Best Chef's Knife?

Great post, gave me a good laugh.

Some blocks do store the knives with the blades vertical, but many (most?) like mine store them horizontally, so the cutting edge doesn’t touch anything.

Mine is at an angle. Where the dulling can take place is when a knife is inserted into the block and the edge makes contact while it is sliding in or out. By turning the knife on its back, the problem is averted.

Slasher flick name.

Sorry. Carry on.

I do this with most of the knives.

I use a magnetic strip attached to my wall. Much better than a block IMO.

My biggest reason for it is to save my rather limited counter space.

But it does look good too, bunch of shiny shiny knives all lined up.

Though, as @bump pointed out, maybe not the best setup if you have children around.

Man, you guys are making me hit the Amazon cart hard. Ordered one of those magnetic knife holders now, too. (Granted, it’s been something I’ve had in the back of my head to buy for like a decade now, but sometimes I need a little shove to go through with it.)

Not just good for knives. I have a couple of magnetic strips on the wall at the top of the basement stairs with frequently used hand tools stuck to it: a small hammer, screwdrivers, pliers, tape measure, utility knife, etc.

That’s actually a really good idea. I’m always losing my tools, and I had never even thought to put them up on a knife strip.

I hate to be That Guy, but while all the uproarious enthusiasm for everything magnetic is full tilt … be careful if you have a pacemaker (btw 500k and 3M Americans do):

https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitting-products/cell-phones/magnets-cell-phones-and-smart-watches-may-affect-pacemakers-and-other-implanted-medical-devices

Mine was a set of two that I ordered and, in fact, that was the secondary usage I was thinking of for it. :slight_smile:

Yeah honestly someone gave me one and I didn’t actually have a spot in the kitchen for it, so after some thought I decided to use it for tools. Bought a second one because it worked so good and I had more tools I wanted to stick up there.

My knife sharpener arrived today. I didn’t have a chance to use it until just now.

I have to say that it’s the quality I’d expect from Zwilling/Henckels (and, as I said, is essentially identical to the same one from Wusthof except for the colour scheme). It has a rubber pad lining the whole underside, and the entirety of the inside of the large handle is lined with rubber for comfortable grip.

It seems to sharpen really well but unfortunately I don’t have anything to try the knives on right now. I am overdue for another grocery outing. But I did the “finger test” before and after, lightly running your finger across the blade. The knives definitely feel sharp now, and there was a small residue of steel filings, mostly at the “coarse” sharpening slot. Very easy to use, much easier that fritzing with the honing steel. Looking forward to using my newly refurbished knives!

I have a magnetic knife strip too! I bought it when I bought my 3 well-researched knives. Threw all the others away. I also keep kitchen shears and a knife steel on it.

Very cool idea about the tools. I will get one for the garage!

Speaking of which, can someone recommend a magnetic knife holder? Trying to wade through reviews on Amazon is really frustrating. Our new digs is going to have limited counter space, so I’m going to need one of these.

Regular neodymium or samarium magnets work great…

I’m sure they do, but I need a recommendation for a specific knife holder. Even a good quality magnet is no good if it’s not placed properly or there aren’t enough of them to do the job.

This is the one I got 11 years ago. Still going strong. Holds my chef, serrated and paring knife, as well as scissors and a steel.

I am almost positive I chose it on a recommendation from either Cook’s Country or Alton Brown.

My parents had a magnetic knife strip, and i loved it, but my kitchen doesn’t have any place to put one. There are cupboards above all the counters, and appliances tucked under the cupboards. I guess we do block summer space with the two knife blocks, but if we removed them, i don’t know where we’d put the hot mitts tucked behind them, and it would make the knives harder to get at.

(And we have two knife blocks, both nearly full of knives, plus a few other knives in a drawer.)