Reccomendations for Kitchen/chef knives?

So my girls birthday is the beginning of next month. One item that she has asked for is a real good chefs knife set. Thinking like a 3-5 piece chefs knife/paring set.

Any reccomendations? There seems to be tons of options out there now. Budget is about $200. The Damascus steel knives and the Asian designs look real sexy but have never used one. Know they are very personal opinion and taste involved but anything to look for or avoid? I have a handme down set of cutco so I have never shopped for knives really

 

http://www.amazon.com/Wüsthof-Kitchen-Dining/b?ie=UTF8&node=291361

Wusthof, by far the best out there and you can get what you are looking for in that budget. Get the good ones, you won't regret it, this was the best wedding present I got. Well minus my son 11 months later. Go get gift cards at Kroger for Bed Bath Beyond or Amazon and order them. Done and done.

 

Wustof classic with full tang is what I dig.

Edit: here's a good starter set. http://www.williams-sonoma.com/prod..._src=wusthof-classic||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_--_-

 

Believe it or not, knives are a bit like motorcycle helmets. Fit and personal preference matter. For 200 bucks you can get a good three-piece forged set from Solingen (Trident, Messermiester, etc) like Dave's link above, but consider what knives you really need to use. You might be better served buying individual knives. Alternatively, you can get a great stamped set from Forschner (Victorinox), of probably 6 key knives. These knives are uses by many, many pros.

Seek out a cutlery shop, and try to ask for a lady-salesperson with similar sized hands to comment on how the various options fit. Broadly speaking there are four styles of quality knives,: French, German, Japanese-German, and Japanese. They vary a lot is weight and balance, handle shape and importantly --blade thickness. My wife prefers a 6 inch chef knife to the vastly more common 8 inch standard. This is the one she uses. While it is American made, it is decidedly German in style. Another often overlooked source is Portugal -- Icel is very good value. Whatever you do, stay away from Cutco

 

Henckels are a good alternative, also.
This is a decent starter set if you're looking for a countertop block for your knives.
Keep in mind...just because you get good knives doesn't mean they stay sharp forever.
Chefs Choice is a decent one. They essentially have 2 models - a 2 stage and a 3 stage. I like the 3 stage, but, 2 stage works decent too.
If she isn't proficient with a honing steel, get a decent sharpener such as this

 

Why? I really like their cheese knives and scissors.

 

Sam bought me a wustoff 10" chefs knife quite awhile ago and it was the go to over almost everything else. Great balance and it keeps an edge. She has a henckels with the rounded handle that I could never get used to and it is a pain to keep a great edge on.

I bought a 8" wustoff chef that is now king of all the knives and the 10" almost never comes out. Sam even prefers it over her henckels.

It really is what you like and the "feel."

 

Basically because they are designed to tear food, not slice it. Search out the Cooks Illustrated knife test -- it explains it pretty well. For cheese, it might work well.

Mongo also raises a good point: knives vary on how they design the bolster -- the rearmost part of the blade. Some -- like those Shun's, have polished blade all the way back, forming a cut tip; others have a portion of the back that is unsharpened.

I get a kick out of watching Dave et al. go all fetish over wristwatches, but I think I am the same with kitchen knives. I have about 50.

 

I'd like to get all geeked up over knives and I've shot the shit with Elmer about them but the custom stuff are tools that are above my ability.

If they were a major part of my day you know I'd be spanking it to Sabatier and the porn of Bob Kramer.

 

For $200, and in general skip the knife block sets. You need two good knives to get through almost everything - a good chef's knife and a smaller utility knife. Everything else is gravy.

I really like my Shuns, and I started out with straight up german style stuff. Right now woot has a couple of nice pairs for sale - http://www.woot.com/plus/shun-knives . What my wife and I like about them is that they are a bit of a compromise for us - the handle size is at the small end of the range for me, but on the larger knives is at the top of her range. They also hold an edge incredibly well. That makes them a bitch to sharpen, but that's life.

Test driving knives is great to do if you can. Unfortunately there aren't that many shops that will let you hack up an onion on their counter.

For price point, any of those Shun's are tough to beat. If she likes the drop point style, then the Premier is a good place to start. You can also check out Amazon for deals. Also check OpenSky (another sales site) as a lot of chefs and food writers have stores on there with knives.

 

Oh, and if you want to go custom, the sky is the limit. Bob Kramer is currently getting $1000 to $1500 per inch IF you can get on his production list.

 

Some of their newer lines have larger handles now because of that complaint. Makes them even less japanese style, but user preference and all that....

 

The biggest thing I found with my cheapo knifes if sharpening them. I don't get/care enough about nice knives but just a basic sharpening on my old knives worked wonders.

 

I just don't "dig" the rounded handles. The size is okay and I can deal, it's just the roundish shape for me.

Like what has been said, comfort.

 

This Katana is one of my favorite do it all budget knives. 3 piece set under $200.

http://store.calphalon.com/calphalon-katana-series-asian-cutlery-set/585721

The blades are so sharp, and the balance of the handle is the best of any knife I've used. I have Shuns as well, don't like to use them as much anymore.