(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best paring knives

Capsule wardrobe. I suggest choosing an accessory color, black / brown / color then making sure your clothes go with those. Enough clothes for ideally 2 weeks, underwear the same. I'd go with 4 bras you're suppose to let your bras rest between wears and wash them, but most of us don't wash our bras with each wear. Every item should be able to be worn with all the other items. 1 nice outfit, dress or something like it. Raincoat or umbrella, hat, scarf, glove set in a color that matches your wardrobe. A pashmina scarf is good because it can double as a blanket or shawl. I use to travel for work 30-90 days. My capsule wardrobe consisted of; 2 black pants, 1 gray or kakhi, 2 jeans, 1 lounge pant, 4 button ups, 2 blouses, 2 sweaters, 2 cardigan, 3 t shirts, 1 hoodie type, 2 sets work out clothes, 2 sets PJs, shorts, bathing suit, 1 casual dress (sometimes), 1 nice dress, 1 belt, ankle boots, flats, converse, running shoes, sandals. Each sweater or cardigan could be worn with the t shirts, button ups for blouse. The button ups could be worn with the slacks or jeans.

Always have a reusable shopping bag / tote. It can be use for shopping, luggage overflow, beach trips, picnics, stuff it and it's a pillow. Pack able clothes line you'll be doing laundry. Having a place to hang stuff helps.

E-readers are amazing.

I pack a pairing knife. It really comes in handy around meal times. You can buy cheese, cured meats, fruit and veg and cut it all your self. This one comes in a ton of colors, has a guard so it's easy to pack, just don't try to carry it on a plane! I also carry a small swiss army knife. The scissors, tweezers and tooth pick are much more useful than I would have thought. If you are going to be staying in apartments or houses, packing spices will save you a lot of money.

Toiletries; don't bother, you can buy them as you run out. All you REALLY need is soap, sunscreen and I go for lotion (or oil). I like argon oil because I can use it on my face, scaly needs and hair.

Electronics; external hard drive / cloud and external battery. Keep the hard drive away from your laptop / phone, back up regularly. External batteries are super useful, maps will drain your phone battery these things are great. This is a good one, there are cheaper ones if you prefer.

Online banking, pill bay, insurance, everything. For this I use LastPass. It is a password service. It will generate and store usernames and passwords for any website. I pay $24 a year. I remember one password and it works on my computer and smart phone (app to install on both).

If you are going international I would suggest a VPN (virtual private network). That way you can get sign in and get to all your accounts, websites and not have to deal with if its available in whatever country. To that end, Netflix, Hulu, HBOGo accounts are good sometimes too. I never had all 3, but sometimes you want to rest.

Edit; Shoe bags! they keep your dirty shoes off your other stuff. Keep gallon ziploc bags, good for stinky or wet clothes to be stored until they are clean and dry.

Sorry for the novel. I use to do this a lot.

Let's do it in the kitchen.

IN fact, let's do it in the OUTDOOR kitchen! Most of the cooking I get excited about takes place while camping in the summer. I am completely obsessed with campfire cooking and spend a large portion of my time looking up new things to create. Nothing is off limits! I have had everything from silly s'mores made with homemade peanut butter cookies instead of grahams to fancy red wine marinated lamb kabobs.

So, my favorite kitchen gadget are these great Kuhn knives that work well in kitchens both indoors and out, as well. The sheath that comes with it helps protect it from sand and dirt in the outdoors and helps protect and preserve the blade when it is in your kitchen drawers. They are pretty to look at, effective in cutting and overall a great product that lasts for as long as you care for it. There are all shapes and sizes! I have two of these and love them.

IF I were to win, I would love to be surprised.

You should get one really good knife that only ever cuts pareve food. I'm not sure about the ratios in your diet specifically, but think about what you cut and how often. I don't proportionally cut much cheese and dairy bread, but I certainly cut a lot of onions, garlic, mushrooms, cabbage, peppers, and the like for every meal I cook. You could supplement that with less expensive knives for meat and dairy, maybe keeping one of the Fibroxes you already have. I'd consider the Tojiro DP santoku and 210mm gyuto for dairy and meat, respectively.

