If you could use only one knife for the rest of your life, would you pick an expensive chef knife that could never be sharpened again or a dollar store knife that you could do anything you wanted to?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “dollar store knife“
I’ll take any knife that can be re-sharpened over any knife that can’t. All knives go dull. The cheap knife might go dull faster, but even the crappiest rolled stainless steel knives getting stamped out en masse can hold a hair-splitting edge for a while if you know how to put one on. I’d probably re-grind part of the blade from scratch. Give the belly a convex sabre-grind with a toothy burr for pull-cutting tougher stuff, and lap one edge on the tip down to a chisel grind with a highly polished, hair-splitting edge for fine work. I mean if I only have one knife to worry about I can lavish as much attention on it as necessary, and I want it to be able to do every job necessary.
The softer edge would be easy to maintain by using a fine ceramic steel to keep the belly from rolling. The tip could be stropped on my hand. I do that with my razors often enough and it takes no great skill. Of course the belly would eventually get ground out especially if I had to keep re-working the burr (working life is really the biggest downside of cheap steel) but that’s why I’d try to maintain the edge as long as possible with the finest abrasives feasible to remove as little metal as I can while keeping up a working edge.
Sharpening even crap stainless isn’t hard, despite what some prissy knife enthusiasts may claim. You just need to spend as much time investigating the subject of sharpening and exploring the mechanical pros and cons of different mediums as you do buying over-priced knives. If you have access to a vitrified water-stone and a natural nagura stone for slurry it’s damned easy in fact.
A diamond stone will do at a pinch, as the trick is to avoid plugging up, but in order to make the edge less prone to rolling you want to use the least aggressive abrasive available that’s also hard enough to do the job (hence the water-stone being better than diamond) or just bite the bullet and re-grind the bevel on a belt sander to make it convex. Which is probably where I could start, at least on the belly.
Wanbasion Black Stainless Steel Knife Set, Sharp Kitchen Knife
Ha! Fun if somewhat obscure question.
For me the answer is easy. I have NEVER used an expensive knife. Further, I don’t only use knives in the kitchen.
My wife doesn’t look fondly upon me when I use a knife to…
or
…opening that box …. or
sharpening that pencil…
OR
stirring a can of paint, or trimming toenails, or…. whatever.
Kitchen knives……
NOT ONLY FOR THE KITCHEN!
Give me a good cheap knife I can sharpen when I want to.
Authentic XYJ Since 1986,Outstanding Ancient Forging,6.7 Inch Full Tang
If those were my choices then I’d rather choose to forge my own knife. Besides, unless the expensive knife is made of ceramic or mythological adamantium then it CAN be sharpened somehow.
Chicago Cutlery Belden 15 Piece Premium Kitchen Knife
Would have to go with a dollar store special. That expensive chef knife may excel at retaining an edge, but that retention will only go so far. Give me a butter knife from the silverware drawer and so long as it’s in my ability to sharpen. I’ll have that butter knife slicing millimeter thick strips of NY Strip steak for stir fry.
Amazon Basics 14-Piece Kitchen Knife Block Set, High-Carbon
As with many (but not all) things, you get what you pay for, but I’ve learned that with knives, it’s worth the extra money. Get the best knife you can afford, and learn how to sharpen it (there are manual sharpeners out there that are worth it). Dull knives cause accidents; I’ve never found a good knife in a dollar store.
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I don’t understand what you mean by “could never be resharpened”. Any knife can be sharpened. After all, they were made into knives at some point in time.
I would choose a quality chef’s knife with a good high carbon stainless steel blade and a comfortable, durable handle material. It would not be a dollar store or supermarket knife! It would be professional quality from a specialty retailer.
Edit: I would not want a knife that I could never sharpen. All knives, even the best ceramics, can chip or otherwise need to be sharpened. There are some acceptable knives available at “dollar stores”, OXO and Farberware for example.
imarku Japanese Chef Knife – Pro Kitchen Knife 8 Inch Chef’s Knives