I'm opening up a thread that I hope will be often posted in, by all of us, and equally important - free flowing. Basically, I'd like for it to become a spot where we can discuss the nuances that we love/hate, our preferences in size, whether or not a bolster makes a knife feel more impressive...really anything, without having to start a new thread every time. It could be a terrible idea, but what the hell. I'm just going to post what I'm thinking and then we can discuss it. Hopefully this works.
First matter of business: Gyuto Length
As a home cook, who also cooks as part of my career, I often have wondered if my preference in gyutos was a strange one. I've always loved 210s, and while I had a spell of pure 240 buying, I'm now back on my "smaller is nicer" train. I blame two knives for this: my Harner "mini-gyuto", as I now call it, and an Itinomonn 210 Nashiji KU gyuto that I've been using quite a bit of late. These knives are agile, thin BTE, and just feel damn good in hand. I still love my 240s, and have one coming, but length seems to be good for two things in my mind; It's important for cutting through huge items, and occasionally for banging out large quantities (though, in my mind, that's debatable...so let's say what we think here).
Are my preferences a direct result of the number of people I cook for? Quite probably - not possibly, yes. But if the average 240 felt as easy in my hand as a 210, or even 180, then I'd just grab one of them. Right now, I'm leaning towards shorter knives. Next week...well, who knows. I'm always playing around and that's 90% of the fun of this hobby/obsession we share, isn't it? Finding what knife makes you feel good in the current moment. There's really no other way to explain having ten gyutos than to say, "I just like using a knife that makes cooking fun; Today it's my Carter, tomorrow it might be my Rodrigue".
First matter of business: Gyuto Length
As a home cook, who also cooks as part of my career, I often have wondered if my preference in gyutos was a strange one. I've always loved 210s, and while I had a spell of pure 240 buying, I'm now back on my "smaller is nicer" train. I blame two knives for this: my Harner "mini-gyuto", as I now call it, and an Itinomonn 210 Nashiji KU gyuto that I've been using quite a bit of late. These knives are agile, thin BTE, and just feel damn good in hand. I still love my 240s, and have one coming, but length seems to be good for two things in my mind; It's important for cutting through huge items, and occasionally for banging out large quantities (though, in my mind, that's debatable...so let's say what we think here).
Are my preferences a direct result of the number of people I cook for? Quite probably - not possibly, yes. But if the average 240 felt as easy in my hand as a 210, or even 180, then I'd just grab one of them. Right now, I'm leaning towards shorter knives. Next week...well, who knows. I'm always playing around and that's 90% of the fun of this hobby/obsession we share, isn't it? Finding what knife makes you feel good in the current moment. There's really no other way to explain having ten gyutos than to say, "I just like using a knife that makes cooking fun; Today it's my Carter, tomorrow it might be my Rodrigue".