Tack on two Gesshin or Mac paring knives and you're set. If you wanted to move up to a really solid paring knife you could look at the Mac Pro, but it's a good bit more and I think you'd find either the Gesshin or Mac Chef to be a big step up from the Fibroxes. The Tojiro DP paring knife isn't out of the question, but I do like paring knives that can handle a bit of a beating and the Tojiro is harder and more chip prone than the Gesshin or Mac. There's also a 120mm Fujiwara petty that would be my personal choice, but they are a full 120mm long. They are certainly not big knives, but they're bigger than many people would favor as a paring knife.

So. If you get two paring knives that's around $70. If you kept both Fibroxes for devoted uses, that would afford you an exceptional gyuto or could keep you well inside the $200 side of your budget with a really, really nice gyuto. If you kept one of the Fibroxes, I would guess the dairy knife, and picked up a Tojiro DP gyuto to use for meat, that's still up to $170 on the outside for a 210mm gyuto. That budget affords you a Kanehide PS60, a Takamura Migaki, or a Tojiro HSPS. It would be a lot easier to tell them all apart, too.

If you do decide to go with a paired set, I'd suggest Fujiwara FKMs over Tojiro DPs on the lower end. They have better grinds with thinner tips and consistently better fit and finish. There are other knives that are pretty worthwhile competition, but needing two knives doubles any price differential.

Ok, so the basic knives in a kit would be a chef's knife, a serrated knife, a pairing knife, kitchen shears, and then a honing steel, sharpener, or what most people on this subreddit would most likely recommend, a whetstone. Basically, serrated knife for bread, pairing knife for small, intricate tasks, kitchen shears for... tasks you don't really want to use a knife for, and the chef knife for everything else. The good news is also, if you get a western styled knife, chances are they'll have a classic french handle, so will largely match even when they're different brands.

tojiro and mac both make great serrated knives. There is debate over whether it is worth it to invest a lot in a serrated knife because they're a bitch to sharpen and most people just replace them when they get dull, so the cheaper of the 2 is the tojiro, so the easiest to recommend. If for some reason you find another one that catches your fancy, at the very least make sure it isn't perfectly straight, you want a curved blade for knuckle clearance

https://www.amazon.com/Tojiro-Bread-Slicer-270mm-F-687/dp/B004LVIO3O

so $62 for serrated knife

for all the others, for a cooking hobbiest, I would learn towards a softer german steel. They're usually more corrosion resistant, and less prone to chipping, and just feel solid and robust. There are basically 4 very reputable german steel knife brands that are the easiest to recommend. Wusthof, Henckel, Messermeister, and Victorinox.

For all knives, you want to avoid an overly large bolster that extends to the edge of the blade as it makes sharpening a bit more of a hassel. For a chef knife, dimples on the side are definitely not needed, but might be nice, as they can reduce how strongly like cheese sticks to the knife. And for Shears you want ones that come apart for easy cleaning.

I personally have the a lot of experience with Messermeister's meridian elite line. They look very knife, are very robust, and have a nice steel. Their 9 inch Kullenschliff(dimple on the side chef knife) is actually on sale for a steal right now probably about $145 retail, Its basically $100 including shipping atm https://www.amazon.com/Messermeister-Meridian-Elite-Kullenschliff-10-Inch/dp/B0000W34EM 8 or 9 inch is probably the length you want for a chef knife; if you look at his knives and he has a 9" or longer chef knife, I would definitely not go less than a 9inch, maybe go 10 if he has a 10 inch. If he doesn't have anything longer than an 8 inch, I wouldn't go above 9. If he doesn't have anything longer than a 7 inch, I would go 8. (you are measuring the length of the blade, not of the entire knife btw)

with pairing, might as go the same line. Then the question is 3.5", 4" or 4.5". A less experianced cook might use a pairing knife more because he is less comfortable with using the relatively large and heavy chef knife for a lot of tasks, so I'm leaning towards a little bigger and getting the 4".https://www.amazon.com/Messermeister-Meridian-Elite-Paring-3-5-Inch/dp/B000Q9EZ2Y

