Knives..what do you prefer?

I felt good about being able to break down a whole chicken at home, and now I realize I’m a beginner compared to that guy. :grin:

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I find it disorienting watching a southpaw wielding a knife. Is it just me? :thinking:

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Me too!

We all are, compared to him.

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Beautiful knife, used by one who seems to have broken down a chicken once or twice before.

Love watching beautiful butchery.

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I wonder if he has done this before?

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An amusing article for sure, it certainly highlights the fact that there are many conflicting opinions regarding knives. I recently got an 11 1/2" chef knife, a new old stock Nogent. It was sold by Bernal as carbon steel, but it is clearly stainless. Don’t worry; Bernal said they would exchange it, but I rather liked it and kept it. My other knives (other than bread knife) are old Thiers Issard carbon steel. The stainless is a tad harder to sharpen than the old Sabs. So I land in the camp of nimble French carbon steel knives. Until dropping $89 on the new stainless knife, I never paid over $50, but my knives are old enough that this is a meaningless number. My take is that if you use most any decent knife long enough, you will come to love it. I have even reached that conclusion with Dexters and Victorinox in restaurant kitchens.

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Dont go down the rabbit hole that is Japanese kitchen knives. One just needs to google Takeda Chuka Bochos or Fujiwara Denka gyutos to see where it will lead you.

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biding my time, my knife selection is complete, albeit with the exception of a Japanese tuna knife (magurobōchō) - biding my time… :wink:

Knives can get expensive, but any reasonable knives will last for 20+ years in a home kitchen, so the cost per year is actually reasonable. Having a solid solution to knife sharpening is probably just as important. Knives tend to go dull about 6-12 months.

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:smiley: They look cool, don’t they?

Basically swords :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Thanks for the warning! Honestly, I’m not even that tempted. Although I have two Miyabi Kaizen 8" Gyutos, it’s the Henkels Zwilling chef’s knife I reach for most often now. I just prefer the tapered shape without that hump on the blade.

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I think when people look at knives for future purchase, they may neglect the type of steel, and future sharpening needs. I love Kiwis; but I enjoy sharpening them, as they sharpen very easily. That edge goes to hek more quickly than a harder steel, say Victorinox. BUT, when you sharpen the harder one, it can me more arduous to get the edge desired. Dexter Russells tend to be harder than Kiwis, but are still pretty easy to sharpen. I love them. My Wusthof Icon is hard and tough to sharpen; but that edge really lasts. You know you, just educate yourself to avoid disappointment.

Also the edge makes a difference. An extremely acute edge seems more likely to roll, which translates to the user as becoming dull. Even USA and Eurocentric blades seem to be moving towards more acute bevels.

To be honest, knife sharpening is not difficult. To do it very well, yes, it takes some talents and experience, but most people can do a good job. In addition, there are so many tools beside the free-hand knife sharpening.

To Tim’s point there is a circular situation too. People want a nice sharper knife → get a knife with better steel → a better steel can hold up a sharper (acute) edge → an acute edge will cut better, but also get dull faster → now more the reason to a have knife sharpening solution.

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I don’t spend much time in the kitchen these days, but when I do, I appreciate a sharp knife. However, I don’t want to make knife sharpening a Zen experience; I want something that does the job quickly and effectively. Any opinions on rolling knife sharpeners?

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I have never tried a rolling sharpener, but you can get most knives “kitchen sharp” on a 500 water stone by simply swirling each side for only a few seconds.

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You mean these? I don’t have hands on experience with these. Sorry.