# Something better than Carbonext but not too expensive?



## lorriman (Feb 7, 2012)

Hello from noob land. Noob to this forum as well as to knives.

I've been comissioned to get myself a nice knife or two for my birthday for which a bunch of friends have collected some money. My budget is $400 (actually £300). Eventually we are all going to have a drinks party and destroy some tomatoes.

On another forum I've been pretty much talked in to dropping the idea of a Masamoto HC since apparently it isn't a significant step up from a Carbonext while yet a fair bit more money. I already have a Carbonext 210cm gyoto coming in the post (as well as a 13cm utility knife). But my budget suddenly increased and I'm looking to find a superiour companion, perhaps also bigger, which will honour my friends generosity as well as resolve the problem of who gets to use the knife (me or my lady friend). 

I'm looking for more opinions; and especially since I've done a helluva lot of reading on this board.

Perhaps I should just get myself a bigger Carbonext (270cm? is that too much for a home cook?) and an adequate sharpening kit. 

I do have the option of sending back the Carbonexts if you think a more radical solution is in order. 

Any recommendations (with reasons also, please) would be most gratefully received. I'm interested in both carbon and stainless.


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

These kind of questions are always difficult. 

CarboNext is a huge bang for the buck favorite. There are "better" knives, depending on what you mean by "better," but no matter what you do mean stepping up probably won't be cheap.

The HC is quite different from the CarboNext. Better? I'd say so. Enough better to be worth the freight? I'd say yes to that as well, but my criteria -- including how the blade works the board -- may not be yours. There are an awful lot of knives out there. If you could help narrow the field by describing what makes you happy I can be more helpful.

Definitely get something longer.

BDL


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