/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>10699081
Get this and don't look back.

http://www.japanesenaturalstones.com/kaeru-kasumi-stainless-gyuto-240mm/

Anything on this page is perfectly fine and a good bargain too:

https://japanesechefsknife.com/collections/jck-original-kagayaki

JCK buys those knives from various small manufacturers and sells them as their Kagayaki house brand. JCK is one of the most respected internet shops for Japanese knives, I have ordered several knives there myself (a Basic and CarboNext among others), all the way to Germany, and never had reason to complain. JCK also sells the Fujiwara FKM and FKH knives which are excellent and one of the best bargains for a Japanese kitchen knife you can get nowadays.

>>10699081
https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-chefs-knife-for-most-cooks/

>>10699081
1. Dont buy a knife you cant hold first. Balance and grip are important.
2. Never pay more than $60 for a knife if you're not an actual chef, you dont need them.
3. You dont need one knife, you need three: an 8" double beveled knife, an 8" single beveled knife, and a 5-6" double beveled knife. Each has its uses, and using the wrong knife for the job is dangerous or clumsy.

>>10699172
>Never pay more than $60 for a knife if you're not an actual chef, you dont need them.
Guess what, nobody needs anything nicer than a Chevy Sonic or Toyota Corolla to get around either, yet people buy Cadillacs, BMWs, Benzes and Jags in droves

>>10699224
a car is something you drive around everywhere, of course you'd want it to look nice
but a knife is just a tool that never leaves your house, paying hundreds of dollars for "superior japanese steel folded 10000 times" just makes you seem like a weeb who jacks off to household items because they have a hamon

just come out of the weeb closet and buy a katana already

>>10699232
>a knife is just a tool that never leaves your house
... and that you may be using for the next fifteen, twenty years and which you will be holding in your hands for hundreds if not thousands of hours. And the difference in price is just hundred bucks or less, not 30k bucks like for a car. But your use of the hyperbolic "hundreds of dollars", the retarded "folded 10000 times" and buzzwords like "weep" make it plain enough that you are a clueless idiot who has never worked with a halfway nice knife before.

>>10699257
>implying you know how to or could be bothered to properly care for and sharpen your knife
you'll dull it inside of six months and it'll never leave the knife block again

>>10699172

>>10699224
And he's basically asking "Do I need a BMW", to which the answer is "No".

bitches don't know bout muh kiwik + sharpening skills

>>10699081
>I want a really good chef's knife
Yeah, you narrowed down your request perfectly.

Trollololol

>>10699290
>And he's basically asking "Do I need a BMW", to which the answer is "No".
If you want to actually enjoy driving and are serious about it and you want to do a trackday or two every now and then the answer is actually "Yes".

>>10699326
>If you WANT to actually enjoy driving and are serious about it and you WANT to do a trackday or two every now and then the answer is actually "Yes".
>Need

>>10699326
no, the answer then is get a muscle car dumbass witch corellates to a knife that is maintainable

>>10699267
Doou you mean me personally? My nigger I have more than 60 knives in my collection and over a dozen water and oil whetstones, steels, diamond hones, chromium and silicium oxide strops from leather and balsa wood ... you better believe I can sharpen my own knives.

>>10699331
if OP is looking for a really nice chef's knife it is reasonable to assume that he really WANTS to enjoy cooking and cutting shit up, no? Does he need to make it any plainer for you?

>>10699355
If you think that having a high end knife is key to enjoying cooking, you must be a very lonely man.

>>10699359
nah, he's just a hipster
also speaking of hipsters and the fact that ck is usually pretty full of them, I nominate this for the ck theme song
https://youtu.be/P_ZTrXAxZ-g

>>10699359
Where did I say that? I never mentioned a high end knife, a knife in the $100-150 range will already be miles ahead of anything 99% of all cooks have ever worked with.

I also never said it was the "key" to enjoying cooking, but it is certainly a huge contributing factor. A really good knife can turn prep from a chore into a fun activity. I started out as a knife collecctor and I got into cooking mostly because I wanted to actually DO something with sharp knives, not just have them sitting in my drawer and occasionally open some parcel or pare a broke fingernail.

>>10699344
>I have more than 60 knives in my collection
wow, you must be really good at cooking...

how many swords and daggers btw?
can you do any balisong tricks?

>Everyone fighting over what OP supposedly wants
>OP already long gone, laughing his ass off

>>10699550
Dude di you even read my last post? The one where I mentioned that I started out collecting knives and cooking came later? That said I probably cook better than a good deal of /ck/ apart from the pro cooks, and I am pretty sure I know as much about proper knife handling as they do, and quite a lot more than they do about sharpening.

>>10699172
> Dont buy a knife you cant hold first.
False. Just make sure there is an ironclad return policy. Amazon is great for this and is where I have purchased my knives as I have been building my set.

