Bad Cut

[AzRaeL]

After talking about our dream knives and fairy tale knife stories, i'd like to talk about knives we got that we regret.

Not the cheap crap you pick up at the hardware store for a buck fifty but the supposedly great knives that you bought and found extremely disappointing and would like to warn all your friends and neighbours about.

I've often read cooks dissing the Ceramic knives as crap. Alton Brown thinks they're awful. But on paper, a Zirconium knife sounds wonderful. So I bought myself a little Kyocera paring knife.

Out of the box: wonderfully sharp. Sharper than ANYTHING on earth.

ONE month later...bloody thing is blunt and chipped. And I dont abuse my knives. Maybe I was supposed molly coddle it to the point of just looking at it and cutting nothing harder than Tofu or a overripe tomato.

Screw all this Hi-Tech nonsense. Give me good old-fashioned steel.

[WHT]

I have several ceramic knifes and love them. They have one inherent fault. You can’t use them to chop food except on resin based cutting boards. Even then you have to be careful. They are designed to be slicing knifes. But for some rather delicate slicing they are fantastic.

[Mabelline]

OK. I'm into heresy tonight, but I hate to see good money blah, blah, blah. There's a place for re-enactors and N.A.'s to get the supplies for the frontier type stuff. Amazon needs to get with it. Right now they've got the blanks of Damascene steel for like 40 some bucks. Make your own.

[AzRaeL]

I have several ceramic knifes and love them. They have one inherent fault. You can’t use them to chop food except on resin based cutting boards. Even then you have to be careful. They are designed to be slicing knifes. But for some rather delicate slicing they are fantastic.

not even wooden boards?

my ceramic knife is so fragile i basically put it back in the box and used good old fashioned steel blade.

[SG-]

Masamoto western style knives, very sharp but TERRIBLE finish for a $200+ knife. Finish more akin to some of those $10 knives at asian food stores.

[AzRaeL]

Masamoto western style knives, very sharp but TERRIBLE finish for a $200+ knife. Finish more akin to some of those $10 knives at asian food stores.

oh man! really? i've never had the chance to touch Masamoto knives.

[Fat Guy]

I pretty much only ever use my Wusthof 10" chef's knife and a paring knife. Therefore, all my other knives were a waste of money, except perhaps my Sabatier "elephant" 8" chef's knife, which is the knife I let Person Number Two use if there's ever someone helping me cook and we both need chef's knives at the same time.

For example, I have a Wusthof 10" slicer, which is referred to by the manufacturer as a "ham slicer." It has never sliced a ham. It slices something else maybe once every two years, but I usually just use my chef's knife for slicing. So, that was a waste of a hundred bucks or however much it cost.

[oraklet]

mac knives get a lot of praise, but the edge on their chef's knives is often ground in a way that makes it go "klunk" when you chop. i've even seen some (new knives!) with a "concave" edge near the heel.

[AzRaeL]

how is it the Henckels is one of the largest knife manufacturers but you hardlly if ever see a professional chef praise them?

[Mayhaw Man]

how is it the Henckels is one of the largest knife manufacturers but you hardlly if ever see a professional chef praise them?

I have seen quite a few guys at work with a bag full of them, but I think the reason you see guys carrying them around is the fact that as much as they are good knives, they are equally as good at holding an edge and not quickly getting beat up. Good work a day tools for working chefs.

I use three knive for almost all needs:

Sabatier 10" Slicer (about twenty years old)

Sabatier Carbon Steel 8" Chefs Knife (at least 30 years old) (best knife I have ever owned)

Sabatier 10" Chefs Knife (at least twenty years old)

Along with these I have a drawer containing assorted Wusthofs, Henckels, 1 Kyocera chefs, many no names, cleavers, assorted serrated, etc., etc, and I still keep coming back to the same three. The only other knife that I use regularly is an offset serrated blade (no name brand) that I got at BB and B for about $30. I virtually never use a paring knife, but when I do I have a little Henckel's that does the trick nicely.

