I have been cooking since the 1960s. I have had enough knives to fill a good sized block. I have tried 8", 10", and other chef knives, all sorts. I have had longer, offset, and curved bread knives. I have had various sizes and styles of parers. I have had a few different petty knives. I have had slicers of various lengths. I have even had a boning knife. I have even at times, had knives that matched (although not acquired as a set). I have tried US, German, Japanese, and French. I will keep a few not shown here for my wife to use (she likes her 8" chef), but for months these have been all I grab. I may be done. I sure hope so. You are welcome to learn from my mistakes, but you will probably have more fun and learn more making your own. Interestingly, although they would probably be polypropylene handled Dexters, these are pretty much what you’ll find if you walk into any restaurant, maybe even just some of these.
I like the grouping and I like the philosophy. I’d probably hire somebody on the spot if they opened up their “bag” and had those four knives in it. That’s somebody I could work with.
Hard to go wrong with these.
It may just be the lighting, but the three conventional edge knives look like they might have a little swale near the heels. You’ve already had the bolsters on the chefs taken down for clearance–that’s good.
Would you please show us the spine of your big Sab?
Actually I have not intentionally done anything to any of the heels; I think this may be a peculiarity of the Nogent profile. My sharpening technique largely ignores the bolsters. I hold the knife on its side, vertically along the long direction of the stone, hold it at a repeatable comfortable angle, and use an elongated oval, moving gradually up and down the blade. The angle is minimally more acute than the factory edge on Sabatiers. This is the technique I have been using on whetstones since I was a first grader with a first pocket knife. It is quick, easy, and consistent.
Thanks. Everyone should wish that their Euro chef knife had a distal taper like this one. Quite thin at the tip, and quite thick at the heel. Unfortunately, this geometry is hard to come by with knives sold at retail.
That same heel thickness would be a problem in a shorter knife. Imagine this 10" being shortened to 6" or 8"–same tip thickness, same degree of distal taper. You’d lose all that thickness/versatility.
Nice Atlas mill, BTW.
Yeah, the 7" petty is much thinner, the parer thinner still. The petty is the most flexible of the three. That big chef is quickly becoming my " why didn’t I get one of these fifty years ago" purchases. Of course in the late '60s in Seattle, 10" was as big as could be found in kitchen stores. That very old Atlas is a real champ.
BTW, you will notice on the left side of the ferrule there is a dent. That is, I assume, what made it B stock and saved me $169. I figure everything in my kitchen that isn’t just flat out breakable will eventually pick up some cosmetic damage. Accepting that fact makes it easier to find bargains and not obsess over dings.
Thanks for pointing out the blemish and making that point.
I had a similar experience with my 10" chef. That knife’s blade lists about 3 degrees to port relative to the handle. I bought it at Seattle’s City Kitchens’ GOOB sale, knowing of the flaw. I doubt even Eiron could straighten it, but the defect has never bothered me. I’ve forgotten how much I paid, but it was paltry for the quality.
Not a flaw. It’s a feature that allows you to cut around corners!
