Deal Alert
I’m a fan of chef knives. I really like the Wusthof 8 inch variant. But for only $30, Amazon has this AUGYMER 8 inch. So, I snatched one up because one is none and two is one or something.
For the price, it’s definitely comparable quality. And weighted just as well. And the wooden handle is nice,
June 14th, 2017 at 6:49 pm
In that price range ($30-50, well below the Wusthof), I’ve been going with Victorinox Chef’s knives. Rated better on Amazon (4.7 – 4.8) and the one I’ve used daily for the past 5 years has held up great. Their bread knife was $26 five years ago but is up to $50 now. Good thing my old one’s working just fine.
June 14th, 2017 at 7:56 pm
full tang, riveted handle is worth a little more.
I can’t find the details on the metallurgy of Wusthof knives, but cheap stainless won’t hold an edge very long. And SUS440A is described in the literature as “Highly corrosion resistant stainless steel, used in budget and dive knives.”
Dive knives value corrosion resistance. (Salt water is murder!) Kitchen knives not so much.
“If your knife isn’t sharp, it might as well be a spoon” (That was what my father’s cousin – who was a butcher – always said.)
June 15th, 2017 at 10:04 am
Nice. And the most important part is whether you like it.
My big kitchen knife is a Victorinox rosewood butcher’s but in 10″. I’ve been using it to turn racks into chops.
However, the last time, I reached for this one, a $7.00 Chinese non-locking folder. It worked just fine.
June 17th, 2017 at 3:21 pm
Unc, that looks like a good blade for the money. Even if only lasts two or three years, it looks nice, and the price isn’t crazy.
Restaurants and pro-chefs seem to buy a lot of Forschner blades. A sub-set of the Victornox lines.
Comparably, supply giant Sysco Foods carries their own line of Made in China commercial knives. They seem to hold up, but I don’t know their long-term reputation or specific metallurgy.
What I miss the most is good ol’ (mfg. up to early 1980s) Made in USA, high-carbon Chicago Cutlery knives. Fairly easy to (razor) sharpen, good edge holding, not terribly expensive and rugged as hell.
Just keep ’em dry, because rust.
Nowdays, Chicago Cutlery is just Chinese junk. And I don’t mean the ship.
The saddest to me though, is seeing the nearly Thou$and Dollar knife sets in the high end department stores.
Proving P.T. Barnum right, yet once more.
I’m happy (enough) with fair quality, nylon handled commercial knives. But then, I’ve also got a top-quality 1″x42″ belt sander in the garage, with belts down to 2000 grit, plus leather strop-belt and rouge.
Yes, all my kitchen knives can pretty much slice air molecules. I exaggerate, but only slightly!
I’d like to have a Master of the craft though, sharpen my 8″ French Chef’s blade, down to what some of those 15,000 grit Hard Arkansas stones can do. Just that one blade, though. I think that would be…informative.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX