The Gear: Knives

What are your favorite brand of knives? Does anyone prefer, say, Wustof for paring and Shun for Chef's? Or one brand exclusively?

What knife sharpening service do you use?

If trapped on a desert island, which knife would you take?

What are your favorite brand of knives? Does anyone prefer, say, Wustof for paring and Shun for Chef's? Or one brand exclusively?

What knife sharpening service do you use?

If trapped on a desert island, which knife would you take?

I am a Wusthof woman. just love the big, heavy German knives because - once you learn to wield them skilfully - the weight does a lot of your work for you.

Santoku knives were just coming into fashion when I enrolled at Sullivan, and I never did learn to be comfortable with one, although many people swear by them.

Heimerdinger Cutlery in St. Matthews does a nice job sharpening knives and gives a discount to students and professional chefs. But the best way to sharpen knives is to buy a three-sided whetstone and learn to do it yourself at home. That way you never have to shed a tear when your best knife comes back from the sharpening service with a scratch on the blade. Alternatively, some of those at-home knife-sharpeners with the V-slots are not as horrible as you might think. Just stay the hell away from any sort of mechanical knife-sharpener (like those ones on the back of your electric can opener circa 1987) *shudder*.

I used to take my precious personal knives to work at various restaurants, only to find out that the owner or executive chef was constantly "borrowing" one or the other of them, or some dishwasher was "borrowing" it to OPEN A CAN OF OLIVE OIL, or some other such horror. I finally learned to leave my snooty knife bag at home, and became proficient with the cheap rented knives at use in most commercial kitchens. These have plastic handles and get traded out knife-for-knife for another set at a set interval (once a week, once every two weeks). These work fine in the commercial kitchen. The things I still bring to work on the sly are rasps and garnish tools and stuff that no kitchen stocks or rents - and I put those back in my bag as soon as I get done using them.

The line of Wusthofs I'm completing is the Culinar series. This is an all-steel knife, precision forged from a single blank of steel with bolster and full tang. Some folks have concerns that the knife becomes slippery when hands are sweaty, but I've never had that problem. Matter of fact, the handle warms up to body temperature with extended use, making the whole tool seem like a living part of your hand.

On a desert island, I'd want my Wusthof Culinar 10" chef's knife (retail price between $150-$200). It could cut everything from coconut shells to grapevines. It could filet fish and protect me from cannibalistic island natives. It could fly, sweet and true, into the heart of a wild boar.

When I got my first few knives, I had Mr. Heimerdinger engrave my name on them (a LOT of knives get stolen at culinary school and in restaurant kitchens). But I just had my first name engraved, in hopes that my last name would change at SOME POINT.

I'm still waiting! *ahem*

[Robin Garr]

Some of you may laugh, but hey, I'm a home chef with just minimal line experience, so I get to slack ... my small knife set, which I love, is all Chicago Cutlery.

Before you hee-haw too much, let me add that I acquired these knives, piece-by-piece, back in the '70s, and every one of them has seen heavy use and still serve me well. Solid wood handles, full tang, rivets have never budged in 30 years of use, and their carbon steel blades take an easy edge with home sharpening. I've got only about a half-dozen pieces - 9-inch chef's knife that fits my hand with perfect balance. An excellent boning knife, a mini-chef's knife (4-inch?) that I don't use too much, and a couple of paring knives.

I've also got a couple of Chinatown cleavers, the real thing, which are fine for Asian cooking, and one fairly new Wusthof Santoku that I do like for very precise work.

But put me down at my station Chez Garr, and 98 times out of 100, my hand will instinctively reach for my 30-year-old Chicago Cutlery chef's knife and I will be very happy.

Earlier this year, I procured a nice 8 piece set of Wusthof Classic cutlery. These are by far the best knives I've ever owned. That set is $399.95 at Shopping.com. I had gift cards so I got them for nothing. I took a knife skills class at Campbell's Gourmet Cottage which I would highly recommend. While at the class, I added a boning knife to my set. If I had to choose just one knife it would definitely be my chef's knife. I've heard a chef's knife described as a manual food processor and have to concur with that assessment.

Stephen, if you'd like more info about the knife skills class, PM me with your e-mail addy and I will send you a review I wrote. Also, they have free knife sharpening at Campbell's every so often, with a 2 knife limit. You can view their complete schedule here. http://www.gourmetcottage.com/

The sharpener I got is a 2 stage handheld model from Wusthof. It is simple to use and really works. It even sharpens my kitchen shears. Here is a link to it. http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=435042

You also may want to peruse this site. http://reviews.cookingcache.com/wusthof ... eview.html

Wusthof 8 pc Classic.jpg

I splurged last year on the Ken Onion Shun Chef's. Whew. That's a lotta Knife! I do not use it as often as my Wilkinson that my dad bought me many years ago, or the Henckels that me hubby brought to the marriage that my son now uses!

Nothing but Wusthof Classic. I can do just about anything with my 10 inch classic. Clean fruit, filet fish, dice onions, chop herbs, etc.

