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Hi. I just joined the forum. About time, I suppose.
I've been cooking, nonprofessionally, with a heavy emphasis on Chinese food, for a couple of decades now. I used to do woodworking, but never got into it enough, so I dropped it. What I didn't drop was the fascination with blades of various types, and how to sharpen them. My chisels and plane blades are mostly gone, but the sharpening stones are still with me. I use them on my kitchen knives.
What sort of knives? Chinese cleavers, mostly. Thick cleavers for chopping through duck and chicken and pork rib bones; thinner cleavers for anything and everything else. My current go-to cleaver is a Sugimoto stainless, but I will admit to a fascination with the working characteristics of carbon steel. It's just that I'm not always willing, when I pull out a cleaver, to wipe it down with oil afterwards. So the stainless stuff tends to get favored. But I do love pulling out the carbon steel cleavers.
Chinese cleavers will do most anything, but I can't live with cleavers alone. I have paring knives, of course, for fine work. A boning knife doesn't seem to be optional -- you can't bone things with a cleaver. Super-thin slicing knives, from Global and random Japanese makers, seem essential when something has to be "paper-thin." The serrated cheese/tomato knife, well, how can you live without that? I even have a Boye chef's knife, bought when they cost less than they do now, which is quite a piece of art. Maybe I'll part with it someday, though, since I never seem to reach for it. Then there is the "bird" knife, and the poultry shears, which are entirely for one purpose: removing the bones from a chicken or duck, for the ethereal "boneless duck/chicken stuffed with sticky rice" dish.
That's probably enough intro, or more than enough. Hello! Nice to make your acquaintance. I look forward to both learning and contributing here.
I've been cooking, nonprofessionally, with a heavy emphasis on Chinese food, for a couple of decades now. I used to do woodworking, but never got into it enough, so I dropped it. What I didn't drop was the fascination with blades of various types, and how to sharpen them. My chisels and plane blades are mostly gone, but the sharpening stones are still with me. I use them on my kitchen knives.
What sort of knives? Chinese cleavers, mostly. Thick cleavers for chopping through duck and chicken and pork rib bones; thinner cleavers for anything and everything else. My current go-to cleaver is a Sugimoto stainless, but I will admit to a fascination with the working characteristics of carbon steel. It's just that I'm not always willing, when I pull out a cleaver, to wipe it down with oil afterwards. So the stainless stuff tends to get favored. But I do love pulling out the carbon steel cleavers.
Chinese cleavers will do most anything, but I can't live with cleavers alone. I have paring knives, of course, for fine work. A boning knife doesn't seem to be optional -- you can't bone things with a cleaver. Super-thin slicing knives, from Global and random Japanese makers, seem essential when something has to be "paper-thin." The serrated cheese/tomato knife, well, how can you live without that? I even have a Boye chef's knife, bought when they cost less than they do now, which is quite a piece of art. Maybe I'll part with it someday, though, since I never seem to reach for it. Then there is the "bird" knife, and the poultry shears, which are entirely for one purpose: removing the bones from a chicken or duck, for the ethereal "boneless duck/chicken stuffed with sticky rice" dish.
That's probably enough intro, or more than enough. Hello! Nice to make your acquaintance. I look forward to both learning and contributing here.
