Knife - What Makes a Good Kitchen Knife and How to Shop

[Slic3R1]

That Santoku looks ideal for the kitchen

[RebelWrestler45]

Carbon stainless? All steel in existence contains carbon.

[TheTenshitobias]

I think a important factor to look at is near the start of the blade where your fingers at you need space for your fingers to the board while cutting tried some really bad knives where you can't chop anything since your hands keep knocking eiother the table the board..

[death2pc]

Knives are purely utilitarian, a tool, period. Lots of fancy schmancy knives out there, but at the end of the day, they are simply tools.

You work enough with knives and you come to realize that all the fancy stuff while good, is no better than commercial product such as Dexter Russell and Forschner which are simply superb and then some! If you want to pay up for something well worth it to put it mildly, get Mac. Really fantastic those...

If you don't need ceramic, avoid them big time.

[gamewildkid]

Aren't santokusharpened and honed on one side not both giving it a smaller angle degree and making it more Sharp than the traditional chef knife?

[kiminokami]

@gamewildkid It depends upon the actual knife and the style of the manufacturer. Traditional Japanese blaces of almost any type are ground on only one side or mostly one one side and a half or token bevel on the other side.

[RebelWrestler45]

@gamewildkid No, Santoku knives are usually not chisel ground, they are full flat ground.

[MrNapalm138]

You dont pour steel into a mold to forge it just saying,otherwise this is a great vid.

[chefgiovanni]

just got some new knives at ChefDepot . c o m

[xxboristhespyderxx]

Why forged knife? The geometry is better....the stamped knife is a flat piece of steel with a sharp edge , the forged knife forms a "V" and this pushes slices of food away from knife and allows for faster cutting ...the food does not stick to knife.

[wolpack1116]

@xxboristhespyderxx Not always true. Many stamped knives are ground to a V from spine to edge, often on stock 3/32" thick or less. These cut much easier than the forged knives, which tend to have much thicker spines, thus reducing cutting ability.

[gobacktorussia]

wow this video is actually correct on every point, i have seen a load of videos like this but this is the first one i have seen that is actually telling the truth!

[Tubeofbeans]

Good video but you really should clarify that santoku knives with it's more acute blade shape needs to be sharpen at 15 degrees unlike traditional western style chef knife which can be sharpened at 20 degrees.

[len0808]

can't lose with kasumi or shun, and one kyocera ceramic.

[chefgiovanni]

@len0808 I agree Kasumi or Kyocera, but SHUN knives are too thin and brittle.

[daumar12]

A good Chef knife is always forged, never stamped. Forging only makes the steel as hard as around 62+ Rockwell which is needed to keep the sharpness that you need make perfect cuts. And you should prefer blue Carbon Steel (non stainless) to get this sharpness. Standard stainless steel can´t be forged to that hardness, or you need to choose VG10 laminated stainless steel or Damasteel powder steel knives in that case. Paring knifes might be ok when stamped only as you can easily replace them.

[cpovey1]

Quality knives can be either forged or stamped. I am a pro cook, and in the kitchens where I have worked, 90% of the knives are stamped. People go on and on about what makes a good kitchen knife, but the single most important this is how it feels in YOUR hand. I have both forged and stamped chef knives, and they all do a good job.

One thing about stamped knives-there are a LOT of poor stamped knives, but Forschner and F. Dick stamped knives are excellent.

[RebelWrestler45]

@daumar12 What are you talking about? First of all, the forging process is not what dictates a blade's hardness; the processes of hardening and tempering dictate a blade's HRC rating. In addition, a steel's hardness had nothing to do with sharpness, sharpness is dictated by grain structure. Many stainless steels can be hardened to a harder HRC than Aoko steels; e.g. ZDP-189, Cowry X, SG2 etc. which are commonly hardened above 64 HRC, and can be hardened up to 68 while retaining functionality.

[cpovey1]

@daumar12 As a pro cook, one who sometimes spends hours a day with a knife in my hand, I disagree. My Forschner stamped) chef knife is a great knife. Two values that make a great knife: How good an edge it has and how it feels in YOUR hand. A $10,000 knife that is not sharp is useless, just as a $10,000 knife that is uncomfortable is not good for you. Almost every knife can be honed to a sharp edge, so the handle and balance are all-important, since that cannot be changed once made.

[geshmorgie]

why not get cutco?

[RebelWrestler45]

@geshmorgie Because 440A steel sucks. Cutco is way overpriced for the materials they use; and this is coming from a person who has sold thousands of dollars worth of Cutco. Go with Shun, as far as kitchen cutlery steels go, VG-10 is king, and the Shun Classic series is very affordable.

[daumar12]

@RebelWrestler45 agree, but Shun´s are overpriced as well. At least here in Germany. :-)

[bobjoemagee]

this women knows very little about knives.....

[Thompsyzoombla]

I use the amazing Global still the king of the culinary world (in knives anyway)

[bjjbarros]

Yeah i got a global knife too and its the shit!

[ChallengeDK]

Any reason to not go for the high carbon stainless steel knifes?

[brianknb]

Great video. Anyone know if the other type of sharpeners work as well as a manual one?

[RebelWrestler45]

@brianknb Get a spyderco sharpmaker, easy to use, consistent angling, and you can sharpen serrated knives with it as well.

