Draft Revised Questionnaire

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mhlee

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Here's the draft of the revised Questionnaire that I've been working on.

Please feel free to post any comments or questions that you may have. I just ask that you go through the Questionnaire first as if you were considering the purchase of a new knife.

I hope to include embedded links where you see "LINK" that were included in the original Questionnaire.

Thanks.

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Please refer to the Kitchen Knife Knowledge sub forum (LINK) and the Kitchen Knife Glossary thread (LINK) for general information, including types of knives and knife terminology, used in this questionnaire.
There’s no need to elaborate or explain your answer to a “yes” or “no” question. Let’s begin!
LOCATION
What country are you in?
KNIFE TYPE
What type of knife are you interested in? E.g., Chef’s Knife (or Gyuto), Slicer (or Sujihiki), Boning Knife, Utility Knife (or Petty), Bread Knife, Paring Knife, Yanagiba, Deba, Usuba, Meat Cleaver, Vegetable Cleaver?
Are you right or left handed?
Are you interested in a Western handle (e.g., classic Wusthof handle) or Japanese (wa) handle?
What length of knife are you interested in (in inches or millimeters)?
Do you require a stainless knife? (Yes or no.)
What is your absolute maximum budget for your knife (i.e., “I’m not spending one more euro/pence/penny/peso/yen more than this”)?
KNIFE USE
Where do you primarily intend to use this knife?

  • At home or a professional environment? (Please feel free to specify what type of work environment, e.g., catering, restaurant, butchery, seafood.)
  • How often? (Please feel free to specify how many hours a day, and days per week.)
What are the main tasks you primarily intend to use the knife for (e.g., slicing vegetables, chopping vegetables, mincing vegetables, slicing meats, cutting down poultry, breaking poultry bones, filleting fish, trimming meats, etc.)? (Please identify as many tasks as you would like.)
What knife, if anything, are you replacing?
Is your primary grip when you hold your knife a “pinch” grip (i.e., holding the knife in front of the handle with your thumb and index finger on opposite sides of the knife)? (Please click on this LINK for the common types of grips.) (Yes or no.)
What cutting motions do you primarily use? (Please click on this LINK for types of cutting motions and identify the two or three most common cutting motions, in order of most used to least used, e.g., rock chop, rock mince, push cut, pull cut.)
What improvements do you want from your current knife? Please identify all improvements that you would like this knife to have. (If you are not replacing a knife, please identify as many characteristics identified below in parentheses that you would like this knife to have.)

  • Better aesthetics (e.g., a rustic knife – e.g., hammered finish, or darkened (kurouchi) blade; satin finish; mirror finish; nicer steel pattern (e.g., layered/Damascus or other pattern of steel); different handle color/pattern/ shape/wood; better scratch resistance; better stain resistance) –
  • Comfort (e.g., lighter/heavier knife; better handle material (e.g., nicer type of wood or synthetic material); better handle shape (e.g., shorter or taller height, thicker or thinner, shorter or longer length); rounded spine/choil of the knife; improved balance (i.e., please identify how you like the knife to be balanced, whether toward the blade, in front of the handle, or toward the handle) –
  • Ease of Use (e.g., ability to use the knife right out of the box; smoother rock chopping, push cutting, or slicing motion; less wedging; better food release; less reactivity with food; easier to sharpen) –
  • Edge Retention (i.e., length of time you want the edge to last without sharpening based on your expected use above) –
KNIFE MAINTENANCE
Is it very important that your knife require only minimal daily maintenance? (i.e., only need to wash and dry after use, occasional sharpening) (Yes or no.)
Do you use a bamboo, wood, rubber (e.g., Sani-Tuff) or synthetic cutting board (e.g., any type of plastic, Hi-Soft, etc.)? (Yes or no.)
Do you sharpen your knives on your own using any type of whetstone? (Yes or no.)

  • If “yes,” are you looking to purchase more specific products for this knife? (Yes or no.)

  • If “no,” will you have your knives professionally sharpened? (Yes or no.)
  • If “no,” are you interested in learning how to sharpen your own knives? (Yes or no.)
  • If “yes” to the question immediately above, what is the absolute maximum amount of money you would be willing to put toward sharpening products?
SPECIAL REQUESTS
Country of origin –
Other –
 
Wow, that's thorough. Only 2 things come to mind:

Is the cutting board question really intended to be yes/no, or to specify type?

