Change is good, right?

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Neofolis

KKF Supporting Member
Joined
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Just wondered, which knives have caused you to change in some way. It could be a change of technique, change of what you looked for in future knives, change of opinion about a specific maker or any knife attribute. Has there ever been a knife that's changed your diet, just because you want to use the knife more?

I'm sure for the people who have been playing with sharp things for a while, many things must have changed for them and their outlook over time. Even with no definable reason, people's tastes often change. Please share your thoughts, so noobs like me can continue to learn from your experiences.
 
Similar experience to @WildBoar - first real J Knife made (or maybe more so allowed) me to change up my cutting techniques and how I approach a given cutting task on the board.

Also, having new and sharper knives definitely makes cooking more enjoyable which makes me want to cook even more which ups the healthy factor.

And lastly, getting into higher end J knives has pushed me to expand my knowledge on the peripheral areas of cutlery - care/sharpening/importance of cutting surfaces, etc. I had a clue prior on most subjects, but had no idea how much I still had/have to learn.
 
Used to fillet fish with traditional western fillet knives. Liked it and was pretty good at it. Now I'm average at best with a deba but don't know that I could go back.
 
I started using a pinch grip only after I got interested in Japanese knives. Prior to that, it was mostly a pointer grip.

I still use the pointer grip for fine tip work because it makes it easier to feel where the tip of the knife is. But, for pretty much everything else, it's a pinch grip now. (Other than with small knives, such as a petty, where it's still a pointer grip because the blade is too narrow for a pinch grip.)

On balance, pinch grip wins most of the time for me. Good control, and less movement (roll) around the long axis of the knife.
 
WildBoar said:
My first j-knife ended rock chopping for me. It also made me look for longer gyutos, as they were lighter and a lot more nimble than the hefty 7" Wusthoff chef knife I was used to.
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Having just received my first knife yesterday, a Nakiri, I now appreciate how, light J-knives are. I thought I have a preference for smaller blades, but that was probably dictated by what I thought was a comfortable weight. I have a 210 Gyuto coming on Monday and now I'm thinking, maybe I should have gone for a 240. Not a problem, now I have an excuse to get a 240 as well.
 
MikeO said:
And lastly, getting into higher end J knives has pushed me to expand my knowledge on the peripheral areas of cutlery - care/sharpening/importance of cutting surfaces, etc. I had a clue prior on most subjects, but had no idea how much I still had/have to learn.
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I have certainly experienced this, even prior to my first knife arriving, I just want to learn as much as possible. Because I used cheap fibrox Victorinox until now, if they lost their edge to the point where they were annoying, I just bought new ones. Whetstones should be here soon.
 
daveb said:
Used to fillet fish with traditional western fillet knives. Liked it and was pretty good at it. Now I'm average at best with a deba but don't know that I could go back.
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That's interesting. With many things people have a preference for the things that they are good at, so it's surprising that you prefer the Deba, even though you are less proficient with it.
 
Michi said:
I started using a pinch grip only after I got interested in Japanese knives. Prior to that, it was mostly a pointer grip.

I still use the pointer grip for fine tip work because it makes it easier to feel where the tip of the knife is. But, for pretty much everything else, it's a pinch grip now. (Other than with small knives, such as a petty, where it's still a pointer grip because the blade is too narrow for a pinch grip.)

On balance, pinch grip wins most of the time for me. Good control, and less movement (roll) around the long axis of the knife.
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I do use a pinch and a pointy grip and a hammer grip. I'm not even sure what dictates the grip I use at the moment, whatever feel comfortable, I guess. I tend to use the pointy grip more for fine detail stuff, but otherwise, it seems a bit random. Hopefully using J-knives will help me build more consistent habits.

I was also not a fan of certain handle types prior to using J-knives, so I'm hoping that the lightness of the knives combined with using an appropriate grip more consistently, will allow me to get on with the WA handles. I suspect it will be OK, because my Nakiri feels fairly comfortable to hold, but I've not been able to use it yet, because it needs a trip to the whetstones that haven't arrived yet.
 
