Looking for reasonable priced knives.

The Victorinox chef's knives with the fibrox handles are highly favored on America's Test Kitchen. They purposely abuse the knives to see how they fare. We have an 8 inch model that sees daily use. You might be better off buying just the knives you need rather than a set.

-Dave
 
You might be better off buying one knife at a time....I typically rely on 3 or 4 knives out of all that I own. Older, carbon-steel knives can often be found at thrift shops and garage sales. They might look a little funky (stained & discolored), but can be easily sharpened to a razor`s edge. Victorinox and Forschner are reasonably-priced brands favored in commercial meat cutting facilities.
 
I'd avoid buying knife sets altogether and just buy the knives that you need. Although I have quite a number of knives in different styles, I can get by with just four knives and a steel for most of my work (aside from sushi where I would want a Yanagi (Japanese sashimi knife) although a Sujihiki (Japanese slicer) can be used in a pinch. IMO, the four knives that are the most important for me are:

- Gyuto (Japanese chef's knife). All purpose knife.
- Sujihiki (Japanese slicer). For filleting and slicing fish.
- Flexible boning knife. For butchering meats. (A cheap Dexter Russell is perfectly fine)
- Paring knife. For peeling, turning vegetables, etc... (Buy whatever's cheap)

I rarely, almost never, use a serrated knife since I keep my knives sharp enough to easily cut thru even the softest bread. If you really must have a serrated knife, my advice is to just buy a cheap Dexter Russell brand for under $20.

If you know how to take care of knives properly, it's a good investment to buy the best you can afford.
If you don't know how to take care of knives, I'd buy something cheaper until you learn how. Practicing on a $20 knife that you can screw up is a lot less painful than screwing up a $200+ knife.

For standard chef's knives, my recommended brands are:

For under $20: Dexter Russell
For under $50: Victorinox
For under $100-150: Togiharu, Masahiro, Yoshihiro, MAC
For over $200: Misono, Suisin
 
I do well on Ebay looking for knives under the "used" selection. I tend to like the old Henckel Friodur line, Gustav Emil Ern, and Wusthof. A lot of the new knifes from old names are German made steel but made in far Eastern countries. Wusthof still makes there own knives in Germany.
 
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I've been through a bunch of Knife sets- with the biggest problems for me being cracked handles and rust. My last set have been outstanding - no problems - Calphalon is the brand. I also have their pans which are nice and almost as nice as the the two really nice All-Clad I just bought.
 
I've been pleased with the Victorinox set I picked up about a year ago.

It's not a big block set, was just 4 (as I recall) basic knives. A Chef's knife, then a medium slicer type, a paring knife, then a serrated jobbie I thing they call a "Tomato" knife. Don't use that one very much.

I think the whole set was about $70 - 80 off Amazon.

Since fishing was a hobby, I already had a couple of that sort of long, flexible blade.
 
Victorinox knives are great to work with. They sharpen easily and keep an edge well.

I too am not a fan of knife "sets". So many of them are china made these days. Calpholon knives have a reputation of cracking at the handle, but they sure look good. WMF makes some nice cutlery. I have two Sonderklasse knives and like their quality. They are expensive. Another less known name that makes fine knives is Burgenvogel. They are superb quality and finely designed.

I would avoid Cutco knives as they are expensive and massed produced. They are also sold like Tupperware. Many young men and women have been forced to buy a complete set of knives to be able to sell cutco products. In the end they are stuck with a set of expensive, so-so knives and a career that is a dead end road.
 
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Thanks all. I now agree about knive sets. I have 2 very old Wusthof and will continue to build my set one at a time. After clean up and sharpening they work well.
 
They're slightly cheaper than http://korin.com/site/home.html but I still prefer shopping at Korin due to their great customer service as well as free pre-sharpening on brand new knives which makes them even sharper than out of the box. To me that's worth paying the slightly (up to 10%) higher price.

Take a look at this place they have Japanese made knifes of all styles and a wide range of prices from reasonable to several thousand dollars.

http://japanesechefsknife.com/
 
I have been sharpening my own knifes since I was a teenager. As a big game (meat) hunter that is something that goes with it. Plus I had uncles who where butchers. Learning how to sharpen Japanese knife with Japanese whetstones was a real eye opener and not a easy as it looks. I can see why a Japanese master sharpener is a big deal.
 
Trhee I am curious do you use the Damascus forged knifes or the more conventional knife blades?. These Damascus blades are beautiful but I cannot see how they would do the job any better then a knife blade made from good steel. I purchased a Gerber hunting knife, fantastic but it was so hard that is was all but impossible to sharpen it in the field.
 
These were $12/pair at Costco a few years ago. They've replaced some much more expensive German knives as my daily drivers. Hard to beat for the price.

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I like Shun's. Not really cheap but only need a couple. Plus I only get em when they are on sale.
 
I very much like the Kai Wasabi Black line of kitchen knifes reasonable in price they have good traditional Japanese handles and the steel is good. I have the 6" Nakiri one the best vegetable knives I have ever owned.
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Whether it's damascus or not is an entirely side issue for me. IMO, it's not necessarily a technical merit of the knife, but rather a cosmetic one and I don't choose knives on this basis alone. FWIW, I don't own any knives of this type.

Trhee I am curious do you use the Damascus forged knifes or the more conventional knife blades?. These Damascus blades are beautiful but I cannot see how they would do the job any better then a knife blade made from good steel. I purchased a Gerber hunting knife, fantastic but it was so hard that is was all but impossible to sharpen it in the field.
 
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