I'm leaning towards the all steel version of shears for easier cleaning as well. https://www.amazon.com/Messermeister-Spanish-Take-apart-Kitchen-Scissors/dp/B01AKBZSRS

So that's about $270 with everything except a knife block and a honing steel, maybe get an electric sharpener as well. Get a steel honing steel, not ceramic, and ceramic is easy to break and because none of the knives have a very high hrc, ceramic isn't need.

I would grab an 8" Victorinox fibrox chef's knife to start, tough to go wrong with that one. Most would then recommend grabbing a smaller knife like a paring knife or utility knife, and a 10" bread knife. If that sounds good and you don't want to think too hard about it, this should do the trick. If you want to think about it a little more, read on.

The chef's knife is almost always a must-have and the Victorinox is pretty tough to beat for the price. I like a heavier bread knife because I find mine useful for large, tough things like cabbage, but if you don't see yourself doing that type of thing, the Tojiro F-737 Bread Slicer is really nice and really inexpensive. For something a little heavier, the Mercer Millennia 10" bread knife won't be as graceful but should tackle anything and is equally inexpensive. Finally, the small knife. I'm not the biggest fan of traditional small paring knives because the only things I use them for, like hulling strawberries, coring tomatoes, and eyeing potatoes, is better done with a bird's beak knife and they're too small to do anything else. I find a 5-6 inch utility knife is more useful for when I want to handle small things. So the set I would get would look something like:

Chef's, $34.99

Bread, $13.39

Bird's beak, Wusthof because the small Victorinoxes can feel a little flimsy, $9.95

Utility $25.50

That comes out to the beautiful price of $83.83 which leaves a little room to get the perfect set of edge guards if you don't already have a block, or a smooth honing steel for that perfect edge. Now, someone please drag me through the mud for recommending a bird's beak in a starter kit.

Here's what's in my kitchen: http://i.imgur.com/CAQ3xUv.jpg

Left to right:

• Kramer/Zwilling 8" chef's knife in FC61 steel. An amazing knife, with a thin blade, excellent balance, perfectly proportioned. A bit pricey as far as production kitchen knives go, though.
  
  
• Fujitake 7.2" chef's knife in VG10 steel. Picked this up recently in Japan. It is not available anywhere in the states, which is pretty cool. Hida Tool has some Fujitakes available, but not this one. Even thinner than the Kramer, with a completely different design and feel. It cuts like a laser, and might permanently replace the Kramer for me.
  
  
• An old, inexpensive KAI bread knife. Excellent for what it does (cut bread).
  
  
• An old L'Econome paring knife. Its combination of a slightly rounded tip and thin blade make it perfect for things like prying the green sprouts out of older garlic gloves, or scraping the skins off young shallots. I use this thing a lot.
  
  The sine qua non, however, is a good sharpening setup. Without it, it's not even worth thinking about getting a kitchen knife. If I were you I'd buy this:
  
  
• Spyderco Sharpmaker
  
  
• Victorinox Fibrox
  
  
• Opinel Paring Knife
  
  Total price: $105.45. The Fibrox is a great entry level chef's knife, and it would be extremely easy to keep sharp on the Sharpmaker. The Opinel is cheap and effective as a paring knife.

Shun knives are absolutely hands down my favorite! They're light, excellently weighted, super sharp, and very comfortable in your hand. However all of this comes at a price, but it's WORTH IT! Free lifetime sharpening... just box them up, send them off and they do it for free.

I also have a couple of Miyabi Morimoto knives.. love the paring knife. The Miyabis will be a bit heavier than the Shuns as IMO they're a little lower quality but only by a fraction.

