Show us your knife collection.

[ChefKnivesToGo]

Thanks Brent for letting me mooch your photo. I added it to the rack page.
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/waknst.html

[knollbrent@me.com]

Wow, the honor is mine CKTG!

[knollbrent@me.com]

I have been promising to show you guys my collection for a while and eventually had some time to take some group shots.
First off, my favorite Japanese blade designs...willows and slicers.



Left to right.
Konosuke Fujiyama by Genkai Masakuni - Yanagiba/Kiritsuke 330mm - W3 Mizu Honyaki Moon Over Fuji - Handle by Delosso
Konosuke Fujiyama by Genkai Masakuni - Sakimaru Takobiki 330mm - W3 Mizu Honyaki Fuji Mountain Finish by Ivan Fonseca - Handle by Konosuke
Konosuke Fujiyama by Yoshikatzu Tanaka - Sakimaru Takobiki 330mm - Ginsan - Handle by Delosso
Masamoto Korin Hongasumi - Sakimaru Takobiki 330mm - White #1
Yoshihiro Mizu Yaki by Keijiro Doi - Yanagiba 300mm - Blue #2 Mizu Honyaki
Konosuke Fujiyama by Kenichi Shiraki - Fuguhiki 300mm - W3 Abura Honyaki - Handle by Hopkins
Sukenari Mizu Honyaki by Mr. Inaki - Yanagiba 300mm - White #1 Mizu Honyaki - Handle by Hopkins
Konosuke Fujiyama by Kenichi Shiraki - Fuguhiki 270mm - Blue #1 - Handle by Delosso
Ikeda Masayuki by Tatsuo Ikeda - Fuguhiki 270mm - White #2 Mizu Honyaki Mirror Notare
Konosuke Fujiyama by Yoshikatzu Tanaka - Sujihiki/Kuritsuke 270mm - White #2 - Handle by Delosso

Impressive Yanagi's Mauichef! My fourth Yanagi is coming in this week. A Yoshihiro Mizu Yaki Honyaki Aoko Blue Steel Mirror Finished Yanagi Kiritsuke Sushi Sashimi Japanese knife with Sword Tip Triple Nickel Silver Ring Ebony Handle.

[ChefKnivesToGo]

Sweet mama...

[FisherMAn1298]

This is an older shot from last year. Few have left and a few new ones have shuffled in. I'll have to post an updated one soon

Where do you put them all? I have them hanging on butcher block, racks, drawers, plastic buckets, never enough space!

[Marc4pt0]

This is an older shot from last year. Few have left and a few new ones have shuffled in. I'll have to post an updated one soon

Where do you put them all? I have them hanging on butcher block, racks, drawers, plastic buckets, never enough space!

I keep them in those padded zipper sleeves for the most part. Some have up to 4 knives in one. Most of these cases are kept in a cabinet, out of reach from small hands..

[knollbrent@me.com]

Here’s the current line up. 270 Mazaki, 270 Hiromoto, and 240 Anryu are off getting some work done but it’s just as well, they wouldn’t fit on this little table anyway

2F679282-4B2F-4238-822C-E88B36B02B21.jpeg

Beautiful!

[anighost]

From left to right:

Seki kikusui vg10 petty 80mm.
Takamura r2 santoku
Tanaka r2 western with spalted maple handle
Shibata kotetsu AS gyuto 210
Kono Fuji blue 1 gyuto 210
Saji Rainbow damascus gyuto 210
Murata B1 nakiri
Kurosaki shijuku santoku sg2
Kobayashi sg2 damascus petty 150
Anryu (old kanji) B1 petty 135
Anryu (old kanji) B1 bunka
Anryu (old kanji) W2 santoku
Anryu (new kanji) W2 gyuto 240
Kitaoka mioroshi deba
Wakui migaki w2 gyuto 240

In the box:
Okada 270 yanagiba
Nigara anmon gin3 sakimaru
Kenichi Shiraki Honyaki gyuto 255 (old stock)

[Japan24]

Nice collection

[ChefKnivesToGo]

From left to right:

Seki kikusui vg10 petty 80mm.
Takamura r2 santoku
Tanaka r2 western with spalted maple handle
Shibata kotetsu AS gyuto 210
Kono Fuji blue 1 gyuto 210
Saji Rainbow damascus gyuto 210
Murata B1 nakiri
Kurosaki shijuku santoku sg2
Kobayashi sg2 damascus petty 150
Anryu (old kanji) B1 petty 135
Anryu (old kanji) B1 bunka
Anryu (old kanji) W2 santoku
Anryu (new kanji) W2 gyuto 240
Kitaoka mioroshi deba
Wakui migaki w2 gyuto 240

In the box:
Okada 270 yanagiba
Nigara anmon gin3 sakimaru
Kenichi Shiraki Honyaki gyuto 255 (old stock)

Cool shot!