[AzRaeL]

I virtually never use a paring knife, but when I do I have a little Henckel's that does the trick nicely.

i use a paring knife when peeling and cutting shallots, peeling the skin off a Burdock and slicing open plastic packaging *LOL*

How is your Kyocera knife?

anyway, my question was: what knife would you say to avoid.

I have a Global GSF-22 Utility Knife which i hardly ever use. Except to fillet fish *LOL*

[Jinmyo]

I have the Kyocera black ceramic chef's knife. (It was a gift.)

I basically use it only to slice dtrip steak for bulgogi or sometimes for sashimi.

[Suzanne F]

I believe F. Dick knives to be the most aptly named. (Got them in school kit)

[AzRaeL]

I believe F. Dick knives to be the most aptly named. (Got them in school kit)

what happens if you slice a scottish raisin pudding with a F Dick knife? *LOL*

[mikeycook]

I think Henckel is a fine knife, but amongst the German knives, Wusthof is still considered king. I think Henckel suffers by comparison. I use a 10" Henckel at our apartment and a 12" Sabatier at the house. I bought the Sabatier because I wanted to try a carbon steel knife. So far, it has met my expectations. Easier to create a sharp edge, but tarnishes very easily. When I buy my next knife, I will probably buy Japanese, but not ceramic (have been coveting the Masamotos at japanese-knife.com).

To me, the biggest problem with using a variety of chef's knives is that I cut myself more often because it takes a while to get used to a knife. When I moved from a 8" to 10" Henckel, I cut myself more often because I wasn't used to the size and grip. Same when I added the Sabatier. If I wasn't becoming a knife junkie, I might just stick with my 10" Henckel and save some skin and blood.

Edited January 13, 2004 by mikeycook (log)

[bobdavis]

To me, the biggest problem with using a variety of chef's knives is that I cut myself more often because it takes a while to get used to a knife.  When I moved from a 8" to 10" Henckel, I cut myself more often because I wasn't used to the size and grip.  Same when I added the Sabatier.  If I wasn't becoming a knife junkie, I might just stick with my 10" Henckel and save some skin and blood.

Same with me - to a point. I cut myself on the first Japanese style knife I got (a Henkels Santoku) - no bolster, so my finger managed to slide under the butt just a little. Not a bad one though.

Within a month of getting my first "big" knife - a 10" chef's - I was in the hospital getting the little finger on my left hand stiched up. I had a nice clean cut running completely across my finger right at the first joint. That hurt.

The new Shun 10" has been relatively good to me - just one little nick to remind me how sharp it is.

Oh, and my ceramic knife is where it's been for the last 18 months - in its box. Its useless for me now. Blunt, chipped and otherwise dangerous. I take care of my knives too.

Edited January 13, 2004 by bobdavis (log)

[fimbul]

I believe F. Dick knives to be the most aptly named. (Got them in school kit)

I have a (forged) F. Dick knife I love. I prefer it even to my gf's Messermeister.

*shrug*

I mention this only to stick up for my baby.

My worst purchase ever was a big Sabatier au Carbone that I bought from Amazon. Now that I've totally reground it and sanded down the bolster so that it doesn't take the knuckle off my right middle finger (I'm right-handed) everytime I use it, the balance is still crappy.

[AzRaeL]

question: just exactly WHAT is the Utility/Sandwich Knife used for?

[halcyongolf]

question: just exactly WHAT is the Utility/Sandwich Knife used for?

I think its just a ploy by knife makers to get yuppie buyers to buy sets of useless knives. Give me a good chef's knife, a serrated bread knife and a pairing knife and I would be a very happy man. Add in a boning knife for special occasions and viola I should be set for most of the cutting challenges that would face me in the kitchen.

[commodorewheeler]

Masamoto western style knives, very sharp but TERRIBLE finish for a $200+ knife. Finish more akin to some of those $10 knives at asian food stores.

I'll second that. And on mine, I think they forgot to sharpen a 1/2 inch segment along the middle of the blade; it's noticeably duller than the rest of the length of the edge.