The maintenance question might be vague because I doubt many new people can imagine what other care may be required.

Nice work Mike!
 
Wow, that's thorough. Only 2 things come to mind:

Is the cutting board question really intended to be yes/no, or to specify type?

The maintenance question might be vague because I doubt many new people can imagine what other care may be required.

Nice work Mike!

The cutting board question is meant to be "yes" or "no." All of the types of boards identified are generally accepted to be sufficient; by answering "no", without forcing the person completing the questionnaire to specify what kind of board they have, we'll know that they have a board that isn't really good.

The way I looked at this was that a "no" response means they have either a glass, stone, metal cutting board, none of which are good for knives. But, I figured that this would eliminate any specific ridicule for the person who completed the questionnaire for the kind of board they have. We'll know they need an upgrade though.

As for maintenance, I phrased the question that way because it seemed to me that there are people who really want a knife that does not require maintenance, and the rest of the people are willing to do more, up to a certain limit. I will say, I had trouble phrasing that question to get the kind of information needed without leading to ridicule, e.g. a person responds to a different question that asks "Are you willing to wipe down your knife regularly during use?" A "no" response might be met with, "Why not?"
 
A good beginning, I would tend to say. Two very first remarks if you don't mind.
I would like to find out whether a poster uses poor sharpening equipment, e.g. a diamond rod or a pull through sharpener, or may be used to steel his knives with a grooved steel.
It might be useful to know whether he is fine with the asymmetry he will encounter especially with Japanese knives.
 

A good beginning, I would tend to say. Two very first remarks if you don't mind.
I would like to find out whether a poster uses poor sharpening equipment, e.g. a diamond rod or a pull through sharpener, or may be used to steel his knives with a grooved steel.
It might be useful to know whether he is fine with the asymmetry he will encounter with especially Japanese knives.

I did not want to include the question worded the same way as it was in the first questionnaire because it immediately led to comments about how such equipment was inferior, etc. I felt that by simply asking whether they use any whetstone of any kind was enough information to know that they have a start on how to sharpen knives (and members can just add that stones are the way to go - no other comments necessary, explanation of asymmetry can be included in recommendations of HOW to sharpen).

If they do not have whetstones, members will know that the person will need to either (1) buy sharpening equipment or (2) get it professionally sharpened. Both of which are follow up questions.

Asymmetry wasn't part of the original questionnaire and I agree with not asking that. Comments primarily focused on making this more friendly for novices. Bringing asymmetry in to the mix goes the opposite way. Members that recommend knives can point out that a knife has asymmetric bevels or an asymmetric edge, etc.
 
A number of questions are phrased in a manner where we learn critical information by what is not stated; we learn by a "no" answer that the person does not have something that is generally considered to be necessary or even essential going forward.

I just ask that you consider this as you go through the Questionnaire. This was all done with the intent of reducing/eliminating any embarrassment the person completing the Questionnaire may have if the person simply stated they have "x, y, z" that members do not agree with.
 
As a noob who recently filled out the questionnaire, I really like the changes. I was able to figure out what types of answers were expected by browsing the forum for a while before making my post, but I think the example answers for each question will be a big help in getting useful answers in initial post rather than sussing them out with follow up questions.

I was also going to make the comment about the board question being Yes/No, but I see where you are going with it so it makes sense to me now.
 
Asking whether people are fine with edge asymmetry is IMHO essential for knowing if they're prepared to deal with a Japanese knife. Blade asymmetry is a general phenomena when dealing with decent knives, Japanese, French or even German. It might be attenuated, or less obvious, though, where lasers are concerned. I would like to know if a poster insists on symmetrical sharpening. With some knives, acceptable results may be achieved. On others, it's just asking for serious problems after a few sharpenings - bizarre steering, wedging, you know.
 
