I own 50+ kitchen knives, but my overall favourite pair are these two quite reasonably priced knives from Kramer and Global.
Kramer Meiji 20 cm chefs knife - great finish, great ergonomics and nice sharpness. A bit too thick blade, so not a laser by any means, but I love it. Own two of them, so I have a backup.
Global GSF-34 Extra thick shaft Tournier knife - this Tournier is fantastic for cutting mushrooms, peeling onions, berries, peeling Brussels sprouts and many many other things.
What’s your favourite and most used kitchen knives ?
Wow the Thai cleaver is a beauty! Seriously tempted to get one…
The Robert Herder: well, I live in the Netherlands, neighbouring Germany, and these knives have been used forever by all the grandmas here. You can buy them for 10 euro something in many regular shops, not only specialised cookware shops. Though these days most people opt for the stainless steel version.
I believe my avatar is a lion?! I must admit I just like the pic, I don’t understand most of the signs. But I’m a big fan of the artist who made this, a guy from Singapore. You can follow him on instagram. (Edited to add: it is a merlion indeed!)
Ah, then it is definitely a merlion. Merlion is the symbol for Singapore. Quote from Wikipedia: " The Merlion (/ˈmɜːrˌlaɪən/) is the official mascot of Singapore."
I use my cheap cheap kiwi’s very often, besides my other knives, esp for garlic, onions, ginger etc
My best one is a carbonext gyuto. But I chop and change (pun intended).
Got 2 globals and a number of Victorinoxes, some heavy cleavers and a number of other chef’s knives
I like knives, but I can be a bit difficult about them. As soon as somebody else would be helping cutting in the kitchen, I hide my good knives and they can use the others.
I own nine knives other than table knives and steak knives. The nine include a heavy cleaver I might use once or twice a year. My favorites are 1/3 of my knives. You own 50 and chose two. I am not sure if this has any significance, but it is a pretty big swing.
I think I have around 15 knives total. Not sure what the total number of knives would say, though, other than that person directing an above average portion of his/her disposable income to knives.
I just wrapped up a lot of my superfluous collection and put it in the Goodwill box. I kept the sentimental favorites: first chef’s knife, my Sabatier carbon steel knives - but there were a lot of pretend nakiris and usubas and Santokus and “utility” knives that really just took up real estate. After all the pandemic isolation and hoarding —- excuse me— prepping of Stuff I Might Not Be Able To Get, I’m weary and want to simplify. I will admit right now - I love cheap paring knives, Kiwis are great, and I have other mid-range to semi-high range that I use, but at this late stage in my life, it’s all about knowing what I can do with less, rather than more, and the results make me smile a little.
I bought most of these 50-55 knives a couple of years ago.
A dozen of them are cheap Dick (blue plastic handle) raw meat/butcher knives and I solely use these for cutting raw meat, deboning poultry and filleting raw fish.
I love these knives. Will always have them in my collection. Cheap & very effective raw meat knives.
But I don’t cut up raw meat/poultry/fish that often, maybe once or twice weekly. So they are far from my most used knives. But definitely mainstays in my knife collection.
As far as paring knives goes, I’ve found out that I don’t want to use a crazy sharp paring knife, so I deliberately don’t sharpen them to as sharp a state as I do with my bigger knives.
They should definitely be sharp, as a blunt knife is very dangerous, but not insanely sharp, as I often handle things with a paring knife/Tournier knife where I cut quite closely to my fingers, if I’m holding it while cutting it. So I actually prefer a somewhat less sharp paring knife and the Global Tournier knife has a more soft point than for instance my Wüsthof Classic Ikon Tournier knife, which has very nasty sharp point, that I don’t find comfortable to use for most daily tasks.
However when I do a real Tournier potatoe, the Wüsthof Tournier knife would be the knife I picked for the task.
I do rotate my knives very often, but once I get the Kramer Meiji chefs knife in my hand, I always say to myself: ‘Why do I bother using other knives than this ?’
My thought was not about the size of the collection or the investment in it. It was more along the lines of @Meekah mentioning the way we all pass through stages and for some of us there is actual joy in winnowing. Both you and @Claus have some truly amazing knives, and I am sure using them brings you joy as well. Our shared interest in cooking tools and cookware is, of course, first and foremost about loving to cook, but the delight in building up a well appointed kitchen is fun, too. I have a few knives I use so infrequently that I sometimes think of letting them go. It is the intangible pleasure of simply having them that holds me back. Maybe I am turning into Smaug.
I hear you on the unnerving aspect of close work with sharp knives. Last night I fine diced a clove of garlic like an onion, cutting into thin strips from one end, rotating ninety degrees and repeating, and then slicing off the little cubes. It definitely required good light and my readers! The little cubes ended up in a Chinese white sauce for stir fried tofu, onion, bell pepper, sprouts, snow peas, and, the star of the dish, baby bok choy. I spiked the white sauce with five spice and tossed in some dry roasted peanuts, too.
F. Dick deserves more airplay. Their sharpening and honing steels are terrific, and they have a line much less expensive than the Dickoron line that offers a lot of value.
F. Dick probably is the leader in sharpening and honing steels.
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BarneyGrubble
(Fan of Beethoven and Latina singers)
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I got tired of my old bread knife that used to squish the bread, so I replaced it with a Mercer that I got cheap from Amazon. I’m really pleased with it - very sharp, and does a great job.
I was hoping it would be the solution to cutting biscotti after the first bake; it is not, as the biscotti breaks up. The best I’ve found is a thin ham slicer, but it’s not perfect. Does anyone have a recommendation?
couldn’t resist