[commodorewheeler]

how is it the Henckels is one of the largest knife manufacturers but you hardlly if ever see a professional chef praise them?

I know Wylie Dufresne of 71 Clinton Fresh Food and wd-50 likes them. I like them, too, but I don't necessarily think they're among the best knives in their price range.

[commodorewheeler]

question: just exactly WHAT is the Utility/Sandwich Knife used for?

I think its just a ploy by knife makers to get yuppie buyers to buy sets of useless knives. Give me a good chef's knife, a serrated bread knife and a pairing knife and I would be a very happy man. Add in a boning knife for special occasions and viola I should be set for most of the cutting challenges that would face me in the kitchen.

I actually like the utility for when I cut very thin strips of meat, like when you cook beef pho.

[commodorewheeler]

I pretty much only ever use my Wusthof 10" chef's knife and a paring knife. Therefore, all my other knives were a waste of money, except perhaps my Sabatier "elephant" 8" chef's knife, which is the knife I let Person Number Two use if there's ever someone helping me cook and we both need chef's knives at the same time.

For example, I have a Wusthof 10" slicer, which is referred to by the manufacturer as a "ham slicer." It has never sliced a ham. It slices something else maybe once every two years, but I usually just use my chef's knife for slicing. So, that was a waste of a hundred bucks or however much it cost.

My one experience with a Wusthof knife was actually somewhat disappointing. My girlfriend and I bought a Grand Prix santoku for one of her sisters for Christmas this past year. We were all also involved in cooking Christmas dinner for the extended family, and since all of the knives at her parents' house (where the dinner was hosted) are dull as can be, her sister brought her brand new santoku into the mix.

Out of everyone in the kitchen, I turned out to be the fastest with a knife, so I did the bulk of the chopping and slicing. And, to my disappointment, the Wusthof felt really dull to me right from the get-go. I mean, I know I'm pretty used to Japanese knives, which are noticeably sharper than German ones, but her brand new Wusthof was even duller than our half-year-old Henckels Five Star santoku, which has never been sharpened before, and the Wusthof definitely didn't seem damaged or defective. Now, I've always held the understanding that Wusthof is a slightly superior brand to Henckels, so this was kind of a surprise to me. Maybe it was just bad luck for me (and my girlfriend's sister), but has anyone else who's tried a lot of knives experienced this with Wusthof?

[AzRaeL]

My one experience with a Wusthof knife was actually somewhat disappointing. My girlfriend and I bought a Grand Prix santoku for one of her sisters for Christmas this past year. We were all also involved in cooking Christmas dinner for the extended family, and since all of the knives at her parents' house (where the dinner was hosted) are dull as can be, her sister brought her brand new santoku into the mix.

Out of everyone in the kitchen, I turned out to be the fastest with a knife, so I did the bulk of the chopping and slicing. And, to my disappointment, the Wusthof felt really dull to me right from the get-go. I mean, I know I'm pretty used to Japanese knives, which are noticeably sharper than German ones, but her brand new Wusthof was even duller than our half-year-old Henckels Five Star santoku, which has never been sharpened before, and the Wusthof definitely didn't seem damaged or defective. Now, I've always held the understanding that Wusthof is a slightly superior brand to Henckels, so this was kind of a surprise to me. Maybe it was just bad luck for me (and my girlfriend's sister), but has anyone else who's tried a lot of knives experienced this with Wusthof?

I dont know much about that Wüsthof Santoku but the Henckels isn't bad at all.

I'm using a Professional S Santoku (same blade as the 5 star) and it is one of the sharpest knives in my kitchen (and i have Global knives too). It would be the perfect knife for me if it wasn't for the fact that the handle just isn't meant for someone with big hands.

maybe it just needed a quick steeling.

[JC]

Masamoto western style knives, very sharp but TERRIBLE finish for a $200+ knife. Finish more akin to some of those $10 knives at asian food stores.

oh man! really? i've never had the chance to touch Masamoto knives.

I agree. The finish on Masamoto's western knives does not befit the price tag. Even a Wusthof is better finished IMHO.

Their Japanese knives are ok.