Question for chefs

This is a bit like how long is a piece of string but I will try to answer it for you.

First off is what to do you need?
You need a chef's knife (10" is the size I would recommend but YMMV). After that a paring knife. If you work with bread then a bread knife is very handy. I also find a 7" boning knife to be a very good all round tool for precision work.
You will also need a good sharpening steel.

Design?
Broadly speaking there are three main basic chef knife designs. German, French and Japanese.
German Chef's knives have wider bellies and a more pronounced curve in the edge. Without going into all the ergonomics this makes them easier to use and less likely for you to cut yourself.
French and Japanese knives are narrower and more efficient cutting tools, but require more care and skill in handling.

Steel.
Carbon steel leaves stainless for dead when it comes to knife performance. Problem is that is if you're not using and inspecting the knife daily it will rust at the first opportunity.
"Solingen" mix Stainless Steel. Has good cleanliness. Becomes blunt fairly easily but is easy to hone and sharpen.
Japanese high performance steels (eg VG-10). Are significantly harder than the standard Solingen alloy. This means you can have a thinner knife that will retain its edge for a very long time. They are a complete bitch to sharpen by hand and are also more brittle and more likely to snap when (not if) you drop one.

For a home user I recommend using a German design knife because it is easier to use, more robust and needs less special attention. I use French CS knives at work and they'll take fingers off the unwary at the first opportunity.

PS When I am using the term "German Knife" I am referring to the school of design, not the origin of a particular manufacturer.

Other factors you may want to include things like ergonomics - how it feels in your hand. We're all individuals.

German style makers that I think offer good knives:
Wusthof
Henckels
F Dick
Scanpan
Solicut
Dexter Russel (Premier range)
Victorinox (Professional range)

Some of these makers offer a wide range of knives, but you need to be looking for the fully forged knives.

I'm not a pro chef but I grew up in professional kitchens. I have a wusthof paring knife I bought 15 years ago that's my daily driver. Best knife purchase I ever made. I have a couple of decent Henckles that I enjoy as well but I've come to enjoy the Cutco stuff these days. It's relatively inexpensive and seems to handle all kinds of abuse from my wife (she bought some from a coworkers son who was selling it 4 summers ago when he was in college). It seems to be the Timex of Kitchen gear. Priced reasonably and has stood up to abuse at home. Don't know how it would fare in a pro kitchen though...

I'll probably go with a thee knife set, chef, pairing and bread and a sharpening steel so I guess technically set of four. Still have to wait for the next payday or two. Also as far as a cutting board goes is wood prefered over glass?i always feel like glass would dull a blade faster or am I totally wrong on that?

-dan-

You definitely don't want glass. Wood or plastic. With plastic you can colour code them and keep them separate. I have two wooden boards, one for bread and veggies and one for veggies and cooked meat. I have a blue plastic one for chicken, a white plastic one for pork and a red plastic one for beef (raw on those meats). I also have a gargantuan 16x24" white board that gets used when I make sausage and is sterilized before and after use. My wife uses it to roll out pie dough from time to time but she follows the rules and sterilizes it before and after use as well.

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Originally Posted by Maxi

I prefer the Wustoff's. During my time in kitchens I used Mac's and Globals as well, but the comfort of the Wustoff 10" Chef knife kept me coming back to it as my standard. Since many of the knife companies are comparable, I suggest you hold the knife in your hand and mimmic a chopping motion. Move it around, wiggle it, etc. A good knife for you is the one that feels like an extension of your hand, albeit a metal one. The curve of the toe is also something that I used to look at. The Henckels knives had a shallow curve, and I could never get a nice rocking motion with them. The Wustoff's were perfect for me.

Also....check for bolsters. Knifes like Global's (which don't have any bolsters) look good, BUT....I don't know how many times I split my knife callous because of that. It not a nice experience to have to rebuild the callous on your hand.

Hope this helps a bit.

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I'm with you on this Max. I've had my Wustoff 10" chef's knife for 20 years. I use it every single day and sometimes 2-3 times a day. It takes and holds its edge, is comfortable in the hand and looks like I just pulled it out of the package. You just can't go wrong with this one.

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Originally Posted by sinnfein

I'll probably go with a thee knife set, chef, pairing and bread and a sharpening steel so I guess technically set of four. Still have to wait for the next payday or two. Also as far as a cutting board goes is wood prefered over glass?i always feel like glass would dull a blade faster or am I totally wrong on that?

-dan-

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there is no such thing as sharpening steel, steels do not sharpen, they in essence strop.
You can get some abrasion from ceramic steel but they are more for honing than any significant metal removal.

Boards, yes no metal will last long against glass you need end grain board.
This is one of the best makers of boards wildly popular in the knife nuts circles:
Home

As far as knifes look up Japanese knives , they make thin knives that outperform any western made by a mile.

