Buy it for life | This versatile Japanese chef’s knife has lasted longer than some of my relationships
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I have a Kershaw Shun 10" chef and 4" paring knife set that has lasted longer than all of my relationships put together (~20 years). I sharpen them on a 1000 grit stone. The wood handle still sits seamless with the pommel, and they will cut through paper loosely held.
Point being, I think any good quality Japanese chef knife has the potential to be BIFL.
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I’ve had my set of Henkels Professional S knives for over 20 years. Non-stop use.
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Basically anything short of a stamped metal boning knife is “buy for life” if you actually know how to sharpen it. No, not the grinders but a whetstone. And then just hone it (optimally every time you use it… so like once every other month).
Different metals will dull/misalign faster but basically no home chef will really have to worry about that. It is only really an issue when you are dicing dozens of pounds of veg a day (so restaraunt and some recipe developers).
The real benefit to a more expensive knife is almost always balance and ergonomics of the handle. And unless you know what you want, you are just going to waste a lot of money.
Saying “this knife is buy it for life” is like saying “this hammer is buy it for life”.
One other caveat. A lot of people will see a youtube chef cut through the joint of a chicken leg or carve out the spine or something similar. Unless you know what you are doing, that is where those cheap stamped metal boning knives come in handy. THAT is how you chip and break a blade because you weren’t actually cutting through the cartilage (?) connecting the joints and were instead hacking through the bones themselves.
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Basically anything short of a stamped metal boning knife is “buy for life” if you actually know how to sharpen it. No, not the grinders but a whetstone. And then just hone it (optimally every time you use it… so like once every other month).
Different metals will dull/misalign faster but basically no home chef will really have to worry about that. It is only really an issue when you are dicing dozens of pounds of veg a day (so restaraunt and some recipe developers).
The real benefit to a more expensive knife is almost always balance and ergonomics of the handle. And unless you know what you want, you are just going to waste a lot of money.
Saying “this knife is buy it for life” is like saying “this hammer is buy it for life”.
One other caveat. A lot of people will see a youtube chef cut through the joint of a chicken leg or carve out the spine or something similar. Unless you know what you are doing, that is where those cheap stamped metal boning knives come in handy. THAT is how you chip and break a blade because you weren’t actually cutting through the cartilage (?) connecting the joints and were instead hacking through the bones themselves.
I see no reason for a normal person to buy a knife that costs more than ten bucks.
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I see no reason for a normal person to buy a knife that costs more than ten bucks.
REALLY curious where you are finding knives for ten bucks. The stamped metal boning knives tend to be closer to 20 or 30 a pop.
But I AM a huge fan of the 60-100 USD range (pre-Liberation Day prices. Who the hell knows how horrible they are now). The Victorinox (the swiss army knife company) knives are shockingly affordable and the polymer handle isn’t the most ergonomic but it has a really solid texture to make up for it.
Also, just because I have apparently mentioned them like ten times: Don’t sleep on those really shitty dirt cheap stamped metal boning knives. For that, you want something REALLY sharp that you don’t care about damaging. THAT is where you actually use those shitty metal grinder sharpeners… or you just buy a new one every hundred or so chickens you break down.
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REALLY curious where you are finding knives for ten bucks. The stamped metal boning knives tend to be closer to 20 or 30 a pop.
But I AM a huge fan of the 60-100 USD range (pre-Liberation Day prices. Who the hell knows how horrible they are now). The Victorinox (the swiss army knife company) knives are shockingly affordable and the polymer handle isn’t the most ergonomic but it has a really solid texture to make up for it.
Also, just because I have apparently mentioned them like ten times: Don’t sleep on those really shitty dirt cheap stamped metal boning knives. For that, you want something REALLY sharp that you don’t care about damaging. THAT is where you actually use those shitty metal grinder sharpeners… or you just buy a new one every hundred or so chickens you break down.
There’s a special type of Costco stores called Costco Business Center. They’re designed for businesses, but you can shop there with a regular Costco membership. Not sure how many there are, but there’s three near me in the San Francisco Bay Area: South San Francisco, Hayward, and San Jose.
They have a lot of restaurant supplies for cheap. One example is a two pack of Tramontina knifes for $20: https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/tramontina-proline-8-and-10-cooks-knives-commercial-grade-2-ct.product.100227891.html
It’s a great place to get mixing bowls too - they have stainless steel mixing bowls for $2-3.
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Basically anything short of a stamped metal boning knife is “buy for life” if you actually know how to sharpen it. No, not the grinders but a whetstone. And then just hone it (optimally every time you use it… so like once every other month).
Different metals will dull/misalign faster but basically no home chef will really have to worry about that. It is only really an issue when you are dicing dozens of pounds of veg a day (so restaraunt and some recipe developers).
The real benefit to a more expensive knife is almost always balance and ergonomics of the handle. And unless you know what you want, you are just going to waste a lot of money.
Saying “this knife is buy it for life” is like saying “this hammer is buy it for life”.
One other caveat. A lot of people will see a youtube chef cut through the joint of a chicken leg or carve out the spine or something similar. Unless you know what you are doing, that is where those cheap stamped metal boning knives come in handy. THAT is how you chip and break a blade because you weren’t actually cutting through the cartilage (?) connecting the joints and were instead hacking through the bones themselves.
I recently replaced my hammer because it wore out.
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Basically anything short of a stamped metal boning knife is “buy for life” if you actually know how to sharpen it. No, not the grinders but a whetstone. And then just hone it (optimally every time you use it… so like once every other month).
Different metals will dull/misalign faster but basically no home chef will really have to worry about that. It is only really an issue when you are dicing dozens of pounds of veg a day (so restaraunt and some recipe developers).
The real benefit to a more expensive knife is almost always balance and ergonomics of the handle. And unless you know what you want, you are just going to waste a lot of money.
Saying “this knife is buy it for life” is like saying “this hammer is buy it for life”.
One other caveat. A lot of people will see a youtube chef cut through the joint of a chicken leg or carve out the spine or something similar. Unless you know what you are doing, that is where those cheap stamped metal boning knives come in handy. THAT is how you chip and break a blade because you weren’t actually cutting through the cartilage (?) connecting the joints and were instead hacking through the bones themselves.
BIFL tags for kitchen knives differ for the average buyer since I assume most people do not sharpen their knives. So how well knives retain their sharpness will be the main factor for the average buyer.
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I recently replaced my hammer because it wore out.
If you’re serious, certainly you are working with it daily?!
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BIFL tags for kitchen knives differ for the average buyer since I assume most people do not sharpen their knives. So how well knives retain their sharpness will be the main factor for the average buyer.
No, they don’t.
A dull knife is a dangerous knife that is frustrating to use. And if you use a knife, it will dull. Saying “this is BIFL even if you don’t sharpen it” is like saying “this car is BIFL because you only have to change its oil half as much”.
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If you’re serious, certainly you are working with it daily?!
No, it was just a low-quality hand-me-down that started to bend and lost part of one of its claws.
