Mrs. Bernse has finally come up with a nice idea for a christmas present for me… Some quality kitchen knives.
I want to buy a nice set that will hopefully last me a lifetime (or a darn long time).
Any recomendations?
I am tentatively looking at:
4 piece Wusthof Trident Set
and a similar
Any difference in the quality of knife between the brands? Anything to look out for? Other brands to recomend?
Coincidentially (or not, maybe) this advice column talks about knives and says both brands are good.
Either brand is good. Try to give them a test-hold before buying. There are different handle styles, and everyone’s got their own preference.
FWIW, the Henckels 4-Star line is well-suited for those with smaller hands, but not so good for people like me with big mitts.
Like the tomatonation article says, Bed Bath and Beyond’s a pretty good place to buy, and so is Amazon.com. Macys.com (or their B&M stores) often has pretty good discounts as well.
As for block sets, blocks are fine. Some folks hate them, and some love them. Some say you have to put the knives in sharp side up so they don’t get dulled resting in the slot…yada yada… Just don’t get suckered in by the 19-piece sets. Do you really need 12 hand-honed steak knives? Probably not. Anything beyond the three basics - chef’s, boning/slicer and paring blades - verges on frippery.
I have posted in other threads about the Wusthof Grand Prix series. They are my favorite, excellent balance, good grip even when your hands are wet or covered in chcken gunk:)
Check Ebay for box sets, you can save some serious coin.
I’ve owned Henckles, and Wusthofs and not by far the Wusthof wins out. I think if those are your two choices, you can’t go wrong. I really don’t thing there is a difference in quality, just feel. Lucky you., I want new knives.
Have not tried the Wusthof because I am so extremely happy with the Henckles. Just replaced my old set with the Professional S. Watch out for the cheap Henckles - they do not have the twins on the blade.
Sounds like you should go to the store and take hold for a while and see what feels good to you
Man I hate cooking at my friends houses.
Henckles and Wusthof are both excellent knives, the most important consideration is what feels good in your hand. I would also suggest taking a look at Global knives. From my experience, you need to hone the German knives every use to keep the edge in tip-top shape. The Global brand knives defenitely seem to hold an edge longer. Very cool looking knives too! I agree, screw the 145-piece sets, you only need 3 knives like gotpasswords says.
Go for the Henckles 4 star (only thing I fought for in my divorce), but I do love the Global knives. You need to go and test what feels right for you.
I’ve got a ten-year-old set of Chicago Cutlery and I’m very happy with them.
Admittedly, the Henckels and Wustoff are a bit superior blade-wise, but I much prefer the feel of the wooden handles that Chicago offers. The rivets haven’t loosened a bit and I keep the blades very sharp.
I’ll repeat the other’s advice. Go to a major department store and actually HOLD the knives in your hands. Doesn’t matter how high the quality of a knife is… if it’s not comfortable in your hand, you won’t want to use it.
AdmiralQ beat me to it, but it’s worth seconding Global. They are not nearly as expensive as the Henckles and so on, but they are great knives. I am not a Chef, but I know one, and he uses Globals–says they hold an edge well, and don’t need as much upkeep.
When buying Henckles get those made in Germany, don’t buy Henckle International blades. I would suggest buying the knives separately not as a set.
Get a professional quality Chopper and 4-5 inch straight blade cooks knife, then get lesser quality (Henckle 4 star, Global, …) for the rest.
It won’t look so good, but will mean you didn’t pay $30 + for a knife you rarely ever use.
I’ll second a vote for Global knives, as they can be dishwashered easily without need ing to remember to remove a dry them as soon as the dishwash cycle has stopped.
A good heavy Japanese bladed Chopper is excellent value (I got pro quality bladed for about $30 at a sale in San Francisco Japan Town) they need lots of TLC (Hand washing, remove all detergent residue with lots of rinceing, and then oil before putting away) but I find I can get a better edge on this than any other blade and it looks and feels great.
P.S. how’s Mom 
I love my Global paring knife, but since the blade is slim and the handle is straight its entire length, rather than having “grip” parts built into it, it can be tough to tell at a glance which side of the blade is the sharp side. I have to be careful to always put it down the same way on the cutting board, so that when I pick it up the sharp side is pointing down. I know that otherwise I’m such a ditz, I’ll end up cutting my finger on the sharp side as it’s pointing up. This wouldn’t be a problem with their chef’s knife due to the broad blade, and probably the boning knife.
I have an older Chicago Cutlery knife for my chef’s knife. Still need a proper boning knife, as well as a good sharpening kit. My father-in-law gave me one of those automatic sharpener things that you plug in and pull the blade through magnetized slots on top of the machine. It basically mangled the Farberware blade that I’d put in there - thank goodness it was cheap.
