The dreaded "wich knife to buy" Question...

Hi guys...

Here I am asking one of the most frequently asked question in a forum: "WICH....ITEM SHOULD I BUY?" Before reading this and another forums, I tought that the Shun's were the greatest knives on earth, but the more I read the more I see that I was happily living in ignorance and being a victim of marketing, I'm not saying that I don't like anymore the Shuns (Actually I'm still in love with them, but getting open to more suggestions because I see that there is a whole world of better knives and so many others that offers the same quality or maybe a bit more for the same price, or even cheaper)

I've been reading a lot trough this forum and I already got some very interesting ideas and Chris gave me some new imput.

Here's a bit of background on who I am, what I want and what I need, I'm coping/pasting this from my post "VG10 VS SG2 Steel" that was kindly replied by Chris.

I own some chef's knives, and I want to try something totally different, I have a wusthof, a Henckels, a Victorinox, Tor-rey, Tramontina, (these last two are latin battlehorses comparable to Dexters and Victorinox in quality) a KAI, a Dexter, an Ojeda (A locally made knife from a little town named Sayula, and is great, but so beautifull and with a mirror like shine, that I prefer not to use it , but it cuts like an scalpel http://www.ojedacuchillos.com/en/productos/mango-tradicional-sencillo.html) ,a chinese cleaver that I bought while working in china in a flea market for something like 50 US cents that cuts like a razor blade but it gets  rusty on a dayly basis, so bad that I consider it a health hazzard to use ,and a Global too... This last one is the guilty of turning me into Japanese style knives.

As you can see, I started thinking only in Shuns, the regular VG10 or the Elite class, made with SG2, but I'm getting more opened and looking for something else within the same kind of budget $200 +/- 10% and ready to spend 60-80 USD on a new stone.

For sharpening I own a minosharp whetstone 1000 grit, and a ceramic whustoff rod and I'm open to suggestions on what to add according to the knife that I buy.

I want a japanese one, with some "uniqueness factor", and so far this are the ones that I have in my list because they are different to everything else that I own, but since my experience is zero with any of them, I'll like to have the imput of people like you that have much more experience than me on the subject. I have nearly 20 years working in the kitchen and I'm the guy that sharpens always with the same technique, that I learned by myself on trial and error and that doesn't do a very bad job, but to be honest, I can't get a knife razor sharp consistantly, they are always very sharp for the regular use in the kitchen, but I want to become a "Knife and sharpening aficionado" (On a budget at first) , ok, here I go with my wish list:

Tojiro hammered

Tojiro Damascus



Shun premier

Miyaby 7000 damascus

Kasumi Damascus

Kanetsune Hammered

And the Mac, that to be honest, I don't like it, but I hear only great things about this one, and so good that I have to get on my list, the reason that makes me dislike this one, is because it reminds me a German on the looks department and I don't see any uniqueness in the looks... Wich I hate to accept... But it matters a lot to me.

And this one is the guilty of my curiosity on the SG2 steel, and also a contender if you guys consider that it worths it's price



I've learned that looks are not the most important... And the hard way... I've owned a 1200 GS BMW brand new motorcycle that was stunning, people stopped me to ask me on it...But It was very high maintenance, too heavy for urban use and now I ride a 150 CC that looks like a toy compared to the beemer, but is a joy to ride and conmute.

I had the stunning hot girlfriend, model like, but pretty much like the beemer... High maintenance, drama queen, bossy and troublemaker.... Now I date a cute and a bit chuby girl (God forbid if she ever reads this post! and sees that I said "chuby"/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eek.gif) whom always have a joke, an interesting conversation and a very outgoing attitude, she's a keeper.

I'm a hunter too and I can tell you same thing about my rifles, shotguns and bows, I'm a dancer and I can tell you the exact same story on the dancing shoes, a 60 bucks pair perform and look pretty much like the 260 USD Pair (I'm still a lousy dancer no matter how fancy my shoes are /img/vbsmilies/smilies/wink.gif) ... That has been the story of my life, always learning the hard way , wasting money, time and effort and based on the looks, now I want to be a bit more mature and ask before messing it big time.

I don't want to own a 200+ knife and after a few days later (or hours) go back to my old cheaper battle horses./img/vbsmilies/smilies/rolleyes.gif

Okydoky guys, seems like I did a bit too much on the talking department, now I want your opinions, feel free to give any advice based on experience or even to bash me a bit /img/vbsmilies/smilies/wink.gif

Luis J.

 

Seems like the pics were not uploaded as I expected, but I'm listing the models, and that way you get the idea. And also I forgot to mention, all are 8" blades, chef knives because that's the one that I'm more used to and my usual battlehorse. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/chef.gif

 

Thanks a lot Phatch!!! I wasn't used to this way of uploading images, I just edited the original post and the images can be seen now, and actually I find it nicer than the usual method of using an image hosting site like photobucket... One more cool thing about this place, uploading images directly from my own computer !!/img/vbsmilies/smilies/thumb.gif

Luis J

 

Hi BDL...

