Your First Good Kitchen Knife (My Recommendation for Home and Pro Chefs)
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- čas přidán 24. 03. 2021
- I highly recommend anyone invest in their cooking by buying a good knife to prepare meals. This does not mean spending a lot of money on a knife block from the local cutlery store. A quality chef knife is the workhorse of prep and great options can be had for $25. More importantly a well maintained inexpensive knife will blow away a poorly maintained expensive one.
I recommend the Victorinox fibrox 10" chef and mercer renaissance 8" chef as the first knife due to their comfort and high quality materials and construction for the price. The F Dick Eurocut honing steel is a must to keep these going at peak performance day-to-day and should be purchased along with the knife. For smaller jobs any paring knife will help take care of smaller jobs and the Victorinox 3.25" paring is inexpensive and works great. In the long run, all knives will dull and a proper sharpening will be required so a King 1K stone with some stropping compound will bring back a razor edge.
After learning how to properly use these tools you will develop preferences and can then start investing in other products to replace or fill in gaps. Of course these could be the last knives you ever buy because they are that good!
Tools:
Mercer Renaissance: www.knifemerchant.com/product...
Mercer Genesis: www.knifemerchant.com/product...
Mercer Millenia: www.knifemerchant.com/product...
Victorinox Fibrox: www.knifemerchant.com/product...
F Dick Eurocut: www.knifemerchant.com/product...
Good advice. Over 20 years ago I picked up an 8" food service chef's knife from Sams Club. Its form factor is very similar to the Victorinox. I treat that cheap knife well, always hand wash it, an always run it lightly through a manual "pull-type" sharpener every time I use it to prepare a meal. Two to 3 times a year I use my electric sharpener on it. It is razor sharp. I have friends who have high end knives but they don't maintain them. Their edges are significantly duller than my cheap knife. In fact, some are so dull that i would say they were dangerous. I'm not a pro-cook so edge retention is less of a big deal as my knife is being used to prepare dinner for 5, not 500. My knife is nothing fancy to look at but form follows function.
I think its great advice to buy a chef knife that will not break your budget and that you are not scared to learn sharpening and maintenance.
There is one thing I disagree. Ribbed honing rod create massive metal fatigue and reduce edge durability.
With daily maintenance on ribbed steel usually people go back to stone after one week.
I cook about once a week and a 56HRC knife lasts shaving sharp without any touch up for about 3 months. Cheap chinese VG 10 at 60 HRC lasted over 8 months shaving sharp without any touch up until I stopped counting swapped it for another knife.
At home I just hone on a 3-6k splash and go stone. A few alternating strokes edge leading is enough to bring it back shaving sharp.
If you want to use honing rods I think ceramic is the best option.
Building a set to me is the best advice. I have always preferred Japanese knives. Started with a Miyabi "chef knife", then a Shun Santoku, then back to Miyabi for a Nakiri, then a Tojiro utility knife that i love. Those 4 i had for quite a while and honestly they covered all my bases. Then added a Miyabi slicing knife and bread knife.
One thing I'd add is that for either a home cook or professional, having a nice pair of shears is a super useful tool to have.
Great point on the shears! Love having a nice pair at hand.
Agreed on developing a set. Adding as one goes along learning their preferences and needs.
I found an 8” Fibrox flexible boning knife at the thrift store yesterday for $4 yesterday 😳 I think it’s the same one you reviewed! It’ll be good as new after a spin on the King KDS 1000/6000. Great video. Thanks for all the content
I love my Vic boning knife! Use it as a utility knife/fillet/boning knife all the time!
Very informative, very helpful..
Thank you for posting for us newbies
Glad it was useful!
Man, you are a resource of interesting knowledge, I'm going to try out the mercer, thank you for the vid :)
Thank you for the comment and enjoy the knife!
Do you have a link to a stone you might recommend? Also I’m narrowed down to a Mercer renaissance series chef and petty style OR the Tojiro DP…thoughts for home use
I appreciate you asking!
Couple questions first:
1) What knives do you have now and are comfortable with?
2) Do you use a honing rod of some kind currently?
3) What is your budget for a sharpening stone/setup?
Rough guess is go with the Mercer and the Shapton Pro 1K.
www.chefknivestogo.com/shpro10.html
just get a fine/coarse oil stone, will last forever, Norton is the way to go. Its what we always used since culinary school, there is no better for a western knife, dont get sucked into the whetstone gang, they are better for eastern steel.....you probably wont be able to sharpen any better with them anyways.
More info on cutting board? And how to strop a chef knife?
The cutting board is a $40 target branded one we got from our wedding. It works totally fine so I haven’t upgraded.
As for stropping I have tons of videos on sharpening so just check a few of those out!
@@EngineersPerspective701 thanks!
Awww☹ but I want to pick up a wusthof ikon ☹
The ikon really is great, but so are the mercers!
What is the engineering argument for the renaissance over the genesis if they use the same steel at the same hardness?
IDK if there is an engineering argument. If you want a rounded spine and nicer looking handle then go for the renaissance. If you want a more comfortable handle then Genesis. You can get half bolster versions of the Genesis if you don't like the full version.