/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.13254612]

I want to buy a general knife for cooking. I was thinking of a santoku knife that is not too large.

I was willing to spend around 100 or so for something. Do you have any recommendations for brands?

[Anonymous No.13254643]

>Do you have any recommendations for brands?
Nope. Avoid ceramic.

[Anonymous No.13254652]

>>13254612
you're getting ripped off.
you're going to want to build a forge, that's step one. so buy some firebrick.
next you'll need good coal and a pair of tongs, because you really don't want to just grab hot metal with your hands. I don't care how good your gloves are.
now you need good steel. search up "wootz ingot" on eBay, buy one. in the meantime find some furniture (the handle for your knife). I like antlers but any piece of wood will work fine. Even polymers if you don't mind being a pleb.
once your ingot arrives, heat it and pound it into shape SLOWLY. once you have a general knife shape, use a drill to make the holes for the brass fittings on the handle-side. sharpen the blade as much as you can in the forge with the hammer. attach the furniture, screw in the brass fittings. use a whetstone to finish sharpening.

[Anonymous No.13254672]

>>13254652
My salary is high enough that I would rather just spend money.

[Anonymous No.13254683]

>>13254672
ok
enjoy having the knife cut your finger off at the least opportune moment in time because you couldn't man up and make your own personal cutting instrument, bound to your soul with the love and devotion of a true craftsman

[Anonymous No.13254714]

>>13254612
>I was willing to spend around 100 or so for something
That's on the low end of decent, but plenty of options out there depending on your steel preference.

[Anonymous No.13254755]

>>13254714
Thanks. I wouldnt mind spending a bit more if its worthwhile.

[Anonymous No.13254763]

>>13254714
Can you give me a brief rundown on pros and cons of difderent knife steels?

[Anonymous No.13254766]

>>13254652
This effectively parodies 4chan's advice in general and /g/'s in particular.

[Anonymous No.13254791]

>>13254763
It won't matter to you in the slightest unless you are a five star chef. It's just a fucking night. Just get whatever looks best to you

[Anonymous No.13254834]

>>13254766
>>13254755
Dubs have been checked.
However, please refer to >>13254683 for why it's important to always make your own knives. We aren't crabs, our appendages unfortunately do not grow back. Even with reattachment surgery, there's a large chance your nerve endings will always remain frayed and less responsive.
>>13254791
it's always "just a fucking night" when you're cooking for a crowd. but that night could be your last night with all of your fingers. stay safe if your life involves lots of cutting and chopping. forge your own cutlery.

[Anonymous No.13254838]

>>13254763
At your price point all you can really afford are low hardness stainless steel, and high hardness reactive steels. Japanese blades made by a japanese smith will tend to use high carbon reactive steels which will harden to an HRC of 61-63. Whereas a western knife (even if it's santoku shaped) will tend to use a stainless steel (non-reactive) but with lower carbon (and thus hardness) so it will only have an HRC of ~57-59.

A less hard blade will generally need to be sharpened more frequently, but since harder blades (in this price range) are reactive steel, you need to make sure to keep moisture away from your blade because the steel will rust.

Common japanese steels you can find at around $100 will be Blue #1 & #2, White #1 & #2, and potentially Aogami Super or VG10, though the final two of these steels will be beyond your budget in MOST cases unless it's a small knife, or made by a fairly new smith.

So the takeaway here is most stainless steels that are easy to take care of (since they don't rust if left wet), need to be sharpened more frequently due to worse edge retention. And the reactive (non-stainless) steels are less easy to take care of since you can't leave them wet or they'll rust, but make up for it in how long they will hold a nice sharp edge.

If you really want to be fancy you can pay for modern super steels which bring the best of both worlds, high hardness and non-reactive, but those steels tend to cost a fair bit more, HAP40, ZDP-189, etc.

You might also see some knives that have mutliple steels, either a cladding, so the middle of the blade might be White #2, but the outside cladding of the blade is a stainless steel, this type of blade is easier to care for, but still requires more care than a full stainless steel blade, on this type of blade the cutting edge will still be reactive steel, so you'd need to make sure the edge is kept dry when not in use. Whereas a fully reactive blade the entire blade needs to be kept dry.

[Anonymous No.13254846]

>>13254643
How bad/good is ceramic really?

[Anonymous No.13254862]

>>13254846
it's shit, don't even bother unless you need it for specific garniture that reacts to a steel blade.

There are some things that discolor when cut with steel, so cutting with ceramic is necessary, but it's exceedingly rare and the average person simply wouldn't care.

[Anonymous No.13254893]

>>13254846
It retains its edge longer without maintenance than most metal knifes but it chips and breaks if handled poorly or used on relatively hard things like bones.

[Anonymous No.13255041]

Just go to Walmart or literally any store and buy a $5 knife and a cheap sharpener. It will work flawlessly and you won't look like an idiot.

[Anonymous No.13255051]

What about MSK-65?

https://www.amazon.com/Mac-Knife-MSK-65-Professional-Santoku/dp/B000N5BV5K

[Anonymous No.13255073]

>>13254612
just get a kai inspire santoku for like 13 bucks lol

[Anonymous No.13255129]

>>13254612
Just buy a full length nihonto you fucking weeb.

