Your Knife set ?

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NightsinCalifornia

Assistant Cook
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
39
Hey,

Ok, I need a new knife set. A more professional one than the ronco ones I have. At this point I do not even care about the cost. I am doing well enough now that I can afford some great, professionally put together knives.

I'm looking for maybe even a 30 piecer if anyone has any suggestions.

What kind of knife sets do you guys have ? What works best for everyone ? Any suggestions would be great right now.
 
You will find that most people here do not buy sets. Take a look in the knife forum and you will see tons of discussions on exactly what you are looking for.

Just out of curiosity, why are you looking for a 30 piece set? What knives come in a 30 piece and would you really have a need for all of them?
 
Mine is Mutt!!! A little bit of this and a little bit of that :) Just like GB said.
 
I agree with GB--no set here. I imagine a 30 piece set includes steak knives, a steel, fork, etc.
And be sure to handle a knife first--it just may not feel right in your hand no matter how "good" it is.
 
you don't need 30 pieces...5 or 7 will do fine.

I went high tech American with New West Knife Works www.newwestknifeworks.com They use Japanese and Swedish steel, precision machined edges, and beautiful handles and blocks. Have a look.
 
I personally have a few Wusthof pieces that I really like... but my favorite knives currently are the Meridian Elite series by Messermeister. A few of the chefs I worked with (including the head chef) picked up some of their blades about a month ago and they are some incredible blades.
 
Even with steak knives, steel, etc. I am struggling to think of would possibly be in a 30 knife set. Assuming 8 steak knives and a steel and a fork (10), there would surely be a whole lotta knives in the set you probably don't need and won't ever need.

I started with a small set of Wusthof Grand Prix knives (5 plus shears and a steel) and have added pieces through the years (santuko, cleaver, ceramic knives, cheese knife, etc).

I would suggest starting small and adding knives as your needs/interests dictate.

Also, like Gretchen said, make sure you try out a lot of different knives by holding them, if not actually using them, before you buy, as they need to feel good in your hand -- especially if you are plunking down serious bucks for them.
 
I use LamsonSharp forged knives. I have a santoku, 8" chef, boning, paring, serrated, and the carving set which consists of a fork and 12" slicer. LamsonSharp provides lifetime factory sharpening on all forged knives. All you pay for is $10 shipping. I have Japanese stones that I use myself, but I would reccomend sending them to the factory instead of running them through an off the shelf sharpener. By the way, these few knives are plenty for me in the kitchen. You really don't need 50 knives. You'll find that you have a favorite and will use that one the most. IMO, I would buy two of those.
 
All you pay is $10.00 shipping? Places like Williams-Sonoma charge $4.00 for sharpening, and if you patronize a butcher shop, they'll usually do your knives gratis as a customer service.
 
Caine said:
All you pay is $10.00 shipping? Places like Williams-Sonoma charge $4.00 for sharpening, and if you patronize a butcher shop, they'll usually do your knives gratis as a customer service.

That would be $10 for as many knives that you want to send.
 
Hey, good for you. If you have so much money that you can get anything go to Bloomingdales and ask the sales person for advise. If you like them latter great, if not you can always complain that sales person did not know what he/she was talking about and return them (the knives). Go for it. Bloomingdales sometimes has free sharpening for life deals, ask about that. You really can't go wrong with what they have.
 
Jeekinz said:
That would be $10 for as many knives that you want to send.

And if you send all your knives, what do you use until they decide to send them back?
 
Caine said:
And if you send all your knives, what do you use until they decide to send them back?

Well, most of my older knives have migrated to my camping kit as I buy newer/better ones for my kitchen use. If I couldn't use my main knives for some reason, I'd use my camping set.

But I sharpen all my knives in house.

thymeless
 
It's true, you don't need a knife set. I have a heavy cleaver (novelty purpose only, but it will separate bone).

What I use? Wusthof Classic Santoku (for most everything), a Solingen Chef's knife and a solingen paring knife. I have a mid grade bread knife, but I don't need it for much.

Id really like to have a Chinese cleaver, but i haven't gotten around to it yet and I don't NEED to have it.

Chef's knife and paring knife is all you good. Oh, and a good set of cooking shears. I prefer a santoku over a chef's nice for a lot of stuff, but all you really need to do **** near anything is a chef's knife, paring knife and scissors. For cooking... a set of good steak knifes is always nice.
 
Here is my set...

Forged 8" Chef's Knife
Forged 3.5" Paring knife
Big 'Ole Stamped Serrated Bread Knife
Set of Steak Knives (mine happen to be forged, but don't need to be)
Shears & Tin Snips (uber-shears)
Steel (for realigning edges)
Ancient Set of Wet-Stones (for sharpening)

That's it. I'd say I use my 8"CK for 95% of required tasks.

I do have a "spare" set of Chef/Paring knives that I keep.
They are the same Wusthof Cordon Bleu Series that my primary knives are.

Go to a shop and figure out which knives feel best in your hand is my best advice.
 
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All you really need in the kitchen are:

A chef's knife
A paring knife
A serrated bread knife

Nice-to-haves are:

Knife for filleting fish
Cleaver
 
Knife sets are not that bad, if you know what you want.
A 5-10pcs set is a nice choice depends on your need but no more than that.
If you want more, just buy them later separately, or you'll get a lot what you don't need.
i.e. a more-than-10pcs set always comes with 2 chef knives with different size. What you can only do with a 6" chef but not a 8" chef or vice versa.

Most vendors have similar sets, you can also build up your own set from an empty block at some dealers. then you can buy another set of steak knives or what and put them together.

I have a 10pcs Wusthof classic set with 2 chinese cleavers.
 
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