Hello knife nerds...

[Uncle Bob]

Stumbled across this knife while watching a YT video (admit it, you've been there): The Yellowstone BBQ – New West KnifeWorks I've not been much of a TV series watcher so don't have any affinity for Yellowstone or the characters in it so the naming reference is lost on me. I do have an affinity for quality, hand crafted items that combine function and art. In my hot rod days it was always the goal to make a car that was both highly functional and aesthetically pleasing (not as easy as it sounds, just walk around any shows in your area and if you have a good eye you'll see plenty of examples of cars that are just off).

In the past I've bought a knife or two from Dalstrong, one for shock value (a huge chef knife that actually works very well albeit very heavy) the other for style (also works well, but...). Here's the "humor" knife next a an 8" Wustof. It's paid me back in shock value at dinner events as well as some utility.


Okay, back on point. If you go to the website there's a video with the owner discussing the development of this particular knife. He sounds genuinely committed to his craft and product. But my question is, can any knife be that good, or that much better than, for example, the Wustof? Certainly can it justify a price of around $600 (when using their 15% off new customer discount....yeah, there's a hint as to the profit margin they likely have). I'm torn between the idea that a sharp knife is a sharp knife, and the other "benefits" of holding an edge, supposed superior ergonomics, and so on are just window dressing.

If I had Panhead John money there wouldn't be any hesitation, just spend, spend, spend...but I'm just a poor, old guy living on Social Security.

[Steve B]

That last paragraph. 😂😂😂

[Mosca]

You mentioned two things that I think are pretty important: holding an edge and ergonomics.

The sharpest knives I have EVER used are those blister pack Member’s Mark knives from Sam’s Club. BKYDBBQ knows the knives I’m talking about, Eric gives them out at Mason Dixon BBQ classes. They are sharp like a surgeon’s scalpel. I sliced my finger and didn’t know it, they’re that sharp… for about an hour. One cook, maybe two. And then they’re never that sharp, ever again. You can sharpen them to about as sharp as your good knives: your Wusthof, Zwilling, Global, MAC, etc.. But they’re never again like they are when you first open that blister pack. And you have to sharpen them every week.

Which brings up ergonomics. Because at $8.49 per knife (actually $16.98 for two knives), a strong argument can be made for spending a minute before every session with a draw-through sharpener. Except remember I mentioned that I sliced my finger and didn’t know it? I sliced my finger because the knife is awkward. It’s a light stamped steel blade, in a light plastic molded handle, with an oddly curved blade and no bolster. Because it is so light, there is no real center of gravity for you to concentrate on. The handle is shaped in a way that it will fit a limited range of hands. The odd curve (look at it in relation to the spine, not how it curves from end to end) means it works well as a rocking knife, but won’t work well as a lift-and-slice knife.



So it’s awkward and uncomfortable… well heck, at least it’s cheap.

Then there’s the knives I call tweeners. Victorinox, Dexter, Mercer, etc. They cost more than $10, but less than $75. I had a Victorinox. I couldn’t get comfortable with it and gave it to our daughter. She likes it. We use the Mercers in class at LCCC; I like the blade, but I don’t care for the handle. I have a Dexter boning knife. The blade is sharper than my Henkels boning knife, but I don’t like the feel of the knife, and I use the Henkels.

“Jinba ittai” is a term used in Japanese design philosophy that roughly translates to “horse and rider as one”. I LOVE my Global gyotu. The first time I put my hand on that chef’s knife it felt like an extension of my fingers. I added a santoku; it feels the same, and I go back and forth between them without distinguishing: “Oh, I picked that one? Cool.” Then I got a nakiri. And I don’t like it. The blade is balanced differently. It is deadly on vegetables, but I don’t use it because the other two knives are “happier” to me. The nakiri is the better BLADE, but the other two are better knives.

FOR ME. Because someone else might pick up that nakiri and think, “OMG, this is perfect!” Or one of those Dexters, or the Victorinox, or heck, the Member’s Mark. Because, ergonomics. If you don’t like it, you won’t use it.

Kinda all over the place, but there you go.

[Uncle Bob]

Interesting commentary. Truth be told, one of my daily drivers for veggie prep and occasional carving is a $10 knife made in Thailand. It doesn't hold an edge at super sharp, but with daily tuning on a rod it cuts great. It has a simple wooden handle that feels fine though not the sexy "ergonomic" shape kinda stuff. It's just a workhorse. I share cutting duties with someone who doesn't have the same level of, let's call it respect, for knife maintenance as some of us, and it tolerates.

