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Equipment & Gear: Kitchen Knives
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collbarretz



Joined: 06 Jan 2011
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What do you use in sharpening your vegetable knife?
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Does anyone out there have experience with Rada knives? I am considering them, but would love to hear some feedback on the pros and cons if anyone can weigh in on those
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Guest Chef & Bladesmi
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 2:06 am    Post subject: Selecting and sharpening Reply with quote

As a Professional Chef and a Hobbist Bladesmith I have some basic points to make:
Aesthetics are for interior decorators. In the professional world the standard is to use the proper tool for the job. If you only want something that gets the job done occasionally, keep your spending to the minimum to acheive that functionality. Bear in mind that World Renown Master Chefs have been using practical knives for Centuries; knives made of far less quality of materials than what we have available today. Even the most basic stamped 8 inch throw away stainless steel Chef knife is of better and more consistant than what was commonly available in the Middle Ages. And the best of the period, those beautiful japanese iron wrapped, steel edged katana blades... they were comprable in cost to todays new off the lot corvette and up.
So unless you are prepping vegatables or butchering meats for 6 plus hours a day, every day, I can only reccommend that you find a knife that is the most comfortable to use for its inteded purpose while spending the least amount of money possible. If it looks cool but feels horrible than you are a danger to yourself (and possibly others) while you are using it. If it looks like crap, but it holds an edge, is really comfortable and you would not mind using it for 15 hours of cutting small diced carrots for mirepoix - than you probably should be buying that 8 dollar stamped knife at the smart and final store. I did. And I still do.

Sharpening - Stainless steel will never hold as fine an edge as high carbon steel. This is because stainless is a much softer kind of steel. the alloy that makes it stainless also makes it softer and hardening it only makes it brittle. High carbon steel truly is a different animal. And yes, you absolutely can sharpen it to a razor edge. It will need to be attended to very carefully to maintain its surface from etching from acids and rusting from water and moisture. But, well maintained blades will quickly show themselves to be far superior.
Wash your knife immediately after use with warm water and mild soap. Rinse Well and Dry Thoroughly! I keep my blades with a exceptionally light coating of cutting block oil, and they do not rust. I also run them gently over the steel about 12 times before use, each time I start a new task. The result is that I usually only need to sharpen my carbon steel every three months of very heavy use.
I personally have a considerable selection of knives that I have accumulated over the years. I've had many duds and a few winners. I have also learned a lot more about metalurgy and knife construction than I had ever planned. One thing I tell you is that without exception, all knives become dull. It is basic physics called friction. Its the same reason why getting a nasty abrasion from a fall on a hard gravel path does really bad and painful things to your skin.
Yes, some edges are more durable than others, but this is due to the quality of the materials and the amount and care of use by the weilder. A sharpening steel will keep the burr in good shape but only for so long. eventually all knives will reach a point in thier use when they will need to be reground. You can do this with the right tools and the right instruction. but a professional will have his reputation on the line when he accepts your knives to sharpen... you will like the results. your knives may even be better then when you first acquired them.

p.s. using an uncooled power tool to sharpen a blade can easily alter the temper of the metal and decrease the edge holding capacity of your blade.
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TVC
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 2:32 pm    Post subject: Thanks for the info Reply with quote

This is great, I have not long moved into my first house and now need to buy all my kitchen bits, so this article has been a great help for me because I didn't realise there where so many types of knives to buy for different tasks!
Thanks Nath
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motorhed



Joined: 12 Dec 2012
Posts: 3
Location: South Windsor, CT

PostPosted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 6:27 pm    Post subject: Blades are nice, but Edges are more important Reply with quote

Once you get settled in your new house, you need to find a cutler to edge your knives for you. You can hone them yourself, but don't bother trying to sharpen them; 99% of us will just mess the blade up. Check the local paper or Craigslist for one. A good guy can set different edges based on need. I use a more aggressive edge on one boning knife than another, so I can do particularly fine work with it, but if I a boning a leg-o-baaah, then I use the one with a less aggressive edge that can take a beating. He can also scratch a blade so that it can grab what it is cutting, so slicing tomatoes is a breeze. Stay away from the guy at the meat counter; likely his knives are the food service ones, and he just grinds them.

And don't forget good ol' Carbon Steel blades. Some of the best out there are carbon steel again, and they can get sharper than any of the stainless types. You can pick up old stamped ones at flea markets to try them out; surface rust is fine, and they clean up with a little steel wool. I got a 10" chef that way, decided that I like it, and picked up a SWEET F. Dick blade for a song (compared to Wusthof or Shun).
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 6:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am kind of on a crossroad, not sure what to do. Out of all the information that I've looked for and found Wusthof and Shun seem to be a choice of many. I got to actually feel the some of the Wusthof Selection in my hand and they were simply amazing. They had great balance and when I grabbed the cleaver, o my, not sure if I would be brave enough to use it, I'd probably use a finger or two...I liked what I seen..

Then the shun, well I'm liking what I see from them too. The blades are just freaking awesome and very good looking, I love the grainy look, really are a set of nice looking knives, plus from what I read, they retain the sharpness better than most, which is good.

Long story short I'm up in arms on which set to invest in. I found some good prices on both shun and wusthof at: (spam link removed) But I'm not sure what to go with...My tipping point is toward Wusthof because the price points are little bit lower than shun and I actually got to feel them in my hand so I know what to expect, but Shun looks intriguing.... So my question is what would you suggest the wusthof or anty up for the shun... I'm currently looking at the shun Classic Essentials Set 7pc and the Wusthof Classic Ikon Set 9pc ... obviously there is a two piece difference but looking for some good feedback here... If I'm going to invest this much into a set, I want to make sure I make the right choice...
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Dilbert



Joined: 19 Oct 2007
Posts: 1304
Location: central PA

PostPosted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 7:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

you could always ask Todd.

he'll tell you a knife has to be comfortable and feel right in your hand.

there are many other touted differences between the old clunker style German knives and the Japanese style knives.
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