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suggestions welcome from people who know about knives.
Shun Classic Chef's Knife 20cm - $178 + ~$5.50 Postage @ Peters of Kensington
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Pracetolive on 22/08/2016 - 16:27 petersofkensington.com.au (592 clicks)
Last edited 22/08/2016 - 23:00 by 2 other users
Last edited 22/08/2016 - 23:00 by 2 other users
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A 'Chefs' knife is actually a description of this type of knife (size, shape) rather than marketing spiel. It's used to describe all knives this size from $10 to $1,000.
And with a high quality blade this can last well over a decade, which makes it at most $18/year. Which to some is worth the cost
From my experience - and many are welcome to disagree. I've been buying some pretty good knives from chinatown for around $5 each.
They cut well, but don't sharpen as well as some (but with a stone, you can get a good cut without chipping for the first 40-50 times). But that being said, I have what I consider "good" knives for around $5/year each.Now these are thin steel knives without weight if you're used to heavy ones, but they do the job every time.
A mate of mine is a chef - and he goes through his $2-300 knives every 3 to 4 years, but swears by them, so maybe there's a secret to them if you use them a lot. I'll have to ask.
Given that his profession is a chef, he is probably using those knives maybe 10x more than the average home cook like you or me.
I also have some of those cheap $5 knifes and their bang for buck is phenomenal. But when compared to a high quality blade these $5 knives do feel a bit like cutting food with a plastic ruler.
Definitely not for your home use :)
Dare I ask, whats the difference between this and my faithful old Mundial?
Does it do anything exciting, like kill White Walkers?
If I want super-sharp, I use a ceramic knife. The steel chefs knife is good for cutting around bone, and crushing garlic.
Since it is rarely sharpened, aside from a few quick strokes on the steel, I expect it to last a lifetime.Mundial arent bad but once you tried one of these you will not go back.
These are heaps sharper than a mundial. Effortless slicing with these. I find them even sharper than a good kyocera ceramic.
I used mundial before i replaced them with Shun or Ran knives.
There is a reason why samurai swords are so revered. These are made in the same traditional process of folding metal of different composition.
VG10 core steel… it has better characteristics. It's significantly harder and will take a better edge and hold it longer than the ChroMoly the Mundials are made of.
Having said that Shuns are largely marketting spin. The pattern welding etch on the outside is a waste of money. You can get a Tojiro DP3 for half the price, which has all the benefits of these lower end shuns - same stainless clad VG10 Core, made in japan.
$75-80 for Tojiro DP3's when on special (to save people searching ozbargain like I just did).
+1 for Tojiro DP - they're great knives.
Plus one on the Tojiro. Love mine.
this has harder steel, and also a narrower bevel compared to the Mondial so they are sharper , I own a set of the shuns and they are better then the trident set I used to have, though not as robust due to the bevel angles.
Great knife, highly recommend, anyways heres a link for $150 del.
https://www.homesnthings.com.au/shun-classic-20cm-chefs-knif…
I've had one of these for about 6 years. It is the only knife that I need and use a sharpening stone to keep it razor sharp. The weight of it is perfect and the handle is just right from an ergonomic perspective. Yes, it's very expensive. But if it's the only chefs knife you ever own then it's pretty cheap.
I only have two other knives for preparing food. A smaller Shun paring knife (not nearly as useful as the chefs) and a cheaper bread knife. Put your money in to one good knife rather than half a dozen rubbish ones.
^ good advice
Also another worth a go at home if on a budget is the Shun Kai Wasabi santoku knife, $43 delivered not bad,
https://www.homesnthings.com.au/shun-wasabi-16-5cm-santoku-k…
"The best japanese knife"? I really don't think so… It's not even the best Shun knife.
It's a decent mass-produced stainless knife, with a VG10 core, and some asthetic etching on the outside. You can get a Tojiro DP for half this price. If you're not set on stainless, at this price point you can probably get a 20-21cm aogami core knife - which will probably take and hold a better edge than VG10.
You can get a Tojiro DP for half this price.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/232862
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/218983
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/218915:)
I'm familiar with these as my friend has two of them and he's a pro chef and I sharpen them for him from time to time - also have a lot of good quality knives myself.
IMHO they're a good knife BUT a bit overpriced for what they are - IIRC a VG10 cored knife with a bit of a wanky damascus steel finish. You could pay less than 1/2 that and get a Tojiro DP thats every bit as good in blade. That said VG10 isn't that great a steel, many superior options out there if high end alloys are your aim.
And for home users OFTEN going for a higher HRC spec'd knife (harder, more brittle steels) often isn't all it's cracked up to be. As they end up damaging the knife's blade via chipping etc.
The golden rule with knives is ultimately they're ONLY as good as the way they're sharpened. A $5 Asian store Kiwi branded knife thats well sharpened will be a far superior tool than this Shun thats not properly maintained.
People like sexy knives in bigass block sets fair enough BUT the knife communities' best value knives have long been regarded as the Victorinox Fibrox range - get the rose handled ones if you prefer a lil nicer look. Commercial quality and entry level prices. Also pick up a ceramic steel/hone (Ikea sell one that I think is called Flaksa or similar - also on Ebay), they're vastly superior to all but the priciest smooth butcher's steels (that are generally completely misused by 95% of folks) - also get a good quality multistage manual sharpener or learn to sharpen manually on one of the many options on the market.
