James Martin Knives

[Fishtigua]

What a begger, just tried to butt through a leg of lamb. You know the bit where you cut around the flesh and just butt through the bone with a punt of the heel of your hand.

Snap, the bleeding handle of my 12" James Martin soft-grip Chef's knife fell off. The main joint just let go.

Anyone else had a fail with this brand, normally a good knife.

I still have my Carbon-Steel Sabbatiers from College and they keep an edge like Hell and their blackness.

Anyone found a good costeffective knife range, not silly money?

Fish

[grumbledoak]

Not tried James Martin's stuff. No doubt it is a main-stream manufacturers product with a 'famous' name on it. Take it back!

For general use I have a set of ageing Argos cheapies, stainless steel. £40 the set, IIRC. They do work, but are now so old I put them through the dishwasher.

For proper use I have a pair of Hiromoto HCs, which I look after properly. Around the £40 mark each, though I could easily make do with just the bigger of them. You do need a steel or a stone, mind, but they are cheap.

"Japanese Chefs Knives dot com", or something very like it.

hth

[blod]

Fibrox handled Victorinox are good entry level knives.

[uncinqsix]

Fishtigua said:

Anyone found a good costeffective knife range, not silly money?

Yes. These:

Fishtigua said:

I still have my Carbon-Steel Sabbatiers from College and they keep an edge like Hell and their blackness.

But these are starting to get a bit tricky to find now. If you did want something similar (and you are clearly OK with using carbon knives), have a look at these: http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/FKHSeries.html

The Hiromoto HCs that Grumbledoak mentions are out of production, but the ones in the link are made from the same steel and are by all accounts pretty much as good.

[neil_bolton]

Mate, would you like to give me an email, I'd probably be able to get it warrantied for you as I work for the company who wholesales them

Edited to add: The Stellar range of Sabatier knives are a very good brand for good quality vs cost. I'd have recommended our Stellar FM knives over the James Martin range to be honest.

That or our very nice (and reasonbly priced) Samarai steel range

Edited by neil_bolton on Wednesday 5th August 15:32

[bazking69]

Just another chef putting their name on average kit and charging a premium for it.
Just like old ginger beard and his BBQs.

[neil_bolton]

bazking69 said:

Just another chef putting their name on average kit and charging a premium for it.
Just like old ginger beard and his BBQs.

You're not wrong. However, we've gotta sell stuff somehow

[celticpilgrim]

neil_bolton said:

Mate, would you like to give me an email, I'd probably be able to get it warrantied for you as I work for the company who wholesales them

Edited to add: The Stellar range of Sabatier knives are a very good brand for good quality vs cost. I'd have recommended our Stellar FM knives over the James Martin range to be honest.

That or our very nice (and reasonbly priced) Samarai steel range

Any chance of a link to those samurai knives, Neil?

[neil_bolton]

We don't sell directly to the public; we supply independent shops and cookware specialists

Heres a link I googled for you though of one of our suppliers:

http://www.cooksknivesshop.co.uk/Knives/Stellar_Sa...

[Mx_Stu]

Bit of a newbie when it comes to knives, but we have a set of Stellar Sabatier's and they just dont seem to stay sharp.

Any suggestions how to keep them sharp? Currently use an oldish sharpening block.

[uncinqsix]

neil_bolton said:

We don't sell directly to the public; we supply independent shops and cookware specialists

Heres a link I googled for you though of one of our suppliers:

http://www.cooksknivesshop.co.uk/Knives/Stellar_Sa...

Do you sell many of those? I can't quite work out what sort of market they're aimed at. Traditional Japanese-pattern knives (the Yanagiba, Deba and Usuba) are pretty specialised and far from ideal for the average western cook, and the yanagibas are odd sizes (never seen a 125mm one before, and 210mm is really at the bottom end of what's useful). I can see the santoku being of use though, as it's more of a general purpose blade.

[blod]

Mx_Stu said:

Bit of a newbie when it comes to knives, but we have a set of Stellar Sabatier's and they just dont seem to stay sharp.

Any suggestions how to keep them sharp? Currently use an oldish sharpening block.

This is one of the best resources for kitchen knife maintenance.

Chad Ward has also written a book on knife selection usage and maintenance here