I still have two carbon steel chef’s knives from the late 1950’s. There is nothing to approximate them any more. I have also a 6” paring knife. My new expensive part stainless steel knives don’t hold a candle to the old ones. They take a really nice edge and can slice through the skin of a raw tomato with almost no pressure.
I love my old carbon steel knives. Even my great grandfather’s carving knife from 1880 still attains a keen edge. However, these days I tend to use my knives from Cutco. When my son takes them and leaves them outside in the rain they don’t rust.
Maybe someday I can buy a really good set of knives and know they will stay in the drawer or in the block where I left them.
I like my Henkels chef knive pretty well for chopping, and Cutco has a handy carver that I seem to pull out quite a bit. I tend to use just the larger chef knife to chop, the smaller one is wasted.
I saw a really nice knife block that has tightly packed thin plastic rods instead of slots for knives.
how much do you want to spend? Henkels is very good… Wusthof is also very good, I have a Wusthof filet knife that could skin a pig in a minute… (ok a bit of an exageration)
I cook a lot and my ‘go to’ is the Henkels, (most importantly, keep it sharp)
I was hoping to keep it under $130.00. I’m 40 and have just discovered how much I love cooking. I’ve heard that global knives are on par with Wustof and J.A. Henckels.