[Anonymous No.13255163]

>>13254838
Good advice anon.
If you are just a home cook go for a decent stainless steel knife (e.g. Victorinox Fibrox) and a quality honing rod and give your knife a few strokes every day before using it.
Having a nice and shiny high carbon knife is cool but the novelty wears off quickly - and if you don't have proper whetstones and know how to use them you will have overall a better experience with a softer steel knife.

[Anonymous No.13255265]

I have a 1000/6000 combo water stone, honing steel and strop. I can kind of sharpen but camt get them razor sharp yet. Need more practice.

[Anonymous No.13255399]

>>13255163
Honing rods work on carbon steels too and softer steels will require more frequent edge maintenance.

[Anonymous No.13255708]

>>13255265

[Anonymous No.13255723]

Knife thread?

Since you pictured it in the OP, Shuns are generally good but overpriced for what they are. If you just want to drop some money on a decent knife, Shun is a good place to go, but you can find better for less if you research a little.

Also, as far as carbon steels go, they really aren't hard to take care of. The Ginga, which is monosteel W2, is my daily driver. I just keep a wet rag and dry rag by my cutting board and give it a wipe every couple of minutes.

[Anonymous No.13255730]

>>13254672
then you do not deserve to get what you want, there are no shortcuts

this is why society sucks

[Anonymous No.13255735]

>>13254846
It's good until it isn't, then it's awful. Metal knives take ages longer to degrade.

[Anonymous No.13256418]

>>13254612
mercer knives are pretty good

[Anonymous No.13256443]

>>13254652
I feel spoiled with luxury when people take the time to create this quality of comedy on a free-to-access board

[Anonymous No.13256892]

instead of buying knives for Christmas I'm buying all my relatives a WorkSharp. Are they going to fuck up their knives?

[Anonymous No.13256893]

>>13256443
>comedy
Sure

[Anonymous No.13256926]

>>13254846
You'll get chips in the edge non matter how careful you are, and then it's useless to use as an even edge anymore. The knife's essentially done at that point unless you want to maneuver around the chip, in which case you'll make more of them

[Anonymous No.13256929]

>>13256892
Probably. Unless they practice on knives they care less about, they'll round the tips of their good ones. I have one and it works really well for my low to mid price knives, but I have damaged the profile of a couple cheaper ones trying to get the hang of it.

[Anonymous No.13256947]

>>13256443
>comedy
It wasn't a joke.
>>13256892
You should rent a quality workshop and plan a day when you and your relatives can forge good knives that won't betray you in your hour of culinary need. Nothing's worse than finally getting the hang of cutting perfectly uniform discs of water chestnuts only to have the knife you're using realize that you are not its master and therefore it has no reason to not chop your fingers off.

[Anonymous No.13256998]

>>13255723
When you say W2 do you mean the Japanese White #2 steel or the American W2 steel?

[Anonymous No.13257018]

>>13256998
I'd assume white #2 since they're wa handled

Also, found an identical looking one from a kitchen knife forums album titled "yoshikane 210mm stainless clad shirogami #2"

[Anonymous No.13257071]

Making knives is pretty fun. Small one is AEB-L and bigger one is 26c3. Both steels were designed for razor blades so they can take a very high working hardness.

[Anonymous No.13257104]

Lads, what is more important between a good knife and good sharpening tools ?
I don't have too much money, I kinda like my cheap knife but i wish it cut better

[Anonymous No.13257137]

>>13254612
Metal is for troglodytes. Go obsidian.

[Anonymous No.13257151]

>>13257104
You can sharpen anything enough to cut food including cardboard with a cheap sharpening kit. With that in mind you can make use of the cheap blades that you currently have.

[Anonymous No.13257152]

>>13254612
>>13254714
>>13255723
>>13257018
>>13257071
>>13257137

Oi! Ya got yer pointed knoif loicense! Don't be a coward, bin that knoif!

[Anonymous No.13257208]

>>13257151
I see, would you recommend using a sharpening stone or is a honing steel fine ?

[Anonymous No.13257233]

>>13257208
A honing steel is for minor maintenance of the edge, used between sharpenings.
To actually sharpen an edge requires sharpening stones or similar.

[Anonymous No.13257276]

>>13257233
thank you very much for the advice anon, just ordered myself a stone

[Anonymous No.13257294]

If you are a beginner cook just get that 30 dollar victorinox 8 inch fibrox. I started with one and it really is a good choice. Very cheap, decently weighted and I didnt have to sharpen it for a while after I got it.
Itll help you get used to sharper knives while you improve your skills, and after you upgrade to something a bit more pricey you can keep it around as a beater knife when you dont want to risk the good one.
It is a bit of a meme on here but it definitely is worth the price.

https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Fibrox-Chefs-Knife-8-Inch/dp/B008M5U1C2

[Anonymous No.13257804]

>>13256998
Nobody cares about am-rican knives except pedos and their warther knives, and boomers and their randall vietnam war LARP knives

[Anonymous No.13259589]

Buck 120+ is gonna be your best bet

[Anonymous No.13260375]

>>13259589
thank you for your service

[Anonymous No.13260707]

>>13260375
I aint a boot licker Im a just a good ol Canadian boy