Where can I buy a knife?

[DilemmaDelilah]

I want to buy a good kitchen knife. I have one I bought from Sainsbury's about 40 years ago that is perfect. It is the right weight, the right size, the right shape, not too flimsy, it's perfect.... Except that the tip got broken off several years ago and I'm finding that I just can't get it sharp any more.

I made the mistake of buying a kitchen devil cooks knife a month or so ago - on a recommendation - and it's just too flimsy. It bends! It came all sealed in plastic so I couldn't tell how flimsy it was before I got it home. It's OK for meat, but show it a swede or a decent sized carrot and it trembles....

so - I want to know where... in an actual physical shop.... I can look at and handle proper sharp kitchen knives before I buy one. Is that even possible any more? I live in a small city that used to have a couple of good Cooks Shops, but they have gone now. We don't even have a Debenhams any more. We do still have a John Lewis - would they have kitchen knives that a customer can handle?

Please don't just recommend brands of knives - I need to handle a knife to know if it is any good. Just point me towards a place where I can do that please. If it helps... I'm in the South West...

Ooh - thanks for mentioning Lakeland, I completely forgot to look on their website, and they sent me a voucher the other week too. I've been looking for a knife as well - a small, pointy and very sharp vegetable knife, and my hunt has already lasted since July when my last one disappeared without trace.

Depends on your budget.

Are you chopper or a rocker? That makes a difference to the shape of the belly of the knife. German style rounded or japanese style is flatter.

If you don't mind splashing some cash either one of these will be the only knife you'll ever need.

WÜSTHOF Classic IKON 8-Inch Chef's Knife

Tojiro DP F807-18

We have bought over the years, a fine selection from TK Maxx, ie Victorinox, Sabatier, Japanese chefs knife, small lightweight paring knives etc.

Has anyone here been in the Japanese Knife Shop on Baker Street?

Me too. Beware the serrated ones though. They're sharp as hell and really easy to slice a bit of finger off with.

John Lewis is your friend

For any knife you buy make sure the 'tang' extends through the entire handle.

Sabatier knives used to be really good but I believe are now made in China and their steel is not as good as Sheffield steel was...

Label and
Pro Cook
John Lewis

All 3 have a branch at The Mall, Cribbs Causeway (Bristol).

Yes to Sabatier knives, I have two which where my mum's so maybe 30 years old? Still going strong, great to use and sharpen well

Thank you all. I'm pretty sure we no longer have pro cooks or lakeland but I will check (I don't go into town much). We definitely have John Lewis.

On another note - I have a vegetable knife that was cheap as chips that works beautifully, and I got my bread knife out of a skip! I think splashing out on one good cooks knife is definitely worth it.

My favourite knife is from JL and cost £8! It is a good size all-purpose kitchen knife. When I went, I seem to remember the display had cards on it with real-size images of the knives, but the staff would fetch any you wanted to look at/handle etc.

The worst bit about a new knife is the cuts you get until you are used to the balance! Or is that just me 😂

I had to come back here as I’m trying to avoid pretty, but incredibly spendy Japanese knife ads currently following me around the internet. 😳

I’ve always had Sabatier, but the handles haven’t survived over the decades. So instead I bought a couple of Victorinox recently, which aren’t as flash, but my god are they sharp! (Sabatier handles are some kind of modern Bakelite and crack eventually. Victorinox are bog-standard plastic.)

Still want a beautiful Japanese knife though. <wistful>

I was on a similar search to you, OP, a few years ago. John Lewis Kingston did bring some knives out for me to handle, but it felt a little reluctant. They’d disappear off and bring one back, be a little surprised I wanted to take it out to look at it, rinse and repeat. A little as if I’d asked to handle some guns. I guess they are dangerous weapons, but it made the choosing quite stressful!

I don’t think Lakeland brought any out, and they didn’t have as good a choice.

For actual looking (not online) you may need a day in London visiting:

David Mellor

Borough Kitchen

as well as John Lewis.

Thank you @ANagsHead , I'm undergoing treatment for cancer so any trips to London (or anywhere really) are completely out for me. I have a few days off work so we tottered around Iceland and B&M this morning and I am now completely shattered!

Sabatier have stopped doing wooden handles now?! Oh no! I got my last one two years ago and assumed I could continue adding to the same style/set.

John Lewis is good, I like victorinox. Lakeland not bad either

Oh dear! What you really need, @DilemmaDelilah is an old fashioned door to door salesperson who will arrive at your house with a suitcase full of knives.

(Although - I’m not sure I love that image in my head …)

I bought an amazing bread knife from this place.

No, they still do wooden handles, I chose black plasticky ones about 40 years ago, cos black 🤷🏻‍♀️

Just had a new kitchen and got Sabatier knives from Amazon. They're amazing.