Having used Henckels and Wusthofs as well, I still prefer the Japanese knives. That said I did pick up a ZJA Henckels serrated knife because the price was right. It does its just very well but feels a bit heavy to me.

Get a decent few knives. Think a chefs knife, a paring knife, a serrated knife for starters. Victorinox has some decently priced knives that will work fine. Avoid the Ikea Knives except steak knives, flatware, etc.

Get some pans. I'm a huge fan of cast iron--both a frying pan and a dutch oven. Don't be concerned about getting fancy French shit. Ikea ones ARE good in this case. And their nicer non-stick frying pans will serve you well. Also get a random pot for doing stuff like boiling water, sauces, etc. You don't need that much.

Do get a random sheet pan. I know you're not into baking right now, but it'll serve you well...if you need reheat something, need somethihng to put under a pot that might boil over, etc. A round baking dish (or oval one) from Ikea is also fine.

Get a few basic things:

• Some sort of hand mixer. We have KitchenAid, but frankly, it's no better, I don't think, than my old $10 KMart one. Stand Mixers are a different story and you don't need one right now.
  
• Spatulas, tongs, whisks, etc. You can go cheap on 'em, but get 'em.
  
• Have something that can process--a food processor, a blender, something. Go to the thrift store if you have to. They come in handy.
  
• I'm sure others will have more ideas.
  
  However, stay away from the "lower grades" of big names--think the shitty versions of Henckels, All Clad, etc. You're paying big bucks for a crap product based on a brand. Go cheap or go expensive or go home.
  
  And don't be afraid to get something cheap--I cooked reasonably well on REALLY crappy equipment until I could afford better and made off fine. Just get some decent stuff until you get your feet wet.
  
  If you can, scout TJ Maxx, Ross, etc. (I'm assuming you're US--if not, sorry) for lower-priced name brand goods. You can get good deals there on the cheap. You're not committed to IKEA OR fancy stuff. But I'd skip Target...unless it was for stuff like measuring spoons, etc.
  
  EDIT: Ok, I've scoured our kitchen. We have both high end (think All Clad copper core) and crappy (think IKEA). Here are the budget-friendly things I depend upon:
  
  Our Ikea oval cast iron dutch oven...I far prefer it to our Le Creuset. This will be controversial, but I find it more hardy. We also have a Martha Stewart (from Macy's) cast iron pot that is awesome.
  
  Our Ikea non-stick frying pan. Again, better than the Le Creuset or our All Clads in terms of durability. Just take care of it--no metal! Use rubber spatulas, etc.
  
  Small cheap knives--this set: http://www.amazon.com/Zwilling-J-Henckels-Colored-Paring/dp/B00005K8PF I primarily use our Shun knives for daily use but these are just fine if you're starting out. I do recommend a better Chef's knife, though.
  
  All of our minor stuff (whisks, etc.) were cheap. Don't spend more on that shit. You don't need it.
  

There was a great suggestion earlier in this thread about a Victorinox knife that was recommended by Consumer Reports.

Here are a few that are slightly outside your price range (By about $15) that I wouldn't have any issues with using in my own cooking adventures :). All prices are listed in Canadian dollars.

[Victorinox 8" Chef's knife - $36] (http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-40520-Fibrox-8-Inch-Chefs/dp/B000638D32/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top)

[Kai 6" Santoku - $51.38] (http://www.amazon.ca/Kai-Wasabi-2-Inch-Santoku-Knife/dp/B000YL4NYY/ref=sr_1_7?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1380663533&sr=1-7&keywords=santoku)

[Calphalon Katana 8" Chef's knife - $59] (http://www.amazon.ca/Kai-Wasabi-2-Inch-Santoku-Knife/dp/B000YL4NYY/ref=sr_1_7?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1380663533&sr=1-7&keywords=santoku)

[Calphalon Contemporary 8" Chef's knife - $29] (http://www.amazon.ca/Calphalon-Contemporary-8-Inch-Chefs-Knife/dp/B000V6ROPC/ref=sr_1_16?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1380663579&sr=1-16&keywords=8%22+chef)


For any and all of these, the first thing you'll want to do is go to a store that sells knives, and try a few before you find what you like. Hold them by the handle, and then hold them where the handle ends and meets the blade. Check the balance - When you're holding it by the handle, is the knife weighted evenly, front to back? Is there more weight towards the back or the front? If you were using this for 40 mins-1hr of prepping veggies and meat, would you be comfortable with it? Does the handle fit your hand, does the whole thing feel like a natural extension of your arm when you're chopping, slicing, etc?