[Mosca]

The best knife for you is the one that you choose to use.

I use my hone every day. I hate the feel of pushing on a tomato!

[klflowers]

I have a couple Victorinox chef's knives. They are my daily drivers. I have some more expensive knives, but i truly don't know where they are. I think on the RV lol

[Panhead John]

The amount of my wealth is staggering. By some estimates I’m worth at least 6.8 bucks.

[Draznnl]

Wow!

[WI Bubba]

That's more than I would pay for you.

[texastweeter]

But how much are you after new member discount?

[WI Bubba]

It's a nice looking knife for sure. But I can find better uses for $700. And as Mosca pointed out, if it doesn't feel right in your hand, then it's no good at any price or quality.

[Mosca]

And as Mosca pointed out, if it doesn't feel right in your hand, then it's no good at any price or quality.

I didn’t mention, but a lot of people who don’t like the Global knives don’t like them for the same reason that so many people love them: the feel of the knife in your hand. Nobody disputes that it is an incredible blade, but people are sharply divided on the one piece handle. Ergonomics is pretty much the sole reason people either buy or don’t buy these.

[texastweeter]

Im one of the ones that dislike how they feel

[Mosca]

Folks love Hondas. I don’t like the way it feels to sit in the driver’s seat. None of the controls “fall to hand” for me. I’m okay with cars where I’m indifferent to that, but Hondas feel “wrong”. It’s hard to explain, because I really respect the brand.

[Mister C]

I'm also one that doesn't love the feel. Bought a cleaver from them and thought I would use it much more than I actually do, mostly because of the way it feels in my hand. Looks awesome though!

[Oak Smoke]

Wanting the very best tools for what you do is natural. Walk in my shop and you’ll see a large Snap-on tool box full of fine hand tools. I made my living with them for years. They are the best that I could get. If I were a mechanic now I’d have a box full of Icon tools from Harbor freight. They’re very good and much more affordable than Snap-on. That’s the way I am about knives now. My knife drawer if full of Victorinox, Case, and Rapala stuff. They do all the things I want to do with the skill level I have. I do have a pull through Chef’s Choice sharpener in the drawer and a Zwilling sharpening steel. I’m not skilled enough to know I need a better knives than those.

[Richard Chrz]

I tend to buy the best I can even when i shouldn't, and then when I stop doing that hobby, etc I sell it all. I try to hope that when I am done using whatever it is, it still has some value, and my ownership cost is kept reasonable.

[Mister C]

+1 on the Chefs Choice, best thing we ever bought and made most of our 'not great' knives into 'pretty exceptional' ones.

[Richard Chrz]

that large Dahlstrong shown reminds me of a 10-inch Bob Kramer Zwilling Chef knife a bit. One of the best knives I have ever held and sharpened. Worth? That is always a question to the person buying,

Amazon.com: ZWILLING KRAMER EUROLINE Carbon Collection 2.0 10-inch Razor-Sharp German Chef's Knife, Made in Company-Owned German Factory with Special Formula Steel perfected for almost 300 Years: Home & Kitchen

[texastweeter]

For that money look into this:

https://a.co/d/09qSWEcC

[Uncle Bob]

I take it this Kramer guy is famous in the knife world? Probably nothing to do with Seinfeld then....

[texastweeter]

Yeah he didnt invent "The Bro".

[58limited]

Almost $700? It looks like some old time Bowie knives that I've seen.

[au4stree]

I know he’s become more quirky since doing more “episodes” on YT, but Alton Brown just did an episode on knives. He indicated he would do more shows on knife work. I can’t tell you how much my love of cooking came from his original stuff on Food Network. Come to find out, a lot of his research came from our very own Meathead

But back to the OP’s post. I’ve recently been acquiring new knives. I really like the Shun brand, all those blades are wonderfully sharp and fit my hand perfectly. I did splurge on a Made In blade, it’s my favorite chef’s knife, really cool looking too. Carbon fiber handle!

[realdocBBQ]

'More quirky'? I dunno... he seems on his YT shows about like he's always been, to me. lol I like him. But I realize he's not for some people.

[fzxdoc]

I like Shun as well, because each one I bought fit my hand perfectly. I went to a Williams Sonoma and tried probably half a dozen other vendors' knives, but came back to the Shun. To me, buying a knife is like buying shoes. You've got to have the perfect fit or you'll always just be making do. That's why I'm hesitant to buy a good knife online although at $600 a pop, there should be a good return policy.

