Soon to be time to replace my kitchen knives.

[flamin lib]

I've got a set of unheard of blades that have served me fairly well for 20 years. Although I've treated them well and hand washed them the plastic handles have developed cracks and the paring knife has never held an edge longer than 15 minutes.

The current set consists of:
8" chef's knife (my favorite! great balance and edge)
10" ham knife
6" boning knife (second most often used)
8" bread knife (wife couldn't function w/o the serrated blade)
4" paring (useless)

Price be damned, what is your recommendation?

[MajorChode]

1. If price is no obstacle...

Chef's knife:

http://www.amazon.com/Onion-Shun-DM0500-8-Inch-Chefs/dp/B0007IR2MO/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Bread knife:
http://www.amazon.com/Wusthof-Gourmet-14-Inch-serrated-Bread/dp/B000OMMHK0/ref=sr_1_10

Boning knife:
http://www.amazon.com/Wusthof-Classic-5-Inch-Boning-Knife/dp/B000XKIZU4/ref=sr_1_4

Carving knife:
http://www.amazon.com/Shun-Classic-Slicing-Knife-12-Inch/dp/B000T3JL26/ref=sr_1_28

Paring knife:
http://www.amazon.com/Onion-Shun-3-Inch-Paring-Knife/dp/B000J01AP0/ref=sr_1_6

Don't forget to get a good bamboo cutting board.

[Jazzgirl]

2. I have several Wusthof knives.

I have the Classic boning knife and the Classic 14-inch serrated knife. Excellent knives too and hold an edge for a long time.

[Retrograde]

17. Henkels is good, too

We have several: I like the 8" chef and the slicer. Mr. Retrograde likes the 12" chef, but it's too long for me to use comfortably. If you're going to spend the money, find a place you can try them out first.

My favorite if-I-only-had-one knife is a tiny paring knife I found in an apartment I lived in in college. Don't know the brand, it has "vanadium" stamped on it, but if fits my hand and does a lot of basic jobs.

[flamin lib]

3. The chef's knife looks very interesting, kike it would have a good balance

and suit my grip.

The boning knife looks ideal as I like the one I have and the shapes are nearly the same.

Need a shorter slicing knife and the paring knife looks awkward to me.

Any personal experience with any of these?

[MajorChode]

5. I have the chef's knife

It's very nice and the best knife I have ever owned.

The slicing knife is made for butchering large cuts of meat such as cutting roasts into steaks (which I do fairly often). You want one that's long so you can complete the cut in the fewest strokes. You certainly wouldn't want to carve a turkey with it. I don't have one of those, but I'd like one. I do have a 10" carving knife made by Inox that I bought in France. It's similar in design to the Wustof and Henckels.

The paring knife is a bit of overkill unless you are using a paring knife a lot (I don't). Personally I have two paring knives. One is a Wusthof and is a traditional 3 1/2. The other is some cheap off brand bird's beak design which my wife likes to use.

[tigereye]

4. we have a really nice Wusthof that we got as a gift

but I admit a great fondness for Good Grips knives and products in general- safe, long-lasting and not as pricey! I as so sad when the big one we had for years started to come lose from the handle.

[Warpy]

6. I'm sold on MAC knives

The European style knives are pretty pricey. I find myself using my 35 year old santoku style knife for most cutting jobs. I do have their hefty santoku knife for jobs that require a little meatier blade to do the trick. Both are sharp enough to shave with and can be kept sharp by dragging the blade along the unglazed edge of a ceramic pot from time to time. The santoku blade fits my smaller hands perfectly.

For a lot of chopping, I use a cheap Chinese cleaver my ex picked up over there. It does all the heavy jobs like breaking down chickens or turkeys when I get one of those. Unlike the MACs, it requires frequent sharpening.

I had a set of Sabatier knives in a block, got a deal on them at an auction. I still prefer using my Asian knives for everything. They went to an acquaintance whose house burned down several years ago.

http://www.macknife.com/ They have European as well as Asian knives.

[flamin lib]

13. The pro series looks interesting. Traditional in design

and nicely priced for a lifetime purchase. Thanks for adding a new name to the shopping list.

[Warpy]

16. Just be careful with them

Their claim that they're the sharpest knives out there is a valid one. You can be down to the bone and never feel the cut. You do need to keep your fingers well out of the way when you're using them.

