I’m not sure if you have to be a forum member to view these posts, but here is one glossary with various terms.
zknives also has a list of different types of J-knives and terms.
k.
Waitlist knives are custom. So it depends. The cost is by per inch of steel, damascus or not, and handle. So estimate of $300-700 per inch. Waitlist is by lottery and I haven’t heard anything in the past few years.
A year ago, he was selling some “ready made” customs (no customizing). 10" carbon steel, no damascus, maple burl handle was $3450. 8" damascus was $5000.
Though Kramer makes some awesome knives, they are simply not worth the price IMO. You could get 2-3 custom knives made in half the time from an ABS mastersmith for the roughly same price.
Get on a Bill Burke and Michael Rader wait list instead. Great knives, less money, less wait.
k.
Beautiful knives you got K-M; I really like that Damascus blade. Have you ever checked out Ed Caffreys work?
Those last two weren’t mine, just examples. Sorry for the confusion.
Here is a handle lineup of some of my knives though.
k.
Quite beautiful items.
Which ABS smiths would you recommend for kitchen knives?
The ABS smiths that have the most experience with kitchen knives are probably Kramer, Rader, and Bill Burke. Aaron Wilburn is another one that is coming up though, but he just got his ABS certification and hasn’t done as much with kitchen cutlery. Kramers aren’t possible to get really. Bill Burkes wait is about 2 years, Rader 1-1.5 years, and Wilburn probably less.
Just under the ABS makers are several very high quality makers. Devin Thomas, Randy Haas (HHH Knives), Butch Harner, Delbert Ealy, Stefan Fowler, and Pierre Rodrigue (out of Canada).
After that you have some extremely good boutique makers that will make very nice knives for reasonable prices. Adam Marr, Mario Ingoglia, Marko Tsourkan, Don Nguyen, and J. M. Jones among others. These are the best value. I love my Marr, Ingoglia, and Tsourkan. All three rank in my top knives.
With that said, kitchen knives are actually more difficult to make correctly than hunters or folders. The steel type, heat treatment, bevel angles, grind, taper, balance etc affect how a knife cuts and releases food. A lot of knife makers who use to make hunters started making kitchen knives in the last five years when the collector market dropped off and kitchen knives took off. They often made fairly crappy knives.
Anyhow, there are a lot of fine domestic makers now. I even have hand-forged damascus spoons, damascus cufflinks, and cocktail stirrers.
k.
Great info Karring. Just wondering as I’m a noob in this area, but do you use all the kitchen knives in the picture above? I was thinking maybe 2 or 3 at the most for general purpose. Actually, at those prices, thinking just 1. Don’t need another expensive hobby and since my wife does the majority of cooking, it’ll be up to her.
I use a surprising amount of knives daily/weekly. The Japanese use knives for specific purposes. A honesuki for breaking down poultry, a nakiri for veggies, deba for breaking down fish, a petty for utility small item cutting, a gyuto for versatile prep work, and a sujihiki for slicing proteins. Of course one could use a gyuto chef’s knife for most of it, but that isn’t as much fun 
Certain knives work better for certain tasks and if you cook a lot, you use them a lot. But it is also part of a whole process of learning to keep knives sharp, cut precisely, and prepare food more efficiently. I have one knife that I use always for charcuterie and another knife that is the best for onions. It just naturally occurs.
With that said, I could definitely get by on a few knives, but just as drinking a few wines all the time gets boring, a few knives don’t do it for me either.
k.
Cool. I was looking at Devin Thomas and Wilburn about a year ago, but couldn’t bring myself to pony up the dough for a full custom. Maybe this year after the yearly bonus.
No one going to mention Murray Carter?
Definitely the standard response is one can get by with a 8-10" chefs knife (you can tell who are the Japanese fanatics because they always say Gyuto) and a paring knife (or a petty knife). Some tasks, such as slicing fish for sushi or sashimi, would definitely be better with a sujihiki lets say.
It’s definitely more fun to use more knives, however if you have a lot of prep to bang out, that’s a lot of knives you’re going to be washing and drying for each task. Most of the pretty knives aren’t stainless, so rust will form or a patina will form really quickly.
I’m lazy, so I’ll use at most two knives in a prep session. I did own quite a lot of knives, but that’s because it took me a lot of trial and error to find the knives that fit my hands, balance, and cutting needs.
I have two Murray Carter knives and love them. He no longer does custom work though, so you have to monitor his site and be quick. It is better to find Carter knives in the secondary market on one of the knife forums. I just used a carter a couple of hours ago.
k.
I have a nakiri, thinking about a 6 3/4 in Funayaki sounds like I should go for it?
This is true, and I have definitely been lazy in my life. If you want a stainless knife with low-maintenance care, Mario Ingoglia is top notch, Devin Thomas does stainless damascus and AEB-L blades (but it is expensive), and Pierre Rodrigue does a lot of stainless knives too in CPM 154.
If you want an excellent deal on a knife right now, look at HHH knives (Randy Haas). He is doing a mid-tech (semi-custom) knife for $240. He may even have a deal coming this Monday. He made the damascus knife of mine up thread with meteorite.
http://www.hhhcustomknives.com/240mm-aeb-l-gyutochef-knife-pre-buy/
k.
I have a nakiri and a Funayuki (200mm). The HG Funayuki is one of my favorites, and is wicked thin. I also got mine rehandled for some bling.
k.
Crap I think I might “have” to get it.
Thanks for this. So would you ever do stainless or is Damascus the way to go ?
are Shun knives any good?