Victorinox Kitchen Knives... Awesome!

[dullblade]

http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-5-...7?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1267573894&sr=8-7

Now, i know that Henkels and Wustof knives are all the rage, but lets face it... they break the bank.

For the wannabe or "be" chef trying to find a great set of knives in these trying times, I highly suggest you look into the victorinox knives with fibrox handles. They're not fancy, they're not going to look amazing on your countertop, but these puppies are SHARP and go from whole chickens to nuts to veggies with the greatest of ease.

They're pretty highly touted by cooks illustrated, but i've been so happy with them i thought i would share.

 

[spoiledone]

http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-5-...7?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1267573894&sr=8-7

Now, i know that Henkels and Wustof knives are all the rage, but lets face it... they break the bank.

For the wannabe or "be" chef trying to find a great set of knives in these trying times, I highly suggest you look into the victorinox knives with fibrox handles. They're not fancy, they're not going to look amazing on your countertop, but these puppies are SHARP and go from whole chickens to nuts to veggies with the greatest of ease.

They're pretty highly touted by cooks illustrated, but i've been so happy with them i thought i would share.

Good to know, I need to get some new knives soon. Are they widely available?

 

[dullblade]

Good to know, I need to get some new knives soon. Are they widely available?

i haven't really seen them in stores, but amazon has them.

 

[Stubblefield]

They are a really decent knife, and sharpen easily.

 

[Jim]

Don't waste your money on the set, just get what you need individually-

http://www.chefknivestogo.com/fokn.html

 

[dchasef]

I received the 8" Chef's Knife at Christmas, and it is by far my favorite knife!!! I would recommend it to anyone.

Regards,
Chase

 

[Topgumby]

Don't waste your money on the set, just get what you need individually-

http://www.chefknivestogo.com/fokn.html

I got a set on da bay for about a hundred bones. The only knife that doesn't get used often is the slicer.

Most sets are full of filler, but the Victorinox set I purchased was pretty lean.

 

[telcontar]

Great knives. I've used all kinds in my career and these really work.
A great place to get them is knifeworks.com.

 

[eto]

Those are good knives and a nice value. But a big improvement would be a western style Japanese knife. Im a knife nut and been collecting kitchen knives for a few years . This is why I joined this forums In my never ended journey of all things sharp.
So as Jim has stated check out some knives at:
chefknivestogo.com
korin.com (Mecca for knives)
japanesesharping.com


There are many out there but these are ones Im familiar with.

 

[tejasjeff]

These come straight from Japan at good prices.
I have been very impressed with the "House Brand" JCN knives.
They get a good deal on a small outsourced run at very good prices.
Victorinox are great knives for what they are and I have several.
But just buy 2 great knives instead of a block of cheaper knives.
http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/

 

[Suzuki]

I agree that buying a set doesn't generally make much sense, but this set, at around $75 is a good buy. The slicer is not a knife that you'll likely use regularly and I think that a more useful set would replace it with the company's very good bread knife.

I've found that these knives often need a bit of a touch up with a sharpener out of the box and that the steel definitely doesn't hold an edge as long as the higher end knives (especially the much harder Japanese knives).

That being said, for the average home cook, these knives are all you'll ever NEED. Also, if you do decide to upgrade at some point, you're not out of pocket that much.

I often recommend this brand to folks looking for a decent knife at a very good price - from a price:value perspective, these knives are very hard to beat. By that I mean that you can get better knives, but will pay a fair bit more to do so.

 

[holiday]

I also think for the casual user these knives are perfect, not everyone wants to spend there shaving budget on kitchen knives!

 

[ouch]

Forschner Victorinox and Dexter have long ruled the roost as the standard bearers for entry level quality knives. You'll find them in tens of thousands of restaurants.

Still, I'd go with the advice given by Jim (who I have personally witnessed purchasing a single knife five times the cost of that amazon set [still glad we met at Korin? ]) to eschew sets. I'll even go one step further and suggest that a novice buy a single knife and force himself to use it for everything.

My friend's father was a highly respected chef in Hong Kong. The first time he went to his son's house, shortly after he got married, he was astounded by his son's lack of knife and cooking skills. The next day he returned and gave him an old and large, but very good, cleaver. He also took all of my friend's knives away, telling him "Use this for everything." Two or three months later his father asked him which knives he would like returned, to which my friend responded, "None of them." His dad said, "Good. Now you can get whatever you want. Now you know."

The point is that if you first learn to do everything with a chef's knife, you'll have a better understanding of how other knives will fit into your scheme. Bone a chicken, chop an onion, and slice a loaf of bread with your chef's knife. By the time you come to fully know it, and have learned how to sharpen, clean, and store it, you'll know exactly what else you'll need. A lot will depend on the type of cooking you do. Bread knife? Probably. Slicer? Maybe not. Boner or parer? Perhaps you'll need them, perhaps not. Your second, third, and fourth knives should serve to augment your primary knife.

Now money is always a concern, but especially if you're young, it pays to buy good stuff before the price inevitably rises. In 1990, I bought a 4 1/2 qt Le Creuset pot at Zabar's for $50. I thought, "$50? For a pot I may not use?" I should have bought ten of them. Good knives and good pans are the most important kitchen tools, and will last for decades. They do not have to be expensive, but they have to be good.


Enjoy the new toys!

 

[Lucius]

I've got a lot of Forschners. My recommendation would be not to waste your time with the "smaller" knives (paring and utility knives and whatnot). They're pretty flimsy. I mean, for the price, if you can't get something better, they'll get the job done.

But I don't really like using them at all and plan to upgrade to a japanese paring knife soon. But I have no complaints with my chef's knife, cimeter (love it), bread knife, and boning knife.

 

[lamina]

Wenger has some nice ones too and the company belongs to Victorinox, so swiss quality.

 

[Jim]

One thing to consider is that these knives are much lighter than the German and French chef's knives. Going from a 8 to a 10 inch knife can be a big advantage if you are comfortable with the extra length.

 

[Suzuki]

I've got a lot of Forschners. My recommendation would be not to waste your time with the "smaller" knives (paring and utility knives and whatnot). They're pretty flimsy. I mean, for the price, if you can't get something better, they'll get the job done.

But I don't really like using them at all and plan to upgrade to a japanese paring knife soon. But I have no complaints with my chef's knife, cimeter (love it), bread knife, and boning knife.

Interesting, I find the Forschner/Victorinox paring knives to be quite good - I actually like them for their flexibility - but this is definitely a personal preference thing.

As to Jay's post about how many knives you need, before I came here, I had a chef's, paring and bread knives and nothing else. This was my set up for many years and served me very well - there was nothing I couldn't do with one of these three knives.