What is a good brand of high quality starter chef knives?
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About Emery
Written by: Emery
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What is a good brand of high quality starter chef knives?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “chef knife high quality“
About Emery
If you’re looking for something decent that doesn’t cost too much while you figure out how far down the chef road you want to go….you could honestly do well with knives from IKEA.
They have 4 or 5 price/quality levels, and the top 2 are totally decent. Sharp, can be honed, long-lasting, well balanced.
They used to made from Vanadium and now they’re stainless steel, which is still not too bad at all.
Try it!
Chicago Cutlery Belden 15 Piece Premium Kitchen Knife
When I worked next door to the Cordon Blue school and went in for lunch at least once per week, an instructor had a couple of students show me their rolls of knives. Most were Mercer because that is what the school recommended. I bought some and still use them today. They are very practical. Victorinox are a bit better, in my opinion, for a similar price, but both are workhorses.
Authentic XYJ Since 1986,Outstanding Ancient Forging,6.7 Inch Full Tang
There are crap-ass knives, there are decent knives, and then there are beautiful knives.
There is a tiny chance that you might get a crap-ass knife when trying to get a brand new decent knife. Really tiny . Your knife manufacturer has to *really* muck up, especially if you’re getting a molded (i.e. plastic) handle, and not a hand-crafted wooden one. In which case, you might end up with something like this:
It really doesn’t happen often without quite a bit of abuse. Bear in mind, though, that the broken knife in the article above is a Henckels, so price/brand doesn’t always equal quality.
I would personally get a decent knife to begin with, because you get to learn knife care without worrying about sharpening/honing your blade wrongly, and won’t cry if your knife blade gets chipped etc. I’d make a trip to a chef’s supply store, and take a look at the knives there. Chef supply stores are unlikely to sell crap knives – Even the cheapest knife there is likely to be able to withstand some abuse.
I haven’t seen the Dexter Russel brand here, but I guess our version would be Cutlery Pro:
Cutlery Pro 200mm Blue Cooks Knife
I have one and love it. I love my Ran knife more, but I’m also less willing to experiment with rougher cuts/sharpening techniques when using it.
Things to consider when getting your first knife (based on my personal experience):
– Make sure the knife’s heel is longer than your knuckle/grip. If you have a short heel and thick fingers, your knuckles are going to be constantly hitting the chopping board. Not fun at all, and it limits chopping severely. Trust me.
– Find what weight, length, and size is comfortable in your hand . I would start with a 200mm Santoku/chef knife style and work from there (I’ve found 180mm limits me too much). Unless you’re doing heaps of heavy meat chopping, in which case a Chinese cleaver might actually be the best choice.
If you eventually decide to go into “fancy-knife-mode”, that’s when you’ll go for different knife styles that help with specialised cuts.
Fun fact: Some Chinese chefs only have a single cleaver in their knife arsenal. They swear by it. It looks bulky and heavy, but (with heaps of practice and experience) can do beautiful and delicate cuts on top of smashing bones into bits
– Play around with knives! I don’t mean just going to the store and holding one, but asking someone else (very very nicely) if you could borrow their knife. If you are working in a kitchen, chances are, your chefs might have a relatively wide range of knife styles, in a wide price range. Ask them what they like about their knife, and if you can use it to do some prep for 5 minutes, then try another knife. Chefs are probably not going to be very happy if you use their knife for an extended amount of time, but if they know you’re looking at getting a knife, and would like to try/feel the difference, they might actually be proud to show off their knife. IMO, that’s the best way to figure out what you really like, what you might aspire to get in the future, and what you can settle for now and be happy with for a good few years before you “outgrow” your knife and want to spend (much) more money.
– Consider blade material type : If you want to go for sharp, hard, and brittle, or soft, more forgiving, but not-as-razor-sharp blades. This will determine whether or not you might spring for a Japanese knife, which usually has a much higher starting price when compared against western knives. I would, again, go for something really basic like the Cutlery Pro, or a Chinese-made Japanese-styled knife, which is a lot cheaper, since this means you can muck around with it without wincing if you mess up the blade angle while learning to sharpen it.
TLDR? Feel free to go for whatever you like at a chef supply store. Just don’t go for a ceramic knife blade. Those things are fragile, have much less flex, and can’t be sharpened with a whetstone/honing steel. Completely impractical for someone in an industrial kitchen.
