anyone know anything about kitchen knives?

[Facetious]

this is a long shot but my folks are looking to spend 300 or so on knives, including steak knives. the thing is, the knife sets all have little 4 inch knives that we have no clue wtf to do with. any thoughts on brands, knives to get, etc?

[Adman]

is it a pearing knife? used to carve and peel vegetables?

[Subjugation]

What kind of knives do you need? I mean...you mentioned steak knives. Are you looking for JUST a set of steak knives? Or are you looking for knives to prep your food with---AND a set of steak knives?

If I were to pick about 4 knives that everyone should have:

1. A chefs knife. I prefer 10" but others find the 8" to be easier to use.
2. A serrated bread knife. This knife is so useful, everyone should have one. Obviously by it's name, it's good to cut loaves of bread with. But it's also perfect for prepping certain types of vegetables, like tomatoes and onions.
3. A fillet knife. Fillet knives are only worth buying if you do a lot of your own meat prep, instead of getting your butcher to do it all. Fillet knives are helpful for skinning fish, obviously, but they also double as a boning knife for chicken.
4. A paring knife. Super handy tool for all kinds of detail oriented projects, like peeling fruit. I'm guessing this is that 4 inch knife that you have no idea what to do with.
5. A sharpening steel.

I'd buy them all individually. You can get a couple high-end ones and a couple medium-affordable ones, and the steak knives for under $300, I think. Lemme know more specifically what your needs are and I'll recommend some brands and links to some prices, so we can do the math.

[kthx]

I saw this informercial on TV the other night about knives.. Apparently if you call RonCo right now, you buy 4 knives, and get 5 knives free. This makes RonCo the only professional kitchen knife comapany to go undefeated in the knife award ceremony while giving away every set 4:5.

[Troll King]

Make sure the blade goes all the way through the handle and not only half way. A full-length blade gives better balance which causes less strain for your hand. Like Sub said, remember to get a sharpening steel, as dull kitchen knives are actually more dangerous than sharp ones. Don't forget a cutting board as well.

[project dragon]

Go for a cleaver! get a cleaver!

[Jeansi]

Best price/quality that I've come across. GLOBAL by a japanese manufacturer called Yoshikin. They're pretty famous all over the world if I'm not mistaken.

http://www.yoshikin.co.jp/w/index.html

We have a 24 cm cooking knife at home, but I heard the 18 and 20 cm ones are good too. If you're not into making huge amounts of food at the time, or are just inexperienced with knifes, the shorter blade might be better because it's easier to handle.

Globals flexible filet knife (edit: apparentely called swedish filet in english) isn't very good, I'd recommend the victorinox one if you want one in your set.

300 isn't that much if you want a whole set of knives by the way, maybe you should settle with a few knives now and get the rest later when you can afford them. Good knives last a lifetime so it's not a bad investment.

[Fluffz]

300 is too much for a non professional cook. if you realy want to spend so much money buy single knives, either ceramic which may break if you dont watch after them or forged/folded knives. with that much money to spend go to a cook supplier shop and not to ikea and ask them what they have.

[404 Not Found]

There is always the Ginsu

[Zerzera]

I always go for a forged full tang Santoku

EDIT: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/a...itchen-Knives/

[LoGGi!]

Victorinox is the brand I prefer because they make very stable high quality knives. I have a 24cm and a 18 cm cheffs knife, a 32cm fillet knife (bendable) a 8 and a 12 cm paring knife, a 25 cm bread knife and a 20 cm santoku knife by the brand satake. I payed about 350€ for all of them I think but it's well worth it for me because I'm studying to become a restaurant cheff. 1 more year and I'm done rawr!

[Da1andonly]

I seem to be the only one who's not aware of how long nor what brand my kitchen knives are :P

[DJSlayer]

They're sharp, they cut ... isn't that enough?!? -_-

[Facetious]

Yeah, knives for food prep as well as steak knives. I was looking at this: http://www.amazon.com/Henckels-Gourm...0107604&sr=8-2

Nobody here does any detail-oriented cooking, that's for sure, so we don't really need the paring knife, but it seems that this is a decent deal compared to getting the knives individually. Mainly, my problem is I have no way of figuring out which brands are good, or, hell, what the difference is even with the product lines within this Henckels brand. They've got Gourmet, Cuisine, Four Star, Pro, Signature, Select, Ultra Grande Primo 6, etc. One thing I don't want to do is pay for the name brand itself (but not the quality typically associated with it) or the way the knives look.

[Rudy]

When I finished school, I sold knives over the Summer. The brand was called CUTCO. The product is made in the States (I forget where), but all the work was done through networking. You can't buy it at stores. Anyway, I retained some of the sample merch when I left. My mother uses these knives all the time because they are the fucking shit. If you can hook up with a sales rep, do it. The handles are made of the same shit as hockey pucks. The rivets are made of the same alloy they use in fighter jets, and the blades are flexible, but sharp as all fuck.