[Sca-cooks] Essential Knives?

[Terry Decker]

I own two sets of four Faberware stainless steel knives.  Each set had an 8" 
chef, 8" slicer, 6" utility, and a 4" paring knife.  They are sturdy, take a 
decent edge and are inexpensive enough to not worry about damage or loss. 
To this I added an inexpensive set of Henckels with thin blades and plastic 
grips (a short serrated utility knife, small straight paring knife and a 
curved paring knife), a good quality serrated bread knife and a decent 
steel.  All together, they cost less than $100.  I own a number of knifes of 
better and lesser quality and variable cost, but I seldom use them, 
including two boning knives.

I do like garage sales.  My last purchase was a 14" Dutch oven for $35 and a 
couple of nested cup and teapot sets for $2 each.

I would recommend adding a cheap set of throwaways like my Henckels for 
situations that might damage or dull the regular knives.  And I would 
consider adding a 6" utility, which is generally more useful than the boning 
knife.

Bear


What four kitchen knives do people think essential?  I'm thinking a chef's 
knife, a boning knife, a paring knife and a bread knife.  The question comes 
from the following.  While visiting my mom I saw that her cutlery was junk. 
Per her request
for good cutlery I'm sending her three high end German knives; an 8"
chef's knife, a 6" boning knife and a paring knife.  Bought them for
roughly $1 to $2 a piece at estate and garage sales.  Total at Bed Bath and 
Beyond with tax
would ring up roughly  $150, $90, and $40.  Less if any were on
sale.  People look but they don't see.

Do people think that those three plus a bread knife should do?

Daniel