An Ode to the Commercial Beater Knife

[Greenbriel]

As @Ochazuke mentioned. I am a Kanehide Stan.

I have used them for my main work knives for years. I recommend them to people on here, to coworkers, and to culinary students. They are a great balance of edge taking/retention and toughness.

Old Beater Meet New Beater

But there are many other beaters in my collection. I take great satisfaction in turning beaters into Ferraris.

They don't make my favorite super beater any more. Montana Knife Works 10" Chef Knife. At my last hotel gig people were expected to have their own knives. If they needed one they usually bought one from the "knife guy." He charged $40 for a knife that I could buy for 3 for $30 on Amazon. And if you let him sharpen them you needed a new one about every 6 weeks. So I bought a dozen every couple of months and sold them at cost to people who needed them. And I sharpened most of them too. After awhile the knife guy stopped showing up. I only have one left. And it's an 8" not the 10" I prefer. This one I rescued from the trash can. The handle had broken so someone was throwing it away. I reground it and rehandled it. It's not really finished. But it's sharp as hell and ready to rock and roll. I think the handle is zebra wood.


View attachment 167420


I'm also a big fan of Ontario Old Hickory. But they don't make 10" knives anymore either. It's actually much easier to find 10" Forgecrafts than Old Hickorys. And you have to regrind and rehandle them too. But then they're pretty sweet. The handle on this one is made from a broken acacia serving platter.

View attachment 167425

I love my vintage Sabatier blank. I also ground and handled this one myself (Baltic birch plywood in case you are wondering). Left it extra chonky.

View attachment 167426


Forgecraft slicers and boners are great and super cheap. I use this one for scaling fish and doing all sorts of butchery.

View attachment 167427


The Hida Tool Tosa Nakiri. Still need to rehandle this one.

View attachment 167428

And I am a sucker for a vintage no name Chinese cleaver.

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Mic drop From @stringer.

 

[KingShapton]

. I take great satisfaction in turning beaters into Ferraris.

That's exactly what I find more and more attractive myself!

 

[GorillaGrunt]

I would say Dexter cleaver is one of the best cheap ones you can get, it even out perform most Shibazi, Zhangxiaoquan, Wangmazi and Dengjia stuff you see In China, the grind is traditional Chinese and was used in commercial Chinese kitchen in North America for a good reason.

No kidding, I will have to try one. I’m in a cleaver phase again, and I would also contradict my previous statement by adding Daovua which is from Vietnam.

 

[adam92]

My beater are Kanehide Sk steel Gyuto & Kiya #6 Swedish steel gyuto, get can last thought busy dinner service & super easy to sharpen, just a few light stroke & that's it.

 

[Noodle Soup]

Any restaurant supply store these days will have racks of cheap Chinese food service blades. In my experience, they work fine as beaters.

 

[MoabDave]

As @Ochazuke mentioned. I am a Kanehide Stan.

I have used them for my main work knives for years. I recommend them to people on here, to coworkers, and to culinary students. They are a great balance of edge taking/retention and toughness.

Old Beater Meet New Beater

But there are many other beaters in my collection. I take great satisfaction in turning beaters into Ferraris.

They don't make my favorite super beater any more. Montana Knife Works 10" Chef Knife. At my last hotel gig people were expected to have their own knives. If they needed one they usually bought one from the "knife guy." He charged $40 for a knife that I could buy for 3 for $30 on Amazon. And if you let him sharpen them you needed a new one about every 6 weeks. So I bought a dozen every couple of months and sold them at cost to people who needed them. And I sharpened most of them too. After awhile the knife guy stopped showing up. I only have one left. And it's an 8" not the 10" I prefer. This one I rescued from the trash can. The handle had broken so someone was throwing it away. I reground it and rehandled it. It's not really finished. But it's sharp as hell and ready to rock and roll. I think the handle is zebra wood.


View attachment 167420


I'm also a big fan of Ontario Old Hickory. But they don't make 10" knives anymore either. It's actually much easier to find 10" Forgecrafts than Old Hickorys. And you have to regrind and rehandle them too. But then they're pretty sweet. The handle on this one is made from a broken acacia serving platter.

View attachment 167425

I love my vintage Sabatier blank. I also ground and handled this one myself (Baltic birch plywood in case you are wondering). Left it extra chonky.

View attachment 167426


Forgecraft slicers and boners are great and super cheap. I use this one for scaling fish and doing all sorts of butchery.

View attachment 167427


The Hida Tool Tosa Nakiri. Still need to rehandle this one.

View attachment 167428

And I am a sucker for a vintage no name Chinese cleaver.

View attachment 167429

Are you in my kitchen?

 

[Eziemniak]

Vic pastry knife - kills breakfast prep, kills sunday roast, kills everything. Always give these away as gifts to people who cant be bothered to sharpen

 

[barramonday]

I've been using a "carbonext" chef knife from jck for years, it's beaten up and sharpened to half it's original size.
Really need to replace with something similar.
I keep a konesuke HD stashed away for portioning fish, my only decent knife that goes to work.

 

[eltonmichael45]

I'm a big fan of the beater knife... especially given bad things can and do happen in the restaurant kitchen...

Once service starts the more fragile knives get put away...I have an old Sabatier and a tojiro sujihiki that come out.

Lobster whacking would really do a number on most Japanese knives...the Sabatier just laughs...and if it hits the ground it's the tile that will suffer more...keeps me from crying...

Take care

Jeff

This Sabattier is..at the latest..from the late '30s early '40. From what I was told it was my uncle's daily user..supposedly sliding the roast beef for sandwiches at an establishment in downtown Newark,NJ.
I rescued ..rust covered...from a drawer in my father's workbench circa 2003

 

[MattPike4President]

I've never taken a beater to work, I just use the house knives when I need to do something that I wouldn't do with my nice knives. That said +1 to Dexter and Victorinox, they sharpen really well for soft stainless and stand up to anything.

 

[eltonmichael45]

I'm a big fan of the beater knife... especially given bad things can and do happen in the restaurant kitchen...

Once service starts the more fragile knives get put away...I have an old Sabatier and a tojiro sujihiki that come out.

Lobster whacking would really do a number on most Japanese knives...the Sabatier just laughs...and if it hits the ground it's the tile that will suffer more...keeps me from crying...

Take care

Jeff

This Sabatier is from the late 1930s or early 40s at the latest.
I'm told it was used daily by one of my uncles to slice roast beef for sandwiches at a busy lunch counter in downtown Newark NJ.
I rescued it..rust covered..from a drawer in my dad's workbench circa 2003
.

 

[eltonmichael45]

This Sabattier is..at the latest..from the late '30s early '40. From what I was told it was my uncle's daily user..supposedly sliding the roast beef for sandwiches at an establishment in downtown Newark,NJ.
I rescued ..rust covered...from a drawer in my father's workbench circa 2003

Oops..sorry for the double post!

 

[Loam]

I collected many japanese knives, from Yoshikane to Shigefusa, from Heiji to Watanabe. And then I got a Fibrox for the hard stuff. Best buy ever.