Best kitchen knife set for beginners

I'm forcing myself to enjoy cooking, because I have always hated it. I've accumulated a crap load of cookbooks, and have recently purchased the Complete Book of Knife Skills. Searching on the internet is hit and miss with anything now days. After maybe 5 minutes of "research" on kitchen knifes, your realize most of the "reviews" you read are horribly misinformed, and are in the process of misinforming an already alarmingly misinformed society... Misinformed, there, I got one more in. So, I thought I would bring my question to you people. You gentlemen seem like you might know about blades.

From what I've gathered is that the Victorinox Fibrox 8 piece seems like a decent place to start. It won't break the bank, or my heart if I screw it up attempting to sharpen it.

JA Henkels makes a nice kitchen set for around $60 (USD). Carbon steel and they hone up nicely.

I hope you will be able to begin enjoying cooking!

I'm not an expert in knives by any means, but since I started playing with straight razors and had a bunch of hones it was pretty natural to expand their use to my kitchen knives and then get some better knives too.

I think what's most important for a knife is to be sharp and I think most knives on the market nowadays can be made quite sharp. The next thing for a knife is staying sharp. Any knife will dull with use so this is a matter of a degree.

Most mass produced knives for home use are of relatively soft steel so they're relatively easy to resharpen and maintain by the user. I don't think Victorinox is special in this regard. I have an inexpensive knife from them and I thought it was just a regular western style/performance knife.
Generally forged knives tend to be better than stamped ones (we're still talking mass production).

Since I enjoy cooking, I on occasion join in at my friends' homes and I can tell you that everyone's knives are quite dull -even the better than average knives. It's so bad that sometimes I've brought a couple of hones with me, but that's proven as a rather ineffective short term solution - in no time they dull them again by being careless/lazy, for example cutting on a plate.
Not a big deal if you'd hone your knife back to sharpness, but it seems that people who do that wouldn't abuse the knife either, to start with :)

My own experience with knives is fairly general. My first knives that I bought were a cheap set with a block from amazon - I think it was Farberware, nothing exciting but I believe they were forged so they were ok. I didn't really sharpen them so when they dulled I got other random knives. I think I had the most success with Global and their sharpener. The Globals are westernized japanese knives a bit harder than the typical western stuff but not day and night difference. They have a bit smaller bevel angle too, that's why I got their sharpener, and I think the main difference may have been that because they are relatively more expensive I was more careful with them and also maintained them better by not letting them go too dull before I resharpen them.

For me things changed when I began to sharpen my knives with my razor hones. It was just for fun but I quickly realized that the knives are much softer than the razors so honing them to 1000 grit level is optimal for most.

I also got a few Shun knives and their VG10 steel is heat treated to noticeably higher hardness than any of my previous knives and the powdered SG2 in the kaji/fuji lines is even harder in my experience. The Shuns are also somewhat westernized in that their blade profiles have more curvature than typical japanese knives.
I haven't yet ventured into carbon steel knives territory or a really traditional japanese knives but I know sooner or later I will most likely dip my toes ;)

I certainly enjoy my Shun Kajis and Fujis a lot but even my old amazon knives are a real pleasure to use compared to any of my friends' knives (Mac, Global, higher end Henckels, Wusthof etc.) just because I keep them sharp.

So, I wouldn't worry too much about the Victorinox you're looking at. The chances are it's a good knife, may be you could find something slightly better for the same price, or something comparable for a little less, may be not. Either way as long as you keep it sharp I think you'll be happy with it and with time you could try something else if you feel like it :)

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Originally Posted by criswilson10

JA Henkels makes a nice kitchen set for around $60 (USD). Carbon steel and they hone up nicely.

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This is quite interesting! Do you have a link to it? I was under the impression that virtually all knives on the market that are targeting the home user are stainless steel because most people wouldn't want to deal with the maintenance of a carbon steel blade. If it's a carbon steel I'd buy it just to satisfy my curiosity how it compares to my other knives.

I took on a second residence for a couple of years here recently. I didn’t want to go all hog wild and buy extra everything, only to come back and now have double everything. So when it came to a kitchen knife, I grabbed an old blade that I never use anymore having got a set of Shuns. It was the very brand knife you think would be a good start, the Fibrox. I figured I’d see if it was enough for me. I mean I love cooking, and did so 6 days a week, so when I grabbed the lone 6,” I admit I thought it’d be aided eventually with some new steel.

Two years on and I never needed another knife. I mean sure, it might have been nice to have had an 8 or 10” chefs knife now and again I guess, but I never recall pining for one.

That’s all to say that an 8 blade set of Fibrox would be fine. But what might be better is a really stellar 6” chefs knife. I’ve discovered that I can pretty much do everything I need with that one blade.

Good luck!,

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Originally Posted by gugi

This is quite interesting! Do you have a link to it? I was under the impression that virtually all knives on the market that are targeting the home user are stainless steel because most people wouldn't want to deal with the maintenance of a carbon steel blade. If it's a carbon steel I'd buy it just to satisfy my curiosity how it compares to my other knives.

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Get a white or blue steel Japanese! Oh yeah! ;)

I bought my Wife a set of Hinkels two Christmas's ago. They are ok but not great knives. For a beginner, I'd say they are just fine. The ones I bought are Stainless. My wife is dangerous with a knife, so I didn't want to get her a great set. Saved me a few bucks and she was happy. Then I showed her that I have Henkel razors. Then she thought she really had something special.

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Originally Posted by earcutter

Get a white or blue steel Japanese! Oh yeah! ;)

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I know! Those should be able to handle even the escher and nakayama :)
My current thinking is that when I get there I'll probably skip on san mai cladding and have the patina look :)

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Originally Posted by gugi

I know! Those should be able to handle even the escher and nakayama :)
My current thinking is that when I get there I'll probably skip on san mai cladding and have the patina look :)

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https://japanesechefsknife.com/collections/carbon-steel - make sure you use the available filter. You’re welcome! Lol.

OP. To Gigi’s point, sharp is important. Dearly so. If I wasn’t a sharp fanatic, one blade would not have worked for me.

Now I love sharpening my blades and today went nuts on one. 8K nuts. But again, Gigi is right, 1K is more than enough. I recommend diamond stones. DMT’s specifically. They are fast, and easy - but there is NO shame in an electric sharpener if that’s the extent of your wanting to hone.

A dull knife is useless and makes cooking a chore. Not to mention that they are way more dangerous than a sharp knife.

I picked up a carbon (blue steel #2? I believe?) Gyuto (kitchen knife) recently. It on expensive side (125$) but I have been enjoying it and cooking a bit more. Will be expanding to other knives eventually to replace the cheap ones. As for sharpening I learned to sharpen knives a bit on cheap ones (don't go past 1k for these). Then on my gyuoto I will go to 5k ish (Jnat in the mail that is around 4-6k I will use) although it hasn't been needed to be sharpened yet. I do stropping strokes on the jnat when it needs touch up.