[knollbrent@me.com]

From left to right:

Seki kikusui vg10 petty 80mm.
Takamura r2 santoku
Tanaka r2 western with spalted maple handle
Shibata kotetsu AS gyuto 210
Kono Fuji blue 1 gyuto 210
Saji Rainbow damascus gyuto 210
Murata B1 nakiri
Kurosaki shijuku santoku sg2
Kobayashi sg2 damascus petty 150
Anryu (old kanji) B1 petty 135
Anryu (old kanji) B1 bunka
Anryu (old kanji) W2 santoku
Anryu (new kanji) W2 gyuto 240
Kitaoka mioroshi deba
Wakui migaki w2 gyuto 240

In the box:
Okada 270 yanagiba
Nigara anmon gin3 sakimaru
Kenichi Shiraki Honyaki gyuto 255 (old stock)

Excellent!

[ChefKnivesToGo]

Nice Matsubara. Thanks Brent!

[knollbrent@me.com]

And thank you Mark! Wavy face is my 6th Matsubara. What a great looking knife. Easy to sharpen. Fantastic price!

[Kekoa]

My humble "collection." I don't have a lot of excess income so just this set here and the stones I bought to maintain them represent a significant investment for me. I wasn't a huge fan of cooking as much as a fan of knives, but I moved almost a year ago to a town that doesn't have a lot of fast food, and food out tends to be too expensive lately for all eleven of the people in my house to eat anyway. So I have been cooking a lot, wanted better knives to work with, and this is basically what I ended up with as my essential knives for everything I do at this point. I'll probably won't collect a ton of knives, but my interest is growing dangerously close to an obsession held back only by a lack of funds. My hope would be that as I buy new knives that I may find I like more than previous ones, I will sell off any that can be replaced. The only thing I have plans to add at this point is a Chinese Cleaver, which I hope to get very soon.

From top to bottom:

Victorinox 4 in. Paring knife:
I love this little bugger. Very cheap, but so thin it cuts extremely well. The only thing I don't like, is that it has a very narrow thin handle that just doesn't feel right even with my small slender hands. In the end it isn't a functional issue though and I don't have a problem in use.

Spyderco Endura:
This a VG-10 model and is actually my first knife in this steel. It doesn't get used on food per se, but it acts as my package opener so I don't have to hunt down a steak knife or otherwise to open any tough plastic packing I run into while cooking.

Yahiko Ginsan Nashiji 165mm Santoku:
This what I use for making thin slices, but it did have some issues chipping early on. That was a learning experience because this was my first Japanese knife, but I have since alleviated the issue by sharpening to a more obtuse angle.

Yoshimitsu White #1 Fugen 210mm Gyuto:
This is my latest Japanese knife and my first high carbon. It is a bit sturdier, although not what I take as being considered a workhorse from what I have seen. I like the extra length vs. my Santoku and have begun to wonder if I might even like a 240mm knife. It seems to be a decent all arounder so far.

Cuisinart 8 in. Chef Knife:
I don't like this knife for any particular reason but it is the only beater that I still use when abusive tasks arise, such as some semi-frozen chicken breasts I had to slice. It has not horrible geometry considering, and with a 320 grit edge I can get it to perform appreciably for a sub $10 knife. It will not be discarded if for no other reason because it somehow manages to be the best knife I have for slicing cheese.

[billk1002]

My wife has made my Yahiko G3 Santoku her own and I really like the looks of that Yoshimitsu, excellent collection!

[Ambitious_Goo]

Hello! Here's mine, along with some brief stories!

Top, L-R:

Standard issue Victorinox beater, used for frozen foods, chocolate, cutting cakes and pies on plates, etc.