I have to repeat the advice about holding the blades. If I’d toyed with picking up and putting down the Global paring knife, like I was using it on a cutting board, I might have discovered that I’m not good at recognizing which side is up on it. I probably would have gotten other Global knives then, but passed on their paring knife, just because of my inattentiveness at times.
In Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain gives props to Global knives, saying they are generally better balanced, cheaper, hold an edge longer, and generally take pro kitchen abuse well. There was also some description of a Global chef’s knife with an offset blade, but I didn’t really get the point of it…
Having said that, we have many Henckels in our house – and we’ve used the lifetime replacement guarantee twice! That was worth $150 right there! I really like them although I have never used any other “good brands” for any length of time to compare.
As noted by an earlier poster, the way to appreciate good knives is to try and cook a meal at someone’s house who has crappy knives. We ended up buying a pair of Hencks for my in-laws 'cos we couldn’t stand the wibbly-wobbly ginsu-4000s they had before. I think they only come out for us…
My $0.02:
Buy a Chef knife and a paring knife. Period. Save the money on the other knives that come with a set and just buy 2 REAL nice knives (that you will use 99% of the time anyways). Large hands should go for the 8" chef, smaller hands the 6" chef.
Buy a nice steel and use it every time. A steel just straightens out the edge, it doesn’t ‘sharpen’ it (no metal is taken off). If you steel everytime, even just a few strokes, then your edge will last for a loooonngggg time (I haven’t sharpened my knives in over 18 months, and I cook every night).
-Tcat
There was another knife thread not that long ago.
I find that I use the same 4 knives over and over again
10" serrated bread knife (I buy a lot of crusty french bread)
8" Chef’s knife
7" or 8" Utility knife
3.5" paring knife
Mine are Henckel’s Professional S series. I picked up the 4 Star and didn’t like the way the end of the handle was shaped. For me, the Henckle knives had the best balance, my hands are quite small.
joins the pile on
Go to the kitchen supply store and handle all the knives. See what feels best in your hand.
Sound advice all. Only problem is the small city that I live in has no “kitchen” supply store. We have several “big box” stores, but they all sell the cheaper-line knives (Henckels International, for example) which are not much better than we’re already using.
Alas, I am relying on all of your sound advice on them and I’ll probably end up ordering them from the net.
As a side, anyone know of a Canadian store that sells knives over the net that isn’t a rip off?
I’ve had my Henckels 4-stars for almost 20 years now and they’re as good as the day I bought hem. I do serious home chef-ery almost every night. I agree with most posters:
Buy quality, not crap. Quality and price are not synonmous; there’s a lot of heavily hyped names out there which are junk in a gilded package (Emeril, Calphalon, etc, )
Buy the brand which fits your hand. For me the square cross-section of the Wusthof just doesn’t fit as well as the more rounded Henckels. Your fit may be different. Adn pay attention to balance. Some knives just feel “right”, others just feel awkward. Buy over the 'Net if you want, but definitely handle them all at the store first to decide. Go to a kitchen expert store rather than the discount big box; you’ll get better help and useful info.
Don’t buy a set. Buy pieces. The apparent savings on a package deal are illusory if you end up with one seldom used piece.
I use my 10" basic chef’s knife for almost everything, the 3.5" parer for smaller work, and an 8" boner for, well, boning. That covers 90% of my knife use, although I also use the serrated bread knife and the meat carving knife and fork for their intended special functions. If I had to replace my knives now (never happen!), and couldn’t afford them all at once, I’d buy them in that priority order.
Avoid buying the “matching” steak knives. Usually overpriced compared to the need.
The steel is a need-to-have piece if you’re serious, but can be put off until later if budget is an issue. If you don’t have a steel you will need a very fine ceramic hone with a v-groove to hold the blade at the correct angle. Those come in huge variety for very little money. Never let an electric knife sharpener get near your good knives.
As somebody else said, I hate cooking or even helping in anyone else’s kitchen and it’s mostly their half-ass K-Mart knives that make all the difference. Whatever brand you pick, you’ll love them once you get used to them.
Just a tip for you people discussing Global (which I personally think are great). If you have any connections at all with someone in Japan, try to get them from there, because the price difference in immense if you buy the locally or exported.
Another enthusiastic endorsement for Global knives. I bought the 10" chef’s knife and 4" paring knife; both work great and are as good as the day I bought them.
One great thing about Global knives is they’re all-metal construction. (And no, the handles are never in the least slippery, even with wet or gunky hands.) I don’t know about anybody else but there’s something basically weird about disinfecting a cutting board after hacking apart a chicken while looking at the wooden handles of knives and the tiny crevices between blades and handles. Talk about gunk traps.
Global knives keep their edges extremely well too, besides looking just plain damned cool.
I bought my Henckles from Hendrix Restaurant Equipement here in Ottawa. I just noticed that they have an online store as well that you could take a look at.