WHY I DON'T USE EXPENSIVE KNIVES (The Only 3 Kitchen Knives You Need, All Under $30!)

I use a utility knife 99,9% of the time. Usually just prepping and slicing meats. This is great content. Oh- this subject, first, made me think of the cutting tool she used for just about everything. It is so much the opposite, in presentation, of anything which appeared here. It looks like something out of a salvage yard. Just a thin piece of metal with a hallow handle. Sharp and iconic

What knife sharpener should i get??

As a little bonus from myself, I have french Tefal EverSharp, this one comes with it's own sharpener and casing in one, so every time you pull it out for work it will be sharp. I have it for 2 years now and I love it.

It's the difference between "Good" and "Best": "Good" is for putting food on the table; "Best" is for arguments on the internet.

You can sharpen a serrated knife same way as a regular knife on a sharpening rod. Only you hold your angle on the bevel side and take off the burr on the back side of scallops at almost a flat angle.

In my second year of college I bought a Wusthof chef knife. It was a real financial stretch for me at the time. 3 decades later it's still the exact same knife that I use ⅔ of the time in the kitchen. There may be better knives out there but this one has 30 years of muscle memory behind it. For paring knives it's Victorinox. I also have a Vic. boning knife and an F. Dick offset serrated knife almost identical to the Victorinox shown in this video. Add a Dexter-Russell 3.5" serrated utility knife for cutting anything I don't want to subject the other knives to, and I'm done.

And yeah, I have good water stones (mainly bought for maintaining woodworking tools) and I know how to use them.

You had me convinced when you said Toyota Corolla. Saved me $800

I can't say enough good things about the Mercer BPX 8" chef knife. I'm obsessed with it.

Victor/Victoria

"never gets as sharp as I like" judging from the way you were using that whet stone, I would expect no less.

Agree 100% - when one of my expensive knives broke (not the knife's fault) I bought a much cheaper one and a year later I'm convinced it's just as good.

My favorite meat knives are Victorinox Forschner. When I bought these knives I went to a restaurant supply and told the guy that I was going to process meat for my 3 animals for meals every day (raw food diet). He showed me these knives and I have been in love with them for about 30 years now. They have been thru some really bad sharpening events over the years, but still sharpen akin to a razor. I think what I love about them the most is the really thick rubbery grip handles. Zero slippage and maximum control of the knife. Oh and btw..my other favorite knives are Cuisinart bought at Sam's Club. They too have that thick handle and I keep them razor sharp too. I am looking for a bread knife and Im pretty sure Im going to like offset serrated knife.

Smiling as I strop my higo knife. For small chores the hagane blade cuts like no other.

"The toyota corolla of the knife world" Previous mechanic here and you're absolutely right! 😂

Perfect! So glad I never splurged on super expensive knives. I have a set I bought from Groupon, but I pretty much use only three or four!!!! And they all still sharpen up quite nicely.

To be frank, I have all expensive knives, but they are all 35 years old. The cheap knives available then were pretty poor. However, I take your point and agree, which is why I keep 1 caveat to the above: a 6” Chicago Cutlery Chef’s knife. It has been an equal to all my Wusthoffs.

Worked as a cook for many years and fell in love with a 7" santoku. Perfect size sweet spot to do pretty much every task. I think the one thing I don't use it for is cutting bread (I use my serrated almost exclusively for this).

That said, I've been making a lot of sushi lately and have been thinking of getting a sujihiki to make cleaner cuts on my rolls. Not a necessity, but would be nice!

A very slim bendy fillet knive should be added to your list... It does not have to be expensive, can be very cheap... But for certain tasks it is just superior

As a professional high end custom kitchen knifemaker... I agree with you. Expensive knives have nothing to do in a professional kitchen/restaurant. But!
But, they truly belong to your personal kitchen at home! Where you have time to take care of them, no risk of thief, and you have time to fully enjoy the experience and pleasure they can give you.

I've been using a Lidl Chefsknife for 4-5 years now with the occasional sharpening, maybe cost me 20 bucks.
Just waiting for it to die so I can use the Tefal I got at an outlet for 15 bucks.

I have that Dexter chef’s knife and it’s my favorite also! Over my very nice Wustof that was my favorite before.

Victor I KNOX

Get some Old Hickory carbon steel knives. With a tiny bit of sanding the handles they'll be better than 99% of even the most expensive knives out there

Nothing wrong with a Zwilling, Wüsthof, Lion Sabatier, Mercer etc. if you prefer a forged knife. They’re 2-3x more than a Victorinox Fibrox and are nicer to use imo. It’s not that much of a premium to pay. I’m not a knife snob. It’s personal preference. I have a few forged knives and a few stamped.
Anything more than those though and you’re getting into cork sniffing nonsense. There’s little to no advantage from a €500 knife over an €80 knife.

I brought a set of Victorinox steak knives the chefs knife and the bread knife little over a year ago…life changing! Also the fact they are very inexpensive and have plastic handles means I don’t made when my wife puts them in the dishwasher.

