I've had some crap knives from Chicago Cutlery, to independent pieces from ceramic LG pairing, Henckel Twin 4star bread and a couple Shun pieces I've recieved as a gift (a boneing and Santoku)
The Henckel is a serrated blade so I've only used it really ever for Bread
The Shun pieces are great all around, but its incredibly difficult to get the edge right. Its not a standard sharpen or edge process with a steel or sharpener.
Overall the balance of the Shun is nice, but my god its an expensive knife and it just isn't the length I needed.
So low & behold, I dug around the net to find out whether there are a few good values around that have received some solid review.
& There were a number.
They range from specific cuisineart knives, to mundials, victorinox to henckel or wustoff.
However it seems that from a culinary perspective, alot of restaurants use products supplied by restaurant supply companies. (go figure right? lol)
So I dug around further, and I see that a number of restaurants purchase two major brands for general use, but one significantly more.
Victorinox Forschner -- Very popular, especially in a plastic fibrox handle. Thin, light flexable blade that holds an alright edge, but very easy to sharpen.
Made of stamped powder'd steel. Very affordable
The most however preferred (I called 4 different supplies across NA): Henckel Twin Master (part of their twin line). Lightweight compared to other Twin Henckles as its not a full tang knife, and has a bright plastic yellow fibrox handle.
Apparently its the SAME blade as what Henckel uses in all their Twins, ranging from cuisine, fourstar and even pro.
Now, you won't find much about the Twin Master, as Henckel doesn't have much published online about them. But they are stamped on the blade with the same method Frudoir - hot drop cooled method as the other blades are in the ZWILLING JA Henckle TWIN line (Pro/4star/cuisine)
Now, the yellow fibrox plastic handle is light but is non-slip. Its not nearly as astheticially pleasing but its overall weight is reasonably balanced. Compared to the Victorinox Forschner, its much stiffer in the blade and feels more substantial.
The yellow is bright, but made to be for two reasons: Kitchen theft deturrent
To be highly visable for safety (such as in dishwater, where it shouldn't be)
My buddy is a prep cook at the palliser, and he was always raving about some German yellow handled knife. I called him today, and said... did you mean Henckles? He told me to wait, then picked up the phone and said, yup those ones.
I can live with the yellow, and think that they look pretty badass on my magnetic holder.
This is the thing.. I went to Genea kitchen supplies and picked up a 10" Chef's knife, 9" slicer and a pairing knife (all twin masters) for $59.70
That's less than half the price of an equivalent Chef's knife from Henckle's retail line.
Even their reps said its not worth spending the extra cash on the other Henckel knives, which they carry, as they are adamant that the blades are the same. Same performance, almost 1/5 the price! They also had some nice Globe & Wustoff, but said, that this yellow handled Chef's knife will be the last I'll buy.
I took it home, and have to say that they are on-par performance wise with the Shun's.. in fact easier as the Chef's knife is a better all purpose in my hands than the Santoku.
I'm pretty certain that I'll never spend any more on knives than I have to, as with other things such as my other cookware and preperation pieces.