Ok. Steak knives are not cookware, but …
I have been seeing ads for the Made In steak knives. $250 for 4 knives, so $60 a piece. A good set of four Wusthof Classic steak knives is $325 - ~$80 a piece. A set of four Shun Classic steak knives is $350. ~$85 a piece.
So here is my gut feeling. A good paring/petty/utility knife for $60-120 is quite reasonable to me. Happy to pay for one. However, a set of steak knives for $250-400 seems a lot to me. Maybe because I don’t use steak knives enough to justify the cost, or maybe the total sum is a larger number.
Anyway… how much have you spent on your steak knives and how much are you willing to spend?
What do you mean? I am trying to argue with myself (back and forth) on this. On one hand, it seems a lot. On the other hand, many good paring knives are about $50-100.
Yes, from a metallurgy standpoint, I don’t think paring knife quality is necessary. But from edge geometry, styling, and ergonomic standpoints, you probably want more quality. I think steak knives need to look like they belong on your table, if not match somewhat. They need to fit your hand, be balanced, and be easy to use without looking away from conversation.
I also think that if you used very sharp parers of this geometry, you’d end up scratching your china and flatware.
Yup… plus I am a fan of cheap steak knives. My favorite flatware is still my Rebacraft Japanese stainless (the ones with the bamboo style handles)… still going strong after close to 40 years.
No longer available and never had their steak knives so went with these (which match pretty well).
I can’t argue with this assessment. We have visited the premier knife shop in Theirs several times where I’ve tried hard to “need” a good set. They are indeed beautiful, but dh maintained sanity by reminding me how very infrequently we serve that kind of meat, and seldom in a dinner party setting.
I have had a cheap set of Laguiole by Flying Colors, Chinese knock-offs. They were $49 for six, have decent olive wood handles, and, best of all, are not serrated, making them easily sharpened. To the best of my knowledge, they are the only Chinese products in my kitchen. I would love a set of similar knives from France, US, UK, Italy, Japan…but not for $300 a set. So I guess my price could go higher than $49. How much higher would depend how much I liked them. There is real joy in cutting a piece of meat with a razor sharp blade.
I got 4 of these steak knives at the “99 Cent Only” store, at that time everything in the store was 99 cents. So I spent $3.96 + tax on our steak knives. They do a great job!!
Oddly they say “Pillsbury” on them, I never knew Pillsbury made knives until I purchased these.
The best bang for the steak knife buck IMO were the steak knives that Shell gave out in the late '60s (with fill up!). My parents probably got 12-15 of those suckers, and they worked like a dream. Second place goes to the set of Ginsu steak knives Mrs. ricepad received from her mother (IIRC) when she (Mrs. ricepad, not her mother) moved away for college. Unfortunately, when the Spawns moved out, Mrs. ricepad split that set up so they could each have some, and we replaced them with Ikea steak knives. Do not buy Ikea steak knives.
I paid around 40 euro for a single steak knife. They are part of my existing flatware set by Sambonet, called Baguette. They are made from silverplated steel, hence the price.
For me steak knives should look beautiful first and then cut well second. The max I would pay is around 50 euro per knife. If I hadn’t bought the Sambonet I’d probably get some French traditional ones (Laguiole) around the same price.
This was in the late sixties, and they lasted quite a long time. No awards for beauty, but they worked just fine. Design seems unchanged, and I see they’re pretty reasonable.
