I thought it would be interesting to see what some other kitchen blocks or knife drawers look like. In other words let's see your kitchen cutlery sets and hear any thoughts you might want to add about the knives you use to prepare food "in the kitchen". I realize many of you use your EDC fixed blades and folders. I would welcome those pics and stories as well if it is what you use to prepare your food day in and day out. I don't expect anyone to be as exhaustive as my post, unless you want to. But as the OP I thought I would offer a good lead in to the thread. My kitchen set of knives has been an evolution. My original kitchen knife set was a block set of Chicago Cutlery knives. That was a pretty standard wedding gift in the early 80's. Between lack of appreciation for good cutlery and poor maintenance, like like putting them in the dishwasher every night, that set slowly fell apart. I was getting old enough to start to appreciate owning better stuff by that time and then started to buy better knives to replace what I had to throw out or discard. Thus this collection of knives has more or less evolved one at a time. The majority of my knives are J.A. Henckles. There are a couple of Wusthofs and two outliers. The top knife is a Victorinox Fibrox Pro 10" slicer ***. I have a good friend in KC who beats around the professional smoking circuits a little as a member of a team/restaurant out of KC. He told my wife to buy this for my birthday one year. He said it is standard cutlery next to most of the smokers on the circuit. You've probably seen these knives at buffet lines slicing up prime rib. One of my most used knives for cutting servings off large pieces of meat. The second knife is a Cuisinart 8" Chef's knife*. Another gift from one of my wive's friends so she likes it. The knife is very ordinary quality but I keep it sharp and my wife likes using it so that makes it a valuable part of the set. The third knife is an old Henckels 7" Prep knife? This is an old knife that I don't think is offered anymore. Note the handle shape is different from the others. I like to use this knife for slicing bread. It seems to need less touch up than the other blades and it does well at that task. The fourth knife is a Henckels 6" Prep knife*** and is probably a newer version of the one above in a little more manageable size. We use this for basic food prep just like the name suggests. The fifth knife is a Henckels 5" Santoku. I bought this knife because they are very common on the food shows and I just wanted to own one and see what they are all about. My wife has adopted it as one of her favorites and likes to use it as a small chopper. The sixth knife is a Wusthof 7" filet***. This is a heavily used knife in my kitchen. It does all my meat trim work, e.g. removing the the fatback on ribs, trimming roasts prior to cooking, or ridding some of the fat on shoulder butts. The blade is kept razor sharp, it gets steeled regularly, and very flexible for handling curved cuts. One of my task specific favorites. The seventh knife is a Wusthof 4 1/2" Small Chef knife*. This is a funny little knife that I bought for my wife to use. I thought it would be a good "rocker" for small chopping tasks and that she would appreciate the size. Miscalculation on my part. She rarely touches it. I'm the guy that uses it a lot. It is too small in my hands to rock it but I like it for slicing work, e.g. slicing carrots long ways to make strings. I wield it tip down and handle up drawing it toward me. The eighth knife is a Henckels 4" Paring knife***. The only reason I bought this is because I tired of watching my wife and daughter grab a steak knife for their small cutting tasks, e.g. cutting an apple or peach. The ninth knife is an old Case knife that my mom and dad got as a wedding present 60+ years ago. It is my favorite knife for personal reasons and its age. That is a wooden handle that is still in excellent condition. It has become my outdoor kitchen knife. When I'm standing at a grill that knife is most likely laying on the shelf next to me. The tenth and final knife is an economy Wusthof 5" Paring knife with a red plastic handle. The blade steel is crap. It is always dull and chipped no matter how often I try to sharpen it. So why did I buy it? Because my daughter was with me and said that's a cute knife. Why don't we have something like that for cutting fruit? So I bought the damn thing for her. Recommendations: I gave 3 stars *** to the knives I would buy if I was starting from scratch: 10" slicer, 6" prep knife, filet, and a paring knife. These are the types of knives my kitchen could not do without. I gave 1 star * to the knives that I would miss and probably add shortly after starting over. However, I could work around not having these knives if necessary. The rest would never be missed. That's just my kitchen. Show me yours if so inclined. Lastly, my knives are stored in a drawer. That is cork on the left for the small and steak knives and wood on the right for large knives.
One addendum to my above post. My wife will not let me dispose of her Cuisinart Chef knife. But I intend to replace it with an Expat cleaver when they are available. I believe it will do everything that Chef's knife does for me now and a lot more.
Some ESEE kitchen love. I have a bunch of smaller old hickory blades elsewhere also. Wife won't let me throw away the cheapies.
The cheapies can go in a camp box or tailgate box. Another option is they end up stocking your kids' apartments or houses when they move on down the road.
I used to have the full set of Old Hickory kitchen knives. I loved them, but my wife kept complaining because they'd rust. I tried explaining that rust happens when you leave a carbon blade soaking in the sink overnight... Anyway, when I was deployed she got rid of them and bought a Cold Steel kitchen knife set. The only OH I still have is the butcher knife on the far right in your pic. Then last weekend, my mother in law was visiting and lost the CS chef knife!
I had a few Jeff White knives that I just sold which were my kitchen duty knives. I still have a set of the ESEE kitchen knives that my girlfriend at the time and now wife bought for me. They get the job done. I'm in the market for a nice chef's knife though, and have been looking at some Shun VG10 knives. I keep the kitchen knives on a magnetic bar attached to the side of the cabinet by the sink. I luckily have taught my wife that knives get washed and dried immediately after use, and never go in the dishwasher under any circumstances. The Jeff White knives helped teach that lesson. I just have to remember to tell house guests.
Right!? That was my thought as well. I think that a) my wife left it in a pizza box, which MIL then unwittingly threw out, or b) she used it for some non-culinary use (screwdriver or hammer) and left it in the backyard somewhere. She's horrible about using things like knives inappropriately; 3-4 years ago she used my Izula as a lever to pry the lid off a bottle of cranberry juice. The knife slipped and she slashed her palm really badly, and refused to see a doc. She still doesn't have full feeling in that hand.
