good knives. advice please.

[Katerina75]

having watched some cookery programmes where chefs are chooping difficult things effortlessly I have decided it is time to invest in some quality knives (though the contents of my £15 knife block has served me until now..)

what i need from you wise MNetters, is whether you think good knives do make a difference, and what brand you would recommend.

also, I think I just need a large chopping knife and a small sharp knife - do you think I need more than that?

thanks in advance for your help!

My knives cost me £20 and they are fab (and DP is a chef so should know).

Just go for some with a nice thick blade so there is plenty of room to sharpen them regularly. Invest in a good chef's steel and sharpen them regularly.

I am not a chef, but my sister's fiancee is, and he swears by his knives (he has more than one set, all very top notch and expensive). I have a set of Sabatier knives which I bought in Watt Brothers on sale years ago and they are wonderful (with my ikea knife sharpener)! I would say: yes, it's important to have 'good' knives, and I am sure you'll get good recommendations by more knowledgeable posters but I like my Sabatier ones - which weren't actually particularly expensive, you can get knife sets for silly money.

And, no, you probably don't need more than the large chopping knife and the small sharp one; if you get a set it will include a good bread knife too though, and I love mine

Hope this helps!

i have global knives which are amazing amazing. i think better than sabatier.

i agree - just get one biggish one

thanks all for your recommendations. the global are a lot more expensive than sabatier - does anyone know if they're worth the money?

go and try them and see how they feel in your hand. Global doesnt do it for me 9my hands seem to be too small) but Sabatier does. (make sure to go for the Sabatier made out on one piece of metal and not the cheaper versions)

Global knives are really good - they use them in our kitchen at work.

I have Henkels knives (after my cheapo knife block knives finally got as about effective as spoons) and I really like them. They have a nice weight in the hand, feel balanced and solid. And much sharper. I agree you don't need loads of knives, 3 or 4 would probably do. I have one small sharpy, one slightly bigger serrated, a bread knife, two "cooks knives" and a sharpener. I don't use the biggest cooks knife as much, could probably do without that.

my ex got some global ones about a year ago - feck they were expensive, but the sabatier ones we had had for, umm 15+ years, were way past their best. When he left (taking the global knives but not the old sabatier ones) I had to get some more as the old ones were crap after using the new ones.
I got knives only, not the block for 99p+P&P from an offer in my parent's telegraph. They probably aren't as good as the global, but I like them.

We have Global knives, (my cousin works for them so we got a discount) we have a big cooks knife, a paring knife a 6" one and a 9" flexible bladed one. They're excellent, they keep sharp for ages. We also have a couple of sabatiers, but I prefer the global ones.

The most important thing is to get a decent sharpener. I use a sharpening stone which my Dad got me, it's for sharpening chisels really but it works brilliantly.

I rarely cook at home, DP does it all. I have to cook at work though, the knives there are dreadful and I curse them constantly. So Yes, a good knife does make all the difference.

You need to go to a shop and ask to try them out, any good knife retailer will have some fruit or veg out back for you to have a practice on. Then you can get one that feels comfortable and is the right size/wieght.

Unless you are a serious chef and really into cooking i would advise not to be suckered into buying a whole set of knives you won't use alot of them and it is better to spend a decent amount of money on just getting a really good chefs knife boning and vegtable knife and a carving knife. I would also get a good steel.

At the end of the day you get what you pay for, i have found a cheap set though which some one brought me (i am a horder of knives) and it is these i use mine reguarly as the chefs knife in general is really good.

I used to be a head chef before i had the kids so i feel i can advise you fairly well.

Just be carefull as they are bloody sharp when freshly sharpened i have multiple cuts on my fingers when i first got this set!

yep decent knives absolutely worth it, decent sharpener v imp too. i think a whetstone is supposed to be the best?

that said, you don't have to have top of the line at home i reckon. i'm very happy with my reasonably cheap (i.e. £20ish at the time) sabatier and my weird little x-shaped sharpener. don't feel you have to have an enormous chef's knife, i mostly use my 6" sabatier and mostly use my big knife when that one's dirty (and for chopping mounds of cabbage).

Lots of great advice, thank you. Will go and try them out and will definitely invest in decent ones. Good point about the bread knife, I do need a good one.

Love the idea of the magnetic rack but there's no room for that at the moment - when the kitchen gets remodelled (can't wait!) will think about incorporating one.

Yes, good knives worth it, particularly if you are buying a cook's knife (the big heavy one used for chopping) - but as others have said, you don't really need a set.

you need to think about what sort of tasks you do in the kitchen. I would recommend a good quality 8" cook's knife (Sabatier, Wusthof, Henckels all good, as are many Japanese knives) and a slicing knife which can also be used as a carving knife. I think you can get away with cheaper knives for small paring knives and bread knives (Victorinox is a good brand). Most importantly, you should sharpen knives every time you use them - either a steel or stone or one of the sharpeners you run the knife through.

can you tell I used to sell knives?

I get my kitchen stuff from Nisbets (the catering suppliers) these days - anyone can order. I got a non stick saucepan, Le creuset type pot and Sabatier knife all for about £38.

Am on the hunt for a good bread knife now though, the Tesco Value one doesn't really cope with my soggy home made bread.

how exactly do you sharpen? ex always used to do it, so I never bothered to learn...

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How about a food chopper? they're nice and quick.

i never managed to get the hang of a straight steel, just couldn't get them sharp. my folks had an electric sharpener, but that didn't work for me either. i tried to find a pic of my sharpener online without any luck - it's a little (3" or so) thing with a rounded black plastic handle and two little steels in an X shape. you hold it steels down and draw the knife towards you across the top of the X. maybe it's something to do with the angle of the steels, but it keeps my knives exactly as sharp as i like them (well, the more expensive ones, my cheapy paring knife doesn't get as sharp but i love its shape and slight bendiness and it does the job).

I think you are supposed to sharpen the Japanese ones on a whetstone for perfection, Bloss.

For general sharpening this is good, but cheaper ones do the trick too, so long as they are used regularly.

I bought some bloody expensive sabatier knives a couple of years ago and they nearly all broke, the bread knife is still knocking around i think..the lovely man in john lewis recommended much cheaper weighty knife set and an electric sharpener and they're all great no complaints 18 months later

i also 2nd nesbits, great value. i mostly buy everything i can at john lewis as it's stress free and great aftercare

I've used global knives for the last four years. I think they're fab. They do blunt quite quickly so you have to sharpen on a regular basis, but I feel that are well worth the money.

Expensive knives are one of those things that the first time you use them, you can't believe how crap all the other ones you've been using seem.

We have Henkels and they are fantastic. The range is huge but unless you're filleting your own sashimi or doing really specialist cooking, you would be fine with a large chopping knife, a small or medium-sized serrated knife and perhaps a bread knife.