Wusthof Classic 8’’, which I believe is older than I am. Relegated to moderate beater jobs (e.g. big piles of herbs) but has sentimental value. This was my dad’s, with which he’d done some line jobs, and I knew my knife skills had reached a key threshold when I was allowed to use his “special knife.” (Didn’t hurt my pride that *I* was allowed to and my four male cousins weren’t, either…)

Fujiwara FKH 270mm suhijiki. This has exactly one job, which is slicing my homemade gravlox. It is very good at it.

Nameless 12’’ carbon Sabatier-type (it has “M. Mogaline” stamped on the handle on one side). Scored on eBay for somewhere in the neighborhood of $40. Too unwieldy to be practical for most uses, but great for cutting things like galettes in one stroke.

Middle, L-R:

Kurosaki AS KU 210 mm. My first handmade knife, and still my favorite. A present to myself for getting my first academic job, in 2016.

Yamamoto (in the name of Asai) 170 mm AS hammered damascus nakiri: a present to myself last fall for getting a tenure-track job. Sensing a theme?

Shun Classic Santoku, part of the set that was a posthumous college graduation gift from my father. Around that time is when I first remember seeing Shuns and the like becoming widespread; I’d tried someone else’s a couple years back and been amazed what it could do even compared to the Wusthof. So these were definitely my gateway drug. It’s still my wife’s preferred knife for general kitchen work (she’s more into baking and mixology; and I made sure to get her a Tojiro DP 150 petty for her bar cart).

Yahiko Ginsan hand-engraved 170mm bunka, bought last summer because I wanted a relatively non-reactive knife for large amounts of high-acidity produce—fruit and such. I liked it so much it pretty quickly went into my all-arounder rotation.

Masakage Yuki 120mm petty, bought as a birthday present to myself in 2016. This is what I almost always grab for small board jobs. Nothing better for mincing garlic.


Bottom, L-R:

Daovua 51200 kiri cleaver, my wife’s Hannukah present to me this past year.

Konosuke HD2 150mm petty, bought this spring when I learned a (woman-run, SOB) knife shop was closing its location in my city. I’d been wanting a proper laser and also figured it was time to branch out a bit from Takefu.

Shun Classic 150 mm petty, from the same set as above. Used mostly for things like defleshing mangoes.

Cuisinart mini santoku, inherited from my dad. Is this a fancy knife? No. Does it hold an edge worth crap? Also no. Is it, on the other hand, incredibly forgiving and more ergonomic than it has any right to be? Yes. Is this one of the knives I taught myself how to sharpen on? Also yes. It is my small beater and it will ALWAYS have a place on my knife rack.

Robeson Hammered boning/filet knife, inherited from my mother, who had it rattling around unprotected in a drawer. (She WAS an amazing cook, but did all her prep with a bread knife and a paring knife). I realized it was actually quite a nice piece of carbon steel. We’re pescatarian, so I’ve been slowly thinning it into more of a filet knife than a boning knife.

Two Lions cleaver, another inheritance from my dad. Another I taught myself to sharpen on—I probably put an extra year of damage on my wrist just grinding out some of the massive chips in it. Honestly I don’t use this much; I haven’t really gotten round to developing Chinese cleaver skills, though I’d like to, and this is on the heavier end of that type.

Vintage carbon steel meat cleaver, a gift from my best friend’s mom, in whose family it’s been for quite a while. Haven’t really gotten around to putting an edge on it, yet, but it’s incredibly meaningful to me.

[mjgillen]

From top to bottom:

Masakage Koishi Gyuto 180mm
Reigetsu Gyuto 180mm
MAC Superior Santoku Knife 6.5"
Reigetsu Petty 130mm
MAC Utility knife I bought locally when there was a knife store

[Kekoa]

Nice collection there Ambitious_Goo!

I still have an old Cuisinart as well that I use as a beater. Beaters are an important part of any collection in my opinion even if they don't have prestige. Also I highly recommend spending some time with that Chinese Cleaver of yours and developing some skills with it. They are fun knives to use! They tend to garner the attention of those who aren't accustomed to the design, so enjoy showing mine off, plus it is probably the best knife I have for chopping up celery.

[Ambitious_Goo]

Thanks, Kekoa! I figure I'm starting to get a handle on it with the Daovua, and it's DEFINITELY a lot of fun.

[ChefKnivesToGo]

One of our many nice customers sent me a note and a picture of some of his collection.