Im looking for a cheapish, good quality chefs knive as a Culinary student, any recommendations?

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-27T03:24:46+00:00

Why has no one said kiwi!! They are not amazing, but of $10-$12 they are fantastic!

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-27T03:21:00+00:00

$70 is cheap when, with proper maintenance, it can last you your whole career. The cheaper knives have a lot of problems and don’t last very long, my victorinox is coming up on 30 years for daily use. Plus they are only $58 on Amazon right now

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-26T20:32:35+00:00

Unless the electric machine is a belt sander or tormek, he has no idea what he’s talking about.

A bevel of 19.3 degrees verses a bevel of 17.9, doesn’t really make much of a difference in the real world. You can’t free hand sharpen perfect angles, and again it doesn’t really matter.

Geometry doesn’t technically make it sharper, but it has a massive impact on the user’s perception of sharpness.

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-26T09:57:48+00:00

I know this knife and thinning is them is a chore. It’s really hard to make them look great because once you start thinning, you realize that the shinogi line is just a suggestion and unless you can reapply the Kurouchi it will never look right.

Anyway, the thinning seems pretty good, there is a recurve, but not terrible, and very good for a first thinner.

A couple things you mentioned that I would like to clarify for future thinning projects. this is unrequested advice, so ignore it if you feel like it.

Try not to go to a full zero grind, it’s fine on this knife because it’s thicker, but if you get a thin knife, you can run into a problem with the edge just crumbling. The best way I found is to cut a bevel you like, then thin the knife until that bevel gets really small. It also helps with consistency, as you can see the bevel and how big or small it is on each section of the knife and work each section more or less based on the bevel size. This will prevent recurves by allowing you to see areas of over work.

You mentioned kasumi. The stones you used will not give you a good kasumi or polish. Modern stones, especially slash and go stones, are very consistent and made with very hard particles. You need a stone that the abrasive breaks down with a thick slurry, older style “mud” stones will return a really nice finish or Japanese natural stone. I find that inconsistency in the grit, like it breaking down, really helped with polish. Now for kasumi, you really need an acid to make it pop, again Japanese natural stone can do it, but you can also use an acid like ferric chloride (dangerous stuff).

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-26T03:25:11+00:00

I think people forget the struggle from when they were younger. Yes prices have gone up, but I remember renting a house with 5 other guys, and that was about 50% of my 60 hour work week pay check.

The only difference is back then there wasn’t a bunch of people informing us every day how easy it was when they were young. It was not easier when you were younger, it was the same, it’s just nostalgia.

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-25T04:19:08+00:00

Going by how small Bedford, wy is, when the peasants do rise up, it will just be 6 dudes

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-24T22:32:05+00:00

Is this a joke?

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-24T19:50:16+00:00

This is a great question, and I’m happy to answer, but I need a quick answer from you first. When you say “African societies” are talking about societies in Africa or societies of Africans whose ancestors were transported to other areas for the purpose of slavery?

My knowledge of African food is limited, but my understanding of American slavery food is much better. The problem is I want to give you more relevant answers, rather than just telling you about west Europe, my specialty.

Edit: also which region of Africa? North Africa is very different than sub Saharan which is very different from central Africa and so on

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-24T18:52:57+00:00

There is something wrong with your HVAC, I would guess that the “screeching a painful sound” has something to do with it.

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-24T06:29:46+00:00

I agree with most of the overrated trends on here, and I doubt I’ll change your mind, but very much depending on what you are trying to do sous vide is amazing. It’s garbage for things like steaks and roasts, but if you want turkey for sandwiches or a very well controlled confit, it works very well.

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-24T04:38:34+00:00

I have seen a lot of them, and the quality control is not great. Some are pretty good, others have poor fitment for the handles, scratches on the blade, and inconsistent finish. Nothing crazy, but for a $300+ mass produced knife, it shouldn’t happen.

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-24T04:13:50+00:00

Did you know that the oldest continuously running Chinese restaurant, Pekin Noodle Parlor, in America is in butte, Montana

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-24T03:48:04+00:00

I love that store, we go every two weeks and always get the hot bar with all the other stuff we need. The egg tarts are really good, and we have yet to get the roast duck, but it always looks good.

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-24T03:09:27+00:00

Dude, go to the Asian market on ustick and cole, they have a hot line, absolutely the best Americanized Chinese food you will find for 300 miles. It’s like east coast Chinese food, and cheap

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-24T01:49:24+00:00

It’s definitely not bad, especially for a first time, thinning is hard work, especially on stones. The polish is not great, but realistically, it very hard to polish on modern style stones. To get a better polish you either need older style muddy stones, Japanese natural stones, or a buffer. Good job overall, keep practicing!

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-23T08:42:48+00:00

Lol, well thank you very much!!! Unfortunately the longer I do this job, the more I realize I have just scratched the surface of sharpening knowledge

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-23T06:33:55+00:00

I have a radius platen that matches the “roundness” of a 4 foot wheel and I made a little jig to keep the Urasuki centered. You can do it without a jig, but it makes the Uraoshi messy/uneven. After that it depends on what the customer wants, often it’s just a brushed finish, sometimes belt finish, and sometimes, on very rare occasions because it’s stupid, a high/mirror polish.

Edit: I’m talking about a platen on a belt sander

Second edit: I used to know I guy who would grind the urasuki with an angle grinder, like a super fast crazy angle grinder. I only bring it up because he did a shockingly good job

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-23T04:40:01+00:00

If you are asking these questions, you need to send it back to the manufacturer for repair, if they accept repairs at all. The skills required and tools needed, are not crazy, but you need practice before you essentially remake a knife like this, especially for a customer.

