Price Range for your knives?

[Don Nguyen]

Hey everyone,

I'm new here, just made my introduction post a little while ago.

I'm curious as to how much you spend on your knives, on average? Let's say for a main chef's/gyuto/santoku/etc.

It would be awesome if you could give some background of use too! Things like if you're a home or professional cook, or how many hours your knives see on a weekly basis.

Thanks everyone! Looking forward to seeing the results

-Don Nguyen

p.s. I tried doing a search but didn't find anything similar to what I was looking for. Sorry if it's been covered!

 

[no mayonnaise]

$200-300 for a good Gyuto of the 240mm variety. It's hard to put a time on how much I use my knives per day, since it gets used intermittently throughout the cooking process but I'd put actual use time at about 30-45 minutes a day since I'm fast and accurate with my knife use and I don't cook for more than 1-2 people very often. However, the amount of use isn't a factor in my purchases more than how much I'll enjoy the utility and efficiency of the knife itself. A good, sharp knife to me means accurate cuts more quickly, which means better food and makes cooking a LOT more fun.
I can't help but smile a bit when I look down and see a perfect dice or batonette on the cutting board.

 

[Addie]

My least expensive knife is my boning knife. It is a Chicago Cutlery that I bought before dirt was invented. It cost me the grand sum of $25. For me at that time was way too expensive. My most expensive is a 12" Shun that cost $150. It was a gift. My oldest son has it now. It is too big for my hands. I use a hand held knife sharpener that was recommended by ATK and some friends. I gave my Chefs Choice to my son also. I got that at a store closing for the grand sum of $5.00. Last one on the shelf.

 

[Rob Babcock]

My average gyuto runs in the $200-$300 range. My most expensive is an $830 Nubatama. Few of my knives were over $400. All are Japanese save one that's an American Wa-gyuto made on the Japanese pattern. I'm a pro chef.

 

[justplainbill]

Been buying knives for some 47 years and inherited a few. So I try to refrain from buying more. Properly sharpened, most all of my knives perform satisfactorily. Considering that some of my earliest purchases were priced in the $7 - $20 range, I am satisfied with their performance even though they generally require more frequent sharpening. The most recently acquired SG2 and S30V blades take and hold a very nice edge; they are my go to knives for tasks like scoring pork skin and slashing bread, but I'm glad I have a 12" 40 year old Sabatier chef's knife, 14" 80++ year old Harrington / Dexter slicer, 9" JA Henckels Zwilling butcher knife, 8" Othello Wingen cook's knife, stout 6" Lamsonsharp chef's knife, 4" Wusthof wide belly parer, etc., etc..

 

[sparrowgrass]

I bought my chef's knife at an outlet for less than $20. I use it every day, I keep it as sharp as I can, and it fits my needs--and my dainty little hand.

Spending more would be a waste of resources, and nobody I know would be impressed. Most of them think my knives are too damned sharp and 'dangerous' as it is.

 

[Claire]

The reason I had to choose the lower price range is because you asked for averages. I have some pretty pricey Whustofs as my favorites, but also a set of very inexpensive paring knives and, believe it or not, a bread knife from an old set of TV promotionals (remember the Ginzus?) that worked better than the more expensive one so ditched the latter and kept the ginzu. My chef's knife probably cost $100 .... but balance it with the 20 cents the others cost ....

 

[Addie]

I had a set of knives that I got as a free gift from Spiegel's. I had the Chef's knife for more than thirty years. It worked fine when I first got them. Over time I lost all but the Chef's knife. After a number of years I noticed that my knuckles were hitting the cutting board. I had used it so much over the years and sharpened it so often that it was wearing down. I finally got rid of it. I should have had a proper service for a faithful friend.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Henckel's 8 inch santoku, that I got at a deep discount , fits my hand. It's the perfect workhorse for me, it had a matching 4 inch parer. An OXO parer and a Chicago Cutlery bread knife are also used regularly. The rest of the knives are a Farberware set that sees rare use. I began in food service over 30 years ago, now I'm a home cook.

 

[Tomcat1066]

I got my 8" chef's knife, a 5" utility knife, and a 3" parer for $11.99. They were forged high carbon stainless and seemed to fit well in my hands. They also seems to stay pretty sharp thankfully. I got them at Kitchen Connection, but they are apparently not on the website any longer so I guess I caught them on clearance. Go figure.

I also have a Farberware set that...well...it sucks. I'm glad I don't have to rely on that stuff anymore.

 

[Andy M.]

I'm a home cook who was gifted a set of Henckels Pro S knives some years ago. I'd guess the prices if the individual pieces run from $30-$150. Before that I had (and still have a set of Chicago Cutlery knives that cost $99 in total at the time.

I use the Henckels mostly but the CC knives go on vacation with me for use in our timeshare kitchen.

 

[Don Nguyen]

Thanks for all the replies and votes everyone!

As expected I thought the most common would be in the $10-40 range. I'm kind of surprised there was only one vote for $0-10, but maybe there aren't too many knives in that category?