These are very nicely finished, sexy looking very nicely balanced knives but for one of these I could get 5 different knives that'd cover 99% of everything you'd need to do in the kitchen. :-)
I was going to give you the thumbs up for this bit of advice - "The golden rule with knives is ultimately they're ONLY as good as the way they're sharpened. A $5 Asian store Kiwi branded knife thats well sharpened will be a far superior tool than this Shun thats not properly maintained".
Then I realised everything you said was worth giving the thumbs up!
Why in the world would you shop anywhere else?
The best Japanese knife
As many have said already, no they're not. Might want to update your description :)
…and what's up with those tags?
Food & Grocery, Catering, Chef Inox, Chef's Hat, Restaurant
the tags are for the people who are looking for knives, and mostly go to chef's hat (South Melbourne) and spend around $219 or more sometime.
I didn't get a chance to buy and use all the Japanese knives, so, it might be the best one for me, maybe not for you. :)
http://www.chefshat.com.au/product-group/54966-kai-shun-clas…
K. Hopefully you'll get a chance to try some more and come to understand that there's no such thing as "the best knife".
Shun do make pretty knives if you don't want to pay big money for something more traditional.
As far as knives go, I have had the Victorinox Fibrox for a couple of years now and its amazing value and dirt cheap.
https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Fibrox-Straight-Chefs-8-In…
Number one knife on Amazon, and deserves it.
(Sorry don't meant to hijack your thread)!
japanesechefsknife.com
Any $$ value you spend on Tojiro, Shun or other mass produced 'premium' knives will be better bang for buck at this website.
On the topic of knives and seeing many of you have quite a bit of knowledge on this can someone recommend a good meat cleaver under $50 please。
Will you be using it on bones?
If you're using a meat cleaver on bones/coconuts etc. which will undoubtedly chip the knife, Kiwi brand ones are a good weight, and cheap. $12 at my local Asian grocer.
Most people will spend money on a form of chef's knives (Western/Japanese) but they require more care and maintenance and you don't want to chip your expensive knife!
Absolutely using on bones
Cleavers can be tricky and fool a lot of folks as in western culture 99% of cleavers are what I refer to as 'bone cleavers' - extra heavy, very thick edge with BIG angles (e.g 30 degrees each side) on them to withstand the rough treatment of cutting through bones. In Asian culture there are 'bone cleavers' but there's also 'slicing cleavers' that are basically the slimmed down sisters of the bone cleavers and used much as western cooks do their cook/chef's knives.
To a laymen they might look very similar - both cleavers BUT very different as the slicing cleaver is basically exactly the same as the cooks knife (thin blade profile, ~15-20deg primary edge etc) - so if you use that as a bone cleaver you'll likely ruin it.
And without being semantic there's bones e.g raw chicken/cooked chicken and then there's BONES e.g in leg of pork/lamb etc.
Any decent asian grocery store will have a range of different slicing cleavers - they're generally pretty cheap, soft stainless steel varients that cost as little as $7 up to around $30. Kiwi are one of these and a reasonable low risk one to try.
That said I do find as they use a very soft steel even their thicker bladed bone cleaver isn't really up to to task. Hence I grabbed a carbon steel (which is a whole other conversation) chinese branded one for around $30. It's hardness would be significantly above the Kiwi one - carbon steel is very reactive e.g cut some cabbage and walk away for 20mins and you'll likely have lil rust spots on the blade! So I forced a patina onto it and am very careful cleaning/drying it when it's used (which is rarely).
So kinda depends on what bones you plan on cutting and if it'll solely be for bones (like mine) or a bit of an allrounder - as I also have another cheapie asian slicing cleaver and it'll do raw chicken bones no issues and also slices reasonably well.
FWIW if you are lucky enough to find one the CCK brand of cleavers are very well regarded - not expensive but very good steel for their low price - just be careful whether it's stainless or carbon steel as 99% of home cooks would not find the latter user friendly. :-)
I cut through lamb grillers quite a bit or even lamb shank bones. Never tried to cut leg roasts etc.
Couldn't recommend a specific brand but go for something with a bit of weight and avoid harder steels as they're more prone to chipping.
It will lose it's edge quickly so you'll need to keep on top of it with a stone fairly regularly. A coarse silicon carbide (with water rather than oil) should work well and you should be able to pick one up cheap.
edit: Nikko's suggestion of a thick high carbon steel is a good one if you're prepared to clean, dry and oil it immediately every time you use it. I wouldn't be too worried about surface rust on the face, the edge will be the first thing affected and it's much more work putting an edge back on.
I would've thought lamb shanks would be a bit messy with a cleaver. Get a good butcher who'll cut them for you or invest in a bandsaw :)
Thanks guys loads of info. My butcher does cut the Shania but in larger chunks and I need these bit smaller do i just halve these.
Nothing like a good sharp knife in the kitchen. I've been using the same guy to sharpen mine for years now, some skill in sharpening a knife.
I could never sharpen them the way he does. Takes some real skill to do it right if you ask me.How is this the best Japanese knife? This is pretty much the bottom of good knifes… I paid 300$ for my basic Japanese knife straight from Japan and it's perfect for what I need but nowhere near the best…
Crikey.. I love OZB.. the range of people and opinions is fantastic.
it's interesting how people are into the metallurgy the vg10 used by many knives is made by a single smelter which has the patent so the difference from one vg10 knife and another is the design and finish, not the metal,
For anyone interested in sharpening - please consider;
https://youtu.be/CKSlgK_2FP4 - a quick guide on some typical methods
https://youtu.be/te1KIpGyz-4 - then how to do it at home, should you wishFrom the Japanese master Mr Global himself.
I'd rather use my plastic ruler to cut food than pay $180+ for a "Chefs" Knife