Don't Buy a Knife Set, Use These 3 Knives Instead | Gear Heads
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- čas přidán 29. 05. 2024
- Instead of wasting money on a set of mediocre knives (half of which you'll never use), you can create your own set of Test Kitchen all stars. Hannah and Lisa walk you through our top knife picks.
Buy the Mercer 8-Inch Chef's Knife: bit.ly/4c0tc2s
Buy the Victorinox Paring Knife: bit.ly/3V2Bfor
Buy the Mercer 10" Wide Bread Knife: bit.ly/3yyWnLl
Buy the Schmidt Bros. Knife Block: bit.ly/3x87drg
Buy the Design Trifecta Knife Block: bit.ly/4bGgea9
Read our full review: bit.ly/4aHjBMS
Buy our Kitchen Gear book: bit.ly/3V3RQbB
Follow Lisa on Instagram: / lisam_atk
Follow Hannah on Instagram: / hannah_crowley8
ABOUT US: The mission of America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) is to empower and inspire confidence, community, and creativity in the kitchen. Founded in 1992, the company is the leading multimedia cooking resource serving millions of fans with TV shows (America’s Test Kitchen, Cook's Country, and America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation), magazines (Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country), cookbooks, a podcast (Proof), FAST channels, short-form video series, and the ATK All-Access subscription for digital content. Based in a state-of-the-art 15,000-square-foot test kitchen in Boston’s Seaport District, ATK has earned the trust of home cooks and culinary experts alike thanks to its one-of-a-kind processes and best-in-class techniques. Fifty full-time (admittedly very meticulous) test cooks, editors, and product testers spend their days tweaking every variable to find the very best recipes, equipment, ingredients, and techniques. Learn more at www.americastestkitchen.com/.
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Rolled my own years ago thanks to these ladies and their partners in cri.. umm diligent coworkers. My kitchen looks like an episode of ATK recommends.
I haven't gone wrong with ATK recommended gear!
I purchased an empty block for $50 and over time purchased knives that we love, my 6” chef knife, my husband’s 8” chef knife, our long bread knife and our Santoku. Inexpensive paring knives and a good set of steak knives and sheers. Finally a sat that we USE.
Good to experiment with different formats. Though I have big hands , I’ve found a smaller 6 inch chefs knife to have better leverage and handling. Nikiri is a fantastic chopper. Rolling your own helps you find the best tools for your anatomy and style
I sharpen for a living and find alot of soft spots and air pockets in the mercer. I would go with victorinox.
Yes, I've found air pockets in 2 different Scanpan knives, one was a Damascus type.
I also sharpen knives for a living and 100% recommend Victorinox. Are they now saying that the Mercer is their recommended chef knife and no longer the Victorinox??
@@kennyhallam where you at?
@@mattnejmanowski631 I am in the Orlando Florida area. How about you?
Love my Santoku! I’ve had mine for over 20 years🎉 With professional knife sharpening every few years and honing in between, it stays sharp. Learned to wash/dry before hubby throws it in the dishwasher… Lol!
Now I just need to find a way to discourage my Wife from going to Preferred Chef parties where she drinks wine and buys expensive mediocre kitchen equipment.
Pyramid schemes are everywhere!
😂😂 drinking a little much might be the part of the problem. Preferred Chef has some good cookware same as other brands out there but building a home kitchen cookware, baking, knife set etc takes time and resources to gets what’s right for you.😊
@@phoenixr6811 Have her start a book club. Then she can hang out with her friends and drink wine without buying a bunch of crap you don't need.
MAI WAIFE
I will say Pampered Chef does have some good knives mine have been solid for 10+ years
Wow - brutal - but honest. DIY, save, and find the kitchen tools you need, get the ones you want (across all brands), and then constantly use them.
More for a single persons apt kitchen.
For storage, a canvas knife roll can be unrolled in a drawer or hung in a cabinet door.... and I roll it up when the grandchildren come visit - something you did not discuss. Most magnetic bars are also mounted beyond reach of little hands.
Knives I would add:
A larger chef's knife - 10 inches to complement the 8 incher.
Birds beak paring knife - even better than a straight knife for coring and other finicky tasks.
Longer boning knife - I use this to bone out entire chickens for stuffing, and to butterfly breast for schnitzel. Also useful to prep fish. And It can also double as a meat slicer.
