How about $89, a mighty deep discount for a dent in the ferrule?
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Kiwi’s are the best deal in knives today. They’re cheap, but that’s the whole idea, there is a lot of bang for the buck in those knives. You can beat the crap out of them, or not worry about friends/family using them and not using your prized japanese knife.
I have a very bad knife buying/collecting habit, Bernal Knives in SF is a wonderful dealer. Mostly I use japanese knives in my kitchen, but also have and use knives made by US knife makers who I know. Kitchen knives are a horrible rabbit hole to go down.
Pretty nice deal. Very handsome cutlery as well. Has the classic French rat tail. I wasn’t aware of Bernal until you brought it up. Thanks for the lesson. I just can’t buy a knife unless I’ve handled it. Learned that the hard way through cookware and why I despise the handles on All Clad.
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Amazing value, they are. I’ve bent some blades, though. One on a goose leg, I forget who I bent the other. Still, I got the stone out and still use those knives. Ain’t perdy, but they still cut it up.
I’ve used Dexter Russell from the inception of my first cooking. My dad got them for coins at the slaughterhouse he worked at. Boring white handle, but comfy white handle. Easy to sharpen AND hold the edge well. Better than Kiwi in edge retention in my experience. Still, I enjoy sharpening, so Kiwis are right up my alley. I own some German SS knives, too, Wusthof Icon classic is a nice chef’s knife. I love the quality construction and hard ass steel. Tougher to sharpen, but holds edge much longer than any Kiwi I own. The thing is, I take a s lot swipes with that Wustof to get it where I want. Kiwi I’ll use frequently for two weeks, then I’ll swipe it a few times on each side (old school stone) and it cuts so well.
This breaking knife, I’ve had since I was very young. Used it for taking apart game, lambs, beef we processed.
https://www.amazon.com/Dexter-Russell-S132N-10-10-inch-Breaking-Knife/dp/B008RBS7MM/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11I4RJPCR0EM1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.WAsazr7AMEksaPZ62CaajTPUPg8kYSzQGOdnM1Js92QSxt85RpmS4RtiKw9uimBjgiMFyXGRQRgZZptmwZdvoE1vIC8_NdM1gIXj3HYD5Kww3uI_2js7cnx_1IguhtzmVokSJaiEdMIjPr-KBFw8IleHqhHMYtHG-8NV4ogb7lFffWNgy0miXkUB0x8M8pzVdU7L3-clsqCEpuL6XenT8jGu_1O440eVywLDoSZ9tZ9nThLmHVpW4zChxpJ6lxKTsGE7fb6bwOdDGewbKHw2mDFOqYWrBv67g-qMrGeBcWU.JqMe1i0VDXn48dpQ6c4AaRl5nsDEKkq_0A568PLNvew&dib_tag=se&keywords=dexter+russell+breaking+knife&qid=1752809996&sprefix=dexter+russell+breaking+knife%2Caps%2C105&sr=8-1
Always be my baby. Mine doesn’t look that nice, but it has really stood the test of time. My dad got it for $3. 1983 baby!
Love Kiwi, but they don’t make a knife with a blade that durable. They also don’t make one that expensive, so the equation works out.
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A little fun fact not many know.
Even though they are often sold as an ancient craft, made by family knife makers that goes back hundreds of years. The double bevel knives from Japan we know today are mostly developed within the last 100 years. They where a result of Japan meeting western cuisine and cooks.
The gyuto was simply a Japanese take on a french chef knife. They made them thin because the sab style knives was thinner back then.
The lack of bolster is due to the Japanese knife makers hammering there blades out instead of drop forging them the way the French( and most of Europe did)
The introduction of soft stainless knives drastically worsened European knives. And it’s fair to say the copy passed the original in quality and how well they cut.
But…today there are a lot of great European upcoming knife makers. So maybe that will change.
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The harder the steel, the softer the product it was meant to cut. If I have to explain why, please don’t make food and serve it to anybody but yourself.
Please. Explain ?
Metal chips in food are bad (duh) and are a risk with extremely hard and brittle edges tackling hard foods.
Indeed. But steel hardness is just one of several factors affecting how chippy a knife is.
Notices how your sabs are thick right out of the handle, and then tapper towards the tip?
That’s to make the heel stronger and more sturdy, and still have a thin tip for delicate work. But the steel is the same. If you sharpen your sabs on a stone. It’s pretty easy to see that there is also more steel right above the edge at the heel, compared to the tip.
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Si.
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A knife is obviously thin at its cutting edge. Bolsters, and tips, and such, don’t have anything to do with what I’m talking about.
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Can you explain why I’m wrong?
It is always the edge, not anything above it, that chips. That’s all.
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Partly agree.
It’s usually the edge that chips(sometimes the tip too) but it’s still not the steel alone that determine how prone to chipping a knife is.
Let’s say profile and sharpening angle doesn’t effect how prone to chipping a knife is. Why doesn’t Zwilling or wursthoff just take there soft stainless and grind them super thin?
I think we would all agree that a super thin edge on any blade is more likely to chip than the same knife with an edge that has not been thinned out as much, and if that knife is made of a very hard steel it will be more prone to chipping than an otherwise identical geometry made of a much softer steel, which will be more likely to roll than to chip. Personally, I have never chipped any of my old carbon steel knives. I once chipped a Henckels 8" chef. Its steel seemed hard when I sharpened it, but I have no idea what that steel was. Its geometry was classic German.
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The lower the included angle of honing, again, the softer the product.
Hard knife, low angle – soft product.
You want an edge to fail by folding, not by chipping, which should be obvious in a foodservice setting.
So… take a Mac or Tojiro. They are both around the 60 hrc. Harder then the standard German soft stainless.
Still, both are widely used in pro kitchens without problems with chipping.
Will you still claim harder steels cause issues?
I agree, hardness doesn’t necessarily equate to brittleness.
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Still? I thought there are many inexpensive Chinese made knives on the market now. Some look silly, but I assume are good. Kiwi was a good brand of knives back then, but steel technology has changed, and Kiwi is still making the same knives as decades ago.
It has been my experience, albeit limited, that knife makers who pursue a very thin profile and a laser edge typically select very hard steels. So hard steels and brittleness that resulted from design may lead to a conclusion that the hardness contributed to the brittleness. The connection, however, is short of causation. The small chunk of knife edge in Mr. Jones’ Bolognese is still a problem for the house.
