How can I find the best quality Japanese chef knives? I heard that Japanese knives are very sharp and made of the best materials.
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “best japan chef knife“
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Written by: Clara
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How can I find the best quality Japanese chef knives? I heard that Japanese knives are very sharp and made of the best materials.
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “best japan chef knife“
About Clara
You need to know what knives suit you and your style first of all, and for that you need to take time to absorb the information out there.
A good place to start is watching Burrfection
This guy does a lot of reviews on different types of knives from japan and other high end quality knives.
In most cases amazon will be able to provide the majority. Except for that googling the names of the knives you want will take you to a lot of places world wide that hold high end knives.
Just make sure you look around, some things are often onsale.
Amazon Basics 14-Piece Kitchen Knife Block Set, High-Carbon
Do NOT use Amazon. Go to reputable sites that know their knives, like Chef Knives to Go, Japanny, Chubo Knives, Carbon Knife Co, etc. It makes all the difference. Amazon is chock full of bad knives and people who don’t know anything about knives leaving good reviews because the knife can cut paper out of the box. It’s deceiving and they often don’t have the best prices, anyway.
That is laughable because any sharpener worth his salt can make any knife have a decent edge. What makes a good knife is how long that edge stays on and how easily and cleanly the knife cuts through things. Another misconception is sharpness = cutting ability, which is wrong. A knife’s edge geometry matters a great deal when it comes to how it will go through ingredients and whether food sticks to the blade or falls off more easily. For example, you can have a sharp razor and a sharp scissor blade, but the razor will always cut more easily because of the shape and thinness of the edge. By the way, granton edges do little for food release (the stuff you see on western santoku knives); edge geometry is by far the most important factor for food release. Knives should be judged after months of regular use and sharpenings. Then you can tell if a knife is actually good.
The marks of a good knife: edge retention, ease of sharpening, good edge geometry suitable for the cutting task for which the knife is designed, durability, good fit and finish.
Please keep in mind there is no “best knife.” Knives are a very personal choice and what one person likes might not be what another person likes. For instance, I like feather-light 210mm chef knives even for heavy kitchen use (not as heavy as cleaving chicken and bones, always use a cleaver for that). Other people will swear by 240mm or 270mm, condeming 210mm as too short for serious use. Others will like heavy knives. Others think santoku and nakiri knives are useless while others say German steel is inferior. It doesn’t make them wrong or anything, it’s just what they like.
My favorite knife material is aogami #2 (blue steel #2) but others swear by white steel, blue steel #1, aogami super, HAP40, VG-10, R2/SG2, or molybdenum steel. Doesn’t make them wrong, it’s just what they like.
That being said, Japanese knives are drastically different from western.
Western: Heavier due to handle construction but more durable handles overall, heavier handles make their balance point more toward the handle, made for rock chopping, non-specialized heavy duty blades, softer steel (usually 52–58 HRC).
Japanese: Light handles meant to be replaceable, lighter handles make their balance point more toward the blade, specialized and often made for single-purpose use in mind, hard to extremely hard steel (usually 60 and 60+). Some Japanese knives are also single-beveled, meaning they have a chisel grind. These knives are made for ONLY right or left-hand use depending on how they are ground. Left-handers are much more expensive than right handers.
Honing rods are bad for hard Japanese steel due to the risk of chipping the hard, more delicate edge. Honing is for on-the-spot edge alignment. There is no need to hone Japanese knives, anyway, a good German knife can dull in a day while a Japanese knife edge can often last several days or weeks. You don’t need to hone since you will have time after your work is done to sharpen the knife. Always sharpen on water stones. Do not use an electrical sharpener.
Wanbasion Black Stainless Steel Knife Set, Sharp Kitchen Knife