DanHumphrey
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(I'll pause a moment to allow the giggles from the peanut gallery to subside.)
While I was researching for the knife I bought in my other thread, I was bothered by the fact that I was looking for a ~6-7" knife for my girlfriend, which felt quite good (we only ever cook for two, really), and most quality knives really started at 8". The knife I usually use for slicing is 5.5", while the sentiment here and on every other knife forum was that the only thing better than an 8" chef's knife was a 10" chef's knife (except maybe a 12" chef's knife), and yet my 8" felt huge and unwieldy, so I set out to try to figure out why.
The knives I looked at for this were my 8" chef's from my cheap Hampton Forge set from Target, the Chicago Cutlery 8" chef's I got later thinking it was better (but hate the very square handle on), my 5.5" santoku, and my girlfriend's 6.5" santoku.
What I realized was, I had been put off from 8" knives by the one in the Hampton Forge set, which is not only 8" but very heavy (a little over half a pound) and with a crazy-oversized handle that's so thick it's fatiguing to hold. Setting aside the shape of the handle on the CC knife, I picked it up and mocked using it a bit, and you're all right - the 8" length is fine, but I'd like it to be more like 6oz and with a handle that's comfortable.
I wonder if some of the opposition to bigger knives from non-chefs is due to experiences with knives like that (I'm sure Target sells a million of them, and other sets may be similar). I'm a 50th percentile size M man (5'11", 175lbs), so the problem would be even worse for some men and most women.
Also, for whatever reason, I mostly used a paring knife and what I now know was a boning knife (maybe 5", give or take) when I was little, and I never bothered to get used to larger knives when I was an adult since I did very little actual cooking until a couple of years ago.
Does anyone else think that might explain the preference some people have for the shorter knives and feel intimidated by 8"-10" chef's knives?
While I was researching for the knife I bought in my other thread, I was bothered by the fact that I was looking for a ~6-7" knife for my girlfriend, which felt quite good (we only ever cook for two, really), and most quality knives really started at 8". The knife I usually use for slicing is 5.5", while the sentiment here and on every other knife forum was that the only thing better than an 8" chef's knife was a 10" chef's knife (except maybe a 12" chef's knife), and yet my 8" felt huge and unwieldy, so I set out to try to figure out why.
The knives I looked at for this were my 8" chef's from my cheap Hampton Forge set from Target, the Chicago Cutlery 8" chef's I got later thinking it was better (but hate the very square handle on), my 5.5" santoku, and my girlfriend's 6.5" santoku.
What I realized was, I had been put off from 8" knives by the one in the Hampton Forge set, which is not only 8" but very heavy (a little over half a pound) and with a crazy-oversized handle that's so thick it's fatiguing to hold. Setting aside the shape of the handle on the CC knife, I picked it up and mocked using it a bit, and you're all right - the 8" length is fine, but I'd like it to be more like 6oz and with a handle that's comfortable.
I wonder if some of the opposition to bigger knives from non-chefs is due to experiences with knives like that (I'm sure Target sells a million of them, and other sets may be similar). I'm a 50th percentile size M man (5'11", 175lbs), so the problem would be even worse for some men and most women.
Also, for whatever reason, I mostly used a paring knife and what I now know was a boning knife (maybe 5", give or take) when I was little, and I never bothered to get used to larger knives when I was an adult since I did very little actual cooking until a couple of years ago.
Does anyone else think that might explain the preference some people have for the shorter knives and feel intimidated by 8"-10" chef's knives?