Neofolis said:
Having just received my first knife yesterday, a Nakiri, I now appreciate how, light J-knives are. I thought I have a preference for smaller blades, but that was probably dictated by what I thought was a comfortable weight. I have a 210 Gyuto coming on Monday and now I'm thinking, maybe I should have gone for a 240. Not a problem, now I have an excuse to get a 240 as well.
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Aaaannnndddd you're hooked!

And yeah, the additional investment definitely -should- make you (people) want to provide more care for your knives. I have cheap whetstones which I need to start upgrading so I can spend less time flattening stones and more of the time simply sharpening. This is one recent thing I have learned since delving back into cutlery.
 
The first time I bought a 270 gyuto made me realise how much more I preferred them to shorter knives, and after that I never bought another 240
 
Gesshin Uraku white #2 gyuto: 1st carbon steel knife. Forced me to have better knife maintence habits; wiping/washing/drying down the blade right away before starting the next task.

Tojiro DP gyuto: not necessarily the knife but being told it was dull by a couple different chefs in school. Thats what started my knife sharpening journey. I remember grinding away for an hr or so that night, dishing the stone and flattening on concrete. Next class a more experienced kid tried my knife and commented on its sharpness. Havent been told my knives are dull since and get comments on their sharpness. My knives were known as the chive knives at one of the spots lol.
 
Purchase of first Japanese knives got me to start sharpening my kitchen knives rather than sending them out for sharpening or trying to maintain them with a steel. I purchased the additional sharpening gear I would need before I bought the knives.

I also changed my grip from hammer to pinch and altered my chopping technique. Still working on this. Hard to unlearn decades of habit.
 
Neofolis said:
Yes, I have an obsessive personality at the best of times. This isn't going to be good. On the plus side, I'm also an OCD, anal, perfectionist, all of which are qualities that I feel lend themselves well to quality knife use and care.
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OCD often entails repetitive behaviour with an inability to stop, which could lead to some very narrow knives and very worn-out sharpening stones. But some OCD can also include perfectionism taken to disruptive excess, where it ruins the person's week by forcing them to spend hours and hours fixing the knives just so, instead of eating and sleeping or whatever.

Or maybe you're just a perfectionist. OCD is a disorder, and not a helpful advantage at all unless you get paid to sharpen knives and you have somebody to take care of you and make sure you're OK.

OK I'm getting off my soapbox now, sorry about that.
 
DavidPF said:
OCD often entails repetitive behaviour with an inability to stop, which could lead to some very narrow knives and very worn-out sharpening stones. But some OCD can also include perfectionism taken to disruptive excess, where it ruins the person's week by forcing them to spend hours and hours fixing the knives just so, instead of eating and sleeping or whatever.

Or maybe you're just a perfectionist. OCD is a disorder, and not a helpful advantage at all unless you get paid to sharpen knives and you have somebody to take care of you and make sure you're OK.

OK I'm getting off my soapbox now, sorry about that.
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OK, I've not been clinically diagnosed or anything. Let's put it this way, in the UK, at our supermarkets we have trolley parks where we are supposed to return our trolleys (shopping carts), when we have finished shopping. People just dump them there in a complete mess and I always feel the need to tidy them up, when I return mine. This is just one of many examples of my behaviour that make me think I may have OCD. I suspect, if you ask anyone I work with or live with, they will agree, but then they are not qualified to say either. Obviously there are degrees to which people are affected and I may not be severe enough to actually have the disorder. I would say I'm more annoying than unhealthy.

I think there is a possibility that I will sharpen the life out of my knives and have to replace them quite quickly. On the plus side, I need the sharpening experience.

Fortunately, I don't sleep much anyway and no disorder that I currently may or may not have is going to stop me eating. I might wish it did, at least to some extent.
 
Neofolis said:
OK, I've not been clinically diagnosed or anything. Let's put it this way, in the UK, at our supermarkets we have trolley parks where we are supposed to return our trolleys (shopping carts), when we have finished shopping. People just dump them there in a complete mess and I always feel the need to tidy them up, when I return mine.
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It's called "You're not an butthole. You have empathy."
 
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