Kitchen knives

Bidley

I'm after a new set. Budget of about £60. What's good? I'm not a knife aficionado, but I'm sure some of you are.

Chuffola

We have a decent set of Sabatier knives which were bought in Tesco for about £60 (although may have been on offer). They are excellent.

Ravenous

Do you need a set? I have around four knives in the kitchen that I got separately as I needed them.

I really only use two - typical cook's knife and a bread knife.  Both well known poncey brand (Sabatier) but these are very solid. Occasionally use a small veg knife which is a cheap plastic handle thing and fine for small stuff. (The fourth knife I never use these days, it's specialist, so I won't prattle on about it.)

(I bet someone will arrive shortly to persuade you to get a super expensive ceramic one.)

RandallFlagg

Kitchen Devils have served us well over the years.

mikeyrob73

i bought a couple from Ikea to replace the Sabitier set my ex kept when we split up and they have been really good, hold an edge well, sharpen well, decent handles 

one of them is this one

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/cookware/knives-chopping-boards/v%C3%B6rda-cooks-knife-black-art-80289243/

Heartfeltdawn

If you want something that lasts and doesn't crap out, then these. 

https://www.nisbets.co.uk/hygiplas-7-piece-starter-knife-set-with-20cm-chefs-knife-and-wallet/f222

You'll find these in thousands of professional kitchens in the UK as a bog standard in house knife set. They're more than decent for the money and I've never seen one break in all the years I've been in kitchens. They're not Sabatier or Wusthof (my favourite) but they do the job. 

It depends on how many knives you really need. If it's just a couple of knives, then this is a really decent package. The handles aren't as good as the more expensive Wusthofs but the blades are excellent. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Kitchen-Knife-Sets/Wüsthof-9815-SILVERPOINT-3-pc/B002QRKF6O/ref=sr_1_2?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1490873747&sr=1-2&keywords=knife+set+wusthof

duotone

I usually use the one below & definitely get a sharpening steel. I wouldn't bother buying a complete set personally, bread knife & cooks/chefs knife & vegetable knife should do 95% of what you will typically need.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/ae1/Kitchen-Devils-Control-Asian-Cooks-Knife-603010/B003M383WE/ref=pd_sim_201_10?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=SQ28F49YHV3JZ3PEPTY0

Gagaryn

My advice would be don't buy a set - buy what you need. I pretty much use two knives - a 12" fully forged cooks knife and a small pairing knife - for everything! The big knife is about 20 years old now and is still perfect.

And don't be fooled into thinking because it has Sabatier on it, it is a mark of quality. It is not. The original French made fully forged Sabatier knifes are good, but Sabatier is not a registered brand name - many manufactures call their knives Sabatier and they are usually shite.

stickyfiddle

Don't get a set. Get one decent big knife, one decent small knife and a bread knife. You almost never need anything else, and certainly not if you don't already know you need them.

vasselmeyer

What @stickyfiddle said. I have a set of  7 knives and only use three of them.  All you will really need is a chef's knife, a serrated bread knife and  a small knife. I never use any of the others. In addition to the knives, what you will definitely want is a decent steel to keep the edge and then  a proper sharpener when the steel isn't enough. One of  these for about £10 should  do it.

rlw

I'm not sure that half the people on here ought to be allowed access to knives....

shuikit

Amongst the people that I know that have spent a tiny fortune on knives, what they tend to neglect is sharpening them and keeping them sharp.  We have a 'minosharp' which is a little device with a couple of sharpening wheels that you run the knife edge up and down which I've found gets really good results.

I echo what others have said, just get a big cooks knife, a smaller pairing knife and a bread knife.  We have is a boning/filleting knife which gets used a lot as we tend to buy whole chicken legs and cut the meat off them.  

We got one of these a little while ago which I'm pretty impressed with given the price http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/cookware/knives-chopping-boards/ikea-365-cooks-knife-stainless-steel-art-10283522/

Sporky

I have some Robert Welch ones which do what they're supposed to jolly well. Also a wheel sharpener thing; those rod steels are more faff.

ThePrettyDamned

You want a quality chef knife and a couple of smaller paring knives really. 

Bread knives don't matter, just get a cheapy. 

Then get victorinox knives. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorinox-Chefs-Knife-Extra-Broad/dp/B000IAZC4Q

The blades are ferociously sharp, but soft - they'll need honing regularly (every week or so of moderate use) and occasional sharpening. You can use something like the Robert Welch one. 

Knife sets are usually sharp, but hard to resharpen, brittle, and generally a bit shit. Those victorinox ones are fairly affordable and absolutely suitable for a professional kitchen if you wanted to. The Robert Welch knives (which I also have) are very similar - in fact, I think the blade composition is identical. You pay for the name and a more comfy handle. 

Honing steels can be had fairly cheaply and they are so, so fast and easy to use, you'll wonder why you never bothered before. Slicing meats and vegetables is so ridiculously easy with a quality blade. 

Sporky

ThePrettyDamned said:

The Robert Welch knives (which I also have) are very similar - in fact, I think the blade composition is identical. You pay for the name and a more comfy handle. 

It is really comfy though.

Bidley

The suggestion to avoid a set is a good one, but I don't want to faff about with separate knives. Just a simple set is fine.

I tend to use paring, bread, big knife (whatever it's called) and a serrated fruit/veg knife.

I've got one of those sharpening wheels, it's pretty awesome.

Some great suggestions here though, thanks!

Gagaryn

I bought one of these years ago which has been properly handy! http://amzn.eu/d3XXWOd

hywelg

Sabatier are nowt to shout about, metal is too soft and won't hold an edge. My Grandma's knife is the best, rings like a bell but isn't rust free as is her old steel.  I'd just buy a cheap set and spend a lot more on a really good sharpener. Steels won't be a lot of good, again metal is too soft, get a diamond sharpener or one of those hardened things that you just drag the knife through. 

ThePrettyDamned

Sporky said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

The Robert Welch knives (which I also have) are very similar - in fact, I think the blade composition is identical. You pay for the name and a more comfy handle. 

It is really comfy though.

Absolutely. I *love* those knives. In terms of the blades, they're very similar - so if the handles being comfy is important, consider them. They're pricier, though. 

Reminds me - I found a set of 4 global knives in a block in John Lewis once, reduce to under £200. I regretted not picking it up for a while until I tried a Global chef knife in a store - bloody horrible to use for me. Plenty of people swear by them. 

Victorinox apparently have a range with more comfy rosewood handles now - I've not seen them though. 

randella

ThePrettyDamned said:

Victorinox apparently have a range with more comfy rosewood handles now - I've not seen them though. 

Do they sound slightly warmer than the maple ones?

digitalscream

duotone said:

I usually use the one below & definitely get a sharpening steel. I wouldn't bother buying a complete set personally, bread knife & cooks/chefs knife & vegetable knife should do 95% of what you will typically need.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/ae1/Kitchen-Devils-Control-Asian-Cooks-Knife-603010/B003M383WE/ref=pd_sim_201_10?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=SQ28F49YHV3JZ3PEPTY0

Yep, that's the one I used to remove the end of my thumb and get out of work for the afternoon a few months ago. I can attest that they're Pretty Damn Sharp.