Cleaver - I just feel more comfortable doing heavy chopping and butchering with this - I am always worried that I will ruin other blades.
Great video!
Oh okay now I'm getting a canvas knife roll. I say my apartment has a kitchenette instead of a kitchen. This will be great. THANK YOU!
I love these reviews.
That Victorinox paring knife is UNREAL. I can't believe how good they are. I've been using them for years and I might even use one more often than my Chef's knife at this point.
And they sharpen in my cheap little hand sharpener beautifully too.
I was lucky and pieced together my own set while I worked at a cutlery store that could do that. While I couldn't use the knives before I bought them, I was certainly able to view and touch them, draw conclusions and the like. Zwilling Henckels, Wustoff, Messermeister, Shun, Global and Forschner (now Victorinox) were mostly what we carried.
I still like my knives in my Henckels wood block. Outside of 10" offset bread knives not fitting perfectly, it makes storage and accessibility easy and convenient. It's not a requirement, but I tend to see decent empty blocks at thrift stores which are vastly cheaper than buying one (or a set of knives to get one).
The magnetic blade holders are alright, but they have to be wall mounted somewhere, and plenty of them have exposed magnets for maximum holding, but they can scratch your knives easily if you don't twist to release them.
Companies like Messermeister make some good quality blade guards that fit a multitude of knives. Similar in concept to the cardboard thing here, but more durable, washable and easier to put the knife into. They're great if you're throwing knives into a drawer as your storage, like I have to for my vegetable cleaver for instance.
I'm a huge Mercer fan and have their Nakiri, slicer, bread and paring knives. The budget pick for keeping most of them sharp (not including any wave edge knife like the bread knife) is the 5 piece diamond sharpening stone set for 18 bucks on Amazon. They are amazing for the price.
Cardboard knife cover...such a wonderful idea. I love this channel.
I used to be a professional chef and still have my old knife roll from those days but I almost never use most of those knives. I don't filet fish very often any more and never do any kind of meat butchering that calls for an actual butcher knife (the last time I used it was to crack a coconut I think).
I do everything with a chef's knife, paring knife, bread knife, carving knife, two good peelers and kitchen shears.
What kind of peelers do you use? Do you mean vegetable peelers or knives for peeling?
@@WavingWorld vegetable peelers. I use a straight and Y peeler, both with ceramic blades. I've had them for a long time and if they ever had brand names they have long been worn off.
There are a lot of peeling jobs where peelers are just easier and faster than a paring knife, for me at least.
I clicked the link ATK gave us for the Paring Knife on Amazon. Is it the Serrated Paring knife or the Straight Paring knife?
@@mastersplinter5966 No idea which they meant but serrated knives are usually bad except for bread knives.
@@KenS1267
What type of chef were you to say serrated knives are generally bad?
It's a pretty big ( and subjective) statement to make
My roll I have a 14cm/22cm and 27cm serrated blade and a 13cm at home
And they are not all just for bread
I bought Mercer knives, including 10" bread knife, their cheapest chef knife ($15), and their paring knives about 3 yrs. ago. All are still doing well and I am happy I didn't go with a set. I highly recommend Mercer brand for your starter knife set!
Literally saving this to my favorites playlist so I can build my kitchen properly when I move to my own place.
Gear Heads reviews always deliver and make sense. Wish they were around when we bought our Wusthoff block set 20 somethin` years ago b/c agree about the all-purpose blade not really needed.A large slicing knife is also nice to have for carving turkey and roast`s etc. We added a magnetic strip which is great.Keep up the good work ladies!
Loved this review. We did buy a knife set and hated it. Only kept 2 knives & the scissors. In our new home, I have a tiny kitchen with zero counter space. We installed a magnetic strip, out of necessity, but I have fallen in love with it.
Magnetic strip holders are great, just gotta make sure everyone knows to lead with the square edge so the edge isn't getting hit. The best part about sets is they come with a block lol
A few years ago, I put together my set of Victorinox - your recommendation at the time - and bought a set with a knife carrying bag. 8" chef, 10" carving, 10" serrated, 6" boning, paring, and steel. I added detachable shears and a Victorinox 6" chef/utility. Due to the size of my kitchen, I got a knife block - safest most compact.
I bought the electric knife sharpener you recommended and cutting boards both wood and plastic you recommend.
I'm very happy and although I use my chef, utility and pairing the most, it's great to have the others when needed.
I would add Don't Skimp on Cutting Boards!
Great episode I would include a tomato knife which could also be used for more than tomato's
I’ve used my bread knife to slice tomatoes for many years now. Nothing works better for me.
I agree a tomato knife is a good knife to add to the set in the end any knife can be substituted for another but a tomato knife makes for a good one to have as well
When did the mercer beat the victorinox chef knife?? How can it compete with the fibrox handle?
That’s what I came to say!
The Victorinox is still the top-rated knife, but the Mercer is almost as good and costs half the price. Looks like they're focusing on the top-rated "best buy" kit instead of absolute best for this video.
As @ThreeDee912 said, the Victorinox Fibrox Pro 8" is still ATK's favourite, but this video was supposed to be about "best, cheapest" and "around $60" for that core set of three knives, so Hannah talked about their Best Buy chef's knife - their highly recommended Mercer Culinary Millenia 8" (about $24). Unfortunately, she was holding the wrong highly recommended Mercer - the Culinary Renaissance 8". It was correctly identified in the graphic in the video, but at $56 dollars, that doesn't leave a lot of purchase room for even a paring knife let alone a bread knife and meet that "around $60" threshold.
Of the 12 chef's knives ATK tested, four were rated as "highly recommended". With the other three above, the fourth chef's knife is the Victorinox Classic 8".
I always love your reviews! I'm still a loyal fan of the Victorinox Fibrox chef's knife, too. The price point is a little higher now than when I first became a devotee, but at about $50-60 bucks, it's still a great buy. For me, the handle on the Victorinox sets it above all others.
Hey ATK! You're absolutely right about build your own. Also, back in '81, I graduated grade 8 as top student, and my grad present was a Swiss Army Knife (kids back then, even here in Ontario, had pockets full of stuff that would keep SWAT busy nowadays!😂) But the purchase came with a free Victorinox paring knife -- and it's still a kitchen workhorse 43 yrs later! I'd add a serrated paring knife (my go to -- and, apparently, Chef Alex Guarneschelli's), a fillet knife (it also works well carving poultry meat from the breast), and I use a $60CDN (in 1994) Columbia River 4" combo-blade camp-knife as my steak knife.
No truer words were ever spoken on home knives!!! I have worked in and around restaurants for 60 years, no never a chef, but I have seen, and learned, what a true knife master can do with a single chefs knife with pratice! An example was Chef Kim carving radish roses with his oversized chefs knife just choking up on the last inch of the point. Thank-you!
The Mercer 8" chef linked in the description is different from the on featured in the video.
Also, does it beat out the Victorinox 8" that I got on your recommendation? If so, dang. I love the Victorinox and it's been a workhorse that only needed occasional honing over the last few years.
The Victorinox still beats the Mercer in the ratings, but the price is about 2x as much. Both are still "highly recommended". Looks like they're focusing on value with a "best buy" kit in this video.
Stick with Victorinox, IMO.
Oh, not ditching the Victorinox any time soon. Definitely my knife of choice.
Yeah, they kind of goofed in the video. Of the 12 chef's knives they reviewed, ATK currently rated four as "highly recommended" - their favourite Victorinox Fibrox Pro 8", another Victorinox - the Classic 8", their "great heavier option" Mercer Culinary Renaissance 8", which appears in the video and their "best buy" Mercer Culinary Millenia 8" which is the one that was likely supposed to have been in the video and is the one linked in the video description.
When we first got married we bought an inexpensive knife set to get us started. It served its purpose but over 30 years we've upgraded here and there, and the old block was outgrown a long time ago. A couple of months ago we found a 20-slot Zwilling block at a thrift store that was nearly perfect for our collection - even our upgraded steak knives fit.
I bought and been using a universal knife block that had sort of these long tightly packed plastic bristles in the block that held the knives in place. I bought my knives individually as I needed them. After many years, I got rid of the block a while ago because with limited counter space, it was getting in the way. I use a magnet strip on the wall now and it like it much better. It frees up that counter space.
I watch all of your videos. This is far superior to anything you’ve put out in the last few months.
Great job!