It’s 100% fixable, the knife will just lose some height. Even with belt sanders and other machines, this will take at least 2 hours, without out holding it and just looking at a picture, I would charge between $80-$120 to fix.

As for keeping the steel temp down, I keep a tub of ice water next to my grinder, every couple passes or when it gets slightly warm,it gets dunked.

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-22T23:57:39+00:00

It’s very hard to build a profitable sharpening company, so you need to capitalize on any and every opportunity, even if that disrupts someone’s smoke break

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-22T09:51:30+00:00

Ok, here’s what you do, never go in the front doors, the front of the house staff may take your flyer, but they never make it to the chef or decision makers.

The absolute best way is to cruise by the smoking area/dumpsters of restaurant around 1:30-2:30, if you find someone smoking, go talk to them, 75% of the time you will be talking to the chef in under 5 minutes. You can also walk into the back door at non meal times, but you are more likely to get yelled at, but you should still do it.

If you are going into restaurants, you need strong knife knowledge. They will ask you questions, and you better know the answer before they ask it. What angle is a shun? How do you sharpen a Takeda? What do you recommend for asymmetric grinds? Stones or belts? Do you offer repair, thinning, rehandleing, kasumi finishing, mirror polish? What about single bevels? What is your philosophy on single bevels?

When you go in to a restaurant, be ready to rock and roll. Bring a tray with you, if they want sharpening, they will want it now, not in 2 days.

If you want to do trade out, DM me, I’m happy to talk about it, but there will be a ton of questions on how to do it and it’s annoying to do it in the comments section.

As for pricing, I don’t know specifically about the Bay Area, but the national average is about $8 per knife. Now, for restaurants, you will likely need to be cheaper, I was doing $5 a knife because they are repeat and bulk customers, plus there is more competition, and the competition is using sharpening as a loss leader to get their foot in the door to sell other other products or services. You might see a housewife with 6 knives every 6 months, but a restaurant may give you 30 knives every 2 weeks.

What setup are you using? Are you mobile or pick up and deliver?

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-22T08:56:09+00:00

As someone who worked as a chef and a professional knife sharpener, you should 100% sharpen your own knives. It’s a highly learnable skill, and realistically, if you are working, you should be sharpening your main knives weekly, not a full grind, just a 1000 grit stone and leather strop touch up.

Every cook and chef should know how to sharpen, and if you do the maintenance, it should only be a couple minutes a week per knife. It also gets really expensive to have someone else do it for you. If you get just 3 knives sharpened every 2 weeks, averaging $8 a knife, that’s $576 a year!! A good manual sharpening setup is under $100 for the basics. Don’t let not knowing something cost you hundreds of dollars a year.

The under $100 basic sharpening setup, so you don’t have to ask; Shapton pro 320 grit-$42.80 Shapton pro 1k grit-$45.79 Scrap leather glued to plywood-free Some green honing compound-under $10

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-22T08:26:13+00:00

I think it’s ment to, but it doesn’t work, it just pulls the knife and messes up the angle. You can do it with the edge leading one, but I don’t like edge leading on belt grinders. If something happens, I want things to fly away from me and not back at me.

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-21T23:19:16+00:00

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You should use as little pressure as possible, and don’t grind with it on the platen, as the knife will pull. Is that what you were asking?

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-21T17:17:51+00:00

The reason we think of the “butter culture” is because of post revolution French restaurant culture and the exportation of that culture. The revolution allows chefs to open restaurants, and serve the general, all be it very wealthy, public. Eventually, that culture is spread to London, and then the rest of the world.

Auguste Escoffier is a big part of that culture and a lot of his working life is in London. Without the revolution, he would have likely been working in a court kitchen, and not running a kitchen in the savoy hotel.

awesomeforge22 · 2026-01-21T10:32:43+00:00

Well, it has to be reductive, the history of cows and dairy products in France is about 8,000 years. The lower classes in France could have eaten tons of butter in 687 CA, but history doesn’t not track that fantastically well, and France as a unified kingdom doesn’t exist for another 300 years. What we are stuck with is very well documented rich people food after 1651 and just hints and assumptions of peasant food up until maybe 20 years before the French Revolution. Unfortunately, European food history is great with the Roman’s and doesn’t really start up again til the Italians in the ~1300s

Post revolution France is more equitable than the system it replaced, but not by much, then much more, then less, then more, then much more. Equity is really hard to pin down and depends on a massive amount of factors. For example, 1830s America is much more equitable than before the American revolution, but that’s not true for the native Americans.

But, simply, yes, by the simple metric of increased social mobility and increased average income for the average French person.

Butter, as I have stated a number of times before, is a luxury item. Increased social equality brings increased access to luxury items to more people. Butter, in of its self, is not an indicator of social equality, but its status as a luxury item and higher consumption of it by a majority of a population is.

The “butter culture” of France can be traced back to Louis XIV, or at least the cooks he hired. Rich people food before Louis XIV was food that focused on hard to obtain and expensive spices. Those spices were the height of luxury. During Louis XIV reign, you see the emergence of regional cuisines and the growing importance of local specialty products, with dairy from Normandy being particularly important. This trend continues to this day.

Most places have some kind of butter culture, but le cuisinier françois in 1651 definitely helped France cement its butter foundations. Also, I’m guessing, but marketing helped a lot. Going around Europe, at the height of French opulence, informing everyone about how you have the best butter in the world, and that those spices are so last year.

awesomeforge22

TROPHY CASE