# Replacing a knife



## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

My wife put a really nasty chip in the knife I bought her some years ago, and I while I work on turning that knife into some kind of utility thing, I thought I'd get her a new knife for Christmas.

I'm looking for a "stainless" (including various modes of stain-resistant) chef's knife, about 8", with a Western handle and no irritating choil to get in the way of me sharpening the thing.

I'm hoping for cheap: I looked at MAC and found that the kind of thing I have in mind was running close to $200 list, and while I can get that cheaper if I search, I was hoping for about half that price or less. I don't know if that's really possible these days.

Pretty much all my expertise with culinary knives is in carbon, so I'm asking you guys to point me in a good direction.

Thanks!


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## benuser (Nov 18, 2010)

A carbon lover myself. Production cost are very different with stainless. Raw material, HT, abrasives, machinability are so different. You may get a decent carbon knife for very little money. Not so with stainless. Just a few knives I know well. 
https://www.sabatier-k.com/cuisine-25-cm-serie-200-manche-en-g10.html is a fantastic knife in 14C28N @60Rc - say AEB-L on steroids. Forget all you know about French knives and lousy F&F, warps, bents and overgrinds. F&F on par or better than with a Misono. Only in 18 and 25cm. About half the thickness you would expect, without being a laser: still some convexity on the right face. As an American you don't pay the European VAT. The only stainless I've kept.
Misono 440. The 210mm comes with a 44mm width, some may find it too narrow. Will depend on you wife's hand and grip. The 440C steel has some serious bite but sharpens surprising easily. Right-biased. A left-handed version with an inverted geometry is available. 
The factory edge is weak and overly polished, so get it with Korin and have the free 'initial stone sharpening'. An excellent no-nonsense blade with Misono's refined F&F. 
Perhaps you'll find a Wüsthof from the abandoned Le Cordon Bleu series. Lighter, neutrally balanced - not handle heavy - and with a lower tip than other series. The modern machine made edges are thinner than the Krupp's 4116 takes or holds. First thing to do is convexing the edge and removing the prominent shoulders. 
There are stainless Masahiros I've heard good things about but never used myself. I know Masahiro for the Virgin Carbons: fantastic steel, good grinding, only marginally acceptable F&F, little money. Great value if you're prepared to give it some love. The carbons come crazy asymmetric OOTB and need some work.


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## rick alan (Nov 15, 2012)

The Fujiwara 210 in aus8 (a very nice tough stainless) is $85 on CKTG, their video shows a very nice grind. I don't typically vouch for anything a CKTG video portrays, but Fujiwara has always been known for great bang for the buck.

I still have to plug my absolute favorite stainless, the Geshin Kagero and it's SRS-15 super steel. Yeah it's nearly 300, but oh is it every a joy when it comes to retaining a sharp edge ( it has only little competition there), and easy to sharpen unlike the competition, to go along with a very nice grind.


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

What do you folks think of the Takayuki Inox 210 gyuto? And what about Tojiro DP?

@rick alan CKTG doesn't seem to have that knife any more. They have a "semi-stainless" Fujiwara 210, though; is this the same?


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## mike9 (Jul 13, 2012)

I have one of these - https://www.chefknivestogo.com/riariigy21.html and for $30 more you can get a kit built around that - https://www.chefknivestogo.com/chefknivestogo.html What I like about this is it's thin like a laser and really has a nice edge out of the box, but sharpens up even more with ease. You get free shipping for orders over $100.


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

mike9 said:


> I have one of these - https://www.chefknivestogo.com/riariigy21.html and for $30 more you can get a kit built around that - https://www.chefknivestogo.com/chefknivestogo.html What I like about this is it's thin like a laser and really has a nice edge out of the box, but sharpens up even more with ease. You get free shipping for orders over $100.


At $60 plus a little shipping, that's hard to beat, and when you say it sharpens well and they say it's designed to meet really tough work environments with people who don't take care of their knives (they're politer about it), that sounds PERFECT. -- my wife took a millimeter off the point of the last knife within 2 weeks of getting it. Order sent!

Thanks, everybody!


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## rick alan (Nov 15, 2012)

chrislehrer said:


> What do you folks think of the Takayuki Inox 210 gyuto? And what about Tojiro DP?
> 
> @rick alan CKTG doesn't seem to have that knife any more. They have a "semi-stainless" Fujiwara 210, though; is this the same?


Sorry, haven't been back for a while, but apparently you did OK without me. It's nice to know when things get better, the Artifex was not originally known for anything like good fit/finish/grind. BD1N is known for very good edge retention but course carbides.

As for the fujiwara, semi-stainless usually connotes something that sharpens better than stainless, at the cost of some possible tarnishing. As a stretch aus-8 could be considered semi-stainless as it is less than 15% chrome.


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