About 6 months ago I volunteered at a Soup Kitchen on a Wednesday afternoon & on the first day realised that I needed to bring my own knives rather than use the knives provided.
So my "kit" now comprises exactly what you've suggested!
I have a Scanpan Cooks knife, 2 X 15cm utility knives - a Baccarat & a Victorinox for different uses, a 20cm Mundial carving knife & finally a Baccarat paring knife.
All of these have come from Op (Thrift) shops at minimal cost.
I've also picked up a Mundial sharpening steel, a diamond hone & a ceramic hone.
It's given me so much fun & I have a set sharper than I ever imagined.
A great way to build a set & learn to look after your knives.
Awesome set. Bu I’d like to suggest that you look at Outdoors55 recent (this year) CZcams video on sharpening steels. They don’t appear to do what people claim they do. Better off with a 400-ish grit plated diamond sharpening stone and a good-quality piece of leather with a 6 micron diamond stripping compound.
About 17 years ago, I graduated from college and needed a bunch of kitchen gear. I purchased Farberware knife set (which looks basically like the generic set in the first part of the ATK video). Honestly, I never found anything wrong with them. 17 years later, I'm still using most of those knives. I'm an everyday home cook and far from an expert chef.
I purchased a Victorinox chef's knife a few years back, which was ATK's recommendation at the time.
Recently, I purchased a set of Misen knives as a splurge. And also a cheapo Kiwi Nakiri knife (something like $12 for a pair).
For vegetables, I reach for the $6 Nakiri. For basically everything else, I alternate between my Farberware, Victorinox, and Misen knives. I've been happy with all of them.
If I had to do it all over again, I would probably buy the same Farberware knife set.
(On another note, I never really use a paring knife. I have a couple of them from the knife sets I mentioned. Am I the only one who doesn't use paring knives? 😅)
I recently bought a cheap chinese cleaver, and it’s quickly become my most used knife.
Makes it so much easier to move things from the cutting board to a pan or bowl.
I found that the knife I use 90% of the time is an Asian style vegetable knife it’s like a mini cleaver. My only problem is once my wife and son tried it they always grab it first. I find it more comfortable than the standard chef knife.
The only other thing I'd really want in this utilitarian set is a good pair of kitchen shears. Over the years, they've become an absolutely invaluable part of my kit that I reach for way more often that I would have ever imagined.
True, they're so useful!
IMHO: Back in the day, I worked food service in two different US states: neither would allow knife blocks or slotted storage due to tendency to collect contaminants and difficulty in cleaning. They recommended magnet strips. At my rental apartment I fastened two magnet strips back-to-back then mounted them to the freezer door exterior. It holds 8 prep knives, no hassle.
Great idea, I'm going to steal this one!
My most commonly used knife is a six inch chef's knife. I just find the size more manageble for the portions I make, cooking for one or two people. Which is a topic more cooking shows would cover. Most seem to assume a meal is always for four or more people. Also, there are drawer organizers for knives, which weren't mentioned. That's where I keep all the ones I rarely use.
I use all the knives in the Wusthof knife set I received as a gift 20 years ago, plus a few more I've acquired over the years. I've never had an issue with their size, usefulness for their intended purpose, or holding an edge.
My advice would be "you get what you pay for."
I have a bread knife that was a gift from my daughter, purchased in an Amish knife shop in Lancaster, PA. It cuts easily through soft loaves like croissants without crushing them, as well as slicing the crustiest artisan loaves and bagels like butter. My paring knife is about 60 years old and probably cost about 10 cents when new. It is thin and needs frequent honing, but cuts straight and true, like a razor blade, through the most tough skinned tomatoes without smushing them. I also use it to slice through tougher things with ease like a bunch of celery. My chef knives are a pair I inherited, and are great for most things, including cutting through the root ends of melons, etc. but I need one for chopping herbs and will buy your recommended one. The only thing I need now is a decent set of steak knives. Have you ever reviewed those?
20 years ago I tried Victorinox. That's all I use now. And, the price is right.
The Victorinox chef's knife was ATKs best bargain, at one time.
I bought all my knives separately, and find I use the utility knife more than half the time. It's a beloved Henckel and is useful for almost everything.
henckel sell a block set for 125 bucks
I too use a utility knife for almost everything! I only resort to a chef's knife if I need to power through something really thick or dense. Now that I've heard about petty knives, though, I definitely need to shop for one of those instead, because I've spent a lot of years wishing for the same form factor but a longer blade.
