VictorinoxSwiss Army 5.2063.20-X14 Fibrox Chef's Knife Black 8 in

I had been a pretty serious home cook for a few years before I decided to finally get myself a decent knife to work with.I enjoyed eating good food but the process felt arduous most of the time. While chopping/cutting my hand usually wound up getting tired and I would frequently get blisters from the amount of grip and pressure I needed to apply to the blade.With the Fibrox Pro the difference was night and day. I was looking for recipes that required more ingredients to be chopped. Working with the right tool makes the job so much more enjoyable.Things I like about this knife;It is a thinner blade, which makes cutting, handling, and sharpening easier. This also means it won't hold an edge as long but as someone who uses this knife heavily 3-5 times a week I can go about a month before I feel like sharpening it back to point where I can shave slices off a tomato with one hand.And although the handle may look like a rough plastic with bad ergonomics in the pictures in hand it is very comfortable. The blade's sharpness allows for a lighter grip and causes less hand strain even when butchering whole poultry or cutting through tough vegetables like acorn squash.And one of the best features of this knife is the price. I've seen it go between $35-$48 dollars. I wound up buying four more of them for friends and family last Christmas. All of them love their knives as much as I do.My only true complaint is all the scuffing on the side of the blade from my sharpening. That could be an issue with the steel or an issue with how I'm sharpening it, either way it is only cosmetic. Some people like to see their blades well worn. If I ever feel like replacing it though it's going to very cheap to do so.If you are a home chef or know one this is probably the single nicest kitchen upgrade any budding cook can receive.I also suggest completing the set with one of the many medium to large ~$20 bamboo cutting boards you can find on here and also a 1000/6000 grit combo Japanese whetstone to be able to do your own sharpening. Catch a couple of Burrfection's Youtube videos and you'll know how to keep one of your most important kitchen tools working like it is brand new.

I’m not a professional chef, so take my statement with a grain of salt. I am, however, an obsessive researcher. So before dropping the $40-ish on this knife, I spent way more time than I should have, doing my due diligence on this purchase.First off, this knife is replacing a Farberware Edgekeeper 8-Inch Forged Triple Riveted Chef Knife in High Carbon-Stainless Steel. In the picture I posted, you see both knives side by side, the Farberware on the left, the Victorinox on the right. That Farberware runs less than $20 on here, or in stores. And to be honest, it feels like a sub twenty-dollar knife. When compared to this Victorinox knife, however, it feels like there’s more than a twenty-to-thirty-dollar difference.The Victorinox came highly recommended by America’s Test Kitchen, which, in all honesty, was enough for me to pull the trigger on it, but my compulsive nature had me go down the rabbit hole of even more reviews, message boards, Reddit, YouTube etc.The Victorinox is lighter, coming in at 5.7oz to Farberware’s 6.8oz. The spine on the Farberware is thicker, but not by much, at a little over 1/16th inch, where the Victorinox looks to be right at 1/16th inch. While the Farberware is a forged steel, and thicker and heavier, it also has more flex and bend to it, which is surprising.I have larger than average hands for a man, and the Victorinox feels better in my hand than the Farberware does. It’s also much easier to wield, possibly due to balance and weight, but also due to the edge. The shape of this knife also means that when I use it, even with my big hands and banana fingers, I can chop straight down, and my knuckles won’t hit the cutting board, whereas they will on the Farberware.I watched a video of Gordon Ramsey dicing an onion, and then did what the video showed. With the Farberware, even though it was sharp enough to shave the hair from my arms (this is not an exaggeration, I have the Work Sharp Ken Onion Edition powered belt sharpener, it will make a butter knife sharp enough to shave with), it was not as low effort to dice an onion as Chef Ramsey made it out to be, and that extra effort means pushing the knife through the onion, needing to make wider cuts, and an overall messier experience. I won’t say the Victorinox was as smooth as Chef Ramsey is, but it was MUCH closer to that level of low effort, slicing through the onion without having to exert much force at all, making very clean, close together slices.The Victorinox came out of the box exceptionally sharp. In the two and a half months I’ve been using it, I’ve yet to sharpen it at all, and it still feels the same as it did right out of the box. The Farberware was not sharp when I bought it, and I have to sharpen it every couple of weeks to keep it usable.The Victorinox knife also claims to be dishwasher safe. I don’t know, I don’t own a dishwasher. But I also wouldn’t put it through the dishwasher if I did have one. I just wipe the knife as I use it, and then give it a gentle soapy hand wash and rinse, hand dry it and hang it up on the magnetic knife thingy. It doesn’t take that much effort and the knife doesn’t sit wet (or moist) for a while and increase the likelihood of rust forming.I will add a caveat to my overall buy-it-now review. My girlfriend doesn’t like this knife. Her dislike of this stems mostly from its size, though, this is a pretty big knife. She prefers a much cheaper, Kiwi brand knife we also have, because she feels it is easier to use, due to its shape and overall size.If you need a new chef’s knife, or just don’t love the one you have, or, if you haven’t ever tried this knife, and think chefs on TV effortlessly slicing through fibrous vegetables like a hot knife through butter isn’t realistic, get this knife, and prepare to be shocked.*I bought this knife with my own, hardly earned money. I wasn’t compensated in any way for this review. HOWEVER, if, say Victorinox, wanted to send me one of everything they make, I wouldn’t complain.