Cooking For Engineers

[Guest]

[Guest]

" I still have to find a knife in this price category that out performs the Shun."

I'm not surprised the Shun works wonderfully for you and that it outperforms your Wusthof; it's an excellent knife. You can find better ones, though, for similar or less money.

Pretty much anything sold at www.korin.com or www.japanesechefsknife.com in a similar price range.

For real price/performance leaders, I'd recommend looking at Mac, Tojiro, and the Hiromoto A.S. knives. Korin has been pushing the Togihara knives as an alternative to Tojiro, but I have no experience with them.

[Cooking In WV]

I am shopping for a new knife like many that have posted here and I am glad to have found this site. I am thinking very hard about the MAC knives but I do wonder about a German knife company named Messermeister. They have beautiful looking knives but I have not seen them mentioned here or really anywhere else that I frequent. Any input on this brand?

[get_out]

First, can anyone who makes or sells knives, especially the CULTco people, please stay the heck out of this? You are biased and your opinion is without value to the users of this website.

Second, specifically in response to the numerous Cutco brochure cut&pastes in this thread, yes! You should use the right knife for the right job. The right knife for cooking is a chef's knife. Period. Only once you have mastered the chef's knife are you skilled enough to correctly apply other knives. Furthermore, only significantly different knives are even valid options. Maximum, a knife roll should contain:
Basic chef's knife
Flexible boning knife
Serrated knife (offset is best)
Paring knife (ONLY if engaging in fine detail work...not a home function)

Any set of knives fails to provide the user with personal input on choosing each tool based on its use, which is subjective.

Steak knives are not a valid example of quality. Like cutting boards, buy only good enough steak knives to meet your frequency of use and plan on throwing them away once they're worn out (2 yrs tops). I don't buy paper towels with a lifetime warranty either, and for the same reason.

[guest]

Hi,

I've just recently done a lot of research for a knife purchase and have become somewhat of a knife geek. After extensive research, I decided to buy MAC knives, the MTH-80 being one of them. I am amazed at the performance of this knife. Quite a pleasure to work with. I've also bought other knives from their professional series and am quite delighted with them.

Some people might consider expensive knives to be a luxury (I know I did, until I tried a high end knife), but I know they are definitely worth the INVESTMENT. They'll last you a lifetime (if you take good care of them) and they will work better during their lifetime, so in the end they don't really cost any more money.

As for the above posting, mentioning which knives are essential in a kitchen, I have to disagree. Obviously a good chef or santoku knife is a good start, but the rest depends on what you do in the kitchen. If you never debone anything, what use is a deboning knife?

Just my opinion.

[Guest]

OF COURSE the Japanese knives are going to cut through stuff better. They have a smaller blade angle. IE, they're sharper. I bet a huge razor blade would have won this test hands down. But do you want a huge razor blade as a kitchen knife?

There are LOTS of other things that matter as much as, or more, than how sharp a knife is. Edge retention, blade geometry, fit and finish, handle feel, blade weight balance, etc etc.

Silly and rather pointless experiment, unless you just wanted to know which of the commercial kitchen knives is the sharpest.

[Doolittle]

I own a set of henckels and shun knives. I also own a Misono santoku and and a hattori gyotu (9.5 inch), and a couple of yoshikane (usuba and deba) knives. I really love all my knives, and would have trouble picking a favorite of the bunch. If you guys wanna try a killer veggie chopper, give a usuba or nakiri (the nakiri is my fav. for veggies) knife a try. My shun nakiri is just awsome on the veggies. I guess I could say that the henckle's are ho hum compared the all the japanese ones Ive been using. Ive snaped a couple of henkle boning knives over the years, and found them to be super brittle, but still nice and soso edge holders. The Deba knife chops chicken and fish bones all day.