I always enjoy this! Is there a way a review can be done on steak knives? Thank you so much!❤
That'd be great. I'm totally interested in that!
They've reviewed steak knives. However, it's been a few years and in previous reviews, ATK downgraded and then did not include serrated steak knives in the last review - only smooth-bladed knives - because they felt the serrated knives mangled the meat too much. Interest from commenters on ATK's steak knife review web page concerning the inclusion of serrated knives in the next review was noted by the ATK Reviews team and they said they'd likely include them in the next review. A new testing would be nice as it's been over a decade since the last one.
My two most used knives are my Shun 8" Santoku and my Shun 3.5" paring knife. I like the the sharper angle and thinner blade of the Japanese brand. Next most used is my Shun 8" Chef's knife (which I usually use when I'm either chopping herbs or the Santoku is dirty.) And I have a Don brand and a Wustoff brand chef's knife also, which I use for heavier tasks, like cutting through the cartilage of chicken joints or that butternut squash. Less often used are my long meat/bread knife, which is serrated, a "tomato" knife, which is about 4.5" and serrated, my 6" utility knife, and a couple 4-4.5" paring knives, and a 3" sheep's foot flat paring knife. And I have a pair of Shun scissors and honing steel that came with the set, and which I use all the time. They're stored in a generic knife block I bought on Amazon (which seemed to have enough slots). I hand wash them, hand dry, then air dry, and once they're fully dry, I hone them and put them back in the block. I know exactly where every knife lives in the block, so handle sameness isn't an issue for me. And I have one rather wide slot left unused - considering either a nakiri or a cleaver. I'd probably use the nakiri more often, but nothing beats a cleaver when you need it. But basically I use every single knife in my block, even if only occasionally. The very least used, as a matter of fact, are the steak knives at the bottom of the block.
So yes, I encourage you to custom build your knife set. Start with what you use most and build from there. But I think there's a lot more to it than is shown here. Trying different knives is important. They have different weights, different shapes, different feels to them. And depending on how you cook, you may appreciate one style over another. For instance, the Santoku is much more useful to me than a bread knife. I bought a set because it was on closeout when Bed Bath and Beyond went under, but it was a small set and I've built it up over time. Now, except for that blank spot, I have just about everything I need.
Oh - and when researching the knife block purchase on Amazon, I made sure to get one that accommodated the length of my longest knife - the serrated meat/bread knife. They do make them.
Loved your comments about storage tips.
I love the idea of building your own set, I have been doing that for the past decade and have really enjoyed it
Dexter/Victorinox have served me well for many years........individually, not sets.
Love my Victorinox boning and breaking knives. TBH tho... I only use them when I'm breaking down primals.
I use my Sam's Club restaurant knives for everything else. Inexpensive, easy to sharpen, razor sharp, and many are dishwasher safe
@@sociopathmercenary yeah I especially like their semi-hard, :), boning knife.
A number of years ago, my father received a knife set from a casino in Las Vegas and brought it back to Florida. The knives were crap, the tine of the handle broke off once they were out of the packaging. Talk about cheap! I've gotten the Cuisinart knives and have been happy with them.
Tojiro DP folks. Affordable, durable, excellent fit and finish. Step up to Japanese steel while avoiding the chipping of a Shun or the wedging of a Miyabi. From there, oh so many options. Yoshimi Kato, Yu Kurosaki, Mazaki, Fujiwara, Shibata, Takeda, Matsubara, Yoshikane, and so many more. A good knife can be cheap, a great knife costs money. But it will make your cooking better.
Very useful information.
Thank you!
For 20 bucks I bought the chef knife from The binging with babish line of tools and I love it. I've only had to sharpen it once, it is super comfortable compared to any other chef knife I've owned. If you haven't seen his video describing the design check it out and see if it would work good for you there's a rounded teardrop shaped handle and so it fits your palm very well and it passed the paper test beautifully
I generally have 5 knives that I use - chefs, bread, paring, boning, slicer. As you mentioned, the ones that I use probably 90% of the time are the first three in the list. All are, at least, one time top ATK recommended knives (the budget options) other than my paring knife which, admittedly, kind of sucks. My chefs knife is the Victorinox that won a few times in a row and is still working really well. I think I'll upgrade my paring knife now as, for the price, it sounds like it will definitely be worth it.