Thanks again for all your help, everyone. I talked with her some more and she mentioned that she's actually much more comfortable with santoku knives than chef's knives (and neither of us are professional cooks so the possible slight loss of versatility shouldn't be too much a problem), so I ended up going with this Victorinox santoku, blade guard, and a Wusthof paring knife. Aaaaand looking at the order I realized I forgot to get a sharpener god damn it. Although some people have been saying sharpener bad, honer good. So, for someone who enjoys cooking but is an absurdly busy grad student, who likes caring for materials to be simple as possible, is there any consensus on what the best intersection is between quality, cost, and simplicity?

First, you actually need two kitchen knives: a paring knife and a chef's knife. Those will get you through almost everything you need to do in the kitchen.

For a few years, I used Calphalon knives. Still have them, but use my Henckels most of the time today.

Calphalon knives are made of good steel, are fully forged and nicely balanced. I don't know about UK options, but here is a good 6" chef's knife for $24. And here is a 4.5" paring knife for $22. They also have a steel for $25.

Considering the exchange rate, that should come in under your budget.

Do not buy stamped knives or ones that aren't full tang. Those are cheap and bad. Though I like my Henckels set better, the Calphalon knives are well made and I can see them holding up for life.

Those of you in the US, look for Calphalon knives at Ross and Marshall's. I put together a small set for $10-$15 a knife. There's no better deal out there.

I actually bought the cheapest ones I found.

http://www.amazon.com/Kyocera-Revolution-6-Inch-Chefs-Knife/dp/B0017U1RFO/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1319177633&sr=8-7

My first knife is this one:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000CF8YO/ref%3Dnosim/themichaelupdate

It was very sexy at first but then it got dull. I got too lazy to sharpen it. Now I only use it to smash garlic =(.

I promise you the Kyocera will change your life. You can slice a tomato super super super thin. Also, try it out first at any major kitchen store.

I tend to prefer Japanese steel, but I would recommend checking out Wasabi Knives - they are the utility line of Kershaw/Kai who also make Shuns. I can't speak for the paring knife, but I have been very happy with their Chef's knife as an everyday blade. The Amazon reviews seem favorable too!

https://www.amazon.com/Kai-Wasabi-Black-Paring-4-Inch/dp/B000YKZIWQ/ref=pd_sbs_79_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=21pizi8wJoL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&psc=1&refRID=AVS283F93WXRQNF5Y7VZ

Victorinox and Kuhn Rikon make excellent cheap little paring knives. EDIT: the Henckels paring knife set for $18 is also pretty great. It's nice to have the birds beak every so often, and the others are all generally handy.

paring knives need to be comfortable and be able to be sharpened or stay sharp. I bought one years ago and still have it. and it is working great. but it also cost me $40.

this one looks nice I would buy it.

https://www.amazon.com/Peeling-Stainless-Ergonomic-Kitchen-Cutting/dp/B071HL77XS/

these also look good!

https://www.amazon.com/J-Henckels-International-16900-081-Stainless/dp/B001S3VZZW/

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https://www.amazon.com/J-HENCKELS-INTERNATIONAL-31160-101-Stainless/dp/B00004RFMO/

Well just FYI this guy is what I bought to play around with, and this Yoshihiro is what I ended up buying and I love it. Granted there are surely better ones out there that i would like to try but it's not bad!

