Recommendation for chef's knife
A bunch of us need to buy a good chef's knife as a special birthday and Christmas present for someone. $150 budget. We know it matters how it weighs and balances in the hand so we'll buy it from somewhere it can be easily returned, in case what we choose doesn't feel good to him. He could use a seriously good chef's knife. What I don't know is if the one he has is a Santoku. Personally I'd go with a flat edge vs Santoku but comments are very welcome. Thanks.
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One more question on the knife:
So the upshot is that we’ve agreed on a Shun, 8 inches, because surveillance revealed that he has a 6 inch Global santoku. We’re going with Williams-Sonoma because that’s the only cookware store close to him. They may not have the lowest prices (though they seem fairly competitive) but we want him to be able to go to a real store and handle other knives if he chooses to return this one.
We’re willing to spring for the extra $30 for the “Shun premiere” but can anyone provide an opinion on whether it’s worth it over the “Shun classic”? I would be very grateful.
Thanks again. Happy holidays and keep your credit cards under control. (My Williams-Sonoma shopping cart just got very out-of-control. I’m walking away now…)
$180
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/shun-premier-chefs-knife/?cm_src=AutoRel
$150
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/shun-classic-western-chefs-knife/?cm_src=AutoRel
June, we need to give him an actual knife but I will definitely check out Stoddard's inventory.
Pierino, wondering why you use a Santoku as a "travel" knife? Because you wouldn't want to chance taking your others out of the house?
Voted the Best Reply!
One thing to consider (if you're not familar with this) is that Japanese knives (including Global and most Shun knives) are sharpened at a more extreme angle than European/Western style knives, and are also made out of a harder but also more brittle steel. This is great for most foods -- the extreme angle plus the hard steel gives them a very sharp edge that doesn't require very frequent sharpening -- but not ideal if your friend does much meat cutting that involves bone (this can chip the knife and you really want the softer European steel for that).