> Never pay more than $60 for a knife if you're not an actual chef, you dont need them.
False. Like with any purchase, just don't buy high dollar unless you really know what you like and are looking for and can properly evaluate. Higher cost is generally linked to aesthetic though and that should be noted. I attempted to replace my 40 dollar nakiri with several different 100-300 dollar versions and was disappointed in their feel and performance every time. Sure they looked nice but were lacking a lot of things that made mine so enjoyable to use. I am sure I could find a high cost, functional, aesthetic, and nuanced replacement but stopped caring after the third attempt. I will be replacing my handle at some point with a custom one but that's it.

> You dont need one knife, you need three...using the wrong knife for the job is dangerous or clumsy.
I can agree with the second half of your statement but you cannot quantify the knives a person will need without knowing their situation. I would say the basic TWO knives to own would be a paring knife and chef's knife. Each in whatever sizing/style of your personal choice for whatever you use them for most frequently. When I started to build my kit I threw away basically everything I owned for kitchen stuff (all junk anyway) and then heavily researched and evaluated everything I was going to buy as I needed it. I did this for my whole kitchen and would recommend it. Keep a pot, pan, knife, spoon, and spatula and then spend some time cooking with your super basic shitty shit.

>>10699949
Is that an usuba in the center?

>>10699081
Hands down this. If you're buying anything under $100 then this brand/knife is the way to go. I have a full collection of Mercers and they come sharp and sharpen very easily. You can get a slightly fancier version of their chef knife but I think the only difference is the handle, as far as I can tell the blade material is the same
https://www.amazon.com/Mercer-Culinary-Genesis-6-Inch-Forged/dp/B000OOQZMY/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528050108&sr=8-1-spons&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=mercer%2Bknife&psc=1&th=1

>>10699949
An IKON parer? why on earth would you waste such an amount of money on a mere parer? It must also be heavy and, worse than that, tailheavy as fuck with that handle construction. I once held a 9'' IKON chef's knife and even that was tailheavy. I'd have bought a $3 Victorinox parer and spent the rest of the money on a better chef's knife.

>>10699949
The red handle is a 10" stainless from Mundial and I use it for more rugged work like meat prep, splitting open squash and melons, etc. The nakiri does basically all fruit/veggie prep except for the aformentioned hard rind shenanigans. Wustof paring knife does any delicate work and is actually the purchase I regret the most. I thought my research was good and just bought the ikon (most expensive) without really trying out different styles and sizes. I wish I had one with a bigger handle and shorter blade that had a slightly broader point. One day I'll get around to finding what I want what I'm working with it for now. Would have returned it but didn't really want to admit to myself that I had acted like a newfag in life so kept it out of denial.

The Crofton knife set I bought someone from Aldi who was just getting started was surprisingly good and would recommend it to anyone who really doesn't know what they want from their knives yet.

>>10699968
Technically yes.

>>10700011
See my post here >>10700044
Double trips to dubs confirms. And yes the back heavy is so shenanigans. No grip up front for those nice pull back cuts etc. I've learned to work with it and my pinky grip is nuts now at least.

>>10699968
>>10700064
Never mind. Double checked the terminology and nakiri is correct. Made me doubt myself and I thought that was the correct term for the cutting edge shape. The correct term for the double side sharpen is ryoba.

>>10699172
>8" single beveled knife
For what? Most of us aren't peeling huge Daikons into a long see through strip.

>>10700124
>he doesn't shave daikons into paper-thin strips every day

>>10700124
I find that single beveled knives are better for working with crunchy vegetables in general, as well as fish.

>>10699333
>muscle car
well, you clearly don't drive.

>>10700003
Yeah this should sort me fine. Thanks. Man this will be the most I've ever spent on cutlery but I've been using the same knife my mom gave me which she bought over 30 years ago.

>>10700003
>full bolster

pls no

This is the one thing I regret about my first knife purchase. If you actually keep the knife for an extended period of time you are going to want to sharpen it any some point, which means the bolster is going to get in the way.

If you're going to buy that, at least get the short bolster.

Personally I think 8" is too short if you only own one knife. 9 or 10 is better, provided you have a big enough cutting surface to use it.

>>10699172
>Never pay more than $60 for a knife if you're not an actual chef, you dont need them

you don't need them even if you are an actual chef
The vast majority of professional chefs and butchers don't use fancy expensive knives, but relatively inexpensive stamped (non-forged) professional knives with plastic handles from brands like Dick, Dexter-Russell, Sanelli or Victorinox. They are cheap, reliable, durable, comfortable to use and easy to sharpen.
If they are good enough for people who actually use them everyday for many hours a day, they are good for everyone.

I have a buddy that makes custom knives, can you tell me what are the best parameters and steel for a general use kitchen knife?

>>10703147
>If they are good enough for people who actually use them everyday for many hours a day, they are good for everyone.
LOL do you actually think they use them because they want to? Yeah they can be halfway decent, but in the vast majority of cases the use them because that's what's in the house, and they're in the house because the restaurant owner buy the cheapest stuff they can get away with. And most cooks arent exactly rich, I can understand they dont want to spend $150 on a personal knife so the owner of the restauraant can save even more money on the house knives. There is no reason for a well off person to have to deal with the same shit.

Why on earth do people have such problems with getting nice knives? Nice cars, nice clothes, nice shoes, nice stereos, nice watches, all are perfectly OK, but if you want to spend more than $25 for a plastic handled Dexter Russell you are a weeb.

I've been really getting into cooking for the last month or so and I've never had a good chef knife before. Thinking about getting pic-related.

>>10703210
>the best parameters and steel for a general use kitchen knife?
get a 220-240mm gyuto, decently tall at the heel for long life and plenty of knuckle clearance on the board (50mm+), at least 30-40% of the blade should be almost flat (measuring from the heel) so you can speed chop stuff without it accordioning. It should be really thin directly behind the bevel (0,5mm is OK) and the tip should be ground nice and thin. Decent steels are 1095 and AEBL, dont spend too much on some expensive super steel for your first custom knife. Veery importatnt point: a mmeticulous heat treat is at least as important as the type of steel you are using. For more info try asking on kitchenknifeforums.com. There are plenty of aficionados and custom knife makers on there.

>>10703455
Solid choice. The first four product lines on this page are also really good: https://japanesechefsknife.com/collections/jck-original-kagayaki

That shop also sells the Fujiwara FKM and FKH knives which also have a good reputation and can be had for a fair price.

>>10699232
What if you work in a kitchen? I hate using the houses knives as they are often abused. If I have my own knives which I do I want the highest quality and most durable blade because even my best knives need to be sharpened weekly . I own 1 Japanese knife and 2 German knives as well as a couple other cheapies for the rare occasion I need something other than a chef knife or utility knife....I guess I'm a weeb tho.

>>10703450
Many chefs are also restaurant owners, and they still choose to use no-frills professional knives.
Fancy expensive knives are made of a very hard material, which has better cutting performances, but it is also more difficult to re-sharpen. Softer plastic handles are also more comfortable to use.
Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate a nice $400 japanese damascus steel knife, but you don't necessarily need that to cook properly.
A properly sharpened Dick or Victorinox knife works almost as well for a fraction of the price, and even has a few additional advantages. In addition to the ones I already mentioned, professional chefs don't have the time or patience to properly care for an expensive knife. It's better for them to use something that can take some abuse without having to worry.

>>10703556
The good victorinox is still 150 bucks. That being said I agree with literally everything you said. Sounds like you have real world experience. I would never put a 400 dollar Damascus steel knife in my kit, but I could see a high end executive chef/business owner doing it. Just like bank tellers don't wear Gucci suits. Line cooks don't buy 400 dollar knives, and a knife like that has no place in a home kitchen either. Really to sum it all up you might as well just buy some Mercer's and call it a day. If it's good enough for the pros it's good enough for a home kitchen.

>>10703573
>The good victorinox is still 150 bucks
Maybe the forged series?
Here in Europe they are relatively cheap. The classic swiss-made professional series with fibrox™ handles cost significantly less than 50 euros.
A 20 cm chef knife is like 30 euros (about 35 USD) on Amazon.

>Sounds like you have real world experience
I personally know 5 chefs who also own the place they work at (among them even a michelin-starred chef).
the only one that doesn't use cheap plastic handled professional knives uses Wusthof classic, so nothing too fancy.

I bought an IKEA knife. What am I in for?

>>10703455
I have that exact knife and it's great. When I got it I saw a video of people who held it blade up and dropped grapes and cherry tomatoes on it and it sliced them clean in half, which I successfully replicated. It doesn't do that anymore but I've had it for almost two years now and it's still really sharp without any sharpening, just a ceramic honing rod. I would suggest getting the honing rod as well.

>op is new and asks for entry-level recommendations
>self-important masturbatory retards come out of the woodwork to flex e-peen on an anonymous Dutch shoemaking mailing list to demand he buy the most expensive, high-maintenance, nuanced knives available to consumers

/ck/, everyone.

>>10703891
I have the 8'' chef's knife from the 365+ series, it is quite decent, especially for just 20€. See if you can polish/smooth out the rough part directly behind the bevel a bit, where the blade looks as if they have taken a very stiff wire brush to it (I suspect that is exactly what they have done). The blade will glide through the produce much more easily.

>>10704183
Where did OP say he was new? And he clearly said he wanted a "really good chef's knife", and that is what exactly what was recommended to him. Especially as he talked about a price range between 20 and 200 bucks, and none of the knives in this thread are anywhere near 200 bucks. Something wrong with your reading comprehension skills Cletus?