Wow, a topic I feel very confident in!

While I love knives and have several blades, I consistently use only 4.

Most used is my 6" Sabatier Chef.......an extension of my hand.

A Victorinox plastic handled paring knife take care of small stuff.

An old Rapala fillet knife (like Robin's 30 Yr.blades) to fillet and break large loins.

And last but not least my 270mm Suisin Hayate yanagi for fish slicing work......be still my beating heart.

I handle routine blade maintenance with a fine diamond stick and crock stick. True sharpening is trusted to 1000 and 8000 grit water stones.

The yanagi only sees the water stones since it is single beveled edge.

I've learned quite a bit from Dave Martell of D&R Sharpening Solutions (no horse in his race). Here's a link to a video of his talent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MezIEKGk9T0

The first time I watched it left me with little hair left on my arms.

I am going to tell this story, as it makes me laugh every time i tell it. It was about 1979 or 80 and I went to a yard sale, There was a box containing Sabatier Carbon steel knives. A 12" Chefs a 6" chef a 10" flat ham slicer a 9" boning a 3" rat tail garnishinig knife and a two tine carving fork. They all were very dark stained and obviously pretty old. I asked the lady what she wanted for them and she said" 475" I said "Isn't $475 a bit much for stained knives that had not been well tended or sharpened" figuring $50 or $60 was more like the value for decent knives. She said No "$4.75" I paid her $5.00 told her to keep the change,had them resharpened and have not looked back yet. they are wonderful to use.

I am going to tell this story, as it makes me laugh every time i tell it. It was about 1979 or 80 and I went to a yard sale, There was a box containing Sabatier Carbon steel knives. A 12" Chefs a 6" chef a 10" flat ham slicer a 9" boning a 3" rat tail garnishinig knife and a two tine carving fork. They all were very dark stained and obviously pretty old. I asked the lady what she wanted for them and she said" 475" I said "Isn't $475 a bit much for stained knives that had not been well tended or sharpened" figuring $50 or $60 was more like the value for decent knives. She said No "$4.75" I paid her $5.00 told her to keep the change,had them resharpened and have not looked back yet. they are wonderful to use.

WOW! What a price for heirloom stuff! I'm so jealous!

I am going to tell this story, as it makes me laugh every time i tell it. It was about 1979 or 80 and I went to a yard sale, There was a box containing Sabatier Carbon steel knives. A 12" Chefs a 6" chef a 10" flat ham slicer a 9" boning a 3" rat tail garnishinig knife and a two tine carving fork. They all were very dark stained and obviously pretty old. I asked the lady what she wanted for them and she said" 475" I said "Isn't $475 a bit much for stained knives that had not been well tended or sharpened" figuring $50 or $60 was more like the value for decent knives. She said No "$4.75" I paid her $5.00 told her to keep the change,had them resharpened and have not looked back yet. they are wonderful to use.

Happens all the time. I sharpened dozens of knives like this my customers bought at a yard sale for little or nothing. Just guessing, but those knives you describe would sell new for about 350.00/400.00 now. In fact those would be easy to sharpen and easy to keep sharpened with a steel. Carbon steel discolors but is easier to keep sharp.

My ex wife gave a set of Case kitchen knives to our son and told him they were wore out. I had kept them sharp when we were married, but probably had not been touched since. I sharpened them and they are as good as anything you can buy now. I don't know if Case still makes kitchen knives.

Steve .. the old wore out retired knife sharpener.

Nothing but Wusthof Classic. I can do just about anything with my 10 inch classic. Clean fruit, filet fish, dice onions, chop herbs, etc.

Absolutely. I love the feel of that huge piece of steel in my hand. At the class I took, the instructor had a 12" Classic chefs knife and he let me use it. Now that was a knife to admire. He even said they make a 14" Classic chefs knife. It weighs in at almost 2 pounds. I checked the price online and it's around $500.00. WOW.

What are your favorite brand of knives? Does anyone prefer, say, Wustof for paring and Shun for Chef's? Or one brand exclusively?

What knife sharpening service do you use?

If trapped on a desert island, which knife would you take?

Our butcher block resembles anything but a "set"...We've got knives in just about every flavor and price range. The knife I would take on a "desert island" trip would be my trusty Forschner (By Victronox) 6 inch Chef Knife...helluva blade for under 25 bucks. This knife hasn't been on a desert island but it has been on several wilderness camping trips and has served me very well.

Our butcher block resembles anything but a "set"...We've got knives in just about every flavor and price range. The knife I would take on a "desert island" trip would be my trusty Forschner (By Victronox) 6 inch Chef Knife...helluva blade for under 25 bucks. This knife hasn't been on a desert island but it has been on several wilderness camping trips and has served me very well.

The Forschner/Victronox was picked by Cooks Illustrated as a best buy. They used an 8", but I am sure that the only difference is size. The only real reason to use a heavy knife .. Wustof/Henckels .. is because you are used to them.

Most butchers use a boning Forschner or a rental knife.