Knives

tosa-hocho.de/

I know it is German and I can't tell you if the guy speaks English or not. But the knifes he sells are really nice I bought two of the higher priced ones and I love them. The cheaper ones are good to or so my brother told me who ones one. For the quality of the knifes the prices are totally fine but you have to know how to use and sharpen them. You could either go with the cheaper knifes or the more expensive. If you're not into the weeb shit he also sells a typical european blade shape.

Try searching maybe for a similar small shop if this one doesn't work for you. I made the experience that with such small shops that look like someone really wants to sell you a quality product you can't go wrong.

Unless she's a weeb I doubt she will appreciate a rust-fast knife with weeb handle.

>a rust-fast knife
Indeed she probably wouldn't like it. You won't notice the rusting much when cutting normal stuff but acids like applejuice or lemonjuice make it both darken in colour and smell strongly. Than again if you want a really good steel this is what you should go with. I figured it'd be a nice idea because especially the cheaper knifes are really good for the money you pay and look good.

Give us some more information about what she likes.

You say you want to give her a set of knifes. So I'd go with a solid cooking knife, a bread knife, a paring knife and maybe something for boning. Bread knife and paring knife shouldn't be that expensive compare to a cooking knife.

I need to sharpen my knife, I was having to saw a little bit on some chicken thighs the other day

not that it matters, I buy the cheap $12 knives at the grocery store. They are inexpensive enough to just throw away when they go dull. Been using this one for about 2 years now. Expensive knives are a scam

Why bait so hard?

what? because I'm not foolish enough to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a kitchen tool I can get for under $15?

it works for years, then I replace it. Your expensive knife you resharpen over and over is going to need to be replaced eventually too and I will still come out having saved money

A good cooking knife is in the long run probably cheaper than your technique but depending on what you get it is actually quiet irrelevant. No one on either side is ever going to save much more money than the other.

The point of having and maintaining a quality knife is to have one that is very sharp and lies nicely in the hand. A good sharpness not only eases different chores by a lot it also makes them fun and it allows for some techniques to be used in the first place. If the knife lies in your hand comfily it makes cutting a lot more pleasant which is especially important if you cut a lot of stuff.

Do yourself a favour and buy a nice knife for $100 and get the tools and knowledge to keep it sharp.

counter point
the chefs knife isn't actually designed very well at all and is only used because it's traditional
a curved hatchet blade can do everything much better than a chefs knife

Get an end grain cutting board.

Knives are one part of an equation. The cutting board is another part. If you're using a shitty bamboo or urethane cutting board, you don't get the rebounding action that helps you make good cuts

Do not buy a woman an expensive knife, women do not take care of things like kitchen knives and treat them as disposable

I am not quiet sure what you mean with curved hatchet knife to be honest. If you enjoy a particular shape more than another there is nothing wrong with that I guess. Buy a quality version of that and treat it well and it will still be more enjoyable to handle than a worse version.

You missed the most important factor about better knives: less time spent maintaining them.

When I first got into cooking I had a $10 "store brand" knife. I quickly found out that it required such frequent maintenance that it wasn't even worth using. I soon bought the often-recommended Victorinox/Forschner. Great beginner knife to be sure, but it still required frequent sharpening to keep the cutting performance acceptable. Since then I've switched to pro brands. The difference in ergonomics is marginal, but I fucking LOVE the fact that I only have to touch up the blade every few months rather than once (or more) a week.

I love hatchets. I use one as my general purpose blade in my workshop rather than a pocketknife. They are certianly more versatile than many people give them credit for. But a hatchet blade is useless for many kitchen tasks. It is far too thick to cut many vegetables without breaking them. It's far too heavy and the weight is too far forward to use for any appreciable length of time. It's very awkward for things like filleting a fish, boning out meat, etc. There's a reason pro cooks don't use them--they kinda suck for cooking.

Mercer, wusthof, shun, victorinox