Kitchen knife recommendations
Retired since 2019, I do 100% of cooking and I am brutal on kitchen knives using hard poly cutting boards. We have multiple knife sets and individual pieces including Wüsthof, Victorinox, KitchenAid, Cuisinart, Kuma, Chicago Cutlery and cheap white handle NSF restaurant supply knives.
Knives are sharpened using the
method outlined by Burrfection channel with 600/1000 grit whetstone bought off Amazon on a Lighting Deal sale (I think I paid like $7) and of course, they are hand washed only and never put in the dishwasher.
Knife Set - Daily hard use workhorse has been the all
stainless German steel with textured handle Cuisinart knife set from Costco for $22. Even with abusive daily pounding/chopping on poly cutting boards, Chef knife still only requires 2-3 sharpening a year and daily honing with Henckels sharpening steel. I am truly surprised by this cheap knife set's performance now going on over 5 years. Hands down, I definitely recommend this knife set for hard kitchen use.
Wife's KitchenAid knife set continues to perform well and Chef knife only requires once a year sharpening but it is not used as often and since it's wife's set, I am more careful when using it (I use the KitchenAid Chef knife as a backup when Cuisinart Chef knife is not sharp and don't have time for sharpening). It is heavier than Cuisinart knifes but well balanced in my hand -
https://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-KKFTR14SL-Cutlery-Classic-Forged/dp/B01LN5CJY0/ref=sr_1_6?
Chef knife - If you are looking for one knife for kitchen use like Chef knife, my recommendation is 8" Kuma with 3Cr13 steel. It is lighter in weight than Cuisinart Chef knife with slimmer Japanese profile and comfortable rounded handle. It is a dream to cut with this knife and I reserve Kuma for delicate cutting tasks like slicing sushi rolls but it has done very well cutting through hard vegetables and meats.
I bought one to try after watching
Kuma win Burrfection "Best $20 knife" out of the box sharpness comparison when introduced 5 years ago (Jump to 6:30 minute of video) and
beating $160 Wüsthof Chef knife in sharpness test using different whetstone. I was so impressed with this "cheap" knife, bought several more at $15 to gift (Now $34 but if you get on email list, you will get annual Black Friday 50% off deal on two knives and other discount offers) -
https://www.amazon.com/Kuma-Multi-Purpose-Chef-Knife/dp/B01ERJTK1E/ref=sr_1_7?
Burrfection again did "Best of $20" out of the box sharpness knife challenge in 2022 and Kuma once again came out on top on rope cutting torture test with 92 cuts beating out Mercer Millennia with 80 cuts (28:50 minute of video) -
https://www.burrfection.com/videos/v/20buckknives
Boning/Fillet knife - My favorite boning and fillet knife is the cheap $7 white handle NSF knife I bought at a kitchen supply outlet store like this -
https://www.restaurantsupply.com/de...steel-fillet-knife-with-textured-white-handle
It is my go-to knife for all the meat cutting/trimming tasks and is particularly well suited for slicing off silver skin from chuck roast that my wife despise for making ground beef and trimming tri tip/pork shoulder roasts. It is also great for filleting ocean caught fish like Ling cod/Rock cod and butchering through hard to cut chicken throat only bested by Victorinox (Wife's favorite) which I never need to sharpen for this single task. The cheap white handle NSF knife gets sharpened about twice a year and honed the rest of time and I recommend it.
Chinese cleaver - Back when I lived in Visalia, CA as a bachelor in my 20s, I did some carpentry/wood work for Chinese take out (including reshaping the round tree trunk cutting boards concave) where I liked to eat. When the owner offered to pay for my work, I declined instead and asked him to teach me to cook. Apparently he was a graduate of Imperial cooking school in Canton, China and meticulous with his cooking (Kitchen set up was open/visible from dining area with wok stations near the counter so customers got to see everything he did).
After learning the basic prep work, he taught me to cook typical dishes I ordered including Garlic chicken, Kung Pao chicken, Sweet and sour pork, wife's (then girlfriend) favorite Tomato curry beef along with Chow Mein and fried rice. Afterwards, when I stopped by to place my order, if no customer was present, he would invite me to cook my order which was neat.
When he was getting ready to retire, he gifted me with one of new Chicago Cutlery Chinese cleavers he kept as spares that I have used for the past 30 years. I thought about getting an all stainless steel Chinese cleaver but the Chicago Cutlery with wooden handle has worked well and happy memories from decades past.