# Got 2 new knives, here's a picture



## Bigheaded (Mar 21, 2021)

TL;DNR I paid too much for Chinese knives that are pretending to be good Japanese knives. Oh and here's a pic of them.

While I'm not a knife fanatic, I do really like a nice one. I currently use Global knives which I love, I just ordered my 1st smoker and since I don't have a boning knife and no suitable slicing knife I decided to order a couple.  I Googled good brisket knives and almost all of links mentioned the Dexter as a top choice. Even saw that Malcom Reed swears by it, and he's pretty legendary.  I was pondering ordering it, but it looks cheap to me. Reminds me of something a lunch lady at an elementary school would use lol.  I understand it's a great knife, maybe *probably* even better than the one I ordered, which was almost 3x as much. But it looked plain and was serrated so it reminds me of a bread knife.   I was this close to ordering Moe Casons signature brisket knife, but thankfully he doesn't have a matching boning knife. I say that because his brisket one's $300 lol. With my semi OCD I wanted the 2 I bought to match. Knowing the Dexter's would be my best bet, and cheapest I still ended up going with Dalstrong Phantom Series because the eye candy aspect won me over. I suspect these knives will be a lot better than the "worse knives evar!" comments I see scattered all over the internet. But I dunno maybe I'm wrong, a dude on a YT video commented "Dalstrong are the worst, a plastic KFC knife will be sharper" I think maybe he was exaggerating, and if not I guess I'll try a KFC knife to slice my 2nd Brisket.

Say what you want about the quality of their actual knives, but Dalstrong sure knows how to package them. The presentation's just amazing, they excel at 2 things, marketing and eye candy.  The Phantoms are 1 tier under the Shogun, so they should be pretty decent. Or the worst knives that ever existed depending on who you ask lol.  I didn't get the better Shoguns because I like how the handles on these look (smart eh?) IMHO these are some sexy knives, not that the Shogun's are ugly they look great too. I did save some $$$ though too which isn't a bad thing. Dalstrong might be form over function here, dunno I haven't used them yet.  And the boxes are magnetic and blue or purple depending on the angle you look at them, which are both totally valid reasons to chose a knife.  Yes the knives are overpriced, but at least with how fancy the packaging is I felt like they weren't. I don't even have my smoker yet so I can't test either. But the week I get it I'll use em on a brisket and report back with pictures.  Because I associate a pointy end with a "sharp knife" the slicing one with the round tip looks like a huge extremely dull butter knife to me, but it's razor sharp on the paper test, probably as sharp as my Global chef knife. The boning was sharp but a little less impressive on the paper test. I also like the nice plastic sheaths they come with. My $150+ Globals came with cardboard ones I threw away.  I like Dalstrong's boxes too for storing. Hopefully they're not bad, reading up online apparently using the wrong knife used on a brisket can cause all the juices to come out and you'll be left with a  tough dry chuck roast :(

And another cool to me, but totally useless thing, when you pull the slicing one out of the sheath fast it makes a*shhhhhhthhh* sound like when a Samuari pulls his sword out in a kung fu movie.  Although doing this I nearly decapitated my thumb so it's probably not a good idea to play around lol.










I like pictures of knives, so if anyone else does too, here's one.


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## jcam222 (Mar 21, 2021)

Nice knives. I don’t have any Dalstrong in my collection. I have several Miyabi and Henkel Pro series knives I love. My brisket knife is a 14” Mercer my brother bought me for Christmas. I can’t believe the amazing difference it made in slicing my briskets. Amazing.


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## Bigheaded (Mar 21, 2021)

jcam222 said:


> Nice knives. I don’t have any Dalstrong in my collection. I have several Miyabi and Henkel Pro series knives I love. My brisket knife is a 14” Mercer my brother bought me for Christmas. I can’t believe the amazing difference it made in slicing my briskets. Amazing.




Miyabi! *DROOOL*  some of the sexiest knives out there and they're really high quality. I  especially love the Birchwood & Artisan lines.   That Mercer's another top rated one on the reviews I was reading.  Would have been a better buy for me, but Dalstrong sucked me in with their Pakkawood handle and marketing. And for some reason I thought I was buying Japanese AUS-10 steel, which is supposed to be fairly comparable to VG10.  But the box says AUS-8 which I Googled and is a good but mid-level Japanese steel *doh*


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## BCSmokenBrine (Mar 21, 2021)

Nice knives.  I only have one Dalstrong, a 10-inch breaking knife that was a gift.  I like it a lot and it holds an edge better than my Wusthofs.


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## Bigheaded (Mar 22, 2021)

BCSmokenBrine said:


> Nice knives.  I only have one Dalstrong, a 10-inch breaking knife that was a gift.  I like it a lot and it holds an edge better than my Wusthofs.



