Renaissance

Victorinox is the darling of this subreddit, and Kiwi a close second, but my preference is Mercer. I own knives from all three makers. For the same price as the Vic Fibrox, Mercer will sell you a full tang chef knife with a very nice handle: Mercer Renaissance. The fit and finish on my Renaissance i

Just start with a Victorinox fibrox. dont get overwhelmed and just upgrade as you come by. heck even a mercer renaissance the same ones they had in culinary schools would do well as a starter, you need a beater, something that would do well. nothing fancy.

So, mac would not be bad for home use. Their serrated bread knife in particular is really good. They're a little rust prone, but that's pretty much always the case with Japanese knives and they're better than most. Realistically, I'd recommend getting a good electric sharpener and Mercer Renaissance

I have had an 8” and 10” Mercer Renaissance in my roll for years. They’re solid knives. The 8 inch gets abused daily on my bbq truck and the 10 is set aside for specific jobs. They take/keep an edge fairly well and I have yet to chip either of them. When the 8 is ready to retire I’ll probably replac

Victorinox used to be the answer, but they've leveraged their popularity to jack up their prices. I don't know any restaurant owners that are still buying Victorinox for their kitchens; they've mostly switched to Mercer Culinary (with a few going for Dexter Russell or some other maker). If you don't

Victorinox used to be the answer before they doubled or tripled their prices. Mercer Culinary is the way to go now. Same performance for a fraction of the cost. Ultimate White for minimum cost, Millennium if you want something a little nicer, Renaissance or Genesis if you want forged.

Everyone here is right about Victorinox for your first professional knife, they handle daily abuse, are easy to sharpen, and cheap enough that losing one to a work kitchen isn't a tragedy. Start with an 8" chef knife and a paring knife If you do want to invest in a more comprehensive set down the tr

I took some classes at a local culinary school. They recommended Mercer as a professional quality knife that you didn't mind working in a larger professional kitchen. I've had a few for 10+ years & I still enjoy them. https://www.amazon.com/Mercer-Culinary-Renaissance-5-Piece-Magnetic/dp/B016BRCAMG/

The advice of only buying the knives you need versus buying a knife block set is borne from the collective experience of countless chefs that came before you. In general, you'll find that in meal prep you only need 3 knives--an 8" chefs knife (or a Chinese cleaver/vegetable slicer which is my prefer

As this is a 5 year old post, you may not be surprised that I ended up buying something in the meantime ;) I went with the Mercer Culinary Renaissance afterall. I'm not sure whether it was worth spending the extra on a scalloped version (granton edge) of the 8in Chef's knife, but it sure is a nice b