Who makes a good quality kitchen knife set?

Looking for a new set of knives, the kind that come with the wood block and sit on the kitchen counter. Looking for something around a 16-18 piece set. Any recommendations on a high quality set?

I am not looking for just one or two knives. I know there are some crazy expensive and awesome blades out there, but not what I am looking for at the moment. Just need a high quality set for daily kitchen counter use and abuse to replace the old aging set I’ve got now.

Budget may help. Don’t have any recommendations, but I can see this going many directions.

Yeah, in time honored Berserker tradition, I’m going to suggest that you don’t want what you want. [wow.gif] [snort.gif]

An 18 piece knife set is going to have at least a dozen blades you don’t need. I regularly use, maybe, a half dozen knives and a steel. Buy fewer, but much higher quality knives, than an 18 piece set would give you. A good chef’s knife, two paring knives of differing length, a slicer/carving knife, a serrated bread knife (and, I love a much smaller serrated knife for slicing tomatoes), a boning knife . . . trying to think what else I ever use. Maybe a cleaver (although honestly I can’t remember the last time I used one)

Up to the $3-400-ish range.

I’m with the ‘build your own’ contingent when it comes to sets. You can get what you need at significantly lower cost. I don’t understand the 16-18 piece set. I use a chef’s knife; kitchen shears; serrated knife; paring knife; utility knife; boning knife; and once in a while a long slicing knife. I’d like a heavy meat cleaver and perhaps a Japanese vegetable cleaver but that’s about it. What else do others need? (honest question, not intended to be rhetorical).

I’ve been very happy with Victorinox knives - they are easy to sharpen and hold an edge, and they’re fairly comfortable and safe (non-slip) in my hands. The chef’s knife is a little lighter than my ideal but I’m cheap so I’ll live with that in a $35 knife that is otherwise excellent.

Edited to note that I wrote this before I saw Neal’s very similar comments!

The serrated tomato knife is like this. LOVE how this works (and we eat a lot of tomatoes)

I’m game for less, just figured I’d get some new steak knives with it as well, so that tends to add about 8 right off the bat. I do have a really good cleaver already and I think I’ve used it 2-3 times in 12+ years…and I swear just on dead animals [wow.gif]

Mac makes some fantastic knives and they aren’t ridiculously expensive.

http://www.macknife.com/kitchen/index.php?original.html

Oh, and make sure you handle them before buying. Ergonomics is 50% of the deal here, and what is comfortable for me may not be for you. 50% ergo, 50% steel.

Never thought about ergo issues. Thanks. Will have to look into Mac, never heard of them so thanks. (Edit: what “Series” of Mac would be the better to go with?)

Knives are like most consumer goods. The law of diminishing returns sets in pretty aggressively as you get above entry level. The cheapest they offer will be MILES better than the department store Wustoff block set.

So Chef Series seems to be a slight step up from their entry level but still below their upper end lines. I assume a better QPR value as well for this non-trained chef wannabe.

I got a bunch of Forschner knives as a wedding present in 1993. They are still going strong and I do love them. They are cheaper than some of the popular brands.
Was the preferred knife of my buddy’s brother, who was sous chef at White Hosue for many years

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=victorinox+knife+forschner+rosewood&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Avictorinox+knife+forschner+rosewood

I use 4 knives… an 8" chef’s blade, a slicing/carving knife, a paring knife and a bread knife. Plus a honing blade.

The big knife sets make no sense to me. Mine were all bought over a long period (28 to 8 years ago) and all are still great. And yes, ergonomics should be a key deciding factor.

Same here, have a drawer full of knives and use only 3-4, with multiple paring knives.

Also keep a couple sets of steak knives, some for everyday and others that we use for “company”

Here’s what I would do: go to a quality kitchen wares shop locally and start playing with the chef’s knife (likely the biggest and most expensive piece you’ll buy) and get an idea how the various shapes, sizes and configurations feel. Pick two or three that feel the best in your hand. Take a green pepper or onion with you and ask if you can dice it with those knives. Now you know what the knife that feels the best in your hand will look like – will it have a triangular shape, like many of the Japanese style blades, with a sharp point

or will it be more like this

After you have a sense for how they drive, you can start thinking about how much you need to spend to get a quality knife. As I said, the highest end knives are ridiculously expensive and offer little or nothing a cheaper knife wouldn’t give you, but if you do this right now, you will never have to buy another one, so don’t go for the lowest price either. There are TONS of (variably reliable) sites that rate knives; if you see a knife you like at a reasonable price appearing on multiple lists, buy with confidence.

Once you have your chef’s knife, I would do the same thing for the paring knife (or knives), since it is one of the two you will use most often. And don’t feel the need to buy the same brand or style of handle; appearance doesn’t count! After that it is all downhill.

Cook’s Illustrated routinely rates Victorinox top in their comparisons, over much more expensive blades.

I actually have two chefs knives, both 8", one by Victorinox ($40) and Wusthof that is 3-4 times that price. I’ve had the Wusthof for awhile, the Victornox around 8 years. We have two because my wife and I often cook together. I usually grab the Victorinox when I’m cooking alone. Balance and ergonomics are very good, it’s relatively light weight and it’s easy to keep sharp.

My steak knives (Languoiles) cost a lost more than my kitchen knives. They’re meant to show off at a dining table and are beautiful. I don’t need beautiful kitchen knives.

We have 2 as well, one looks like the top pic in my last post; the other looks like pic #2. My wife likes the first and I always grab #2. It is all about feel (and then the blade).

Awesome advice, thanks. I think I’m about to go down the knife rabbit hole lol.

I am into kitchen knives. I could not agree more with Neal-those “kitchen sets” that come with the wooden block are never a good idea for just the reason Neal stated. You can buy the wooden block knife holder separately. I know that this is not the kind of answer you are looking for, but asking others to recommend a knife set is like asking others to recommend your next wife. They all have their own personalities, looks, and feels (ha!), and so-called inherent quality is pretty close among most of the better brands. So, I am just going to throw out a recommendation based on the tone of your request, which I interpret to be that you don’t want to get all geeked out on the issue and just want a good solid set of everyday knives; I second the previous recco for Forschner. My dad went to culinary school after he retired from the being a physicist and the first week of school, they gave the students some great deal on Forschners. Dad already had a few sets of very expensive Henckels and Wusthofs but the instructors were advising the students not to bring expensive knives to class just to be abused. So he bought them and was so impressed that he bought a second set for me. I have had them for twenty years now and despite having far fancier knives, the Forschners get used all the time and are every bit as effective.

And to be clear, Forchner is called Victorinox now. I mentioned Victorinox because they had changed names by the time I bought mine.