreciated that you took a moment to let them know that you were delayed. Unfortunately, it's an all too rare occurrence when someone calls to let a restaurant know that they will be late or may need a smaller or larger table due to a change in the number of dinner guests.

The Hiromoto carbon knives offered by Hida Tool are one and the same as the HC line offered by JCK. I've purchased knives from the HC line from both vendors. The folks at Hida Tool are very nice. I'm sure they'll be able to sort one out for you.

Since I started using Japanese knives, I've all but retired my old honing steel. I don't like to use it with Japanese blades since I put a very refined edge on my knives. I've noted that with Japanese knives unless using a polished smooth steel hardened to at least RC65-66, the honing steel is counter productive. A honing steel should "realign" the edge only. Amongst the Japanese knife aficionados, Hand American smooth steels are well regarded. Most of the folks who use a honing steel on their Japanese blades seem to prefer them over any other. If you prefer a honing steel, check out the HA steel. As for my personal practices, I've developed them over a few years. I sharpen my knives with waterstones. I primarily use Shapton Pro stones, although I've tried quite a few different stones. As for my "honing" practices, I originally started with a Hand American leather honing pad which I used with 0.5 micron chromium oxide compound to polish and align my edges. I've since expanded that to include "MDF Hones" which I cut to size from a larger sheet of 3/4" MDF and use with the HA base as a substrate. I use diamond pastes with the MDF hones. I find they do an excellent job, particularly when used with the diamond honing compounds, allowing me to attain a very refined, highly polished edge. If you're interested in either the Hand American leather hones or their smooth steel, check out japaneseknifesharpening.com It's a site run by Dave Martell, a professional knife sharpener, guru for all things related to knife sharpening, occasional eG visitor, and all around great guy. Dave also does mail order sharpening for Japanese blades. You might also pay a visit to foodieforums.com and knifeforums.com (look for the "In the Kitchen" forum) for a lot of good info on Japanese knives, sharpening, and maintenance.

Misono makes a very nice knife. Congratulations on adding one to your kit. I've never used santoku from Shun or Misono so I can't offer any comparisons with the santoku, but I have a Shun Classic 10" chefs and a Misono Swedish Carbon 21 cm gyutou. I've also used a couple knives from the Misono moly line and have tested out a UX10 24cm gyutou. The Swedish carbon isn't the same steel as is used in the UX10 line but I can offer a few general observations regarding the similarities and differences based on my own experiences. The Misono knives I've used offer significantly better geometry than the Shun blades and they feature a blade shape which is more French in profile than the German shape used on the Shun chefs knives. The Misono knives feel quite a bit lighter when compared to a similar sized Shun. The fit and finish of both Misono and Shun are well above average. The performance of the steel is quite similar between the VG10 used in the Shun blades and the Swedish carbon used in the Misono, although the Misono carbon blade does require a bit more attention in terms of maintenance. I own another knife from a different maker which reportedly uses the same steel as is used in the UX10 series. If my experience with that knife is any indication, you should expect that it will take and hold a very fine edge for a reasonable length of time and will maintain that edge with minimal upkeep. I find the performance to be fairly comparable to other knives in my kit made from VG10 steel. Generally, the UX10 line is very well regarded by those who own them. People report that the steel takes a very good edge and keeps it, which is consistent with my own experiences with a knife made from the same steel. I'm sure you'll be quite pleased with the performance of your UX10. I don't steel my Japanese knives, but use MDF and leather hones charged with diamond and chromium oxide compounds to maintain the edges. I rarely allow the blades get to the point where I really think they need to be honed so I find them quite easy to maintain. How do you typically maintain your knives?

Thanks, Ryan. I'll check it out. Mike