I was doing some more research, and seems like for the first time in my life I'm going to (Actually I did it already) act based on the experience of people with more experience than me instead of going based on the looks and marketing, a couple of hours ago I bought a Mac professional "mighty" chef's knife, an Idahone 12" fine honing rod (Does the choice rings a bell or gives you an idea of where I got the advice? /img/vbsmilies/smilies/wink.gif  ) and for sharpening is where I'm not sure if what I did is the right thing, but I went a bit on my own and following certain "logics" (I already bought it but I'll like to have your toughts on my choice). A 1000 / 6000 grit "king" stone, a Nagura stone ,wich I have no idea on how that works, but it was suggested by the web store and not expensive, and if it was an important piece I was going to regret on not getting it, and if it's not necessary, I just wasted a very small ammount, a stone holder and an edge guard to protect the blade.

I know that you're not very fond of combination stones, but my budget didn't allowed me to buy 4 stones with a better progresion, but I'm open to suggestions, and maybe in a few weeks I'll get some extra bucks on my "sharpening budget".

And since we already stablished direct contact, I have one question on flattening the stones, you suggest drywall, wich helps a lot on my budget too, but how that works, what's the drywall/stone grit ratio? I mean, what kind of drywall grit should I get to flatten a 1000 grit water stone? The stone has to be finer or coarser than the drywall?

Thanks in advance man, your advice on other posts were very helpfull, and I saw that 99.9% of the people giving reviews on the stuff that you recommend agrees with you. I'm sure that once that I slice something with the Mac, I'll forget that the look wasn't my favourite and I know that I'm going to start liking it... by the way that it looks  /img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif

I'll let you and everybody else know on my experience with the gear as soon as I get it.

Best regards /img/vbsmilies/smilies/peace.gif

 

Hi OnePiece...

Actually I still own at least a dozen Victorinox and they are true battlehorses, they are not fancy at all but they perform the task very well, I'm just starting to be a real "knife aficionado" so, my toughts may not be as accurate or technical as the ones that may come from other members from this forum. But for many years my 12" Victorinox chef's knife was always there for me, I worked perfectly with it, it is capable of getting a sharp edge, that is good enough to fullfill your needs in the kitchen, I used to sharpen it with an stone that you can buy in home depot for 3 USD, and my "ultrafine" or "polishing" stone was a Minosharp water stone 1000 grit... And that was good enough to me/img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif. Maybe I was living in ignorance but my herbs never looked "smashed" (Like they look when you cut them with a dull blade) and they were cleanly cutted.

In my humble experience, the Victorinox really worths every cent that you spend on it... Nothing fancy... But it does the trick perfectly... And BTW... Let me tell you, 15 years ago for me that was not just a knife, it was "THE KNIFE". Get one, you'll not regret /img/vbsmilies/smilies/thumb.gif. I still use my Victorinox boning knife, bird beek, and pairing knives all the time along with my Global and Wusthoff.... And guess what?... Now that some finer knife and sharpening stuff is on the way... I'll learn to sharpen with the new stones using my good ol' Victorinox, and I know that it's going to get a great edge.

Best regards, and it will be nice if somebody with more technical knowledge than me can give some more feedback on those Victorinox!

 

Hi Lenny...

Just like you said, I already have some basic skills and a "feeling" for sharpening, but I haven't been able to make it an exact science, for me a knife was sharp or dull, Period ! But one day my meat purveyor saw me doing some basic butchery and he grabbed my knife, and he said... You need a sharper knife, and he left.

The next day he showed up with some sort of old briefcase where he had 4 different stones (I had no clue on what kind of stones were those, but now that I started reading, I remember that they looked almost like Arkansas stones) and he took my knife and started "caressing" it with the stones with an almost ridiculous kind of circular motion that I still haven't seen in any video, he spent a few minutes with each stone and the last one was so fine that I questioned him if that stone was abrasive, BC to me it felt like glass... Long story short... My knife was razor sharp, and I tried it on my arm, wich after a few passes was hairless and smoother than Megan Fox legs (I suppose... Unfortunatedly I haven't been able to proove my theory right /img/vbsmilies/smilies/wink.gif  ).

Regretably, this fine gentleman passed away very soon after his demonstration, and I didn't have the chance of learning properly how to sharpen a knife like him, but that was the moment were I got bit by the bug of becoming a good sharpener... I'm just begining and seems like with your help and the help of this comunity I'm going to shorten the learning curve.

I own already a 1000 grit water stone, but once that I started reading I discovered that is so bad in shape, that is going to hurt the new knife, and when I flaten that old stone I'll loose half of it's weight, that's the reason for another stone with the same 1000 grit and combined with a 6000 stone. I'm not sure if the progression is too much, and if that's the case, I'll be here very soon on wich is the next stone!... But so far this hobby looks pretty interesting, and I concurr... The stones are a subject as rich, or maybe richer that the knives /img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif

Best regards!

 

LOL...I totally agree with you Lenny! /img/vbsmilies/smilies/rollsmile.gif