The Return of Wusthof
Andrew Bluett-Duncan
Director
Lost back in early history (early 2000's to be approximate) Babette and I were invited, along with a number of other cookshop owners to the importer of Wusthof Knives, A J Boulton (since rebranded as "Haus") to see the ranges that they carried. I recall being immediately impressed by the knife range, which was huge, the relatively slim handles and the lovely build quality (Like Henckels Knives, they were made with Solingen Steel, the German equivalent of Sheffield, Drop Forged out of a single billet of steel, Ice Hardened and a full tang through the handle), a really beautiful product!
We started stocking their Classic Range there and then and, I'd like to say, we've done so ever since. But that isn’t the case, and for reasons that currently elude me, we stopped selling them, I'd guess 8 or 9 years ago? This saddened me at the time, as I actually prefer the handles to their obvious competitor "J A Henckels" who have a slightly bigger handle. I should add that the quality of these two German manufacturers are exemplary (so little to choose between them there) and this leads me on to say that when choosing a knife, it's actually important to put the knife in your hand, to feel how comfortable it is. This should sway your decision more than anything else, because whilst quality is important, you will be starting off on entirely the wrong foot, if you try to make your hand fit a handle it doesn’t like!
The Return of Wusthof
In recent times a number of people in the company wanted to try Wusthof out again, as it’s not only a good product in its own right, but also a well respected brand that is asked for quite regularly. So, a month or so ago we took in good stocks of the Classic range and a few weeks ago Steph from Haus came down to do our training to refresh us on who Wusthof are. She reminded us that Wusthof started trading in 1814. Which, to put it in some sort of context, was 2 years after Napoleon had to retreat from Moscow, or if you're a railway historian, 20 years before the inception of the Great Western Railway (GWR) company (sometimes known as Gods Wonderful Railway). You might be puzzled as to why I bring a railway company into this mix. Well, it's been a while since I talked about one of my hobbies, but I am a railway enthusiast (someone has to be) and am building a model of Yeovil Pen Mill in my shed (scale 4mm = 1 foot or 4mm to 300mm) and you can probably guess what railway company built this line...? So, for me this sets the scene a little. I hope it does for you as well?
Johann Wusthof set himself up in a cellar workshop making high quality knives, mainly for other manufacturers to begin with. He had three sons who took on the company which just grew and grew and these days the it is still run by two cousins, Harold and Viola, 7th generation Wusthofs.
We decided to stock their Classic range again and have chosen 20 knives from it. So there’s a good selection from which to choose.
For instance there are 5 Cooks Knives, from a wee 12cm one, to a monster 23cm one.
Two Bread Knives 20cm and 23cm.
Two Carvers 20cm and 23cm.
A couple of Santokus 14cm and 17cm.
Utility knives in 12cm and 14cm sizes, along with a serrated version at 14cm long.
On top of these there's a Boning knife, a Salmon Slicer with a whopping 32cm long blade.
And of course a paring knife 10cm and slightly unusually, a Nakiri 17cm.
Prices vary from £83.00 to £165.00
Website back selling knives again
Now for us, and I hope for you as well, the other bit of good news is that for 3 or 4 years we stopped selling knives on the website, because of the need for age verification, but we have at long last worked out how to achieve a "safe way" of selling them (that includes age verification) and so we can now offer you Wusthof, Zwilling J A Henckels, Global, Robert Welch, Taylors Eye and Victorinox once again, online as well as in the shops.
Did it really take that length of time to do this? Well clearly it did! The reason is that, like many small companies, we have limited resources, and there were simply higher priorities than getting knives back on the website and so it just never got to the top of anyone's "to do list" until now.
BUT NOW IT HAS and our knife pages are live, and there's even a "Knife Buying Guide to help you make the right choice, although if you make the wrong choice, don’t forget out guarantee of taking anything back even when used....!
The Deal…
This weekend I'm offering you 20% off when you buy two or more pieces from the Wusthof Classic Range, and that will include the Mino Sharp Water knife sharpener.
And here I'm going to be potentially controversial as the Mino Sharp knife sharpener is, strictly speaking, for Japanese knives only, as it sharpens at approximately 15 degrees.
I, however, use it for all my knives, Japanese and European, despite the fact that European manufacturers set their blades at 22.5 degrees typically. However, I'm grateful to Steph and her training session where I discovered that Wusthof sharpen at 14 degrees (so very close to 15 degrees).
So, what I'm describing here is a bit of a dogs dinner or cat’s cradle of a mess. I've heard of 12 degrees being mentioned, in relation to Japanese knives, 15 degrees is common, then 14 degrees (Wusthof) and 22.5 degrees for most European knives. Blimey!
Happily, my experience tells me that any knife that requires equal sharpening both sides of the blade (which is the vast majority) will respond very well to being sharpened by the Mino Sharp, day in day out, for years and years. My experience spans well over 20 years with it, and when I sit any of our freshly sharpened knives on a glossy tomato and with little or no downward pressure, just a slicing action, they produce the most wonderful wafer thin slices that I can see through….knife heaven for me using a well sharpened knife! So yes, buy a Wusthof knife or knives, but don’t forget the sharpener, it’s just as important as the knives!
I’m off on holiday to deepest Shropshire this weekend for a week of walking and relaxing with my “little” brother. So if you get anything from me next week, it’ll probably be brief and possibly whimsical…we’ll have to see.
I hope your weekend is both pleasant and peaceful.
Kind regards
Andrew
Andrew Bluett-Duncan
Director
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