Kathryn

[Uncle Bob]

There's a "do you have a closet full of knives?" joke in there somewhere...

[wrgilb]

I agree with Kathryn, along with my original Forschners from my meat cutting days in the late '60s, I have a bunch of different Shuns that feel just right in my hand.

[Mister C]

Favorite knife I've bought was a Victorinox chef's knife from Amazon, around $30. Was recommended by ATK, and was really reasonably priced so I gave it a go. Cuts super clean, excellent grip on the handle, looks cheap but seems they did the right things right. Outperformed the few other chefs knives I had so we've stuck with it, been about 10 years now and still going strong.

A few years earlier I bought a Chef's Choice electric sharpener and that thing was an absolute game changer for all of our knives. It will re-grind the blade to a 15 degree edge more common in Japan vs the more traditional 20 degree edge. Also makes honing very simple. Spent the bulk of my knife money on this and used it to improve all the knives we own. That said, our knives don't have gorgeous handles or anything like that, and I could understand having a knife for the aesthetic qualities, provided it functioned well of course.

[Mosca]

I liked the blade in my Victorinox but couldn’t get comfortable using it. I gave it to our daughter and she loves it.

I spent 35 years in the car business. There are people who love and people who hate every single marque out there, from the cheapest ones to the most expensive ones. Choice is one of the great blessings of capitalism.

[Mister C]

I hear you, choice is definitely good

[JimLinebarger]

We have had a set of Wusthof knives for many years. My wife is hard on the edges and I had to keep sharpening them constantly because of the HRC being too soft (I think 56-58). I tried the nikiri from 177milkstreet which had an HRC of 60 and it was sharp and stayed sharp for a long time. However, the fit and finish was absolutely turrible. The spine was so sharp that I kept cutting myself. Had to take my WorkSharp to it so I could actually use it. So then I tried the Shun Classic series knives with VG-MAX steel at around 60-61hrc. They stay sharp but my wife is still hard on them. She chips hers but they stay sharp. I also have Mercer MX3 series blades like the nikiri and 6" utility. Really like those. They are 60-62hrc. Both the Shun and the Mercer rarely need sharpening. They are my go-to blades. From now on, I am trying to get knives with at least a hrc of 60+

That being said, I have gone though spending lots of dough on sharpeners. I started off with Smith's Precision Sharpening Kit along with V ceramic honing sticks. They worked quite well especially for my K-Bar. Used to have a bold spot on my left forearm because of the testing. For kitchen knives I went with the 3 slot Chef Choice. Worked ok but it also took off a lot of steel. Then I moved to the WorkSharp Ken Onion and really liked it. However, I noticed that there were scrape marks on all of my knives. Since I was now starting to do more kitchen knives and wanted to get some Japanese style blades, I couldn't have those marks scaring up the blades. Putting blue painters tape really didn't help, for me at least, so I started looking for something else. (Thinking back now I could have tried Teflon tape that might have worked...) I looked at EdgePro and Wicked edge. At that time I didn't like the price of the WE so I went with the EP. Got almost the entire setup. But for me, it was cumbersome and the blades didn't stay on because the magnet was too weak. I tried to add magnets but still didn't help. So I bit the bullet and got the Wicked Edge Obsidian-WE66 and like it. Even got a case but at that time had to go to a different company for it. There is a learning curve with all sharpeners.

I did look at the WorkSharp Professional Precision Adjust Elite Knife Sharpener but there were some design flaws which would allow for some movement of the angle and at that time only 800 grit. Now they have up to 3000. Since most of my resharpening is down at 1000, thought 800 would also take off too much steel. This kit looks great now. But not going to invest another $500 for it...yet. I still would like to get stones but think I would have the same issue with the EdgePro because of loss of dexterity of my hands, especially my left hand. Who knows, I still might do it anyway. I'm kind of a sharpening nutcase.

[realdocBBQ]

I have a nakiri too and while I've used it some... I just don't have the right cutting motion for it to work right for me, I guess. I'm not a chopper, so much as a slicer, I guess. I dunno, I do a lot of the rocking motion, nakiris aren't great for that.

I bought some knives for the 'shock value' as well. lol



Those top 3 are 14"ers. I like 'em, don't use 'em a lot, but still cool. I may think about picking up some more just for the love of 'em.

[barelfly]

Shock value…that’s like me and those Coolina knives I’ve seen on YT. Pretty cool looking knives, but…who knows about them really if they are anything!