For straight up and down (or is it down and up?) chopping, thin behind the edge and speed. But not so much speed you crush the edge or stay up for days.
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For the love of cutting: a cut-vid thread for all
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If you can't go straight up and down without resistance then you need a thinner tip or a keener edge. The cleaver above needs both. But most of my knives are in a lot better shape. So I look a little more like that video.
Part of it is stylistic. I was taught how to use a knife in a kitchen by a bunch of Mexican line cooks from the Southside of Chicago. They expected me to move really fast with really crappy house knives. So I tend to use a ton of lateral motion as a compensating technique for making beat up crappy knives push a lot of produce. As I gradually moved to Japanese knives I never really changed my technique. But if I wanted to look like that guy in the video or you wanted to, the only real option is to practice cutting until you can do it better.
Hi, that’s me in the video. Like @stringer said, it’s mostly a lot of practice. I also learned basic knife skills in a restaurant on crap knives and you definitely get used to using a downward pulling motion for vertical cuts with those because they’re too thick (and usually too dull) to do smooth up down cuts. I was never particularly fast, but when I started getting into Japanese knives a couple years ago, I would buy 5 or 10 pound bags of onions when I had some free time and just practice dicing them up and then carmelize them. I was putting caramelized onions on everything just so I had an excuse to cut more onions.
The tips on a Kono Sumiro and Mazaki should definitely be thin enough for this technique. The key is just start off slow. Make sure your guide knuckle moves at a steady pace across the onion. Don’t use too much force, over exaggerate the up down motion or flick your wrist too much and focus on lifting the tip up just enough each time. Once you can get vertical cuts of roughly the same width across the onion, muscle memory starts kicking in and you can start speeding up and incorporating more vertical cuts per onion if you want a finer dice. I’ve seen so many people do the fast vertical cuts unevenly which kind of defeats the point of doing them.
Even being very careful though, as you start getting faster, you will likely cut your guide knuckle at some point practicing this, but that’s just the cost of doing business.
Duukt
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the suggestions! I was raising the entire knife and trying to bring it down and even tried to do a spearing cut when the vertical cut got stuck halfway. I'll have to try out raising and lowering the tip.
Hi, that’s me in the video. Like @stringer said, it’s mostly a lot of practice. I also learned basic knife skills in a restaurant on crap knives and you definitely get used to using a downward pulling motion for vertical cuts with those because they’re too thick (and usually too dull) to do smooth up down cuts. I was never particularly fast, but when I started getting into Japanese knives a couple years ago, I would buy 5 or 10 pound bags of onions when I had some free time and just practice dicing them up and then carmelize them. I was putting caramelized onions on everything just so I had an excuse to cut more onions.
The tips on a Kono Sumiro and Mazaki should definitely be thin enough for this technique. The key is just start off slow. Make sure your guide knuckle moves at a steady pace across the onion. Don’t use too much force, over exaggerate the up down motion or flick your wrist too much and focus on lifting the tip up just enough each time. Once you can get vertical cuts of roughly the same width across the onion, muscle memory starts kicking in and you can start speeding up and incorporating more vertical cuts per onion if you want a finer dice. I’ve seen so many people do the fast vertical cuts unevenly which kind of defeats the point of doing them.
Even being very careful though, as you start getting faster, you will likely cut your guide knuckle at some point practicing this, but that’s just the cost of doing business.
Don't be a stranger in this thread!
Here's the crispy onions. I always make them a day or two ahead of time for my partner's daal.
I’ve posted before, but maybe it’s time for another video or two.
Looks great! I also like to thinly slice a bunch of shallots, lightly coat in cornstarch and deep fry. Then you have a ton of crispy shallots and shallot oil which makes everything taste better. You can skip the cornstarch, but it adds extra crunch.
Broke out the old Tosa Nakiri for some coconut curry. I really gotta put a handle on this thing someday.
Finished product
Always a pleasure. Even when you can use a handle-less hunk of sharp metal to cut way better than I do with "proper" knives.
Why the angle on the peppers?
Also, I can totally chop bok choy like that!
Booya!
Booya!
Always a pleasure. Even when you can use a handle-less hunk of sharp metal to cut way better than I do with "proper" knives.
Why the angle on the peppers?
I don't want them to be too long. Like max 1.5". Thanks for the compliments and comments.
Posted this on Reddit because I never use my account, thought I would throw it up here too. I was doing prep for a Vietnamese meatball recipe a few months ago and forgot I made a video. They ended up tasting like regular meatballs, but still pretty good though.
Made some dinner with Clyde
EDIT: Replaced Imgur vids with YT vids.
Getting some prep work done for fish tacos and pablano rice.
Knife is an Akifusa AS 180mm gyuto.
Now look my friends. I'm serious when I say that at this point, my wife either hates onions or is messing with me. You can see me working out the puzzle. Also, didn't realize it had started to sprout until I was cutting so there's that to clean up too.
Sliced my pepper but then decided to dice it.
And sorting out a pablano I roasted earlier.
Lot's of vids I know but I'd actually done quite a lot more that I didn't capture.
Getting some prep work done for fish tacos and pablano rice.
Knife is an Akifusa AS 180mm gyuto.
Now look my friends. I'm serious when I say that at this point, my wife either hates onions or is messing with me. You can see me working out the puzzle. Also, didn't realize it had started to sprout until I was cutting so there's that to clean up too.
Sliced my pepper but then decided to dice it.
And sorting out a pablano I roasted earlier.
Lot's of vids I know but I'd actually done quite a lot more that I didn't capture.
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My wife declared them forbidden in our house a number of years ago. Maybe I made her woody parsnips. Hmmm.
Well that's frustrating. I didn't realize until this morning that in my previous post, the Imgur videos were showing up incomplete. Heck, didn't even show me cutting the onion.
So swapped that format out for YouTube.
So swapped that format out for YouTube.
Knivperson
Senior Member
Dunno if i posted this. O. The second part of the onion something goes wrong. Hate it when it happens. Have a lot to learn from the pros here.
Greenbriel
Senior Member
Good gentle board contact! Love the sound that knife makes as you do the vertical slices. What is it? EDIT - DOH, right there in the video title.
Never mind!
Nice big cutting board!
How’s cutting feel on the Asahi compared to wood? Is it a lot easier on the edge?
its kind of hard rubber. harder than hasegawa and softer than PE.
hard comparing to wood, maple is kind of hard and dense so its good for hard chopping but my african walnut endgrain is softer.
many variables to consider, including the technique used. i wouldn't recommended rubber cutting board for rocking. for my technique its working quite good and seems to be a little easier on the edge. its also much more convenient to sanitize. hope that helps a little
Greenbriel
Senior Member
I have a XL Yoshihiro Hi-Soft around that size and also a small and medium. The smaller ones are great but the big one bowed significantly and I can only use the convex side (the weight of the thing makes it near flat on the countertop). No joy from the manufacturer - they offered a $30 discount on a replacement. I'll replace with a Hasegawa eventually.
Bico Doce
aka Big Dice / Bocce Ballz / Big Douche
Here’s a brand new cleaver from a young Brazilian maker - Felippi Knives
Im very impressed with its initial performance. Almost no cutting resistance and good food release because of the hammered finish - probably the best combination of the 2 I’ve experienced (disclaimer: I’ve only used one S grind to date)
Im very impressed with its initial performance. Almost no cutting resistance and good food release because of the hammered finish - probably the best combination of the 2 I’ve experienced (disclaimer: I’ve only used one S grind to date)
BillHanna
Gotta get ready for ARM
Google failed me. Can you point me in the right direction?
