Hi guys,
I'm hoping for reviews and suggestions on a kitchen knife that's good for cutting raw meat. I'm not very knife literate so I'm hoping for some guidance. A quick google has thrown somewhat intimidating words like ice tempered, stainless steel, ceramic and a lot of Japanese names around. Most importantly of course, I'm hoping to not spend more than $30.
Thanks!
I use a set of Mundial knives for cutting veggies and meat on a daily basis.
Mundial have a slightly softer steel than other brands, which makes them super easy to sharpen. A couple of swipes through the sharpener before use and they will smoothly and easily cut anything that I throw at them.
Pretty sure Mundial cost a lot more than $30 though
Depends which style you look at but they’re regularly on Amazon for <$30
I like Tramontina (especially their commercial range if you're not worried about looks) and Victorinox at the more affordable end of the spectrum, or at least they were when I bought mine.
you can get a cheaper knife but i recommend getting a 1000+ whetstone and learning how to sharpen. the cheaper blade may not hold its sharpness as well but you can just sharpen and maintain more often
$5 Kiwi knife
My favourite knives are a $5 Kiwi knife and $2.80 Daiso Santoku. Both are made from thin steel, the Kiwi is flexible, the Daiso is rigid.
Both need honing every week, because the steel is relatively soft. Unless you're cutting commercial quantities of meat, buy one of each and a decent steel and they'll serve you well.
+1 for Kiwi.
If you're after cheap and sharp, go down to an asian grocery store and get these knifes.
I agree.
You can see me abusing my Kiwi knife at 4:43 https://youtu.be/BtMUXWqm8O0 and 9.43 in this one https://youtu.be/FYhymEhaF5Y.
It just keeps going. Amazing value for ~$6
If you are not bothered about looks, then i suggest 'Swibo' knives. I use a butchers knife and a curved boning knife for cutting & boning raw meat. They do have a brightly coloured plastic (nylon) handle that is slip proof and doesn't absorb oil. Sharp and easy to keep sharp. These knives are made by Victorinox, and most butchers use them. You should pick up a boning knife for less than $30, but larger knives cost more.
Scanpan are decent at the cheaper end of better quality knives, Victorinox are also good, especially the plastic handled ones.
Get a chef or santoku knife, paring or utility knife and a bread knife, that's pretty much all you need, more knives are better but those 3 knives will be the most commonly used. And maybe a couple of Victorinox steak knives, they are also great as a paring/tomato/utility knife.
Then invest some extra money in a ceramic sharpening rod - Kyocera ones are good. They keep the knifes razor-sharp easily. If you are chopping tomato and the skin even slightly pushes down before being cut, time to sharpen, the tomato skin shouldn't really move much before the cutting starts. Whetstones are also good (I've got a Global dual-grit one for re-edging and a King 3000 for final finishing), but only if the sharpening rod can't get the edge back properly.
Go to your local restaurant or butcher and have a look at what they are using in the kitchen and chances are they're probably using something like Victorinox…
all you need really for general food preparation is a chefs knife, get one that fits you grip and hands and buy a whet stone and sharpen, that's it. a cheap sharp knife is bucket loads better than an expensive blunt one.
if you want to invest money get proper whet stones Shapton if you have the money
If you’re gonna blow that much money on expensive shapton stones then getting a quality carbon steel knife is important. You have to sharpen less with a carbon steel than a stainless steel due to the way carbon affects sharpening.
Agree.. I have all carbon and Damascus steel knives from japan. some cheap some expensive. but all sharpened with shapton glass stones.
I use a Victorinox as my main kitchen knife. I'd recommend buying a sharpening steel.
For $30 you won't find a professional chef's knife. But you can go for a great combo.
Buy a Kiwi knife. Cleaver is good for chopping or slicing meat but not for fine cuts, so something with a tip will be useful there.
Buy a sharpening stone. Not one of those handled things with a little v shaped cut for sharpening, an actual stone. You should be able to find a double sided one with a coarse and fine grit for two stage sharpening.
You can sharpen the kiwi knives in about 30 seconds after a little practice (youtube) and they are better than 99% of pro chef knives that are unsharpened. Meat will cut like butter.
Megaboutique are having a sale on Scanpan knives atm - up to 70% off.
https://www.megaboutique.com.au/knife&filter=&filter_manufac…
The knife is really not that important id you are non-pro - get a good sharpener.
Look at Youtube "Project Farm" did a recent review of knife sharpeners and showed you can quickly get a butter knife to be almost as sharp as the best.
FWIW I have a high quality Santoku knife ( https://globalknives.com.au/knives/sai-19cm-santoku-knife/ ) that does 90% of my kitchen work and cheaper paring, filleting and carving knives.
Got a cheap Furi set (4 knives) $200 or something. Well worth the little bit extra and a 50% off sale. I wouldn't be spending up on Global or anything like that unless they were being tossed out.
https://www.kitchenwarehouse.com.au/Furi-Pro-5pc-Stainless-S…
What is wrong with using the knife/knives you have now?
All you need is a good knife sharpener
Then you can sharpen all your knives in your kitchen
I just use a commercial grade kitchen knife like the Victorinox fibrox https://www.knifeshopaustralia.com.au/victorinox-fibrox-chef…
To keep it sharp don’t use a sharpening steel unless you’re very experienced. They usually don’t help. Buy a dual grit whetstone, strap of leather (old belt perhaps) and some honing paste/block. Create a fine edge with the whetstone (1000 & 3000 grit maybe 6000) and maintain by regularly stropping the knife on loaded leather strop. You can make a strop for cheap by getting leather or canvas on a flat block of wood (free), glue it to the wood and put a small bit on honing compound on it every now and then.
Sure the sharpening part costs a little bit, but no more than getting a cheap knife. The strop can be as cheap as you make it and the stone can be cheap or expensive. Lots of choices. Get it all for 40 to 60 bucks. Cheap considering you’ll get a safe sharp blade for life.
Also carbon steel knives sharpen better than stainless almost always. They don’t require that much more maintaining. Keep them dry after using, acidic food like tomato makes them rust pretty quickly. I always wash and wipe after using them. The fibrox is stainless and you can put it in th dishwasher but it dulls the edge very quickly due to corrosion
Thanks for all the responses and recommendations . I'm going to comb over all the replies :)
I've been looking at these two on aliexpress
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000093339312.html?spm=a2g0s…
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32860254421.html?spm=a2g0s.8…
I'm still using the stainless knives I got with a $50 stabby person holder (now recycled) some 13 years ago. I think I've only sharpened them 5 or so times.
For $30 just pick something on Amazon that looks ok and see how you go.