- Rock for a precise cut
- Stain-resistant blade
- Comfortable shape
- Durable addition to any set
- Stamped construction
I got mine back in 1980,and it served me well for many years of HEAVY use. You can get a freakish edge on these,I used to drop a cherry tomato and get a clean cut with a midair whack.A knife that's ALMOST sharp-bats the tomato across the room. No other cook I worked with ever had a blade that could do the clean midair slice. That is a few notches beyond shaving sharp. I also could use it like a cleaver..or a slicer...or a fillet knife because it has some heft-yet not too much and because being very-very sharp can make a blade usable even beyond it's usual role.
Mine mysteriously vanished a year ago..and now I'm cooking again so will soon have a replacement-Fibrox this time. If I was just getting a "home" Knife..likely would go Rosewood and would consider a 8". In a commercial kitchen where you whack up things by the casea 10" is what you use and these are the standard.
I recommend getting a Norton stone-specifically the fine India unless you have a good,large Arkansas. An electric sharpener or just a steel won't let you get the best from this.
Forged is fine for a nice "at home" Knife. On the job..they are too heavy and slow you down. You will have a hard time abusing a Forschner enough to ruin it. Quite durable. Not at all expensive.
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I absolutely LOVE this knife!!! I am a bit of a nut about my chef's knives and own many of them. During a simple task such as making a dinner salad, I might pull out and compare as many as six chef's knives at a time.
Let me just say that this is one of my favorites hands down. In all fairness, it is the most expensive 10 inch chef's knife that I own but I regularly compare it side by side with my wusthoff classic 8 inch, my wusthof Ikon 8 inch, and my henckels international classic (still forged but made in spain). Any of the above knives will amaze someone not used to fine cutlery but for some reason I rarely prepare a meal without reaching for my 10 inch forshcner rosewood chef's knife.
Out of the box, the thing is razor sharp (easily shaves arm hair) and stays that way for a long time. It takes just regular steeling (something anyone who loves their knives does often) to maintain that edge for a long time. When steeling does not bring it back (I have had mine for a year and this has not happened yet) it takes an edge with a few strokes on a good stone without any trouble at all (I did so even though it did not need it).
Useability: The rocking angle of the blade is less angled that that of the Wusthofs. This means that more blade is in contact with the food/board at any given time in its chopping stroke. Personally, I like this, but it is a personal thing. I tend to move the blade back and forth quite a bit when I chop (I slice a lot) so this suits me very well.
Because of the ange of the blade's curve, the tip is well placed for use in tasks that might otherwise require a much smaller knife. For instance, even though this is a large 10 inch knife, I can easily control the tip in preping even the smallest garlic cloves for mincing (slicing the vertical cuts in the clove) and then simply finish it off with the chopping motion of the blade. For basic cutting and even tasks that require good control, I like this blade easily as much as I do my wusthofs and other 8 inch knives. The blade is beautifully polished and is much much more substantial than most stamped knives. It FEELS like a quality tool in your hand. The blade is only slightly curved all the way through (this is a wonderful thing). It does not have that incredibly annoying flat (or even...gasp...concave) spot that you sometimes see in the heel end of many blades with lesser curveature (even some high end one's). In other words, you get a nice clean chop through those paper thin parsley leaves that wander down to the handle end of the blade
To me, the handle is the only potentially weak point on this knife, but I would still buy another one in a heartbeat. I have a small (1/8 inch square) chip out of mine at the foremost corner of the thumb side (I am right handed). This chip out of the handle occured with no damage and seems to be due to a weak spot in the wood. That being said, the damage is cosmetic only and in no way effects the useability of the knife. I might recommend going with a fibrox handle except that I absolutely love to wrap my index finger down the right side of the wooden handle wich is not identical in size to the fibrox handle also available on this model.
Weight and balance: Because it is stamped AND 10 inches, this knife is blade heavy. Even with a pinch grip (choked up) it is blade heavy (balance point is roughly 3/4 of an inch above the handle. This has not proved to be a problem with performance on the block but it often turns me off just handling the knife without putting it to work (anyone who compares this to a wusthoff will immediately see that it is not balanced as well. Perhaps its saving grace is that it IS stamped, so it is lighter than a comparably lengthed forged knife; so being blad heavy does not effect its performance as much as you might expect. It is noteworthy that many longer knives are blade heavy regardless of their costs.
Overall, I can't say enough good things about this knife. Again and again, it outperforms my expensive knives on the block. In fact, I stupidly keep buying more knives to see if I can find one I like better, but this one seems unbeatable. It is one that will likely never be moved from my storage block to make room for another (in fairness, though, my block has room for many chef's knives :))
If price is an issue for you, BUY THIS KNIFE OR A FIBROX ONE!!!! You won't be disappointed. If money is not an object, you still might find it to be one of your favorites as I have.
Enjoy
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I first learned about this knife a few years ago when I read a review in a magazine. Finally found it on Amazon and was very pleased with the results. We used it to carve our Thanksgiving turkey and it worked better than any knife I had. Only caution is that it is VERY SHARP! It is good looking, easy to handle and works very well for all your cutting needs. A great value for a product that could easily cost 2 or 3 times as much. A real professional knife that can be used by the average home cook.
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This is the best knife I have ever owned. It survived over twenty years in the restaurant biz and now hangs on a magnetic rack over my cutting board at home. I think I paid twenty-five bucks for it back in the late '70s. The knife takes an
edge easily and holds it for quite some time. The rosewood handle and lack of bolster makes the "choke up" grip easy and comfortable.
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I've had this knife for around a year, it's still very sharp after a moderate amount of use. Still looks new. For the money it can't be beat.
I am a pretty big guy and like Euro style continental sized flatware, but these are for giants. It's not just length but the overall heft and width. Way too big. The knife's handle is hollow and super thick. There is no way it would not fall off the plate if carried on it.
