Don’t waste your money on a knife set… three knives for every kitchen

It's time to discuss one of the most important tools in a chef's arsenal: the knife. I will walk you through the many varieties of knives and their purposes, materials, sharpening and technique, and ultimately what I consider to be the three most important, or at least the most commonly used, chef's knives.

00:00 - Let's Talk Knives
00:47 - The Three Most Useful Knives
03:44 - Accessories
05:50 - How to Hone Your Knife
09:00 - Sharpening Knives
10:43 - Different Types of Steel
13:28 - Storage

Don’t waste your money on a knife set… three knives for every kitchen

My knife brands

Chinese Knives: CCK (Chan Chee Kee) from Hong Kong

Western knives: @ZWILLINGUSA, Miyabi, Hedley & Bennet

[Menace_Chemist]

This video came at the perfect time. I'm rebuilding my kitchen after moving to another country and starting out with nothing. I was going to buy a knife set, but I will save my money and just get three 😊

[llewleyn]

THANK you.

I was the knife expert at a kitchenware shop for a decade, and this is exactly what I told customers. Chef's knife or gyuto or Chinese knife, a smaller knife (either petty or paring), and serrated. Plus a honing steel.

[CoralCrayon]

Growing up my mother never had a ton of knives in the kitchen. She always drove home for me how to take care of the knife for longevity rather then buying fancy overpriced knives. And love that you distinguished the difference between the meat cleaver and the Chinese version of a chefs knife I needed that.

[JDH]

I switched to Chinese style carbon steel knives decades ago. Love them as they also serve as a great platform/scoop for transferring food from cutting board to pot-one tool! Thank you for the video. Appreciated the instruction on honing - well done. Cheers

[Studycase]

My God man! It was like a cliff hanger, after you mentioned getting into the difference between Western, Japanese and Chinese knives. Please make a part two in the near future, while this is still fresh in your viewers minds. Your insight would be greatly valued. Pweeze? 🥰

[BIGBLUEKING]

First i love the video, you're always so informative and helpful. Please keep up the wonderful content!

Personally i got into sharpeing my knives with a cheap whetsone, a cheap stainless knife from a supermarket and a few youtube vidoes for technique. It let make mistakes without wrecking any decent knives, it let me gain experience and get to a point where im happy to sharpen nicer knives.

Nothing had to be expensive and the differnce it makes to have a sharp knife compared to one that isnt is astronomical. I highly reccomend using old or cheap knives and not going out to buy a very expensive whetstone, just get something simple and it will likely be enough for the average person like myself.

[SatchmoBronson]

I think it's worth it for a dedicated home cook to learn to sharpen. If you cook every day, your knives will need it somewhat often (more than once a year) and if you don't live in a major metro area where you can get next-day whetstone sharpening done, you could be without your knife for a fairly long time! On a typical Western-style chef's knife or anything with softer steel, it's not too hard to learn to get a knife decently sharp.

I bought a Chinese chef's knife (Shi Ba Zi Zuo F-208) after binging a bunch of Lucas Sin videos last summer and I'm obsessed with it, just a great knife style.

Great vid! A good overview for sure. I wouldn't mind a deeper dive on your knives, they look nice and I just think knives are neat!

[dorrud]

Thank you, I love all the practical advice you give.

[daisyrosario]

Happy Sunday Jon!
Thanks always for your videos!💯

[jameshaulenbeek]

If I may add, stainless steels do get just as sharp of not more so than carbon steel, depending on the specific alloy. Carbon steel is typically far easier to sharpen though, and by requiring less work and less means to get as sharp, it gets the reputation of being "sharper".

The carbides that are created by the various metals in the alloy are what contribute to how sharp an edge can get, how durable the edge will be, and how difficult the knife will be to sharpen.

Every alloy will be a compromise somewhere within that spectrum, and it may also be worth it to invest a little time to research what you want from the knife in regards to the steel itself.

[frfsolrac]

Excellent advice. 100% agree. I made it over 20 years with just a stainless steel 8 inch chefs knife. I am very dexterous with it. By the time I got a 3 inch pairing knife, I really didn’t need it. The serrated bread knife came last. It is an excellent addition. If I could do it all over the only thing I would do differently is pay the extra for a 10 inch SS chef instead of the 8 inch.

[snguy]

I love knife videos, can't wait for more!

[JasonShick]

For the longest time the only decent knife I had in my kitchen was a Zwilling Santoku that had been a christmas gift a few years earlier. All the others were from my roomie's collection that was bad steel and the edges were all badly serrated.
Now I have a decent set that I got at discount, a good chef's knife, a good Chinese chef's knife, and the Santoku. I keep them in good order and sharp.

I am now living in anticipation of your compare/contrast eastern vs. western knives video!

[KitarraChaosWeaver]

This is very useful! I will add though, that for those of us with small hands a chef knife is sometimes just too much. I do 90% of everything with a utility knife. A petty or a utility knife is useful for most tasks. I would say I pull out my chef knife once a month where as I use my petty every day. The two petty knives I use most frequently also have a pointy enough tip that I can even do some really nice paring knife moves with them. I do like your idea of trading off knives to always have one super sharp. I am swiping that.

[ElisandeWalters]

I know it is not about cooking but (as a german) I want to point out that a long serrated edge knives are really great to slice your own bread.

[crownprincesslaya]

amazing video, thank you so much for sharing your expertise!

[itouchguitar]

Super comprehensive intro to knives! Interesting stuff :)

[freestinje]

Perfect video for a friend who's recently got into cooking

[CakeboyRiP]

I really need a good knife so this is going to help greatly. Thank you Jon!

[chungkng]

i have seen a couple of videos about knife sharpening but i like you so much that the next time i need sharpening i'm gonna do it exactly as you say lol