Kitchen knife replacement thoughts


 
Anyway...

All this knife and knife sharpening discussion urged me to go to Amazon and do a quick search of "knife sharpener"

Then I sorted the list for Customer Review showing 5 stars at the top of the list

This thing came up.

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Made by Rada Cutlery in Iowa.

Looks gimmicky, right? Couple flat washers secured to a piece of plastic? But it has 4.8 stars with over 600 reviews!

It's a set of three for $45.

And another listing for a single is 4.7 stars with over 8,000 reviews! Fifteen bucks!

The discs are hardened carbon stainless steel. The mount is nylon.

The disks are flat and smooth at the edge, like a Jefferson nickel. So it has a 90 degree sharp edge.

It seems to work much like the Brod & Taylor device. Same technique. Which means you can grind or hone, depending on how you angle the handle of the knife relative to the discs.

So I had to buy a set - should be good stocking stuffers. And I might steel, er, steal one for myself. You can't have too many knife sharpeners, you know.
 
Jim C in Denver said:
Yeah, I have a lot of knives and knife sharpeners and steels. I need help. :-(

You are not the only one.

This thread inspired me, like Dylan, to finally go electric. A Trizor XV is on the way to me. The ability to grind all my regular old 20 degree knives down to the trendy current 15 degrees hooked me. Luckily, only about $60 used on ebay.

I will let you all know how I like it.
Click to expand...

Well the Trizor XV came. I sharpened about 10 stainless steel kitchen knives over the weekend -- straight, serrated, some 20 degrees, some already 15 degrees. The best knives I have are some quite old mid-range Henckels in a block, then a bunch of random cheaper knives. No high end Japanese or carbon steel knives. Took maybe 20 minutes.

Total awesome sauce. At least for me. Now all my knives are 15 degrees and very sharp. Soooo much sharper. Maybe not artisanal whetstone 15 degrees sharp, but much sharper than before and very quick/easy to do.

Given how easy/better my in-house sharpening now is, does not much matter if the new sharper edge on my softer steel knives might not last as long as a 15 degree edge would last on a high end $$$$$ hard steel knife. And since my knives are meh or worse, I do not worry about grinding off a lot of material. If I have to buy a couple of cheap new knives 10 years from now -- whatev.

I also suspect that I won't need to be doing a lot of grinding in the future. I think constant honing/steeling (which I already do anyway) will maintain the edges quite well for my moderate home use scenario.

As someone said above, this electric sharpener is 80% of performance with 20% of effort. For me, spending the $$$ on the electric sharpener makes more sense than spending the $$$ on high end knives and then having to sharpen with whetstones or an outside service.

YMMV.
 
Sales have started over at Zwilling now......should improve maybe as it is a pre sale ????????

Discounts are noticable and then if you sign up that 15% is back on again too......

Nothing in the Wusthof site yet.....

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I already picked up a magnetic knife block, it should arrive today.
I also think I have settled on picking up a few Wusthof knives.....I think a weeks worth of waiting should get me some better deals....
If I am going to spend a few........hundred.....I should look for some deals.

I was convinced I needed a Japanese style knife but I do not think it is required.
Got all swept up in these demascus knives and multi layered knives but I don't think the performace will be worth the extra costs.
 
Jim C in Denver said:
Well the Trizor XV came. I sharpened about 10 stainless steel kitchen knives over the weekend -- straight, serrated, some 20 degrees, some already 15 degrees. The best knives I have are some quite old mid-range Henckels in a block, then a bunch of random cheaper knives. No high end Japanese or carbon steel knives. Took maybe 20 minutes.

Total awesome sauce. At least for me. Now all my knives are 15 degrees and very sharp. Soooo much sharper. Maybe not artisanal whetstone 15 degrees sharp, but much sharper than before and very quick/easy to do.

Given how easy/better my in-house sharpening now is, does not much matter if the new sharper edge on my softer steel knives might not last as long as a 15 degree edge would last on a high end $$$$$ hard steel knife. And since my knives are meh or worse, I do not worry about grinding off a lot of material. If I have to buy a couple of cheap new knives 10 years from now -- whatev.

I also suspect that I won't need to be doing a lot of grinding in the future. I think constant honing/steeling (which I already do anyway) will maintain the edges quite well for my moderate home use scenario.

As someone said above, this electric sharpener is 80% of performance with 20% of effort. For me, spending the $$$ on the electric sharpener makes more sense than spending the $$$ on high end knives and then having to sharpen with whetstones or an outside service.

YMMV.
Click to expand...
Yeah - it’s probably more like 80% performance with less than 10% effort… with electric sharpener, you’d be done and sitting back in your recliner in less time than just setup and cleanup with whetstones

Now try some cheap fine edge (aka non-serrated) steak knives and see what you’ve been missing
www.foodandwine.com

We Tested 23 Steak Knife Sets — Our Top Pick Cut Through a New York Strip Like Butter

We tested 23 steak knife sets and ranked them on design, performance, and value. Our list of the best steak knives includes Material, Messermeister, and Zwilling sets. Plus, we've thrown in a few favorite steak knife picks from chefs around the country.
www.foodandwine.com www.foodandwine.com

I got these for $80 with the recent (now expired) 20% off coupon
cutleryandmore.com

Messermeister Steak Knives - 8 Piece Set - Avanta Forged Pakkawood

Messermeister Avanta Forged Steak Knife Set with Pakkawood Handles is designed to assist in separating meat from the bone. The gradually cambered long blade is most efficient at pull cutting through boneless sections of meat. The knife blade is constructed from German high carbon stainless...
cutleryandmore.com cutleryandmore.com

You should go to Williams Sonoma or similar and try a Japanese knife - the thinner blade does make a difference compared to German design even when both are sharpened to 15deg
 
I’d skip Williams-Sonoma simply from the overpricing attitude that they have. I don’t have anything against the products and love wandering through the store but, they are stupidly expensive for an item you can get from other sources for thirty percent less. Sorry, just my opinion.
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
I’d skip Williams-Sonoma simply from the overpricing attitude that they have. I don’t have anything against the products and love wandering through the store but, they are stupidly expensive for an item you can get from other sources for thirty percent less. Sorry, just my opinion.
Click to expand...
Agreed
Try not Buy at WS

Then check cutlery and more on Black Friday…
 
There are tons of brands out there, I keep looking at the Wusthof and Zwilling as they came recommended on this page and they seem like great knives.....The Japanese Zwilling line up seems very nice, also very pricey........
I am also looking at the Shun knives. Seems like most of them are carbon steel.......good and bad I guess.
 
I didn't really want to buy that set....the MRS wanted to replace our current block of knives with that set.
It was a really good deal and I replaced my Henckles with Zwilling.......Sharpening probably would have been good enough but it is what it is.
I also said to her when I was purchasing the set that I still wanted to pick up a few "niche" I guess you could call it knives.....she agreed.....
So still on the hunt.....I want a nice roast beef slicer, as well as a 1 or 2 forged knives......these last 1 or 2 is really stumping me.
Reading into the different steels they use to make knives and the different processes makes me want to buy 5 or 6 of them.
I just want a good knife, I don't want to buy 3 or 4 in the process of finding that knife.......
 
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Darryl -- The recommendations from ATK and Wirecutter conclude that you don't need and shouldn't buy a block set. Instead, they say you really only need three good core knives -- chef, paring, serrated bread knife. And their recommended ones all together might cost you $75 or less.

My wife has some Henckels in a block, which are fine. But my separate work area (grilling and bartending) just has a few mis-matched core knifes that I keep in a drawer (with plastic or cardboard sheaths). It is pretty much all I need (plus a steel).
 
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