Kitchen knife purchase contemplation

[countessalmirena]

I want another Tojiro Flash knife for my collection.

In time, I want to replace all of my kitchen knives with Tojiro "Flash". At present, I have the ones which I use most frequently in the kitchen: santoku bōchō, boning knife, and bread knife. Caveat: I have a good paring knife which I use every day, although it's not Tojiro; I am perhaps using it with more gusto and frequency than strictly necessary, as I attempt to render it sufficiently outworn for me to be able to say to myself with convincing innocence: "Oh behold! My paring knife hath outworn its spirit. Get thee another, that it may be paring-valiant." (Or something along those casual lines... so that I will feel justified in getting a Tojiro Flash paring knife.)

But in the meantime, I am being siren-called by the sujiki bōchō (or, alternatively, the 21cm carving knife) and carving fork. Oh, there's some old carving fork in the knife drawer... but it's not one I remember buying. (I suspect it dates back to my pre-taking-cooking-seriously era.)Also, I feel the lack of a really good carving knife. Just two weeks ago, there was a lack of grace in slicing some roast chicken which I'd prepared in my gorgeous Emile Henry chicken roaster.

eBay isn't offering me much of a discount at the moment, not for kitchen items anyway...

[lyndal1838]

Have you tried Peters of Kensington Countess?

They currently have a very good sale on but it may not last much longer as it has already been on for several weeks.

[countessalmirena]

I would normally buy from them, lyndal - but I don't think they have any Tojiro Flash currently in stock.

I've never purchased from House of Knives before, but they do have what I want in stock. No difference in price between their website and their eBay store. I want to be sure that they're selling the genuine items...

[*stuff*books*]

My OH had a bit of a clean out in the kitchen and reduced most of our stuff by half as it just wasn't getting used and out of a whole

draw full of items only 10 items were actually used (the draw now looks almost empty).

So most of the stuff will be heading down south to the son,daughter and families but I pulled out three of the knives to sell on here as

maybe I can get a few bucks for them.

Didn't want to grab too much as she might have found a use for them again.

[springyzone]

Just a question that flashed into my mind.
With your purchase, would you be best to limit your shopping to Australia only? I am not too sure what sort of knives are allowed through customs but if you were thinking of purchasing from overseas, it would be worth checking out first.

There's also the GST for overseas items, although I am bewildered exactly how that works. It seems to be automatically added to purchases here on ebay, but I recently ordered a baby shawl from Nottingham in England. (I figured if the place makes shawls good enough for the royal baby then they may be good enough for my grandchild.).

I was expecting to receive a GST bill to pay on pick up at the PO, but the parcel was just delivered as normal. Not complaining, mind you, just not sure how this GST thing works as I thought it applied to overseas purchases now.

[countessalmirena]

springyzone, I have purchased kitchen knives and cutlery knives from overseas before, but only after checking with the seller that they send via a method that sensibly permits knives that are not weapons to come through.

In general I prefer to buy locally, so if I can, I will.

I MAY have to look overseas, though, for a dedicated Tojiro knife stand. I saw an absolutely BEAUTIFUL one on the Tojiro website, but I can't find any local business/shop that stocks it and am being driven to chefs' knives' shops in the UK or Brazil so far!

[padi*0409]

Countess, I started changing to Japanese kitchen knives around 10 years ago, they are a mixture of brands and about half are Damasus steel, some came from here in Oz but the majority are from Japan and the US.

I have to say I'd never go back to "ordinary" knives again..............and I still have all my fingers intact !!!!!!

[go-tazz]

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@springyzone wrote:

I was expecting to receive a GST bill to pay on pick up at the PO, but the parcel was just delivered as normal. Not complaining, mind you, just not sure how this GST thing works as I thought it applied to overseas purchases now.

---

The GST is added before you make your purchase eg: purchase amount of $2.38 it would then say on the

invoice that $0.24 in GST and then the order total.

[heihachi_73]

Needs more Mick Dundee.

[countessalmirena]

padi, like you, I would not want to go back to ordinary knives!

Partly it's because of a health issue dating back to a car accident when I was 18. Bilateral nerve compression - never fun. I gave up viola (but hopefully after some further surgery this year I can take it up again)... I now rely on a pasta machine for making pasta rather than hand-rolling it... and I am holding back on getting a lute (and learning to play it - probably teaching myself) until I'm fully recovered... and of course I am much more cautious when using a knife.

Getting my first Tojiro knives last year really brought home just how tense I'd been when cutting/slicing/dicing/chopping, etc., for YEARS. I hadn't realized how much effort it had been taking. I could (and often do) use my Magimix with appropriate chopping/slicing discs for some food preparation, but there's something so organic and real about chopping things up oneself. I don't want to be too separated from that visceral feel, for at least some of the time.

I tested the feel of several knife brands and models about 3 years ago, with the view of eventually replacing every knife I had. It really comes down to individual preference, I know. I tried so many... and sometimes it would feel ALMOST right but not quite. It wasn't until I had a Tojiro Flash chef's knife in my hand that the universe came grinding to a halt, angels sang "Halleluja" (in Japanese), and every fibre of my body said "YES! This is the one." I tried other knives in the same series, with the same result. They are utterly beautiful to hold, so comfortable and natural and effortlessly powerful with barely any effort.

Japanese knives have it all over western knives, in my opinion. (At least, with the knife brands that I have tested.)