KitchenCommander
Well-Known Member
I picked up an old Dexter Chef knife from a thrift store with a bent and broken tip just as a project knife to play around with. Soon as I saw it I knew I could cut the damaged portion off and bring the tip down to a Gyuto like profile. It went from about 10" blade to around 9" blade, but I think the overall profile came out well.
I noticed when I picked it up that it had a very thin and flexible taper, which I didn't pay much attention to at first. When I was sharpening and doing some cutting I noticed the flex was not working very well for me. Its not a slight flex, its full on fillet knife flex starting about halfway down the blade.
Its not doing very well for me on standard chopping duty. So what are the strengths of a knife like this? I'm sure there are other old chef knives with thin tapers that get lots of love, so what do you use your flexible chef knives for?
Its probably a good slicer, but I have 2 Old Hickory carvers, and a modified Forgecraft carver that are all pretty stiff slicers. Granted they are a little shorter.
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If anyone is interested I can post a photo of the knife flexing, but I didn't have one handy.
I noticed when I picked it up that it had a very thin and flexible taper, which I didn't pay much attention to at first. When I was sharpening and doing some cutting I noticed the flex was not working very well for me. Its not a slight flex, its full on fillet knife flex starting about halfway down the blade.
Its not doing very well for me on standard chopping duty. So what are the strengths of a knife like this? I'm sure there are other old chef knives with thin tapers that get lots of love, so what do you use your flexible chef knives for?
Its probably a good slicer, but I have 2 Old Hickory carvers, and a modified Forgecraft carver that are all pretty stiff slicers. Granted they are a little shorter.
If anyone is interested I can post a photo of the knife flexing, but I didn't have one handy.