Also, price =/= quality
Amazon Basics 14-Piece Kitchen Knife Block Set, High-Carbon
If you don’t know how to use a whetstone — and I’m not being supercilious here, I’m not very good at it — just take your gyutou and santoku and Chinese vegetable cleaver to Ace or TruValue a few times a year, and pay about a buck per knife to have them sharpened. We had a tinker come through the neighborhood about once a week when I was growing up, so we always had sharp knives. I lived in Mexico the last decade, and they still have tinkers there, with that distinctive whistle of theirs, so we always had sharp knives. Dalstrong and some Japanese brands are good, but the main thing to concentrate on is sharpness. Can it shave the hair between your first and second knuckle, can it effortlessly carve a nearly transparent slice off a very ripe tomato? The Cuisinart knives in those butcher blocks every yuppette has on her kitchen counters tend to suck, but if sharpened well, a $60 chef’s knife oughtta do, you don’t need a $200 Damascus steel blade. That being said, a good-looking chef’s knife, well balanced, handsome handle, good balance, nice tang and butt (heh heh), is a pleasure to use.
People will spend $200 on an air-fryer they’ll use once every six weeks. I use my gyutous every damn night, so, well, do the math.
Wanbasion Black Stainless Steel Knife Set, Sharp Kitchen Knife
A stamped Victornox 8″ is a very good chefs knife. You can get the entire set (chefs knife, paring knife, slicer and bread knife) for about $120 and do very well for yourself. Any of the Fibrox knives are very good and almost abuse proof.
I love the Victorinox paring knives, despite the fact that I have some paring knives that I paid $40.00 for.
Smith & Wesson Extreme Ops SWA24S 7.1in S.S. Folding Knife with 3.1in
Speaking as a knife snob… Henckels or Chicago Cutlery.
Chicago is about as cheap as you can go and still have a quality knife. Henckels is a bit more expensive, but is a big step up in quality. You’re not going to get anything significantly better than Henckels without paying a lot more for them.
12-Piece Color-Coded Kitchen Knife Set, 6 Knives with 6 Blade Guards
Learn to sharpen and then damn near any knife that doesn’t come from the dollar store is high quality
MOSFiATA 8 Super Sharp Professional Chef’s Knife
I’m not trying to be rude here but you’re either going to cook some food or you aren’t. If you’re just learning how to cook, then some day you’ll eventually figure it out and your “starter chef’s knife” isn’t going to be good enough. So why not buy a good knife that’s going to last you a while instead?
There are a lot of companies in the kitchen knife business. All of the big name brands: Henckels, Wusthof, Mac, Global, Victorinox, et al, are of equal quality in the $80 to $120 price range. You should visit a kitchen wares store, put your hands on all of them and pick the one that feels best to you.
There are also a bunch of Chinese manufacturers making knives from Japanese steel that look exactly like Japanese style chef’s knives. They even give them Japanese names. Surprisingly, some of them are pretty nice knives. Dalstrong is one that I’ve used and I thought it was a decent knife.
Personally, I use this knife, and have no need for another:
Spring Assisted Knife – Pocket Folding Knife – Military Style
Ceramic is brittle. Chefs don’t use them.
When you are buying a knife, you are buying steel. First thing you need to decide, durable edge/easy sharpening, you can’t have both. There are thousands of alloys of steel and a few dozen that make a good blade. All decent and quite a few others use these steels. Every knife maker will tell you the steel they use (you can look up the charts of these steels) and the blade profile (flat, hollow, full hollow, bevel, etc.) and if you ask you can probably get the grind info. All that is wonderful. But, what you can’t get, or unless you are a metallurgist understand is what can make or break (sometimes literally) a blade, the heat treatment. Heat treatment can make a blade better than you might expect from an alloy or totally ruin it.
OK, now I have confused you. There are good brands, there are better brands and there are best brands. Pick your price range of a well known brand and try it on for size. If it doesn’t fit your hand, you won’t use it right and it will become a drawer queen.
ALBATROSS EDC Cool Sharp Tactical Folding Pocket Knife
What is a good brand of high quality starter chef knives?
It’s better to buy one good knife than an entire set of crappy ones. I’ve always been a fan of Wüsthof with Henckels and Sabatier bringing up the rear guard.
Remember: A sharp knife is the safest knife because it cuts when you want it to. It’s only when you are hacking away with a dull blade that you accelerate the blade enough to harm yourself. Most knife work is perfectly safe, if your blade is sharp.
imarku Japanese Chef Knife – Pro Kitchen Knife 8 Inch Chef’s Knives