Asking whether people are fine with edge asymmetry is IMHO essential for knowing if they're prepared to deal with a Japanese knife. Blade asymmetry is a general phenomena when dealing with decent knives, Japanese, French or even German. It might be attenuated, or less obvious, though, where lasers are concerned. I would like to know if a poster insists on symmetrical sharpening. With some knives, acceptable results may be achieved. On others, it's just asking for serious problems after a few sharpenings - bizarre steering, wedging, you know.

We'll put this to the members then.

Who feels that this is something that needs to be included in the Questionnaire?

Thanks.
 
I think most folks new to japanese knives will have no idea what is meant by asymmetry ... or even geometry in general.

BTW, I really like the changes and where this is going :)
 
i would put the assymetry part of a knife info sticky =D
 
well you could put the links to knife info, maintenance and etc. in the questionnaire so they can read up about it... less questions that way? i dunno.
 
It was a "yes" or "no" question.

Since it would require links, etc., and you don't have a simple answer for it, I'm taking the answer to be "no."
 
This is a big improvement, good work.

v.2 is better than v.1

I had to read this 3 times before I could see it wasn't a non-sequitur reading, "vg2 is better than vg1"...I was like, "OK, but WTH does that have to do with this questionnaire!?" :slaphead:
 
That's a no from me, Asym is well beyond the intro questions methinks. If the user knows this stuff they prolly don't need intro questions...

What do you think, is this more straightforward for the cutting board question-
Do you use a cutting board made of any of the following materials: wood, bamboo, nylon, rubber, or plastic? (yes/no)

Trial by fire? Let's put it in and see if people have trouble in any particular spot... it can always be revisited. Not like we are life and death here.

Thanks again for doing this Mike, I can tell you really put some time and thought into it
Regards.
 
That's a no from me, Asym is well beyond the intro questions methinks. If the user knows this stuff they prolly don't need intro questions...

What do you think, is this more straightforward for the cutting board question-
Do you use a cutting board made of any of the following materials: wood, bamboo, nylon, rubber, or plastic? (yes/no)

Trial by fire? Let's put it in and see if people have trouble in any particular spot... it can always be revisited. Not like we are life and death here.

Thanks again for doing this Mike, I can tell you really put some time and thought into it
Regards.

I forgot about nylon. I used "synthetic" to cover any other plastic-type material but I think those four pretty much cover the basics. I'll make this change.

Thanks.
 
Trial by fire? Let's put it in and see if people have trouble in any particular spot... it can always be revisited. Not like we are life and death here.

Thanks again for doing this Mike, I can tell you really put some time and thought into it
Regards.

:plus1:
 
Put up a trial version and I will fill it out. Then see how useful it is for advice givers
 
It seems a bit long. Do you think that might put people off?
 
As a newbie who filled the old form out this fall, I think this is a great improvement. Thank you for doing this.
 
I wonder if the links are set up as of yet. Questionnaire looks great though.
 
This looks great Mike, it can guide somebody who has no clue alot better than the old one. People get intimidated and bogged down with things they don't understand, and I think everything on that questionnaire is completely understandable to a non knut, my mother who uses a steak knife for everything she does could fill out that questionnaire and find herself a suitable knife. The old questionnaire, I can picture my mom going "oil a handle? I thought this was helping me pick a knife, not confuse the hell out of me." Let's not discourage the new members with complicated knife jargon, newcomers probably don't know what a choil is or what's the blade profile? Let alone assymetrical knife sharpening. New members will have plenty of access to info on how to maintain the knife once they get it, but I think the questionnaire should just help them find that knife, not how to maintain it, we have other posts for that.
 
I would number the questions and/or put a space between each of them to make it a bit more easily digestible, but I think it's great.

ETA: Props to Eamon for the original questionnaire, and to Michael for the thoughtful revision.
 
Michael, once you get the links and whatever else done go ahead and post a new thread and I'll sticky it.
 
I think there's tmi in some parts for a newcomer. Newcomers may not even know knives can come with rounded spines and choils. Wth is a choil? Preferred balance? A newcomer may have no idea what a good balance point should be. Especially if they are coming from heavy blade forward clunky German steel.

I also don't think we should ask for a preference about asymmetry, however it should be mentioned so newbs have a simple heads up about it. Maybe briefly mention it then link to the asymmetry thread.
 
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