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Culverin

Culverin

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If your main go-to knife is what you use to make gauc and salsa,
What happens when you get to the avocado pit?

I've been doing the classic heel+twist.
But I have a suspicion that's not going to fly as I move to a higher HRC powdered steel knife?
Especially not on a laser.


How do you guys do it?
Whip out the beater?
 
I was curious about this myself. I very carefully used the heel of a white #2 Tadatsuna gyuto (laser) to remove an avocado pit today. No issues, but I think doing a similar task carelessly could suck big time.
 
I usually use a pairing knife to remove the pits. I normally have a few cheap pairing knives that I use for small stuff and removing pits.
 
Not the first time this one has been trotted out. Pop the heel in. Twist. Pop the seed off.

Zwiefel said:
While he didn't originate this technique (at the least it was my exact technique when I encountered the video), I consider this to be the best approach I've seen:

[video=youtube;yXXb-KdKI_U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXXb-KdKI_U[/video]
Click to expand...
 
It's technique, not the thickness or hardness of the blade. You have to ensure that the blade is at least 3/8" into the pit, or you can chip the edge when you try to twist it out.

If you have lousy technique, use a spoon to scoop out the pit. It's safer, as well.
 
I think OP's fear was that popping avocado pits a la the video above would kill a delicate edge/laser. It doesn't seem to at all.

Edit: what he said.
 
Be aware that this technique can result in serious injury. The safest way to cut an avocado is on the the cutting board(not in your hand) and to scoop out the seed with a spoon.
 
Truth be told, after a drunken, guacamole-ridden bloodfest a decade or so back, I do place the avocado half on a cutting board, cut into the seed and twist to remove it, then carefully squeeze the tricksy bastard into the compost bin. No joke: avocado pits thirst for your meat-tastic, interior juices.
 
Cut around the pith turn avocado to loosen then flick it out with a teaspoon. The old knife on the avocado trick is probably the second most common hand injury (pumpkin seems the to the reigning champion).

Now before you get all "but it messes up the avocado" you are making dip that is smashed up. Don't matter if you mangle it a little

Bonus tip is to squeeze the cut halves like a lemon. Works a treat.

See also

http://www.melbournehandsurgery.com/hand-injuries/30-hands/injuries/87-avocado-a-hidden-health-hazard
 
fwiw a buddy at work does this ALL the time with his Konosuke hd2 in 240...! I believe these are laser classed knives no? Anyway, I don't inspect his edge afterward but it's not like he's got hunks of steel falling out.

Now, I don't know anything about hd2 or konosuke at all, so I don't know if this is a high hrc knife or not, and by what standard... probably fairly soft.

An avocado is not a drupe at any rate, not too much to worry about.
 
I use the knife in the pit and release...only dangerous part imo is when removing the pit from the edge...careful with this move!
 
Did see a pretty spectacular fail once after an intern had watched me do a few and tried same technique with a Kyocera. (I would have stopped him had I seen it in time). The blade stayed with the pit. The handle did not.
 
Just please for the love of all that is holy, don't violently stab the pit.

Warning: There is blood in the photo.
http://i.imgur.com/x3GOqbm.jpg

It is amazing how a simple little fruit can strike fear in so many people causing so many kitchen disasters.
 
DamageInc said:
Just please for the love of all that is holy, don't violently stab the pit.

Warning: There is blood in the photo.
http://i.imgur.com/x3GOqbm.jpg

It is amazing how a simple little fruit can strike fear in so many people causing so many kitchen disasters.
Click to expand...

W-T-F-?-?-? Who would do that? Who would stab an avocado pit?

Anyhow, I have been cutting probably 2-4 avocados a week for years. Let's just say 1,000 avocados since I moved to Minnesota, and I have never remotely come close to injury or felt in danger of injuring myself. But if I cube the avocado in the half skin, I always switch to a butter knife. It gives me the shutters when I see people prepare an avocado this way with a sharp knife.