I have the same (plus a tomato knife that I mostly use for small breads that don't need a long bread knife). Optimal set of knives :)
i have pretty much this set. I got a knive drawer insert for storage. Ive also added 4 paring knives to use as table knives when needed. and of course kitchen shears.
Good info. Thanks for talking about blocks. It wasn't really mentioned, but knife blocks are also good for looking good on the counter. Makes you look fancier! 😁
We love Mercer knives. The price is great especially when buying in volume, they are NSF certified, and despite the highly discouraged regular washings they get in a commercial sanitizer, they rarely need sharpening. They may not be the “best” but they certainly are a good value.
I absolutely adore my Schmidt Bros magnetic block -- hugely recommend
I love my two mothers so much! It's hard to find something affordable where i live, normally it costs 6 times the price plus taxes from my country. But i try to follow ATK recommendations when i shop for similar things and it saves me a lot of money cuz i don't have to buy it twice.
Have had the same stake knife set for 40 years. And my grandmas paring knife that must be 60 years old. They still work great and are all i need. In the silverware draw.
I word as a professional Chef for years. You will see lots of fancy knives out there. but the guy to really do all the work, your prep cooks and line cooks and most Sou Chefs that I have worked with use Victorinox/Forstner. they usually come in 2 handle styles, either Rosewood or the Fibrox plastic non-slip handle, I prefer the plastic handle myself. if it's wet, or juicy or fatty, the non-slip handle is the way to go. they and mid-range in price. they come with their own plastic sleaves for storage. but the sleave won't last a long time, I prefer a cloth or canvas knife roll myself.
I would recommend this for a beginning set: (1) 10-inch, and (1) 8-inch Chef knives, (1) 6-inch utility knife (sometimes called a sandwich knife), (1) hollow edge Santoku (the hollow reduces vegetables from sticking to the blade), 2 - 3 paring knives, and (1) serrated bread knife.
Most other knives you could take or leave. I like having multiples of those listed for a couple of reasons: 1. it's sometimes easier to grab another knife than to clean one to reuse it for something else. 2. Having a duplicate be a cheap knife so if you have something that may be hard on the blade, use the cheap one.
Amen. I have only 3 knives I picked individually, they are my tried & true.
I have in drawer blocks and store my knives blade side up. This works for me because I don’t have anyone else using knives in the kitchen, I’m aware this would not be safe in a kitchen where children are also grabbing knives. I did purchase my knives one by one, and love the cheap and easily replaceable paring knives. The Victorinox bread knife has served me well for about 10 years.
Good to know! Thank you! ❤
Awesome vid and recommendations
Love these recs, and will add that the satisfying soft KTHUNK of my magnetic walnut knife bar (wusthof but the recommended one is cheaper) is one of the best simple pleasures of my kitchen.
Might be a weird way to store knives, but I bought a bunch of neodymium bar magnets and arranged them on my fridge so that you could slap your knives on the door and it would be held by a magnet at the tip and base of the blade. That, and some magnets with wire hooks, and I have most large utensils stuck on my fridge out of the way.
I got a thin and sharp veg cleaver (skip the serrated knife) that does like 90% of the work, a heavier, longer cleaver for meat slabs (think Christmas ham) and hacking through bone (and chocolate), a tourne knife I use for paring and peeling work, and a semi-flexible utility-sized knife for de-boning and other work too delicate for cleavers. Maybe $60 total, sure enough. And as for shears, I had a pair so worn it couldn't cut paper so when I replaced it, I just got straight-up heavy-duty poultry shears. Wasn't pricy and will get open anything.
Showing this to pushy in-laws who think a set looks better and never sharpen the lame knives they have.
Oh, gravy, the unsharpened cheap knives!! And those kind can never get sharp enough.
Its bizarre that there are things we do regularly, without fail, that improve our lives....but getting our knives sharpened or sharpening them ourselves isn't even considered.
I rarely use a paring knife, but use a 5.5-6in utility very often. Don't bake bread or buy large loaves often, so don't need the bread knife.