I also have an ancient set of unknown origin carbon steel knives. You have to sharpen more often with these, but they get scary sharp and function very well. I sometimes wonder what makes knives so interesting, it must have something to do with our survival instinct is all I can figure. We could use stone or glass knives and still get the jobs done that we do in the kitchen, but longer lasting edges, superior ergonomics, cool shapes, bevel tapers, fancy laser etching etc etc seems to capture a knife enthusiests eye, and he's hooked

I feel comfortable with my collection and feel I can tackle anything from butchering (got me a 8" wustof butcher knife heheheheh), to delicate paring.
Everyone has hit the nail on the head. You really only need a good chef's or gyotu, boning knife for chicken and fish (I like wustof's, but use the shun just cause its so scary sharp), and I use my 6 " utility knife more often than not, simply because sometimes in a big cooking project, you need to swap from meats to veggies, or you just dont have enough room for the big chefs knife. I admit that the rest are just toys. I just use steel rods to reshape the edge and if it needs more than that, they hit the stones.

Comfort, now this is something I do have an opinion on. I have huge hands, and find some knives really lacking in the handle dept, specially in the smaller utility knives. I actually have 2 favorites here, the hattori has the best handle out of all my knives, but I dont like the bolster as well as the shuns. Thats what keeps me going back to those knives, cause I tend to pinch the blade just in front of bolster for control, and nothing Ive used yet has topped the shun balance and fit, at the bolster. All of em hold an edge thats outstanding, and for me to measure how long the edges actually hold for usage would be insane.

I know this sorta goes against the grain, and this opinion is based on what I find most comfortable to use (the knife I allways grab outof the block).

The hattori KD gyotu 240mm (9.5inch)
Shun sontoku 7"
Shun Utility knife
Misono sontoku when the others out of action (Bolster is a bit clumsy for me, but this is a very nice knife)
Shun 6"Boning knife
Wustof 8" Butchers knife when Dinner doesnt come out as planned.. or the critics need coaxing.

In other words, Try em before you buy em and remember, everybodys got an opinion. In my book, you couldnt go wrong with any of knives talked about here 'cept perhaps Cutco.

[Jimichan]

I guess I have an advantage in that I spend every Summer in Japan and can get some very good knives there relatively cheaply. My wife's family is also Hattori.

My question for all here is, has anyone ever tried the Scary Sharp (TM) ;-P System for sharpening knives?

[B. Rohrer]

Anybody have any feedback on http://www.mundialusa.com/ knives, particularly the Oliver line?!?! http://www.mundialusa.com/olivier.html

[ikiru]

After reading an article in Cooks Magazine about the MAC 6.5" Santoku, I acquired one (as a gift from my wife). It forever changed my mind about Stamped vs Forged blades. I exclusively use the MAC for almost everything (ok...I don't use it as a steak knife at the table as it would scare my baby daughter).

The Henckels Pro-S set I got for my wedding just now sits in the knife block and collects dust.

-ikiru

*enjoy the sauce*

[guest]

Has anyone tried/tested/used any Knives by WMF? I think they are more a general home type knive rather than a chefs pro knive, but I saw them recently and liked the lok and feel

[Cutco Rep]

i think the main part about this review that was left out was the warranty on the knives. most have a lifetime gaurantee (20 years or less). our CUTCO knives have a FOREVER guarantee. no catch, just forever. we've been in business since 1949 and we havent gone broke yet. i think the chef knife wasnt the best to test with, if he'd used a Double D (serrated) edge, the results would have been quite different. Also, i think there should be a robotic control doing the actual testing for consistency like they do on Mythbusters to make the results more accurate and eliminate any possibility of human error. if anyone reads this, have an excellent day/night and whatever you do, DONT BUY PAMPERED CHEF or DEXTER and RUSSEL, for your own sake, PLEASE.
Thank You.

[SirShazar]

I'm tempted to call that out for trolling for having a large font, blue text, and all caps in some parts.

If a knife performs terrible, no warranty in the world is gonna make it better. There are so many knives that flat out beat the Cutco in performance and price that the only explanation to their success is the nature of their marketing.

A wise consumer goes online to compares prices and reviews. Hopefully they will find a website like this where an objective review has been written. Or better yet, go to forum where they can ask questions (here, knifeforums, bladeforums, eGullet).

[Dilbert]

frankly, for a rep to come shilling is one thing.
adding insult is the above disparaging about the competition.

in my opinion, such messages should be deleted outright.

[Michael Chu]

I'm not going to delete an occasional response from a Cutco salesperson. It's one thing to support the product you sell even if you do it in a unprofessional manner, it's another if you spam the board. I will delete spam. I was also going to change the font size and color, but since SirShazar called it out I won't (his post won't make sense anymore).