I'm afraid that for a "nice" dive knife, you may need to spend a bit more than $20. I'm sure you can get some passable ones though. Also, on the cheap, I just saw a post somewhere (perhaps here on r/knives recently, can't remember) where the person had taken a serrated stainless steel kitchen knife (like one of these) and ground the tip to be more blunt. The appeal of a cheap knife like that is you won't worry if it gets dropped, and the serrations and reputable Victorinox steel should last a while. Plus they come in bright colors. So I'd look into that for a cheap knife. You'll need to figure out a sheath on your own though.

I love my Global knives; I chose them mainly because they are a single piece of stainless steel and I get skeeved out about bacteria hiding (so you could
put them in the dishwasher if you wanted to, tho I don’t). They were fairly affordable and have a modern / minimalist style.

Currently I have the 8” chefs knife and bread knife (just amazing). We lost a santoku and a western paring in a cross country move and I will probably replace the paring with the exact same and the santoku with another regular global chefs knife just because I like the look; I don’t think they were substantially better than a competitor of the same style and I didn’t have much use for the santoku.

step 1: don't buy a knife set... you can accomplish 99% of kitchen tasks with a good chef's knife and a paring knife. knife sets tend to contain lots of stuff that one may never need (eg: a butcher knife)

for under $100, you could get a Global chef knife + paring knife or a Shun chef knife.

i find i generally only use 3-4 knives on a regular basis. my awesome Henkel chefs knife that my mom (who was a chef) bought me for christmas one year, a random serrated bread knife (the only knife I do use from a set given to me), and a decent set of paring knives like this.

Alternatively, I do not recommend getting a set, if anything go to a professional kitchen store and choose a set you might want to start collecting individually. My husband gave me this set for my birthday last year and I absolutely hate it. Every single fraking knife is serrated! Who wants a serrated chefs knife, paring knife etc?

+1 on the cheap victorinox. Found em on Amazon, but I can get em for $4 all day at a local supply store. I usually get 2 straight and 2 serrated every 2-3 months.

you definitely aren't looking for an usuba at that price, just a heads up

could go for something like this?
https://www.amazon.com/Kai-6716N-Wasabi-Nakiri-2-Inch/dp/B000YL4NYO/

it's not the best knife but it'll be at the very least passable

I know you're joking but here.

Bit of a knife beginner. My chef's knife is this one:

http://www.zwilling.com/en/press-knives-details/items/zwilling-pro-form-perfected-434.html

And my paring knife is this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Miyabi-Morimoto-Edition-2-Inch-Paring/dp/B003U76B1W/ref=sr_1_6?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1408123059&sr=1-6&keywords=miyabi+paring

ceramic chef's knives

Additional variations:

| Price | Series | Style | Size | Color | Link |

-------|:------------:|:-------:|:---------|:---------------|:-------|
$33.79 | Legend | Chef | 5" | White | Link
$50.96 | Legend | Chef | 6.7" | White | Link
$66.99 | Revolution | Chef | 7" | White/Black | Link
$69.95 | Revolution | Nakiri | 6" | White/Black | Link
$46.41 | Revolution | Santoku | 6" | Various | Link
$35.31 | Revolution | Santoku | 5 1/2" | Various | Link
$29.95 | Revolution | Slicing | 5 1/4" | White/Black | Link
$30.25 | Revolution | Utility | 5" | White/Black | Link
$20.20 | Revolution | Paring | 4" | White | Link
$19.80 | Revolution | Paring | 3 1/7" | Various | Link

I think I'm going to pick up a set of these.

http://www.amazon.com/Zwilling-Henckels-Colored-Paring-Knives/dp/B00005K8PF/ref=pd_sim_k_1

I personally would not recommend a set because they always have something you don't need and won't use. I have somewhere around 20 different kitchen knives. These are the ones that get the most use:

• DUE BUOI Knives carving knife
  
• Cold Steel serrated utility knife
  
• Wustof Santoku
  
• Victorinox serrated paring knife (I have 8 of these. Use them instead of steak knives).
  
  ​