Out of Pod Experience

I started studying into Hospitality Management program and have two jobs. I am now having more hours of work and money is now piling up. I am even considering subbing eve again away from plex on my main account (more work time = less grinding time for isk!).

What is my budget? About $1,500. If a good knife set is $100, I'll grab that, don't matter if price is low or high. I know that even a $50 knife set is probably all need. But I am seeking at least 5 or so years using the set.

Though I must admit, cheaper the knife set, sooner I build a new PC (been using this PC for almst 7 years now!) :)

I would also love to hear some stories and experience from any fellow chefs or home cooks that have been using any particular knives, good or bad.

Touching on the new PC, you have Intel's 'Devil's Canyon' coming out in June and Z97 being released now in May so might be worth waiting.

Before investing in knives I would recommend first obtaining and learning how to use a set of Japanese waterstones or Arkansas oilstones on some cheap knives. You can borrow knives from friends and family to sharpen if you don't have many yourself yet while you learn. Everyone seems to have a drawer with crap or dull knives in it. I personally use waterstones to fix or get an initial edge and switch to Arkansas stones for final honing and polishing. Some people prefer to stick with one or the other, or even use DMT (diamond) stones. Once you learn how to get the edge you are looking for, you can make just about any knife razor sharp, and then maintaining them is easy. For instance I have a $3 cleaver I got at a yard sale I cleaned-up and sharpened I can now shave with that, and it will split a whole chicken with little effort. Most factory knife edges, especially cheap ones can be greatly improved if the steel is of decent hardness. Tons of how-to videos on youtube for sharpening, if you know how to do it, any knife will last 5 or more years.

Any forged knife blade that uses high-carbon German or Japanese steel is going to be an excellent choice, you don't have to get crazy to get good knives, nor do you necessarily need a bunch of expensive knives, you may find you regularly use 1-2 of them (your go-to knives) and the others far less frequently. Spend time learning to sharpen cheap knives and use them first and then you can figure out what you are looking for that suits your skills and needs for your go-to knives.

If you live in the US, Sams Club or Costco regularly sell decent starter knife sets for < $100 that are very workable. I have a set of 4 Wolfgang Puck labeled santoku kinves for instance that cost $30 that hold an edge really well. But of those 4, I use one of them all the time and the rest sit in the block.

Damascus style steel blades are also really nice and pretty, and watching how DS is made (on youtube) will make you appreciate the amount of effort that can go into making really good knives and steel.

Any 3 inch blade will do if you hit the right spot

Hey I got a few of those. Well not a kitchen knife but a folding pocket knife of the Buck Knife brand.

I also lost one for a couple years until I found it again with my metal detector. The wood handle looks very weathered now and the blade had a rust spot on it but I managed to buff it out. I think it looks better now with all the weathering on it.

Global makes really good stuff. I don't care for their handles, that's just a personal preference. I've never used a detachable sharpening guide, but I bet it helps a lot when learning. Global grinds a straight point edge (different angle) so that's probably why they offer the guide.

Be wary of those Pakistani and Indian DS knives. There is a reason they sell a set for what one knife usually costs. All Damascus Steel is pattern welded steel, but not all pattern welded steel is Damascus Steel.

I use a King K80 250/1000 combination waterstone on knives that need a lot of work, and then switch to an Arkansas Soft/Hard combination oilstone for finishing. On new or undamaged knives that are already sharp, I skip the waterstone entirely, it's not needed as you don't need to remove a lot of steel from a properly ground knife. Any stone needs to be at least 6" long, longer is definitely better but it increases the cost a lot which is why I buy 2-sided combo stones because you get 2 grits for the price of one.

Stone Holders are quite handy too, they make a big difference.

I prefer the olistones because they last forever, don't need to be soaked ahead of time or make a big mess like waterstones, and they stay flat when you use them properly. A waterstone, especially a combo is going to wear out pretty fast (the whole point with them is to create a stone/steel slurry) and they tend to cup after a few uses, so you need to lap them flat again periodically which coincidentally is done with a $eparate $tone intended for that purpose. For higher grit waterstones > 2000 you also need to use a Nagura stone to prepare the waterstone for use each time. The lower grit waterstones < 1000 remove a lot of steel really fast so when re-dressing or fixing a damaged blade they are preferable to oilstones, and since I don't need to do that very much the waterstone I have will last a lot longer.

If you go all waterstones, you also won't probably need one above 4000 grit unless you also want to sharpen/polish razors, which you can still do pretty well at 4000. Same goes for oilstones, 'black' and 'translucent' stones are not really necessary for knives. If you need to maintain razors, a strop is going to work better and faster anyway unless the edge is damaged. You can roughly equate the results using a 4000 grit waterstone to an Arkansas hard stone.

I use water on my oilstones, or oil (sometimes dry), and I scrub them with ajax/comet/bon ami and a scotchbrite pad when I am finished if they get discolored as you have to keep the metal particles from building up, the lubricant only does so much. You remove layers of a waterstone with each use, so no build-up to worry about.

Spiderco has some really nice synthetic ceramic stones that you don't have to lap or use any lubricant at all, but they are kinda thin and can break easily, and for the same price you can get a nice, larger combo oilstone that will last several lifetimes.

What works best for you will probably be different and only you can determine that. I tried a lot of methods and stones before I found what worked best for me. It's an art for sure, and I find doing it very calming and Zen-like. I fortunately had the opportunity to learn from a 60 year old Sushi Chef, you only had to show one of his knives to a piece of fish and like magic it became sashimi.

Not really, I don't use one very much. I have an old Henckels bag made out of ballistic nylon I got as a give-away from a knife store grand opening that's probably 20 years old and was intended for BBQ or cookout use.

I do however have this video about forging DS from a very dedicated knifemaker. His knives are also available for sale on his website, you can get an idea of what a good DS knife costs.