Actually, my wife has let me know in no uncertain terms that if she is to continue preparing food for the family, she WILL have a new set of kitchen knives! Sounds fair enough.

So, does anyone know of a special good deal on a set of professional grade kitchen knives? She wants Henckels because that's all she knows.....but its more than I do. I'm guessing that Henckel has some competition, but again I don't have a clue about kitchen knives.

Thanks!

 

There is more than one grade of Henckels - try searching on the web for them. They don't have to cost in the hundreds.

 

Thanks, not too worried about the price (within reason), I figured I'd spend around $400-$600 for a pro level set. I know I want them to forged from carbon steel, and those aren't cheap for the real deal.

 

There's several. I like Wusthof and Global, personally. I own a set of the Wusthof Trident knives and after several years they're still razor sharp.

In my opinion you should be careful of the cheaper brands. I bought some Mundial knives for spares (they were on sale cheap at some place). Useless things, eventually gave them away. You just couldn't keep a decent edge on them.

Btw, I find my 8" Chef's knives to be the most useful - I probably use them about 90% of the time. The other smaller knives and specialty knives are handy once every so often but the 8" (20cm) blade is a good size and weight for most cutting and chopping.

With good knives you should take care of them. My two main tips would be:

* Don't put them in the dishwasher, regardless of whether they're dishwasher safe.
* Use a honing (sharpening) steel occasionally, and learn how to use it properly!

 

I just picked up a Wusthof carving knife when I was in germany, what a difference a really quality knife makes. Its weight feels perfect in your hand and really makes carving effortless.

 

Get the henkels with the 2 dudes on it. It's good knifes. We have soem and they slice/dice and everything well. Another really good knife was the Ginsu! J/K about the GInsu, but actually the My mom bought a cutco knife and it is the best knife ever. That thing is incredible!

 

I have several Global knives and am very happy with them. Sur La Table and Williams and Sonoma both carry them. I think they even carry them on amazon.com.

 

Cutco knives are awesome

 

This time came for us two Christmas' ago. We went with this Henckel's set:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...lance&s=kitchen

We have been very pleased with this set. They cut great and are easy to resharpen. Buying from Amazon saves taxes.

 

We have the Henckels basic set and nice block and have been happy but our next knives will by Kyocera ceramics.

Awesome!

They stay sharp - although I have found some colorful characters in the knife sharpening business.