I did have to resharpen my old (cheap) santoku style knife and it took an electric sharpener with a diamond blade. However, that was 4 years of hard use ago with only the occasional refreshing against glazed ceramic, so I'd say that's damned good use, especially since it had previously lasted 30 years before losing its edge to any appreciable extent.

There is a reason I rave about these knives.

[elleng]

7. Have had a set of ? name knives for maybe 40 (OMG!) years!

Blade says Vanadium Japan, with little pic of George Washington! Wooden handles. They were cheap at the time, and they've lasted and lasted, keep an edge well.

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Everything you need to know . . . . . .

. . . . . to pick the knives you need can be read here:

http://www.fantes.com/knives.html

Their house brand knives are of excellent quality for a great price. These are serious, but unfancified, knives for serious cooks. See the full line here:

http://www.fantes.com/fantes-pro.html

These are not cheap, but for what they are, they represent an EXCELLENT value. They will last several generations with the right care. What they lack is the racing stripes and mag wheels the formerly good quality German and French makers put on their "pro" knives. I out "pro" in parentheis because real pros, *if* they use their own knives at work, use basic but high quality knives. All the fancy crap is for sale at Bed, Bath and Beyond or Williams Sonoma.

[flamin lib]

12. Very traditional

and almost identical to what I now have. There would be no adjustment in feel and the pricing is very attractive.

Thanks for the links.

[eleny]

9. I have a couple of Wusthof knives and love them

The big chefs knife and also the small version are my go to knives every day. Then I got a carving knife for slicing.

They've all been excellent so when I get myself a boning knife it'll be the same brand.

I waited for sales or used my 20% off coupon from Bed, Bath & Beyond.

[Phentex]

10. I use Wusthof...mainly the chef's knife but

I like the little paring knives as well. They came in a set of three I think. I started with the chef's knife and gradually purchased the rest. I even have the sandwich spreader and use it a lot, too!

[Jazzgirl]

19. Phentex, that's the way I got my little collection of Wusthof's.

I started out with a Cooks knife and a paring knife. I started adding one by one. I have about 13-14 knives now....I do use them. :-)

[Inchworm]

11. I also like the Wusthof knives

http://www.wusthof.com/desktopdefault.aspx

I bought a few when I had wads of cash. After a while I gave 2 of them away as gifts because I rarely used and wanted to turn family on to quality knives.

My daughter uses the paring knife for everything. I am more comfortable using the chef's knife for everything. I also have a boning knife that was used in a (now) Tyson Chicken line. I guess it was too worn to use there, but once I put an edge to it I found it was great steel. I have no idea the brand... wish I did know :)

:hi:

[flamin lib]

14. Wustorf has gotten a lot of recs.

The ergonomics look good and the appearance is very attractive. I'll definitely have to look into them more closely.

[trotsky]

15. Quality, durability, lifetime guarantee, and most important of all...

UNION MADE in the USA.

http://www.cutco.com

[tigereye]

23. ah, that's a very good point...

[jtuck004]

18. The Cooking for Engineers site did a knife test a few years back

article here

The MAC knives, and a Global, came out the best. Might be some helpful info for you here.

[Warpy]

20. Thanks, I'm not a bit surprised by the findings.

"Also, as a sanity check, I had several people come over and try out the MAC 8-in. with dimples along with several of the other knives shown in this article. Every single tester agreed that the MAC was the best knife that they had ever used."

I have the Granton blade santoku knife, the "dimples" in the test. If I could have only one knife in my kitchen, that would be it, even over the Chinese cleavers that do extra duty as scoops, tenderizers, pestles, and a number of other jobs.

[flamin lib]

22. Interesting article.

At this point MAC is one of the top 3 from all of the suggested brands. I really like the appearance of Wustorf Ikon line too, the handles look to be nicely curved. Of course when you actually hold a knife for slicing, appearance and functionality sometimes diverge. There is probably a reason so many of the knives look alike.

Thanks to all for the advice and suggestions, nothing like having the pool of knowledge offered by this bunch od foodies!

[Dover]

21. You and others might enjoy perusing this catalog of Japanese cutlery

as well as garden, wood working and other tools. A feast for the eyes of cutlery connoisseurs. Includes some Damascus blades.

http://www.japanwoodworker.com/dept.asp?dept_id=13160&s=JapanWoodworker

Full list of their knives:
http://www.japanwoodworker.com/search.asp