<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Walt Travers:
[qb] Your mention of Japanese knives piqued my interest. I have been looking around for a good slicing knife for meat, not fish. Can you recommend a brand or model or both? I don't want to go broke in the bargain, but I would be interested to see what you have and why.[/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I use three knives for meat.
For prepping raw meat, particularly if it requires removing layers of fat or trimming around bones, I use a Henckels 4-Star 7 inch filet knife. This has a thin, flexible blade that easy to bend as necessary to work around bones, etc.
http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=109262
I use a matching 4-Star 10 inch slicer for everyday carving and slicing. I like the long blade length because it allows you to do a complete slice with a single pull stroke.
http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=109227
Both of these knives are standard stain-resistant alloy German forged knives. I don't think that the Henckels is any better or worse than a dozen other German brands. Just good basic everyday kitchen knives. There are many Japanese companies making similar stainless western style forged knives. Global is the most well-known of many such manufactureres. Generally speaking the Japanese versions of western knives tend to be a little sharper, a little lighter, and slightly less robust than the German versions...but, roughly speaking, these are all comparable knives.
I also use a high-end traditional Japanese knife for slicing some raw meat and cooked meat. This is a 9.5 inch high-carbon steel "sashimi slicer" with a traditional round wood handle. The knife is chisel ground (sharpened on one side only). Because of the steel and the geometry, it is ungodly sharp -- a totally different experience than a standard knife.
http://www.japanesecutlery.com/cutlery/professionalcutlery.html (first group on the page)
You have to be extremely careful using it on meat. Because it is hardened to Rockwell 63 or higher, the cutting edge will chip instantly with the slightest contact with bone or a carving fork. So I only use it on boneless raw meat or for carving cooked boneless meat. It works great on pork butt and it is unbelievable for doing those thin slices at an angle on a grilled flank steak or London Broil. But, overall, it's too finicky for general purpose meat cutting or bbq duties.
Also, it rusts INSTANTLY. It literally must be washed and dried the second you are done cutting. Leave it on the cutting board for 5 minutes and you are asking for trouble.
If I had to pick one knife for every day meat slicing, it would be a forged stainless 10-inch slicer. Any of the German brands (Henckels, Wusthoff, Messermeister, F. Dick, etc.) would be comparable as would any of the Japanese western-style stainless knives. The choice is really a matter of personal preference (heft, handle shape, balance, aesthetics) than any signficant difference in performance among the different brands in this category.
You can buy most of them in the $50 to $80 range. Wusthoff, Henckels, and Global are the most widely distributed and have the broadest lines in terms of available shapes and sizes. For these reasons, I would probably pick one of these brands if I were planning to build a collection over time.
I have a big 10-inch chef's knife, which gets a lot of daily use. However, I don't like that particular shape for most meat cutting. The thick wide blade tends to "stick" while slicing meat and it's not as maneuverable. It's hard to beat for chopping bbq, though!
