Advice

Take it or leave it.

After several years of being on misc. forums I have come to know some truths.

A knife doesn't make you a chef.
Most knife makers don't know how to make a good kitchen knife.
The steel isn't all that.
and it's true, I could do just a good a job with a POS knife but what fun is that?

That's why I have them. for fun and I can afford it.

well said

I just proved that today. Can't stand the 'house knives', but I still banged out an onion julienne with one of em faster than anybody else in the restaurant(hell, most of the restaurants in town) could. Did I like working with it? **** no. Which is why I buy nice knives(nice to me anyways), and why I found this forum in the first place.

agreed, thats why I mostly use old beat up vintage knives. Shows my guys that chef gets shite done because, he can.

sachem allison said:

agreed, thats why I mostly use old beat up vintage knives. Shows my guys that chef gets shite done because, he can.

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Yup

Salty dog said:

Take it or leave it.

After several years of being on misc. forums I have come to know some truths.

A knife doesn't make you a chef.
Most knife makers don't know how to make a good kitchen knife.
The steel isn't all that.
and it's true, I could do just a good a job with a POS knife but what fun is that?

That's why I have them. for fun and I can afford it.

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Add in: a lot of chefs don't know how to use a knife and almost all chefs have no clue how to sharpen or take care of one.

brainsausage said:

I just proved that today. Can't stand the 'house knives', but I still banged out an onion julienne with one of em faster than anybody else in the restaurant(hell, most of the restaurants in town) could. Did I like working with it? **** no. Which is why I buy nice knives(nice to me anyways), and why I found this forum in the first place.

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+10

Salty dog said:

Take it or leave it.

After several years of being on misc. forums I have come to know some truths.
...

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All true. I've seen good cooks do good work with bad knives and bad cooks do bad work with good knives.

~Tad

You mean it's NOT the tail that wags the dog?! This is crazy talk. What's next, cat spells dog and dog spells cat? I simply can't talk to you guys when you're like this. Unbelievable.

agree!

Salty dog said:

Take it or leave it.

After several years of being on misc. forums I have come to know some truths.

A knife doesn't make you a chef.
Most knife makers don't know how to make a good kitchen knife.
The steel isn't all that.
and it's true, I could do just a good a job with a POS knife but what fun is that?

That's why I have them. for fun and I can afford it.

Click to expand...

My add: It's about the sharpening.

As a home cook, a good-enough knife that is reasonably sharp and has decent geometry is a big help in speeding up prep so we can cook after work and still eat at a decent hour. Anything beyond that is just bonus. Part of the knife obsession goes hand-in-hand with working on improving cutting techniques. But for me it takes months/ years to make the improvements the pros make in just a few days of prepping hundreds of pounds of produce. Most makers that I have seen make very useable paring and petty knives; it's when the knife gets a bit longer that the usability can suffer the most.

Salty dog said:

Take it or leave it.

After several years of being on misc. forums I have come to know some truths.

A knife doesn't make you a chef.
Most knife makers don't know how to make a good kitchen knife.
The steel isn't all that.
and it's true, I could do just a good a job with a POS knife but what fun is that?

That's why I have them. for fun and I can afford it.

Click to expand...

Sage advice! I'd also add "there is no such thing as a 50/50 bevel on a Japanese knife."

Frater_Decus said:

Sage advice! I'd also add "there is no such thing as a 50/50 bevel on a Japanese knife."

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Why would you add that?

mano said:

My add: It's about the sharpening.

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+1

cheezit said:

Why would you add that?

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Jon from JKI made a post about that awhile back, I'll see if I can drag it up.
______
Edit: Looks like it was Dave:
"100/0 (single bevel) – yanagiba, usuba, etc

90/10 (double bevel) – honesuki, garasuki, etc

80/20 , 70/30, 60/40 (double bevel) – gyuto, nakiri, sujihiki, etc

50/50 (symmetric) – non Japanese knife


Now I won’t go into why these knives are made this way as I’d only be speculating with regards to some of this. I have my theories and I’ve heard a lot of other’s views on this yet none completely convince me to be the true cause so I’ll leave this part of this subject alone. I will tell you very simply how you can deal with asymmetry and how to sharpen an asymmetric knife though.

To that end I first have to point out that you’re sure to stumble upon some information (I call them myths), while doing your research, that somewhat contradicts what I’ll be talking about here, stating that Japanese knives are ground or can be sharpened symmetrically (50/50) - I call BS on this. "

I'd add that after being on the forums I've come to realize that if Joe Schmo says Ninja knives with paper thin bevels are the best, then fifty bandwagon jumpers will tout it like it's bible. Even without ever touching a Ninja....and then some sorry sap will end up with a pos because a bunch of dummies convinced him it was the end all be all.

NO ChoP! said:

I'd add that after being on the forums I've come to realize that if Joe Schmo says Ninja knives with paper thin bevels are the best, then fifty bandwagon jumpers will tout it like it's bible. Even without ever touching a Ninja....and then some sorry sap will end up with a pos because a bunch of dummies convinced him it was the end all be all.

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You just summed up the American gen pop's view on any goddamm thing...

#lemmings

I swear, Salty and Niloc are my long lost brothers.

Steel types are purely academic to me at this point. Does it perform well? Does it hold an edge for a couple hours of serious prep? Does it make me wanna admire the vain little SOB while everyone else is wondering what's wrong with the tattooed guy staring at the big knife? Then hand it over...

Chef Niloc said:

Add in: a lot of chefs don't know how to use a knife and almost all chefs have no clue how to sharpen or take care of one.

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I totally agree with the sharpening part.Most people I worked with in Banquets had good knife skills,I mean if you are in front of a board for hours that alone creates speed with a blade.You have to work fast or you will not get the parties out.

To me Japanese carbon steel & japan style sharpening along with organization & time management are huge in getting the job done.

Somewhere early in Anthony Bourdains books he confesses to being a better writer than chef.

Not to backhand a compliment, but ... by this point I'd have assumed you nerds would have kickstartered a campaign to replace that old man with Salty on Mind of the Chef or something.

Season 4 Episode 6 : Tools of the Trade vs Man of the House.????

Salty dog said:

...and it's true, I could do just a good a job with a POS knife but what fun is that?

That's why I have them. for fun and I can afford it.

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That's wisdom there boys. Awesome. I think I am going to drink another glass of wine just to think about it some more.

k.

Maybe we should start a new sub-forum :wink:...

And you know what? I'm digging stainless these days. OMG.

Salty dog said:

And you know what? I'm digging stainless these days. OMG.

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'nuther drink. Thanks.

k.

Today's stainless steels are not the steels of the 70's.

Adding large amounts of chromium to steel happened around the same time Harry Brearley fr.Sheffield England & Elwood Hayes of Kokomo Indiana.100 yrs. ago in 1914.

It was not until the early 1950's that Emerson Case fr. Rochester NY. wt. the help of other's research worked the Heat-sub freeze & reheat again process that greatly improved the inferior stainless cutlery.

Stainless knives were hardened on the soft side creating lowest common denominator blades that dent instead of chip,tuff if you misuse them but get dull,esp. with the V grinds cut wt. a machine on stamped blades.Most stainless knives are still made this way.

When I went from stainless Forschners to excellent geometry Japanese carbon blades in the early 1980's,vastly superior cutting tools.Thin convex razor sharp edges,became a carbon junkie for life.

Now semi retired,have a Gesshin Ginga stainless & even a good stainless cleaver on my magblock,I don't dry them as well as my carbons,noticed some spots on my Ginga,must have pretty good steel in it.

Interested to see how Randy's pre buy AEB-L gyut's turn out.