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Originally Posted by mainaman

there is no such thing as sharpening steel, steels do not sharpen, they in essence strop.
You can get some abrasion from ceramic steel but they are more for honing than any significant metal removal.

Boards, yes no metal will last long against glass you need end grain board.
This is one of the best makers of boards wildly popular in the knife nuts circles:
Home

As far as knifes look up Japanese knives , they make thin knives that outperform any western made by a mile.

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Actually Sharpening (aka honing) steels do sharpen. They are a round file that removes metal. Get a good one that like an F Dicks sapphire cut or Swibo fine cut. The smaller the grooves the less metal that is removed. As long as you keep your knives sharp the fine cut steels will hone the knives and keep them in good order. A true honing rod can be had, either a glass rod or a slick (ungrooved) steel, which IMO are only good for CS or spooky sharp SS.

Ditto on the end grain. One thing I have found out is to avoid bamboo. Bamboo itself is an excellent product, the problem is that most bamboo cutting boards are made in Asian factories, some of which use seriously toxic glues to bind the bamboo together.
Glass/Marble/Granite boards are not cutting boards (well not originally). They started life as pastry boards designed to keep products like pastry and chocolate cool while you worked on them. I know that some glass/stone "cutting" boards are being made now but all they will do is kill your knife.

Modern stainless J-knives are thinner than western stainless knives, but have problems with brittleness and difficulty in sharpening. Also you are paying big money for the serious metallurgy that goes into the high end J-steels. In any event I will back my carbon steel Sabatiers against any J-knife for thinness and performance.

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Originally Posted by sinnfein

I'll probably go with a thee knife set, chef, pairing and bread and a sharpening steel so I guess technically set of four. Still have to wait for the next payday or two. Also as far as a cutting board goes is wood prefered over glass?i always feel like glass would dull a blade faster or am I totally wrong on that?

-dan-

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Just be careful with sets. If you end up with a knife or knives you don't use any savings you may have got from the bulk buy disappear.
Also In my knife roll I have 14 different knives from 13 different makers. It isn't because I set out to have a whole bunch of knives from different makers but because different designs suited my needs better.

Look at it this way. If you wanted to get a complete set of razors of each size 8/8 to 4/8 and each grind from wedge to extra hollow ground in every size would you buy the whole lot from the same maker?

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Originally Posted by Pauly

Actually Sharpening (aka honing) steels do sharpen. They are a round file that removes metal. Get a good one that like an F Dicks sapphire cut or Swibo fine cut. The smaller the grooves the less metal that is removed. As long as you keep your knives sharp the fine cut steels will hone the knives and keep them in good order. A true honing rod can be had, either a glass rod or a slick (ungrooved) steel, which IMO are only good for CS or spooky sharp SS.

Ditto on the end grain. One thing I have found out is to avoid bamboo. Bamboo itself is an excellent product, the problem is that most bamboo cutting boards are made in Asian factories, some of which use seriously toxic glues to bind the bamboo together.
Glass/Marble/Granite boards are not cutting boards (well not originally). They started life as pastry boards designed to keep products like pastry and chocolate cool while you worked on them. I know that some glass/stone "cutting" boards are being made now but all they will do is kill your knife.

Modern stainless J-knives are thinner than western stainless knives, but have problems with brittleness and difficulty in sharpening. Also you are paying big money for the serious metallurgy that goes into the high end J-steels. In any event I will back my carbon steel Sabatiers against any J-knife for thinness and performance.

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I am sorry but they do not sharpen they are used to align the edge but there is no abrasion as from a stone.
Take a look at an edge before and after steeling and see for your self that no sharpening has taken place.

In my experience Japanese knives are not brittle at all, it is question of proper cutting technique with the knife not the steel. I am also not aware of any difficulty of sharpening stainless Japanese knife, I have sharpened Tojiro DP, Masamoto VG-10, Shun, they all sharpen just fine. A semi-stainless knife can be PITA to sharpen, bright example Aritsugu-A, but others such as Kikuichi TKC and Kagayaki Carbonext are very easy to deal with.

Wooden cutting board for sure, as others have said glass will kill a blade. Plastic on the other hand gets cut up and bacteria live to hide out in the nooks. A decent wooden board preferably end grain will last a lifetime and from what I hear is safe from contamination, the reason being the the wood will actually draw any bacteria into it where it will be dry and the bacteria will die. I am not positive, a I have not done the research myself but most cutting board makers say the same thing so I will take their word for it, because it would be in there best interest to try to sell me two one for meats and another for others but they don't. Bamboo can also be damaging to a blade from what I've read, because bamboo gets it's hardness from the silica in it and silica is harder then steel which will dull your blade. I have a decent edge grain walnut board and have been shipping for a custom end grain job and this is what I have learned, hope it helps.