An 8-9inch chef, 5.5-6inch utility, 7inch boning/fillet, and quality shears serve me best
Fewer knives also mean better maintenance. More use will lead you noticing when they are dull and giving them more attention with the honing rod and periodic sharpening. 20 knives are overhelming to maintain but 3 knives used daily will get the right attention
My mix and match set includes a chef knife, paring knife, cleaver, boning, and 10” bread knife. I store them on a magnetic strip mounted to one of my walls.
my zwilling henckel block set comes with the three you recommend, shears and sharpener. it's great and relatively cheap for henckels
Funny, the winners look just like the knives I used for years as a professional cook. You nailed it. I also like a carbon steel boning knife which I use all the time.
In spite of all the normal precautions, I nearly took the tip of my finger off with that very same Mercer bread knife, which I adore, but use with extra caution.
I will second that Mercer knives come from the factory extremely sharp and home chefs might be a little caught off guard.
I bought a 15 piece Farberware knife set for only $10. So worth it.
I've been using that paring knife nearly every day for thirty years! 👍
Thank you.
Great choices.I preferred the offset Mercer to the standard Mercer, but still an awesome value.
If you really want a knife block - go to a flea market. THere you can generally pick up all sorts of things on the cheap - I once bought an 8 quart ALL clad Stock Pot for $5 - it was as dirty as it comes but a little oven cleaner and a hose made it look brand new (YOU can do this with Stainless Steel but Not Aluminum- for Aluminum there is a product called "CARBON OFF" that works similarly although it is expensive)
Dang, was really hoping for a cleaver recommendation but this works too. Thanks for the info!
We bought a 9pce Henkel block at Sears for like 100$ on special back in the day. We use pretty much everything on the regular. The fact that the wife and I both cook, we have split the block 50/50. Admitedly though, next knives set will be a customized set rather than a block.
I need that paring knife!!! My sister stole mine. I've become really good at manipulating a large blade for meticulous cuttings though! Still not ideal.
Thank You for your testings!
I can't recommend a magnetic knife strip enough. I want my knives out and accessible without having to rummage through drawers, and a knife block is just a huge waste of counter space. Getting my knives off the countertop and up on the side of the cupboard is just a huge improvement. Not just knives, since getting it my shears, microplane, and steel measuring spoons have migrated out of the drawers.
I do most of my cooking with the core three knives, but I also have a smaller 4.5" light "deba-inspired" utility knife for smaller tasks where the 8" chef's knife feels oversized and a paring knife too flimsy and straight edged, like dicing small onions or shallots, mincing anchovies or capers.
I bought a separate knife block that I had checked to verify that it would hold my knife collection. For me, a knife block is the most convenient and centralized way to hold knives. I don't have any wall space for a strip, and I don't want to search through a drawer to find the exact knife I'm looking for. Instead, I keep my knives in a particular order in the knife block, and the one I want is always to hand.
for my chef's knife I am using a victorinox 8" chef's knife. but I got lucky because my model was on sale with a wood handle for around $35 - $40. it is the highest quality kitchen tool I own and I actually feel joy every time I use it because it makes my work easy. the only work it requires is I take a bit of extra time to clean it fairly quickly after using it and trying to dry off the blade (even before I eat the meal it was used to prepare). I *really* have to upgrade my paring knife however. currently I don't own a serrated knife but have a kind of inexpensive knife with holes in it that works pretty well with crusty type bread. I don't know if the holes help or just that the blade is on the thicker side makes a difference. I usually buy sliced bread or rolls but maybe if I get into bread baking, the serrated knife would be more of a priority.
I'll just add that I really regularly see empty knife blocks going for a few dollars at thrift stores. You might need to hunt for a bit, but if you've got relatively normal shaped knives, it's not hard to find a good one.
I love my Victornox 8" chef's knife
The 3 workhorses in my kitchen are my French chef's knife, 3" paring knife serrated on both sides, and to a lesser degree, the bread knife. I hardly ever use another knife, and I cook from scratch every day.
Eh, I'm not persuaded. I have a nice (for me) Wusthof knife block I've been using for over 15 years now. I like more heft in my paring knives since I use them for lots of little tasks I don't want to use a pocket knife for and the Wusthof has that. I also like the steak knives that came with the set, nice for steak dinners at home. I get a honing steel to keep blades sharp and I end up using my small Santoku from the block more than the chef's knife for non-chicken work. The bread knife is short but if I have weird bread for some reason, I turn the bread on it's side to cut it.