I know a lot of the people who hate Dalstrong have probably never even used one of their knives. But I see a lot who say they own them and that they suck. But I also see a lot of people who own them and say they tend to be their go-to, even over their Shun or Miyabi's.   All I can figure out's maybe Dalstrong has poor QC and not every knife ships with the same attention to detail on the blade.   I can see why some people get pissy at Dalstrong. They do stuff like the 3lb Obliterator cleaver which is just so over the top, even the name's ridiculous.  I was pondering ordering it, but I don't really need a cleaver, and especially not a 3lb monster that looks and is named like a weapon from Fortnight.


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## BCSmokenBrine (Mar 22, 2021)

Sweet Christ!  You can lop the leg off a swine in on fell swoop with that sumbitch.  Tell you what...if you need a job done that requires something of that caliber, save yourself some money and pick up a briar axe for like 40 bucks.  That way you could cut your brontosaurus steaks then head out back to clear some brush without having to put the tool down.  hahaha

All joking aside though, I do think that Dalstrong knives are a little flashy, but I think they're a good knife for the price.   It all comes down to individual preference, budget and expectation.  You can read reviews of a Honzo sword and find someone who says it's junk.  

Enjoy the knives.  And be careful with that cleaver!


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## SmokinAl (Mar 22, 2021)

Very nice!
Al


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## Bigheaded (Mar 22, 2021)

BCSmokenBrine said:


> Sweet Christ!  You can lop the leg off a swine in on fell swoop with that sumbitch.  Tell you what...if you need a job done that requires something of that caliber, save yourself some money and pick up a briar axe for like 40 bucks.  That way you could cut your brontosaurus steaks then head out back to clear some brush without having to put the tool down.  hahaha
> 
> All joking aside though, I do think that Dalstrong knives are a little flashy, but I think they're a good knife for the price.   It all comes down to individual preference, budget and expectation.  You can read reviews of a Honzo sword and find someone who says it's junk.
> 
> Enjoy the knives.  And be careful with that cleaver!



I don't have the cleaver, I posted a picture because it's so ridiculous. I'm sure I'll buy it one day down the road though.    Dalstrong also has some jokes in the instructions.  I know a few knife guys and they're pretty stuffy with the sense of humor.

In the included knife care sheet:
don't leave in sink water
don't use bleach
yeah I knew all those, then I see

not intended for mortal combat
keep out of reach of children and enemies (with a drawing of a stick figure with a knife in their back lol)
do not lend to FNG's on the line

I figured the last was a line cook, but I had to google what FNG was, and it made me chuckle a bit. I could see the couple knife snobs I know getting irritated at the humor attempts.

Unfortunately, I now know Dalstrong has a leather apron and this crazy high end leather knife roll.  I have no business even thinking about buying a $380 + tax knife roll but I fear I'll be unable to resist.  Same for the leather apron, WHY do I have to be like this for eye candy? A $400 knife roll's meant for a Bobby Flay, or a Michelin Star chef not some backyard yodle like me lol.   I'm going to try and justify the $200 apron to my lady by telling her "it will last a long time"  Which I know won't fly very far with her.  And I can't say anything to make her see eye to eye on the Vagabond knife roll.  "Yeah it was $430, but I got free shipping...." ha. So I'll either have to lie about how much it costs and hope she doesn't Google it, or hide it and hope she never finds it.

I hardly leave the house, and I never cook or BBQ anywhere else but here, why the hell do I even need a knife roll? TOUCHE to Dalstrong for knowing how to sucker in people like me with pretty products and marketing. "made with full-grain Brazillian leather" Prior to this I'd never even heard of Brazillian leather, but now I need it in my life.


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## BCSmokenBrine (Mar 23, 2021)

I can totally relate.   I'm a self taught cook with a food service trailer that I take to a few festivals a year in the summer, so I have no business owning the Wusthof knives that I have.  But, for the most part, I do the majority of my cooking at home and the knives that I use in my rig are cheapos that I got at the food service wholesale store.  I see my knives as a collection because I don't buy them often (although this thread prompted me to buy another Dalstrong that was on sale), and the ones that I do buy are nicer than I probably deserve so they have a differet kind of value.  It's cool to see that others have a sense of humor about stuff like this too.  BTW, FNG means "F***ing New Guy".   HAHAHA


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## Jersey Jimbo (May 9, 2021)

I have the poor boy knife collection, a Dexter curved boner, a henckel carving knife.  I freshen them up with a good stone, then keep them honed with a good steel rod.


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## jcam222 (May 9, 2021)

Jersey Jimbo said:


> I have the poor boy knife collection, a Dexter curved boner, a henckel carving knife.  I freshen them up with a good stone, then keep them honed with a good steel rod.


Lol your description of the Dexter knife made me LOL


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## SmokinEdge (May 9, 2021)

F. Herder is my favorite. Mostly because they are hard to find. Those knives you posted look great though.


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## Twomorestrokes (Jun 8, 2021)

I use Saboteur K knives from France. Decent knives from a great company. I order direct and get faster shipping than I get from the states, usually a 2 day wait. A couple carbon knives and a full set of stainless.


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