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Lets see your favorite chef's knife.

Yeah, but you would be putting your knives through a much heavier workout than I do. My Japanese knives are harder and hold an edge longer, but I can't just give them a swipe on a steel to touch them up.
You're not wrong. :jump:

I've thought of getting a Sabatier profile J-knife then decide I don't want to pay for it and go back to my Hiromoto. As much as I want to work towards relegating my Hiromoto to house knife duty I'll save the $350 or whatever it is. As to having my Hiromoto at home, my wife touch it. She has her own Santoku that she loves. She is also afraid of my knives so it'll be fine.
 
Hers and His chef knive's -

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My wife's favorite is a Wüsthof Grand Prix -

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And mine is a Tojiro DP Gyuto -
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Tim
 
Hi all,

I just happened to stumble upon this site and thought someone out there might be able to help me!

I'm looking to buy a sushi knife and to be honest, I know absolutely nothing about Sushi or Knives :-/

It's a present for my boyfriend you see, he's massively into his sushi (even has a boat to catch his own tuna!) but he's always complaining about the knives he has. My birthday is coming up so I thought perfect! and then I started looking thinking it would be easy..... big mistake!

So far the 2 ones that keep coming up the most are the Shun Pro II Sashimi knife 270mm and the Masamoto KA series Yanagi Sashimi 270mm. Does anyone have these knives so I can get a real review on them? Any better ones out there?

Any help would be massively appreciated!!

Thanking you in advance :)

If you let us know a budget, and where you are, I'm sure people here can make some recommendations...
 

Tirvine

ancient grey sweatophile
Hi all,

I just happened to stumble upon this site and thought someone out there might be able to help me!

I'm looking to buy a sushi knife and to be honest, I know absolutely nothing about Sushi or Knives :-/

It's a present for my boyfriend you see, he's massively into his sushi (even has a boat to catch his own tuna!) but he's always complaining about the knives he has. My birthday is coming up so I thought perfect! and then I started looking thinking it would be easy..... big mistake!

So far the 2 ones that keep coming up the most are the Shun Pro II Sashimi knife 270mm and the Masamoto KA series Yanagi Sashimi 270mm. Does anyone have these knives so I can get a real review on them? Any better ones out there?

Any help would be massively appreciated!!

Thanking you in advance :)
I would suggest going to Chefs Knives to Go and looking at Yanagis aka Yanagibas. Their user reviews are usually pretty balanced. (Lots of griping about finish and good assessments of edge) A sushi knife (or a slicing knife) is probably the type of knife that benefits most from length. A light and maneuverable 300 mm Yanagi would not be out of the question. I would not, personally, go any shorter than 240. 270 is probably a good length. These knives will be single bevel and therefore it is important to know if the recipient is right handed or left handed. If he has been using a double bevel knife sharpener, a Yanagi/Yanagiba means it is also time to shift to water stones. CKTG is a good source for those, too, but I am sure more knowledgeable folk can offer other, possibly better, sources.
 
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Frankly, I don’t use Chef’s knives, or Gyuto’s very often - more than 80% of the time I use a knife, it’s to slay vegetables, herbs, etc - and for that purpose I have an array of Nakiri’s and Chuka Bocho’s. 10% of the time I’m cutting bread - and I have a really snazzy Japanese bread knife for that that only has serrations in the first inch or so, so it creates cleaner cuts with less crumbs. ~5% of the time - I’m using a Deba for fish, and the remaining 5% is where Chef/Gyuto’s, Santoku’s, Petty’s, Ko Bunka’s, etc come into play.

The above out of the way - my favorite chefs knife (in this case Gyuto) is a tie between a 210mm Fujiwara Teruyasu Denka and a 240mm Masashi Kuroshu Gyuto. The vast majority of their uses however - are attacking pineapples.
 
I have an entire drawer full of knives. Mostly Watanabe and Tojiro. But the knives I reach for every day are the Watanabe shown below.

180mm gyuto
120?mm petty
180mm nakiri
All are Blue #2
If I’m just cutting vegetables I likely reach for the nakiri. If I want to do some cutting that will require a bit more dexterity (cutting up meat, cutting up a bell pepper) I will reach for the gyuto. If I’m cutting something I hold in my hand I grab the petty.

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garyg

B&B membership has its percs
I have an entire drawer full of knives. Mostly Watanabe and Tojiro. But the knives I reach for every day are the Watanabe shown below.

180mm gyuto
120?mm petty
180mm nakiri
All are Blue #2
If I’m just cutting vegetables I likely reach for the nakiri. If I want to do some cutting that will require a bit more dexterity (cutting up meat, cutting up a bell pepper) I will reach for the gyuto. If I’m cutting something I hold in my hand I grab the petty.

View attachment 1367158


That's me also, though not with such a nice assortment of Wantanabe knives. I tend to use the same couple blades most of the time
 

Tirvine

ancient grey sweatophile
Hello everyone. Well, I cut up a lot of tuna, dorado, and yellowtail, and since tomorrow is my birthday I have decided to buy myself a sushi knife (or two). damascus bowie knives I have been using an old, carbon-steel filet knife for years with decent success, damascus hunting knives even for cutting sushi rolls. Can anybody here give me any suggestions about sushi knives? Thanks.
Look at 300 Yanagibas, single bevel for your dominant hand. From an relatively inexpensive Tojiro ITK to the sky's the limit, they will take an edge like nothing else and perform flawlessly for a sushi chef. CKTG has a fine selection and plenty of information to start you down the rabbit hole.
 

Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
The most used knife in our kitchen would be the Victorinox 4 inch paring knife, very easy to sharpen(straight edge) and it is thin enough to slice delicate foods. I wish I knew about this knife at a early age. They are very popular on _mazon and the reviews are accurate IMO.
 

Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
Y'all're gonna laugh, but here it is...

View attachment 1318772

I have a great fondness for ulu knives. This one just happened a week ago. I was at the scrap metal yard looking for some rod stock to make handles, and found two of these in a box. The guy who was helping me felt kinda bad he didn't have any rod at all, so we split the find and both walked away happy. Cleaned it up, sharpened it, flaxseed oil on the handle; good to go. I took a chunk of alder firewood out of the box by the cookstove and did some cutting and other work to make a simple stand, soaked it in flaxseed oil and there it is.

I was just using it today prepping some pork for dinner. It's my go-to for cutting around bones, trimming fat and other things, chopping, dicing, mincing, etc. Just a cheap piece of stainless, but it does what I need. We've got other knives, some of them quite good quality, but my ulus are always where I can grab them.

Pie added to enhance "kitchen" ambiance. :) Green Tomato Mincemeat with Rumtopf Cherries. I don't do birthday cake, I do birthday pie.

O.H.
Good for Pizza.
 
Just a noob here so it took me a while to find this thread and you all have some really great knives. I know some are pro and the knives show use which is GREAT! I'm just a home amateur in the kitchen but have always kept & maintained good quality knives as like any other tool it makes the task at hand so much more enjoyable. And for those that post about learning, you have been given great advise here. One thing I might add is if you have a chance, plan to attend the Atlanta Blade show. It is a huge venue with knife makers and vendors from all over the world all in one gigantic room. Great event, first week of June.

Show Info – Blade Show Atlanta, The World's Largest Knife Show - https://bladeshow.com/show-info/

So of all my kitchen knives these are my three (3) most often used.

Top to bottom:
Shigefusa Kitaeji Sugi carbon steel
Bill Burke Petty 52100 52100 carbon steel
Bill Burke Gyuto Japanese Suminagashi stainless steel VG-10 core

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Legion

Staff member
Hello. I am trying to decide between a 6" and 8" chef's knife. I'm a small person (5'0" tall) with correspondingly small appendages, and the 6" knife feels absolutely perfect when pretending to chop things at the knife store (eGullet version of air guitar). The main disadvantage to a small knife that I can think of is that it will take longer to get through a big pile of something like onions, but I confess that I have not done a whole bunch of research on the issue. I know the larger knife is much more common but the small ones must be made for a reason . . . right?
IMO you only really need a big knife if you are cutting up big things. For normal home meal prep a 6” knife should get the job done most times, but it will struggle with a pumpkin. My 10” Sab feels too big to use in my cramped little kitchen sometimes.
 
no response.
Get the 6" if it is more comfortable for you. Larger knifes cost more. Costing more is equated to being better. Blade length does not corelate with getting more done. I can julienne 50 pounds of onions with a 8" knife as a 10" knife. I'm sure I've used a 6 at work and was miserable but the onions at work are a lot bigger than the ones you get at the grocery! Also, bigger knife means bigger cutting board, bigger counter top space etc... Before I got my house I had space for an 8.5x11 cutting board. No way was I using a 10 on that!

Unless you're breaking chicken bones, or cutting oversized or sweet potatoes you'll be fine with a 6; especially for home use. Wifey uses a 7" santoko for everything and she does more cooking at home than I do.
 

Legion

Staff member
My wife and I are adulting particularly hard these days and best Japanese knives it’s time to upgrade to a decent chef’s knife.

I don’t want to spend a ton of money, but she’s an excellent cook and I want to get her something nice.

What brands?
If it is your first Japanese knife, and you want good without spending the Earth, Tojiro come pretty highly recommended.

Bear in mind, you will also have to think about a plan for honing. You will kill a good knife quickly with poor, "easy" knife sharpeners.
 

OldSaw

The wife's investment
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View attachment 1349597

Frankly, I don’t use Chef’s knives, or Gyuto’s very often - more than 80% of the time I use a knife, it’s to slay vegetables, herbs, etc - and for that purpose I have an array of Nakiri’s and Chuka Bocho’s. 10% of the time I’m cutting bread - and I have a really snazzy Japanese bread knife for that that only has serrations in the first inch or so, so it creates cleaner cuts with less crumbs. ~5% of the time - I’m using a Deba for fish, and the remaining 5% is where Chef/Gyuto’s, Santoku’s, Petty’s, Ko Bunka’s, etc come into play.

The above out of the way - my favorite chefs knife (in this case Gyuto) is a tie between a 210mm Fujiwara Teruyasu Denka and a 240mm Masashi Kuroshu Gyuto. The vast majority of their uses however - are attacking pineapples.
I totally have that TF on my radar.
 
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