[tastygarlic]

I like a thin, stamped Victronox tourne knife for strawberries, but use a forged Furi for beets and other things. Stamped filet knives are very functional. Unless it is a thin, precision and soft product you're working with, go with forged blades if you can afford them... more so if the knife will see heavy use, like a Chef's knife. IMHO. I haven't posted a video on this, so I don't really have an opinion at this point : )

[loshconsulting]

Horrible all these murder instruments being displayed in public. Time for a knive registry along the lines of the successful Canadian gun registry. Keep those murder tools out of public hands unless licenced and registered. Butcher knives kill so many women!!! All a housewife/chef needs is a 3inch blade with a dull rounded point. Even if it saves the life of one woman and child it will be worth the cost. Canadian house wives will be happy to make this small sacrifice of convenience!!

[brianknb]

And only sporks

[0TheChef0]

The cullins on the side of the knife are not very useful on chef or santoku knives, but they are great on slicers.

[wweboss]

"good carbon stainless "

Is carbon steel or stainless steel ??

I don´t no any carbon stainless

[RadioactiveSheepHerd]

High carbon stainless steel, its a stainless steel with more carbon in it so it holds a better edge, is easyer to sharpen and still "rust free" but is a bit more in danger for getting rust spots.

[wweboss]

that is lamineted steel

[RadioactiveSheepHerd]

Laminated steel = you have a core of carbon steel then add stainless on the outside, high carbon stainless is stainless steel with a high ammount of carbon^^

[wweboss]

it is like the Busse INFI steel

[mainaman]

a good knife is a knife made in Japan, Henckels/ Wusthof = junk

[mastersausagemaker]

That's rather unfair. Though many Japanese knives are excellent, there are just as many the are junk. Henckel's is a good knife, Wusthoff is overpriced.

Good knives such as Victorinox or Forschner, as well as Henckels are of good quality. Dick knives are excellent.

[moose733]

germen steel is much better, in my opion i have owned many shun knives and they are just crap i get mabey 6 years out of the jap knives. i have had my trusty wusthof for 32 years now and it is still like a razor

[shaveyourtaint]

I'd be a nut that per 100,000 units Japan produces far more junk cutlery than the entire European continent. For every $400 handmade gyuto theres gotta be 5 pieces of mass production flea market garbage.

[hunthicks]

I've been using a cheap stamped cleaver for all my chopping for a while now, it works fine so I just haven't bothered getting anything else! Thanks for the info!

[tuthmes]

Forged knives tend to get a gap from the handle (blade) to about halfway along the blade. After constant sharping it gets bowed. As a Chef i would highly recomend a Forshner knife set, Good swiss steel at a good value. =)

[shaveyourtaint]

Forschner is the ultimate rough neck working cook's kitchen knife. My old carbon french blades are too precious to subject to the brutality of the line, and my sleek handmade Japanese too fragile and high maintanence. As long as an eight inch Fibrox is $25 nothing on this planet comes close in terms of value per dollar spent. If it snaps, has the tip broken, gets lost in a garbage can who cares? Too many cooks become married to these trophy tools and waste precious time babying them.

[evilkate666]

that is pretty awesome!!!! I actually was thinking about getting a new set of knifes and wasnt sure what to get....i am more partial to a knife that has been passed down to me (30+years old). It looks similar to "Old Hickory" knifes......might have to get a set of those???what is your thought on that?

[RecipeCook]

A quality knife should last a lifetime with good care. If your old knife is still usable, I would keep it - get it sharpened by a professional who will sharpen it correctly without taking off too much metal, etc. I agree with the chef - Forschner knives are good ones. There are lots of high quality, reasonable (but not cheap) lines of cutlery out there.~Rita

[banduril]

Good video. Any thoughts on ceramics or non-stainless blades?

[RecipeCook]

Ceramic blades are light weight and stay very sharp a long time but they can be rather fragile - if you drop them on, say, a ceramic tile floor, good chance they'll chip. An excellent knife will have both stainless and carbon steel - stainless for beauty and durability; carbon to set a nice edge. Thanks for watching! ~Rita

[cpovey1]

The only advantage to ceramic is that they stay reasonably sharp for a long time. But they are very fragile, and you cannot get them as sharp as a regular steel knife. Had one, tried to love it, sold it.

Rita, unfortunately, you don't seem to know a lot about steel. All steel has carbon in it. Steel is just Iron with a little Carbon. All-Carbon steel knives take a great edge, but tarnish. Stainless is harder to sharpen than carbon, but works fine, and is what 99% of people should use.

[wolpack1116]

@cpovey1 Stainless knives are not any harder to sharpen that carbon steel. That stainless is more difficult to sharpen may have been true 30 years ago, but not anymore. With all the different steels available now, comparing carbon to stainless is so oversimplified that it's essentially meaningless now anyway.

[RebelWrestler45]

@wolpack1116 It depends what stainless steel we are talking about; as a rule of thumb, when dealing with steels of equivalent hardness, the addition of chromium makes metal removal much more difficult (and by definition stainless steel must have a high chromium content); of course the presence of vanadium also greatly detracts from sharpenablility. You are right on the money on your latter point though; each steel has its purpose and tasks at which it excels. No such thing as 'the best' steel.

[smolir]

Kyocera or zaykastore , they have ceramic knifes but they chip very easily.. i have one Kyocera