And I have rarely if ever been concerned with the edge of my knife for this quick pit-removal procedure except when dealing with a very thin, fine edge. At one point I thought my Marko suji was maybe too thin, but even Marko responded that the edge was sturdy and up for the task.

In the end, you will put 500x more mileage on your edge by cutting up and cubing one butternut squash than using your knife to remove any number of avocado pits over time.

k.
 
mr drinky said:
W-T-F-?-?-? Who would do that? Who would stab an avocado pit?

Anyhow, I have been cutting probably 2-4 avocados a week for years. Let's just say 1,000 avocados since I moved to Minnesota, and I have never remotely come close to injury or felt in danger of injuring myself. But if I cube the avocado in the half skin, I always switch to a butter knife. It gives me the shutters when I see people prepare an avocado this way with a sharp knife.

And I have rarely if ever been concerned with the edge of my knife for this quick pit-removal procedure except when dealing with a very thin, fine edge. At one point I thought my Marko suji was maybe too thin, but even Marko responded that the edge was sturdy and up for the task.

In the end, you will put 500x more mileage on your edge by cutting up and cubing one butternut squash than using your knife to remove any number of avocado pits over time.

k.
Click to expand...

Well said Karin. My sentiments exactly. Also some of us believe that is a bloody doctored internet pic.
 
Damage, I hadn't seen those additional pics, you may be correct, but I always skeptical when it come to internet pics. It looks to be a woman too. I can't imagine how much force was being used on the avocado to get a knife through it like that. Perhaps she's into cutting herself?
 
It looked fake to me too, but that picture from the other angle is rather convincing. God only knows how that happened. I can kind of see how one could stab an avocado on a worktop, but for the knife to go clean through, she must have been holding it in the air. That's just deranged.
 
Pensacola Tiger said:
It's technique, not the thickness or hardness of the blade. You have to ensure that the blade is at least 3/8" into the pit, or you can chip the edge when you try to twist it out.

If you have lousy technique, use a spoon to scoop out the pit. It's safer, as well.
Click to expand...

^^This. 100%^^


chinacats said:
I use the knife in the pit and release...only dangerous part imo is when removing the pit from the edge...careful with this move!
Click to expand...

If you use the method in the video, you have to be rather negligent to injure yourself removing the pit.
 
Mac kids knife is the ultimate avocado knife. I am dead serious about that. The rounded safety heel allows you to safely remove pits without damaging the blade or harming yourself. The rounded safety tip allows for scooping out the goodness. Plus it's quite sharp.
 
I've been using the technique in the video for some time, works great 99.9% of the time. The 0.1% is because sometimes the seed is very small (grape size) and fragile, it these limited cases it tends to crumble when the technique is used. May also be because I don't like mine as an extremely ripe mush, basically when there is just a bit of give when you gently squeeze the skin (hopefully that makes sense)
 
No knife at all for pit extraction, just squeeze the skin behind the pit. If the pit doesn't come out easily, the avocado wasn't ripe.
Don't worry about mashing the meat, you won't, again, as long as it's a ripe avocado and you don't go all Hulk on it.
 
RobinW said:
Seeing Eamons video, does anyone know how he is?
Click to expand...

I'm sure he is doing fine with his lovely family. Even though I was one who got burned when he started making knives, I've met him a couple of times and would bet a lot that his hasty (and unprofessional) departure from these forums was a move almost exclusively to focus on his family. I know he's on Facebook.

k.
 
chinacats said:
I use the knife in the pit and release...only dangerous part imo is when removing the pit from the edge...careful with this move!
Click to expand...

Exactly the issue I had 2 days ago! Pretty easy to remove the pit from avocado, but then the knife got all slippery from avocado and it was a nightmare to remove pit from the knife. Immediately when I started to attempt this I saw how I could easily cut my self :(
I just used a spoon for the other 2, much safer!
 
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