First world problems

Being a lousy home cook, I find it hard to test how long my knives can hold their edges. Because with normal usage it could take weeks before I even notice any degradation of the sharpened edge. So I often come up with different excuses to take my knives on the stones. Man was I happy when my two new knives from Marko came totally unsharpened.

I guess in the pro-environment you won't suffer from inventing excuses to sharpen your knives once again, but what do I know.
My next logical step would be getting rid of those nasty end grain cutting boards that doesn't allow my edges to ruin fast enough

What are your first world problems?

I'd suggest a glass cutting board with a heavy handed cutting style. Lots of sawing on the board too. That should produce a knife that needs sharpening/repair pretty quickly. ;-)

No need to waste money on a glass board. Use the razor honer's trick of dragging the edge over the unglazed bottom of a coffee mug. Instant dullness.

Pensacola Tiger said:

No need to waste money on a glass board. Use the razor honer's trick of dragging the edge over the unglazed bottom of a coffee mug. Instant dullness.

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I don't know… how really dull will it be? Any close up photos? Have you compared the dullness from different coffee mugs? Which are the fastest and have best feedback?

Mine is finding a used range to replace our POS Viking that is falling apart. At 48 inches even a used Bluestar or Wolf is at least 4,000.

learn to scrape your food off the board enthusiastically with the edge. i get all anal and use the spine. my wife..nope, she uses the sharp edge. normally, i dont think that really does much..but in my wife's hands...dull-city.

boomchakabowwow said:

learn to scrape your food off the board enthusiastically with the edge. i get all anal and use the spine. my wife..nope, she uses the sharp edge. normally, i dont think that really does much..but in my wife's hands...dull-city.

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Oh yeah...I learned this the hard way about 15 years ago when i gifted a knife to a friend...was nearly unusable in 2 week.

Mucho Bocho said:

I'd suggest a glass cutting board with a heavy handed cutting style. Lots of sawing on the board too. That should produce a knife that needs sharpening/repair pretty quickly. ;-)

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Not that the follow up suggestions were lacking, but this made me (literally) laugh out loud.

Aton I have a perfect solution.... Send all knives you want tested to me
I'll give them a real solid workout and send em back when there blunt. You pay for postage

OR.... Buy a crazy amount of onions and chop the crap outa them. Make enough onion soup for all the homeless people in your area.

I prefer the first option

My 1st world problem is I don't have enough money to fund my knife obsession

First World Problem is my vegetable cleaver gets stuck in my endgrain when chopping. A couple of my carbons after a while clean up with BKF & scrub pad that dulls them quick. Gives me excuse to sharpen them.

I have a hard time having any pity of your situation Aton. I am anal for sharp edges on blades:O

I've been buying knives on ebay and at thrift shops and estate sales to practice sharpening on, after you refurbish them they make nice gifts to serious amateur cooks...

Hot vinegar will do for dulling your carbon edge. But you get a nice patina with it. Add some salt if you require a nice pitting pattern.

My first world problem is that I still haven't been able to find the perfect cutting board...

I actually have two fairly large and thick end-grain cutting boards by Andrej (MTMWood), but these are so beautiful I cannot set myself to cut on them. Moreover, I hate cleaning, so everything I make dirty must either go into the dishwasher or the washing machine. The only exception to this are the toilet and my knives. (And my g/f adds the wine glasses to that.)

So I have a couple of alternative boards. My favourites are some quite thin IKEA plastic boards. Relatively large and so thin they are easy to handle. But... these are so thin that on a bad (good?) day I cut them in half with a single cut. I also have a thicker plastic board, but this is too small and quite heavy for its size. So today I've switched again to an Epicurean board made of "pressed wood". But no perfect either: very dense "wood", so it dulls a knife more than it should and after a year in the dishwasher it needs replacement.

Too many knives (if there is such a thing). Some are impulse buys that don't even see the light of day.

Would encourage you to put one of those end grains out. I did similar with my large end grain was used to lighter more portable boards. It spent a while under the bed before started using it.

Clean it per board smiths instructions. Every now & then treat it with Howards Butcher Block Conditioner. It is no big deal. I think this board will last a long time, best thing I ever cut on. Of coarse we used those plastic things at work.

A significant first world problem comes to mind:

http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/s...-Chinese-Restaurant-CHARGE-you-for-white-rice

To Mark76 - I use Epicurean boards for proteins, transport to/from grill and all manner of stuff I don't want to clean the big Boos for. Don't find them to be a problem. Also use them at culinary store cooking classes, a dozen boards, everyday. They usually go 2 years before they look pretty rough and Epicurean replaces them. They should last a home cook forever.