what does the tip of a knife do?

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FireDragon76

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I want to know what the tip of a knife is used for, like on a chef knife. I have heard it is useful for meat, but I don't understand how. I have also heard it is for detail work (I suppose like a paring knife).
 
It's for poking your self with when not paying attention. Wakes you up after you return from first aid.

Now back to work!
 
I don't use them so I just broke the tips off of all of my knives.
 
if you don't do the french cutting method where the nose (or tip) of the blade is constantly in contact with the board, your knife will usually have a much sharper tip (also many people walk the knife instead of moving the veg forward into the 'cutting plane').

Therefore, if you have a sharp tip you can use it to do detail work that would otherwise be pretty tough with a long (240+) knife. I use the tip of my gyuto to peel things. you can also grip the knife further up and turn it upside town to take the eyes out of a potato or those sort of things.
 
Most times it's the first portion of the knife to cut my fingers - other times it's quite useful in trimming sliver skin on roasts.
 
FireDragon76 said:
I want to know what the tip of a knife is used for, like on a chef knife. I have heard it is useful for meat, but I don't understand how. I have also heard it is for detail work (I suppose like a paring knife).
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If all of your work is chopping with the heel of a knife, you could presumably make do with a nakiri or chukabocho since you wouldn't miss the tip. I use the tip for peeling (blade is less wide so easier to maneuver) or detail work when I don't want to have to use a petty/Parer at the same time. A santoku would have somewhat of a usable tip, and a gyuto/chefs knife more so.
 
It's for doing stupid **** like what I did to myself today with a damn scimitar: ImageUploadedByKitchen Knife Forum1453004131.202288.jpg
 
It pays to pay attention. All I'll say on that front. I now know what the muscles in my hand feel like with two inches of steel stuck in them. On both the giving and receiving side of things:viking:
 
Chuckles said:
Yikes. Somebody get Josh a drink stat!

I clicked cause I thought there might be a troll. I stayed for the gore.
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I did a double of Oban before I hiked up to the emergency room. Hospitals and Malls, both are unapproachable sans imbibing IMO.

Also- let it be known that I have no shame in my current thread jacking. Hell, let's see some more gore gents!
 
chiffonodd said:
Dude hope you went to the ER that is some serious **** right there! :knifed:
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I wrapped it and worked for another hour or so. Until I noticed the excessive pain and bleeding wasn't subsiding and divided to suck it up and hit the ER.

On a positive note- I've gotten a LOT of stitches over the years for doing a LOT of stupid ****, and this is the first 'mattress stitch' (the ER doctor's term) I've had put in me. Simple but effective!
 
If I stabbed myself, I don't think I would take a picture of my stab wound to share with everyone! Out of curiosity did you try to superglue the wound together before heading to the ER?
 
harlock0083 said:
If I stabbed myself, I don't think I would take a picture of my stab wound to share with everyone! Out of curiosity did you try to superglue the wound together before heading to the ER?
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Sharing is CARING.

This was a reasonably deep/wide puncture wound. Needed a bit more than superglue. In a less busy area, that might've worked, but I also would've likely damaged a tendon or major nerve trauma type stuff. I'm lucky I have meaty hands, as the chunk of muscle in my thumb took the brunt of it. Be luckier if I wasn't running my mouth to my sous chef about a bonsai tree book he'd been checking out and paid closer attention to what I was doing instead:doublethumbsup:
 
I sliced the end of my thumb+nail off once while listening to my chef tell a story about eating out of the trash while he simultaneously ate his own pate off a pile of scraps at the top of a full trash can.. You could say i was surprised/distracted.. It only took the tip :)
 
the tip is useless, you should red sharpie 1" of the tip so you know which part to not use. but the saying "it's never just the tip" holds true in more than one context.
 
As I recently discovered when switching towards a longer blade (from smallish 20 cm chef knife to 24 cm gyuto), the tip is excellent to test the sharpness of the blade. When you poke the tip into the flesh of your hand, it will actually leave a small gaping black hole that remains for at least a minute before it starts bleeding. A less sharp blade will make it bleed instantly.
 
Jovidah said:
As I recently discovered when switching towards a longer blade (from smallish 20 cm chef knife to 24 cm gyuto), the tip is excellent to test the sharpness of the blade. When you poke the tip into the flesh of your hand, it will actually leave a small gaping black hole that remains for at least a minute before it starts bleeding. A less sharp blade will make it bleed instantly.
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:rofl2: brainsausage already discovered it before you though. He already patented the method :doublethumbsup:
 
Danieru said:
:rofl2: brainsausage already discovered it before you though. He already patented the method :doublethumbsup:
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I think there's a difference. I use the poking method. It looks like he rather used the slicing method. The slicing method is more suitable to test whether an edge is toothy or polished! :D
 
Jovidah said:
I think there's a difference. I use the poking method. It looks like he rather used the slicing method. The slicing method is more suitable to test whether an edge is toothy or polished! :D
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I wish I'd done the slicing method, but alas it was an extreme version of the former.
 
Like I said in the second post!... No one ever believes me. Just go ahead and find out for yourselves, but I told you so.
 
As Head Gardemanger part of my career used tip of smaller blade to carve designs on melons. Liked to keep tips thin & sharp for slices when dicing onions for Lomi Salmon. Used tip a lot for slicing cuts eg. slicing strips of salted salmon prepping to dice. Try to get this thread back on track:hula:
 
keithsaltydog said:
As Head Gardemanger part of my career used tip of smaller blade to carve designs on melons. Liked to keep tips thin & sharp for slices when dicing onions for Lomi Salmon. Used tip a lot for slicing cuts eg. slicing strips of salted salmon prepping to dice. Try to get this thread back on track:hula:
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Thanks. I think some are dismissing the OP as a troll, but actually I'm a bit curious from a technique standpoint since I know relatively little and have a pretty limited cooking repertoire. I learned to cut food with a Chinese knife mostly and tend to do things that require a fine tip with a petty/parer. So while I have quite a few gyuto and other pointy knives, I can't say that I've ever really felt anything missing with a nakiri or piandao.
 
XooMG said:
Thanks. I think some are dismissing the OP as a troll, but actually I'm a bit curious from a technique standpoint since I know relatively little and have a pretty limited cooking repertoire. I learned to cut food with a Chinese knife mostly and tend to do things that require a fine tip with a petty/parer. So while I have quite a few gyuto and other pointy knives, I can't say that I've ever really felt anything missing with a nakiri or piandao.
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In all seriousness:

-Tip drawing for herbs, and especially for green onions. It is said that using the heel area can smash the herbs, though not sure with our super sharp knives if that is a real issue.
-I prefer to score skin with the tip of the knife
 
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