 

[CharlieD]

I have two sets of Wusthof classic. The advantage I had when got them, I got them at below wholesale price, my neighbor used to work for the distributor. I do have couple of nice Japanese sushi knives that were more like $80 to a $100 dollars. I have couple of handmade knives that I made myself and if I were to sell them I would charge at least a $100 per one. Unfortunatelly I have no means to make more anymore.

 

[GLC]

I guess the only one I bought new was an OXO Santoku for $19. There's a nice chef's knife that was a gift. A longer chef's, a commercial knife from the flea market. It had been one of those restaurant rent-a-knives where they're regularly replaced with sharpened knives. A big slicing knife and a very nice thin carbon steel blade from the flea market. Bread knife and serrated knife from garage sales. A hug, very heavy old carbon steel butcher knife that's so big it's mostly for show. Probably less than $50 in all.

 

[Don Nguyen]

Awesome to see that 2 people are in the $400-1000 category

Now, I notice that many of us are in the $10-40 category, me included. Surely there are a couple things we must find that that could use improvement on the knife?

I'll probably make a separate thread about that some time, but it's an interesting thing to think about. I'm so used to people that buy knives in the $200+ range, that the things they nitpick about are negligible to most normal cooks.

 

[Rob Babcock]

I'm a knife nerd and pro cook, but it's hard for me to imagine the average price of ones knives being in the $400-$1000 range! Certainly there are some great knives at that price but there are so many outstanding blades between $175-$325 that it would amaze me if one didn't buy in that range, assuming one has the funds. Most of the knives I most lust after are under $500, although of course there are some spendy ones I'd love to add to my collection!

 

[Addie]

I personally think (IMHO) that the more time the final worker spends just honing the knife to what he/she considers ideal is what adds to the final cost. More hours, more cost. With a good whet stone and some oil, anyone can learn to sharpen their knives to their liking. And it doesn't have to be an ultra expensive one. But first you have to buy a knife that is made of metal you think is the proper one for sharpening. It could be that $1 one you bought ten of at the State Fair. Once they no longer can be sharpened, toss it and start with a new one.

I have had a few on them over the years. They are great for digging out the tomato stem, eyes on a potato, blemishes on turnips, julienning veggies, etc. They sharpen up quickly and do the job you ask of it. The blade is small as is the handle. Makes a great paring knife. Does the job just as well as that $300 one. Because your hand is closer to the product you are using it on, you have more control. Maybe even better. Not heavy in the palm of your hand. And balanced evenly. the plastic handle weighs just as much as the blade. They are made from secondary metals left over from the trimings of other products. Remelted and found a new use for.

 

[Don Nguyen]

I personally think (IMHO) that the more time the final worker spends just honing the knife to what he/she considers ideal is what adds to the final cost. More hours, more cost. With a good whet stone and some oil, anyone can learn to sharpen their knives to their liking. And it doesn't have to be an ultra expensive one. But first you have to buy a knife that is made of metal you think is the proper one for sharpening. It could be that $1 one you bought ten of at the State Fair. Once they no longer can be sharpened, toss it and start with a new one.

I have had a few on them over the years. They are great for digging out the tomato stem, eyes on a potato, blemishes on turnips, julienning veggies, etc. They sharpen up quickly and do the job you ask of it. The blade is small as is the handle. Makes a great paring knife. Does the job just as well as that $300 one. Because your hand is closer to the product you are using it on, you have more control. Maybe even better. Not heavy in the palm of your hand. And balanced evenly. the plastic handle weighs just as much as the blade. They are made from secondary metals left over from the trimings of other products. Remelted and found a new use for.

Thanks for the response Addie - good things to think about.

I would like to chime in that the final stage of sharpening for most knifemakers (if they even choose to do so, from a custom maker standpoint), is one of the least time consuming processes unless if they take it to an incredibly keen edge, which would indeed be considered into final cost usually. Many times, hand made kitchen knives have a very basic edge or none at all, leaving it to the buyer to put on their own preferred edge.

I do agree with inexpensive paring knives, as they're usually the knives used for quick cuts here and there without worry of heavy maintenance. Workhorse chef's knives on the other hand though, can easily justify a price of several hundred dollars.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Only if you have a job that demands and can pay for knives of that caliber. Even when I had a catering business, the work I performed did NOT require a knife of any sort that cost over $200. Now that I am a serious home cook, I still don't need a fancy array of knives.

I do like to look at the good knives though, but that's more of a knife fetish than a need. I also look at swords...

 

[Addie]

Thanks for the response Addie - good things to think about.

I would like to chime in that the final stage of sharpening for most knifemakers (if they even choose to do so, from a custom maker standpoint), is one of the least time consuming processes unless if they take it to an incredibly keen edge, which would indeed be considered into final cost usually. Many times, hand made kitchen knives have a very basic edge or none at all, leaving it to the buyer to put on their own preferred edge.

I do agree with inexpensive paring knives, as they're usually the knives used for quick cuts here and there without worry of heavy maintenance. Workhorse chef's knives on the other hand though, can easily justify a price of several hundred dollars.

I can't tell you how many paring knives have gotten tossed out with the peelings in error.