I strongly recommend the Grand Prix II line you saw on Amazon. Great, great knives. My old head chef had two of them he liked it so much.
If you’re not a regular cook, I don’t recommend sharpening your own knives. Just do what Alton Brown recommends and take them down to get professionally sharpened. It costs maybe five bucks and the edge will likely last you months. Those little v-shaped things don’t work very well.
What he said. But make your two knives–I have three: cleaver, chef’s, paring–carbon steel, not stainless, and get a whetstone.
Take them down where? How do I find a reputable sharpener who’s not some dude with a bench grinder? I had my lawn mower blade sharpened at the local hardware store, and it came back looking worse than how i left it. I don’t want that to happen to $100 dollar knives.
Also, here is a link for the V-sharp…it’s supposedly a pretty good tool from what I’ve read, not just one of those generic V-thingies…
Heh, I have the same problem. Living in a small town, there’s nobody here I’d trust with my knives.
Here is more than you’ll ever want to know about sharpening your knives yourself. Be warned, this is like a graduate course.
I have an electric sharpener lik this, and it does work, but you have to be pretty careful with it and it takes fooooreeever. Like, I bring it in the living room and sit down & watch TV while sharpening, because it’s easy to spend 15-30 minutes on each knife to get it really sharp.
I used to have a link to a place where you sent your knives to be sharpened. It got fantastic reviews from some really serious chef types. Of course, I can’t find it right now - I’m doing some looking, I’ll post it if I find it.
Ask local restaurants who sharpens their knives. Here, it costs $3 for a professional job and you get a sharp knife. Don’t think that you can keep your knives sharp and looking brand new at the same time, though. A knife is a tool, not jewerly.
Oh, I almost forgot that I wanted to say thenks very much to everyone who’s contributed so far…I love learning about this stuff.
haha, yeah I know never sharpen. I got the knives when I was working at a place, some kind of 5 year reward type thing and I needed some decent knives at the time. I have used and abused that chefs knife for well over 10 years and like I said, its just now hitting the point where it needs to be sharpened. unfortunately with the edge it has I think that means replaced. I may just try and put a straight edge on it but I have a feeling that wont work.
its one persons review of a knife, I would actually buy another if the price was reasonable but I think at this point I am going to get a really nice one instead.
you can ask at the local grocery store’s butcher who sharpens their knives. Maybe even at the deli.
I personally have a couple of Anolon knives that fit my hands just fine, take a good edge and are not particularly expensive. They meet all my requirements. I did buy a few knives before I understood what I liked and felt sure in my hand.
Buy one or two knives that seem to feel good to you, and don’t worry if it’s inexpensive or moderately priced. Don’t spend a lot until you know what works for you.
For the record, I have kept the Cuisinart set. The knives were not particularly sharp out of the box. A few swipes through my Chef’s Choice electric sharpener corrected that, and they seem to be holding an edge much better than my old set of knives.
Ha, by coincidence I ran into a friend that had this exact knife set. He’s kind of a moron–more of a friend of a friend, really–who has to think he has the best everything. “This is a $500 camera!!” when it’s five years old and resells for maybe ten dollars. You get the idea.
Anyway, I grabbed a steaknife to open an envelope and he got all offended that I had touched his “baby”, and that these were special knives that must be handled very delicately. “Do you have any idea how much this cost?!?!” My answer was “uh, Seventy bucks. I’d say you might* be able to justify ninety bucks, but that’s it. No more.”
He was clearly offended that I would dare lowball his perfect knife set.
And here I was, only a dollar off.
I think Forschner knives are a great value. I use my 8" Forschner chef’s knifefor almost everything–paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $30 a few years ago (the other knives I was considering were all forged, and in the $80 range). I think they’ve gotten very good reviews from Cook’s Illustrated, as well.