Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Misono UX-10 Kitchen Knives (The Best!)

Yes, I'm an admitted gear geek and love knives...especially kitchen knives.  I'm often asked by friends, which knives to get.

While I have some pretty high-end custom knives and great production knives like Nenox, Hattori KD, etc...the one that I most recommend to friends and family is the Misono UX-10 series.

The UX-10 series are Misono's top-of-the-line.  The knives are made out of a mystery Swedish stainless steel called UX-10 and manufactured in the famous Japanese knife making centre of Seki City.  What this means is that the steel is very hard (Rockwell hardness of 59 to 60), made very well, and can be made very sharp with an edge that stays that way.

Regardless of metallurgy theory and history, a good kitchen knife has to work well.   The Misono UX-10 works very well for me in practice and hold up even in commercial kitchens.  As a result, there are quite a few celebrity chefs that are using them.  I don't really care about their endorsements, but if you are interested, you can Google this and know that I'm not just making it up.  :-)

The knife blads are sharpened in the traditional Japanese style where the right side is sharpened and polished to a fine edge, while the left side of the blade is more flat.  This approximate 70/30 bias may not be obvious when you first look at the blade, but it is there.  It is different than the normal european grind that you may be used to which is the same on both side.  As a result, there are right-handed and left-handed knives.  Misono makes both.

Misono is a Japanese brand that is almost unknown in North America outside of professional cooking circles.  This is really too bad.  Misono UX-10 is easily one of the best production kitchen knife on the market today.  It isn't cheap, but for a tool that will last a lifetime, it is pretty reasonable.  Unlike a custom knife that will likely break the bank and be out of reach for most home cooks.

In terms of suppliers, I love dealing with Paul at Paul's Finest

Paul is an upstanding guy that stands behind his products.  I'm not being paid to say this, I'm just a happy customer.  In fact, I have a UX-10 petty knife on order from him as I type.  Great guy to deal with, good inventory, and reasonable prices.  Check him out, you'll be glad that you did.

Long time...

Long time no post.

This will be remedied shortly...