In my 20s (1985) I loved wooden block knife sets! ✅
Then, in my 40s (2003) I started using common sense!
I noticed that all of those knives in my set, was looking & becoming
germy/nasty.
Gross! Damp/wet
wood, being stored in a damp slit of the wood block.
I started using a very sharp knife 🔪 point to clean where the blade & wood handle joined each other.
I'd make sure I slowly poured BLEACH over that area.
Also, I NEVER used that block of wood, &
NEVER purchased another wooden handled knife again!
I'm proud to say that I own THAT bread knife, & I also purchased one for my son & his family. ❤
As of almost two years ago, I purchased that wonderful paring knife!
I use those two knives
90% of the time. Love
them both! ❤ 😃 👍
You don't bleach wood. It damages it. Regular soap is fine. Wood is naturally antimicrobial.
Dry your knives after use.
Worst comes to worst you sand it and re-oil it.
I enjoyed that they seem honest about these knives sets ,
I have several sets I wouldn’t have bought if I knew how useless they were and I felt ripped off by having these sets just because of uselessness of the add on knives they were pared with.
I could not agree more!
I lucked into a Ginsu for 2 bucks at Goodwill a long time ago. Still the best carving knife, works fine on bread too. 2 bucks
Victorinox must be pissed and embarrassed. First time in how many decades they haven’t won your chef’s knife competition?
I own the 6” and 8”, and am not looking to upgrade my Vics anytime soon.
They used budget for criteria in this review. Victorinox would be their next budget step in recommendations. I tried both in the Restaurant Supply store and chose Mercer Millenia for better rubberized grip and half the costs. My kitchen shears "Material, The Good Shears" costs more than every blade in my block.
Everyone I know who uses a Fibrox chef's knife even once becomes a convert. Its still an amazing knife.
@@jstaffordii but isn’t the vitorinox like 35 and the one they recommended was 50 something
@@SingleBladedRonin the recommended the Mercer Millenia series in the video description section they're $20 but showed the Mercer forged series in the video that yes are $50 and Victorinox Fibrox are $47 now.
Pissed and embarrassed? The Victorinox Swiss Army Fibrox Pro 8" is still ATK's winning chef's knife. The Mercer Culinary Renaissance 8" Forged knife in the video is their "Great Heavier Option" and was a close second to the winning Victorinox. There's another Mercer - the Culinary Millenia 8" - linked in the video description and it's their Best Buy. These three, together with a second Victorinox Swiss Army Classic 8" were all highly recommended by ATK in their last review of chef's knives which was last updated in November 2023.
for me, in the kitchen, it's about having one good bread knife, one good chef's knife, one good pairing knife, one good smaller Santoku and a Japanese or Chinese Cleaver. Unless you're planning on butchering meat or filetting fish, that's all you need except for your eating knives like butter and steak
Some of the best knives out there are Old Hickory and Chuppa (USA made). Can be hard to find the latter except as NOS or used.
I can't understand why people think "oh, if it's sold as a set, that must be great"
Like how do you get to that conclusion, does one not think hmmm maybe they're trying to upsell consumers?
I have a block. There’s a single knife in it I don’t use…one of those weird curved paring knives. It may not have the best specimen of everything, but it’s serviceable. I do have a separating boning knife and shears though
I bought a nice empty block and filled it with my family heirlooms and then selected knives I would actually use from thrift stores.
I also never liked knife blocks because they take up so much room on your counter. I'd rather have the prep space. When I discovered magnetic knife strips, I never looked back.
I do love America's Test Kitchen
❤
The 14 cm IKEA VÖRDA is the perfect knife. Light and flexible. Big enough for most tasks. Very cheep. I have two of them and will get two more. You always need multiple knives between meals. Throw them in the dishwasher and get a nice sharpener to bring them back to perfect edge every few washes. Done and done.
You don't need multiple knives. All you need to do is handwash the one after each use - which literally takes 5 seconds - and then you only need to sharpen once every few months. You're making life difficult for yourself by abusing multiple knives as if they're disposible. Overconsumption in a nutshell.
Agree!
I use my Nakiri and my swivel peeler more than my paring knife, so I would definitely make my own set of knives (as ( did). I also waited and got good knives on sale.
The next knife I got was a slicer.