Need a Family Friendly All Purpose Knife

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HYC3F
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Need a Family Friendly All Purpose Knife

Post by HYC3F »

Hi,
I'm looking for a Gyuto that my entire family can use. I am fairly careful with knives but my 70 year old parents are not. It's got to be somewhat all purpose. Meaning it can cut through pineapples, some meats (not bones), watermelons, chopping vegetables, etc. My folks have never used a fancy knives. This would be somewhat of a learning experience for them .

1)Pro or home cook?
Home

2)What kind of knife do you want?
Gyuto or Santoku but open to suggestions

3) What size knife do you want?
210 mm

4)How much do you want to spend?
Less than $100 USD

5) Do you prefer all stainless, stainless clad over reactive carbon, or all reactive carbon construction?
No strong preference

6)Do you prefer Western or Japanese handle?
Western for the weight

7)What are your main knife/knives now?
210 mm Anryu
A couple of german knives

8)Are your knife skills excellent, good, fair?
Good

9)What cutting techniques do you prefer? Are you a rocker, chopper or push/pull cutter?
Chopper

10)Do you know how to sharpen?
Yes, but not too well
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Drewski
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Re: Need a Family Friendly All Purpose Knife

Post by Drewski »

Mac came to mind right away. For under 100, you can get the Chef series gyuto:
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/macchse8gy.html

Fujiwara is also in your price range. The stainless version is OOS for now, but here's the reactive one:
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/fujiwara210.html
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lsboogy
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Re: Need a Family Friendly All Purpose Knife

Post by lsboogy »

https://www.chefknivestogo.com/to2pcstset.html

Get a paring knife as well. Very good knives for the money
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ken123
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Re: Need a Family Friendly All Purpose Knife

Post by ken123 »

Go for a santoku ~180 mm. Go for stainless / ginsan steel. You want something light weight that will take some abuse.

Ken
Bob Z
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Re: Need a Family Friendly All Purpose Knife

Post by Bob Z »

You cant go wrong with a Tojiro VG10 gyuto, look at all the great reviews. I have the 240 version of this knife and its a do everything knife heavy enough to take a beating. Mine keeps a good edge but a few strokes on a ceramic rod and its like new again. Highly recommend this knife for your purpose.
For only $14 more do as Isboogy says above and get the two knife set which includes the chefs knife I recommend and a matching paring type knife.
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/tojiro-dp-f-8081.html

and this mac looks good too:
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/macchse8chkn.html

Or for slightly more this Kohetsu vg5 might be a bit more forgiving and easy to sharpen:
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/kovgtsgy21.html
easilver
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Re: Need a Family Friendly All Purpose Knife

Post by easilver »

I have a group of knives I loan to family and friends. I swap out with a freshly sharpened one when I visit. After doing this for a while, I learned:

1. Most prefer a santoku to longer, pointier knives
2. Some are intimidated by fancy-looking knives
3. Most like a little bling
4. Stainless is important since most don't dry their knives.

Here are the knives I loan, sorted by popularity
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/kovgtsgy18.html -- by far the most popular, so I have a few of these.
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/mavg1sa17.html
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/mavgdasa16.html
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/fufkmsa18.html -- not very popular

I also have a couple Victorinox Fibrox santokus for people who are scared of damaging the "fancy" knives.

Some of those are out of stock, so I'd definitely consider adding a couple of these to my loaner group:
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/mi19hasa18.html

Look forward to reading what you decide.
Ed in L.A.
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lsboogy
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Re: Need a Family Friendly All Purpose Knife

Post by lsboogy »

I like the idea of a "loaner" group. Usually I bring stones to brother, sister, cousin RC and just do the there. My neighbor's are forced to bring their knives over and help me cook while their knives get sharpened. I would lend my line knife (trust it to true hacks at catering biz) - it's a great knife though (Richmond GT line knife). Maybe I'll see if SO is good with me getting a loaner this week - maybe get a Takamura Chromax or a Tojiro DP set great idea easyliver - would mean I could just take stuff home and sharpen at leisure. The DP set looks very tempting at this point - use them many times and they are better than 99% of all the knives I see - like Em more than miyabi or shun stuff
Cutuu
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Re: Need a Family Friendly All Purpose Knife

Post by Cutuu »

Drewski wrote: Thu Jan 09, 2020 2:22 pm Mac came to mind right away. For under 100, you can get the Chef series gyuto:
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/macchse8gy.html

Fujiwara is also in your price range. The stainless version is OOS for now, but here's the reactive one:
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/fujiwara210.html
Mac for $70, I love that rec for your situation.
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