What can people recommend?

Heard good things about Japanese knives but not sure where to start. Fancy getting her something special, she's from a family of cooks but always gets left out of the nice cookery stuf at xmas

depends on the budjet , Global make excellent knives , Amazon did have them on offer .

Family of cooks or not I think you could be on dangerous ground here.

We love our globals.

Sabatier all the way for me, had mine for 20 years and they're still just as good as the day I got them.

Nisbets

I'm a chef and would go with (in increasing cost) Sabatier, Victorinox, Gustav, Wusthof. Though Globals tend to fit female hands better, just keep an eye out that they need specific sharpening steels and also that certain Japansese knives are handed and are best used by people that are right handed.

David Mellor? good excuse to visit Hathersage

No No No…not a ideal christmas present…Try Gettingpersonal.co.uk great idea's for pressies.

Just buy the knives anyway, I am sure you will BOTH get use out of them!

got a set of globals, they are spot on.

genesis is rigeht: whatever brand you go for make sure you get a sharpner. pref a wet stone… but the new style roler ones are good.

dont get a set with loads of knives… you will only realy use a couple.

How about a nice pair of oven gloves to go with them?

Never, never, never ever buy household goods for your wifes' Xmas pressie – underwear, perfume, sex toys – these are all acceptable.

Buy a proper present.

Get the knives anyway, and just give them before; as in before she's bought yours. 😆

If I bought my wife kitchen knives for Christmas I can categorically say that said knives would be embedded in by chest by boxing day….!!!

Japanese knives are really special, though effing expensive! Most of the Japanese knives you see for sale in the UK are mass produced and despite that, they are really good quality. However the Japanese Knife Shop in Marylebone is something else and the guy in the shop (Jay, I think his name is) really knows his stuff. There are some incredible knives in the shop that are handmade in Japan by master craftsmen. The key to buying a great knife (according to Jay) is the steel and then getting a sharpening stone that matches the quality of the steel. I think they have a website.

That's because a lot of Japanese style knives are ice tepmered to a as well as having folded steels in them much like a Samurai sword. AVOID ceramic knives, they're really quite fragile though their cutting ability is akin to a plasma torch! Eastern style stuff tend to have hollow handles that give them very good balance, its a case of what you're used to, I prefer Euro style blades as they fit the shape of my hands and the heft is reassuring.

do something special

get her a set of Nontron knifes from france

Global…all the way Fella!
Get yourself a decent whetstone and you will keep them razor like for ever!

Supposed to be bad luck to gives knives as a present, so if she's at all superstitious ??

But to echo what other have said, buying her kitchen implements may well turn out to be bad luck for you

Knives as a present is very bad form. They should never be a gift. If they are, the recipient should give a penny in return for each knife.

Also, if buying knives, it's as tough as shoes! Personal preference is all. I hated the "feel" of Globals, but fell in love with Wusthof Classics the moment I picked one up. Balance and "feel" is everything. Let her choose and feel. You wouldn't buy her shoes without letting her try them on, would you?

Agreed.

I like Sabatier and Wusthof, top gear.

I would recommend buying from Japanese Chefs Knife as they are very reliable. I bought all my Japanese knives from them. Exchange rate is good and fast delivery within a week of ordering.

Japanese Chefs Knife

Go for Hiromoto.

Hiromoto

I will ordering two Chinese cleavers soon.

🙂

me and the wife have found our Furi's to be good; great "feel" from a personal point of view, dunno where they sit with all the above mentioned stuff.

but no way should they be the "sole" xmas present; if you buy her them, they should be a "stocking filler" not "it".

I was at the Good Food Show yesterday and bought my wife a new knife set – £100 instead of £180 or something – I fell for the amazing sharpness and cutting ability and was taken in by the special price mince on the day – so I'm not convinced I've got a real bargain however, it's a proper set with it's own sharpener – company called Zirgonal (or something like that) – there were about a dozen knife displayers on display and to be honest I didn't really look around, the Japanese knives looked real nice but the price didn't appeal to me.

Anyway, she reckons it was a real bonus as she was about to go and look at knives as she was needing a new set…so it'll go towards here christmas but I'll let her use them know so I benefit from the cooking and all that!

All I know is that proper knives aren't cheap, they all appear to be rather impressive whilst being displayed when they are at their sharpest and I guess at the end of the day, you need to make sure that whatever set you buy, has the knives she needs to use, I think the set I got has everything that my wife uses plus an extra knife (a much longer one which I've no idea it's use!), but is also came witha set of kitchen shears (looks remarkably like scissors to me but these do look as though you could cut bone with them!).

Anyway, best of luck with your knife choice…I hate being left to make my own mind up as ultimately it's never right for my wife…so I make sure I get pointers, this time it was spur of the moment and I got lucky with the choice! Ask your wife what she would like with the knives and them purchase using that.

Not sure why it is bad luck to get household goods as a gift – if she enjoys cooking and using them then it shouln't be bad luck – I bought my wife (girlfriend at the time) a frying pan – she was getting into her cooking and I was slowly buying pots and pans and the like to help her with her creative cooking – this sounds real bad – but she loved it as it allowed her to experiment with more cooking styles and stuff. Mates and work colleagues reckoned I was going to get hung, drawn and quartered (she didn't have the knives for that!) but she thought it was ideal…so don't worry what others think, just do it.

As for a stocking filler – obviously steel-reinforced stockings as those knives would cut through the stocking in no time!