I think this "240+ or die" mentality is some carry over from ham-fisted men with barrel chests strained against leather aprons, with scowls on their faces and sour dispositions, in dimly lit kitchens who were as much butcher as chef. How many of us have seen friends or family, hell our wives, prepare entire meals with paring knives? I've watched my prepare many a chef salad with one. No, they often aren't executing precise cuts but even so, would they need a 240 for that?
Great thread, with lots of interesting perspectives. It's enlightening to hear some of the practical/professional responses from someone like
@stringer and others in the commercial kitchen world.
I always enjoy what HHC has to share, and I particularly like the paragraph above. It essentially mirrors my own musings about 240mm and longer Gyutos/Chefs Knives. I've often wondered how tradition-bound culinary schools are, or how macho professional kitchens are? I wonder whether the preference for longer knives comes from a "culinary culture" that is particularly male-dominated, and therefore competitive and testosterone bound? I have no answers, and make no judgements. I just wonder.
For my own use, I've had several 240's. I handle them just fine, and am completely comfortable with them. I've spent time in professional kitchens, and I can see, given the space, where they'd be handy for some tasks. However, in the constraints of my home kitchen, where I find them problematic is on my moderately sized cutting boards, and in and around my 2-bay sink. Both are just too tight. Really, the whole kitchen is too tight. I finally got rid of my last 240, and will stick with a 210. But the truth is, most of my cutting is done with some sort of 180mm (Bunka, Holy Rectangle, or Santoku). I prefer taller blades (50mm minimum) because they're better at scooping veg up (we no longer eat anything with eyes).
As an aside, I come from a long hunting tradition. I've hunted my entire life (now 62). My kids were raised on wild game. In that world, the greenest of greenhorns will typically have a BAK (Big Ass Knife). A Big Ass Hunting Knife will generally be anything with a 5" blade or longer. For me, the largest hunting knife I own has a 4" blade (Grohmann DH Russell #1 Belt Knife), but I've "taken apart" (gutted, skinned, quartered and de-boned) entire elk with blades as small as 1.75." Depending on the blade shape, 3" is about "just right." Now I'm not sure what any of that has to do with kitchen knives, but I believe the old tradition of a BAK came from the frontier days when a person generally had just one knife that was to be used for a lot more than just field dressing game. Perhaps that's where the 240mm thing comes from - a sort of "30-06" of kitchen knives.
