Santoku knives

Hell yeah. I quit using chef's knives and switched to the santoku 3-4 years ago. They're all I use. I posted last week about one I just bought, but I don't mind showing it again
biggrin.gif
.

Wusthof baby:

wu4183.jpg
 
i have the Henkles Pro S knives. Depends on the job. If you need a rocking motion for chopping or what-not the santuko will not cut it. I tend to use the chefs knive more.


PS. Can anyone recommend a good knive sharpener for these knives. I use the steel before each use, but they seem to be losing their edge.
 
About 99% of my knife work in the kitchen is chopping and dicing vegetables, particularly onions. How do the santokus work for that? I'm looking at that Wusthof if I get one.
 
Wustoff and Henckels Pro S are pretty much teh same. Great knives.

I would also like some sharpening recommendations otehr than taking them to Williams Sonoma for them to do it.
 
I still use my chef's knife, but I loves my Pro-S.

Austintexas- buy a whetstone and some honing oil and become one with your blade.
 
i have a global 7" santoku hollow-handle. it's nice, i like it, but i think you'll need a chef's knife for those times you use a rocking motion.
 
Alright, I'm gonna get the Wusthof Classic santoku like the one shown above.

As far as sharpening, I bought a Smith's diamond steel at Academy for about $20 and have been happy with the results it has given me. It's 10 inches long and both sharpens and aligns the edge.

i516567sn01.jpg
 
7" shun hollow-ground santoku is my kitchen weapon of choice. I have a henckles four-star II santoku that has been parked on the bench in favor of the shun.

I'd say the santoku is better at slicing and the chef's knife is much better at dicing due to the rocking motion.
 
Trade secret:

If you have a favorite restaurant or hair salon/barber shop that you frequent and where "everybody knows your name", ask them when their knife/scissors sharpener comes by. See, there are guys who make their living going around to those two establishments in particular sharpening the tools of the trade. The cost is usually like $2/inch I think.

If you really want to do it yourself, hit your local knife shop or kitchen supply and buy a stone set and some really cheap knives to practice with. It's an art and you really don't want to learn on your new Wusthof Santuko.
 
I've got a 10" chef's and a 7" santouku, use em for different jobs, santouku for nice slices, chef's for chopping and mincing onions and the like if I'm doing a lot of them.

Mercer Genesis is the brand I use and reccommend, Henkels and Wustoff are nice but are more expensive than they need to be. Mercers are forged in Taiwan of German steel and are inexpensive and are of excellent quality and I have been very pleased with mine. They are well balanced and have a non slip handle.

I have a 10" chef's, 10" carving, a carving fork, 7" santouku, 3.5" paring, 6" stiff boner, 6" flexible boner, and a 12" Dick steel. I've had them a couple of years now and they work great.

You can't get them at a retail store, you gotta go where the pros go, a Resturant Supply store.

Mercer Cutlery's website

A couple of places that sell the stuff online.
The Link
The Link

and the Mercer website says Ace Mart Resturant Supply carries Mercer.


Check it out!
 
There is an electric sharpener by Kitchen Aid at Williams Sonoma that is great for all baldes. It has three sharpening stones on it. It cost about $120. I use it all the time, and it really is great. It is pretty idiot proof which is what most people need. Unless you are pretty skilled with a stone you are likely to cause more damage to your knife than anything.
 
I'm a Santoku and Chef knife user and wouldn't want to do without either, but I'm kind of a knife junkie and my advice would to get both. Maybe a 6" or 7" Santoku and a 8" or 10" Chef.

A diamond encrusted "steel" will sharpen and align, but by using it in place of a traditional steel you will be grinding away your steel more than necessary. I have one and use it, but not in substitute for a steel. A quality blade does not need to be sharpened that often, but does need to be aligned. A traditional steel is designed as a maintenance device to align the blade with each use and does not take away any steel. The best are made by F. Dick, but if you can find a vintage Boker I would snap it up.

Be careful about using an electric knife sharpener or any other grinding wheel on your blades. You can turn a good knife into a piece of **** pretty quick if you are not careful or skilled in how to use them. They tend to grind more steel away from your blade than is necessary and unless the same amount of pressure is applied across the length of the blade you can end up with dips along the edge. I have a Chef's Choice Commercial knife sharpener that I put back in the box after one use on some junk knives. There are many better sharpening systems available for much less IMO.

Lansky and Gatco both make foolproof sharpeners that will hone your blade with stones to a set degree by use of rod guided alignment. They cost less than a good knife does and will help keep you from destroying your edge. I have used a Lansky for years when my blades need some regrinding and have been very happy with it.
 
Those tungsten carbide drag & scrape sharpeners do work, but they basically scrape your blade edge in order to form a new edge. That is fine if your edge has dents in it, but if not you might as well just align your edge with a steel and avoid wearing down your blade.

The other problem with the drag & scrape sharpeners is that they have a "V" at a preset angle that might not match the factory edge angle of your knife. There is no way I would scrape away at my quality filet (15 degree), Santoku (17 degree), Chef (20 degree), or other blades through something that might put an entirely different edge angle on them. I do have one and have used it on hunting knives in the field with great success, but that is the only time I use it.
 
Great knife! Its not the best multi-tasker though. It is very light weight and essentially a razor, which is useful, but the heavier chef's knife is more versatile (aforementioned rocking motion, plus getting through bone, etc.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Weekly Prediction Contest

* Predict HORNS-AGGIES *
Sat, Nov 30 • 6:30 PM on ABC

Recent Threads

Prediction Results Threads

2024 Schedules

Back
Top