Cutlery Reccomendations? (shopping today)

[DirkGntly]

olivesmarch4th
First, start with one of these:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Chicago-Cutlery-7-Onyx-Santoku-Knife/11971393
It won’t break the bank, and it will do most everything you want it to do. It cuts frozen meat, boneless chicken like melted butter, and even cheese. Two important notes: the “santoku” cutting edge is machined at a different angle than a “standard” blade, so you need a special sharpener -
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Presto-Dual-Stage-Manual-Knife-Sharpener/14707080
This sharpener (or one very similar to it) sharpens both types of blades. Run your knife through the appropriate slot a half-dozen times once-per-week and it will stay nice and sharp.
And the second note, don’t machine-wash this knife!
Once you get the hang of the slightly curved blade edge, you’ll be chopping veggies in no time (and you can even slice tomatoes so thin you can see through them!)

(The website indicates the sharpener isn’t sold in stores, but that’s not true…go to the kitchen gadgets section and look for it, right next to the knives…look for the one that indicates it sharpens both standard and santoku blades…you’ll love it!)

[Rex_Goliath]

@Terraplane

Have you ever actually held a Global knife? This is literally a non-issue. You could never ever have a problem with this unless you slather your knife handle in egg and bake it in the oven for 24 hours. I use a Global chef’s knife almost daily and I have never, not once, not one single time, had to give the handle anything more than a quick rinse under the faucet. The dimples are really shallow and I just can’t imagine what you’ve cut with the knife to put food there and make it hard to clean.

Yes. I am a professional chef and we have a lot of Globals in my kitchen. We work a bit dirtier than home cooks (knives can stay dirty all day long), but the biggest annoyance is fish gunk sticking in the crevices of the handle. Wet hands covered in fresh fish gunk combined with allowing the knife to sit for hours at a time makes it a huge pain in the ass to clean, much more so than any other knife I have used.

[Rex_Goliath]

oops

[Nava]

@Athena

@olivesmarch4th

The chef’s knife I got is a mere 6’’ blade but I have small hands and I liked it. I might eventually decide I want an 8’’ inch blade or larger but for now this set seemed like the best deal for me.

I have 6", 8", and 10" chef’s knives, and 90% of the time, I reach for the 6". It fits nicely in my hand, and unless I’m cutting up big pieces of meat, it does the job just fine.

I think a lot of what you read about knife sizes is written by/geared towards man-sized hands.

I had to buy a dagger when I worked at a RenFaire; the one I have would have gotten lost in a man’s hand - even skean duhs were too large for me. I bought a skean duh last year which is good for me, but I grab it with my whole hand whereas my brothers’ little fingers go off the handle. My SiL and brothers can’t be chopping things at the same time because they all reach for the same knife; me, I use one that’s too small for any of them. We have similar situations with screwdrivers and other tools. A knife is a tool, and a tool has to fit the hand using it.

I’m not sure what my hand size is in US terms, but my feet are a 3 or 3 1/2; Over There I often buy my shoes in the children’s section.