I only use expensive knives

I like having a better chefs knife for slicing especially things that you don't want to crush then have most other stuff be cheaper that I don't care if I chop through bones etc. Like I don't want a really expensive cleaver or boning knife or anything like that

This might sound silly but I like those infomercial knife sets. A, I just love infomercials, used to binge watch them in Japan when I was missing home. I had the Ronco 6 star knives. Set was about $40 way back. After 15 years the still cut really well but the cheap handles feel apart. No biggie. I bought the miracle blades world class. They have molded on handles. And if they break in another 15 years, I'll toss them and get another set.

In terms of kitchens knives i found decently priced knives from brand on aamazon. May 2x what the chefs knife in the video costs but i prefer the thicker blade stock for peeling/crushing garlic and sharpening them isnt all that bad for me (thicker blade stock also means less wory while sharpening of the blade flexing). They stay sharp for like 6 months and then i just sharpen it up. Ive since bought the santoku, pairing, and 9 inch cleaver style chef knif. Love them all. Rotating them also prolongs their sharpness.

Truth! Thanks for the vid.

Over several decades, I have gone through the same experience. There’s nothing like coming home to discover some noob abusing a Japanese custom blade. I’ve always had the Victorinox’s and the two chef’s I spent years with both used a $55-65 chef knife you could get on Amazon anytime. One did own some nice knives, probably a gift, but I never saw him use them. Both firmly believed anymore than 3 knives was overkill. I will occasionally use a swept back style knife for butchering meat, and smtm’s I will still take out my Japanese fruit knife. When ppl ask, I tell them just buy some Global knives if the Walmart Costco knives are not enough. I’ve handled knives that cost over $800, and don’t cut as well as a Global knife. Just be careful, the 17° angle edges can be a little delicate w bone and nearly frozen items.

great opinion. my next choice!, most DEFINITELY!

@Brian... "victory" + "inoxidizable" (stainless) = victory-nox = Victorinox. It's not some guy named Victor :-). Thanks for mentioning Dexter Russel - I was ignorant.

knives are truly a thing i am happy for german heritage. we make bomb ass knives for less than 100€ usually. they hold their edge better than japanese knives as well. although they dont get as sharp^^

None of those knives could fillet a fish. I get your point about high end japanese knives, but victorinox knives are well worth the money

That fillet knife you shown at the end 😂
I can speak from experience to NEVER try and cut an apple with that to make apple pie.
I ended up in the ER missing the inside part of my thumb.
Needless to say when we got home my inner thumb was waiting for me on the cutting board.
Oh and I finished the apples but ended up making crisp 😂

I fell in love with the Global knife the first time I used it. I like that the handle and the blade are integrated, and the feel of them in my hand. The disadvantage is that they are expensive. I don't think we even have your 2 brands here. But once we went Global, we never went back!

I Bake a lot so I use a LONG SERRATED Knife to cut Layers in half. And I still would want to have a slicing knife and would not be without the Boning knife.
However, I have been gifted several very expensive Japanese Knives and they do have advantages. Still - the one think I would recommend is to take lessons in how to Sharpen a Knife with Sharpening stones. It is probably more important than the knives themselves

I just kinda use what I have now and it's mostly just two small and thin knives, they're maybe 10cm, and one chef's knife which doesn't really hold an edge too well, you gotta sharpen it every 3 uses or so, and it works... I have used nicer knives though and the difference is so huge, it literally speeds up everything by like 30-40%, depends how much you have to cut. You can just cut without really thinking or trying not to stab yourself; I unironically think sharp knives are safer just because if you know how to handle one, you don't end up cutting yourself because you had to hold that carrot at a certain angle for that knife to work, but then it actually slips and you just stabbed your hand... A sharp knife just cuts that carrot dead.

I have 3 Japanese knives that are beautiful, super sharp and ergonomic and I love them. But for the rest of the family I have a few old Wusthofs (not really cheap when new) I got at garage sales and thrift shops. I often find myself reaching for a hand me down 80s Farberware chef knife that, for whatever reason, is easy to sharpen, and if I do my part by using proper cutting techniques stays sharp long enough that I sharpen once a year if that!

The only expensive thing you should own are a good set of sharpening stones. And obviously the knowledge on how to sharpen properly

Agreed but even more. Just use cheap knifes in the kitchen. Easy to charoen and who cares

I needed to hear this.

no please please it's pronounced more like victoreenox

Completely disagree, I always see people just grinding the shit out of those Dexter knives to get a mediocre edge and because is a soft cheap metal it loses it's edge quickly and back to the electric sharpener it goes.

I get my modest Japanese steel knife to razor sharpness on a whetstone in half an hour once every six months and it stays like that .. because it's harder steel. It's also way more comfortable in my hands than one of those big floppy dildo knives.

I don't think you need a knife over 100 dollars but something in the 70-80 German or Japanese style is far superior than those $5 webstaurant specials.

I agree with certain ideas of the knife and use of it, but I think building your knowledge and experience with kitchen knives is to use it and make decisions regarding the products usability. I have over 100 knives and worth over 20 or 30k. My daily go-to is under 10 knives. 3 or 4 knives can be covering 90% of daily use. I still do not discount my other 100+ knives to help me grow my knife skills and learn more things about its use and how those designs and reasons behind those irregularities.

Dexter's the best.

Preach. My Nakiri knife cost $25. Great as a butchers knife and bone buster.

You forgot "Knife Knut"