Why I Travel with Knives

So I am in the Virgin Islands and I get to the rental home and check out the knives. This is the only chef's knife in the house (though there are some other knives). Not only is the Zwilling rusted, at one point the blade edge is completely ruptured with a crack almost a centimeter long. It looks as if someone used the knife as a can opener or screwdriver.

Thank goodness for my Fowler and Rodrigue stand-ins.



k.

Can openers, screw drivers, paint can lid pryers, weed diggers etc are the ways most people use their kitchen knives. That one is certainly a classic example.

whoooooa.

That's insane! the edge is RUSTED.

I hear ya, K! My Misono Moly and Carter suji are loving life, being the only two knives I use throughout the week. I might switch it up this week and trade them in for my Swede, just to mix things up. A "serrated" Wusthof just can't hack it, even though everyone else seems to love how it feels being forced through carrots and the like.
On a side note, I love the little Fowler gyuto you're traveling with. I think he should make some more of those.

Lefty said:

...On a side note, I love the little Fowler gyuto you're traveling with. I think he should make some more of those.

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Yeah, that seems like a very convenient size. As for the "house knives," I don't know why these places even have knives around. Most of the time, they don't actually cut, anyway.

Lefty said:

On a side note, I love the little Fowler gyuto you're traveling with. I think he should make some more of those.

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Yeah, I am really glad that I picked up that petit gyuto of Fowler's. It was sort of an experiment for him I think, and I debated it for about a week because I had just bought a 240 Fowler, but it turned out to be a great buy. I'd love to see him make more too, but it sat on the forums for a while, so I wonder if he feels there is a market of it. Probably not. I'd love to compare it to a Carter SFGZ of the same size. I think it would compare well.

k.

I repaired a Wustof for my neighbor that looked just like the Zwilling, butt also had mushroomed edge on the spine. He had used it to break down an elk, and tried to hammer it through the bones!

How do you like his 240?

When I got mine it seemed so thick and clunky compared to my carter 240 or Fowler 210 petty. Had to raise the tip and the heal just to make it useable, seemed unbalanced , overall had major doubts.

After a month, my opinion has totally changed. Got the profile and bevel just where i want them. There are times I grab my thinner carter, but for daily chop chop its no fun compared to the Fowler.

Maybe I just need to learn to adjust my sharpening strategy for different grinds...?

eshua said:

Maybe I just need to learn to adjust my sharpening strategy for different grinds...?

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fftopic:
But I wish there was a "Hallelujah" icon right now!

At least you can use the house knife as a bread knife.

Jalopnik, my favorite car site, had a thread called "Save the Enzos" where they posted.pictures /stories of beautiful cars wrecked by idiot operators.

Perhaps we should start a "save the gyutos" thread. Karring's island massacre Zwilling world certainly take top honors / horrors.

Seriously, I don't know what's more amazing: the a rental property actually sprang for something as nice as a forged German knife (id expect to see something stamped and serraded from China) or that someone on VACATION managed to do that kind of damage. Seriously, what could you possibly get into in such a short arount of time that would do that to an edge? Trying to cut the top off of a wine bottle?

Trying to cut through the bone in a rack of ribs, or a bone in shoulder, or cutting something frozen, are a few that come to mind.......

yeah, but who gets into a whole rack of ribs or a shoulder bone while staying in a rented house on the virgin islands?

I think that Karring may be dealing with a murder weapon. Have there been any unexplained missing persons on the island?

Justin, I think you are forgetting about the powerful logic of alcohol. It makes people do really neat things.

k.

Oh yeah... forgot about that...
Things like "oh vacation would be a great time to take up decorative rock carving... hey, this knife looks like it would work great for that!"