Quest for the perfect in-hand paring knife

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Looks a lot like the cramped space in our current rental house... If there is a benefit it is that I learned to do a proper mise en place as there is no way to put stuff down and prep, and I need to cook alone as there is no way to work side by side. We stuffed an high and narrow Ikea Billy to keep all our spices close, in glass Bormeoli containers as we also try avoid plastic when possible.
 
I prefer to just figure out what order I need the ingredients in first and basically cut things as I need them and throw them straight in the pan.

Exactly! Because of my background I was thinking this morning of how this approach is similar to JIT (Just-in-Time) manufacturing pioneered by Toyota. For industries where inventory costs are high (ie, small kitchens with no space), investment in design and planning increases overall efficiency 🤓

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/j/jit.asp
 
Exactly! Because of my background I was thinking this morning of how this approach is similar to JIT (Just-in-Time) manufacturing pioneered by Toyota. For industries where inventory costs are high (ie, small kitchens with no space), investment in design and planning increases overall efficiency 🤓

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/j/jit.asp

No! Nooooooooo!!!! No TPS in my KKF!!!! 🤪

Whenever possible I'm a "cut as I need it" guy too. But it also depends on what I'm cooking and what I have going on. But even so, my cutting board isn't that big so if I'm dicing a few different veggies, I need to clear them off the board. More often than not, that's where the paper plates come in for me.
 
I'm with you on not wanting to add to the plastic pile. If I ever need to store foods I mostly try to use whatever plates I'll be having dinner on (unless it's something like raw meat).
Personally cutting on a filled board drives me absolutely insane... so what I used to do - and still do - is to ignore the general advice of doing a proper mise en place and cutting everything before cooking. Of course I still do that if I'm doing a big fancy meal for a lot of people, but when it's just 'normal' portions I prefer to just figure out what order I need the ingredients in first and basically cut things as I need them and throw them straight in the pan. Especially in a smaller setup or a 'cutting right next to the stove' setup this always worked really well for me. For me this was one of the biggest payoffs of getting better knife and knife skills (cutting a lot faster) as it's vastly more efficient than cutting everything first.

The only time I mise en place everything ahead of time at home is when I'm on Sous Chef duty. And by that I mean my SO is doing the cooking and asks me to do the prep work.
 
I have a Herder K2 but the handle developed a gap and I don't like using it anymore. Plus I think they're actually too thin, and the flat grind creates a lot of friction with cheese. I like my small honesuki a lot for this.
Skipped over this part accidentally. Yeah sadly my K5 has the exact same issue; I think it's a problem across the whole line. Really a shame. I agree that food release is it's second weakness. I think it's not just becasue of the flat grind, but also because of the high polish. It's the stickiest knife I have.

The only time I mise en place everything ahead of time at home is when I'm on Sous Chef duty. And by that I mean my SO is doing the cooking and asks me to do the prep work.
Yeah I can imagine that for someone with a professional background this is rather trivial, but 10 years ago for me as a casual normie it was not. I used to be one of those people who would take an hour to cut 3 bell peppers while sitting on a couch with a cuttingboard in my lap and a petty in my hand so dull you could rub it in the palm of your hand. Incredibly inefficient; it basically forced me to cook like all the TV cooks that have everything prepped in advance because their own time is too expensive and their knife skills too lacking to do it on the go.
These days I only do it when I'm cooking for a larger group so I can invest my limited attention on trying to act like a normal socially adjusted person. ;)
 
You use a bird's beak/tourne on your board?
I meant I don't use paring knives in hand anymore. But when I used to do so, small birds beak felt perfect in hand.

These days I grab paring knife mainly to quickly cut apple or 🍌 for an infant
 
How am I just seeing this thread now?
VERY interesting stuff.

I have a few opinions, but amn't a pro cook:

* The blade can't be too wide, or you can't turn it in material
* I like a bit of belly, but not too much (but there's a case to be made for a mostly straight edge too)
* Too big a handle is annoying for in-hand curl cuts unless you have huge and thin hands (lots of volume inside your grip), IMO
* 3.5" is a comfortable average blade length, and handle should be at least 4.25"
* I prefer a stiffer blade than typical stamped (or even integral) 1/16" thickness, but no more than 3/32".

My own standard paring knife shape has been pretty popular (by my tiny-scale standards). But a year or two ago (now), a retired celebrity chef and I jammed for awhile on paring knife designs. (Maybe he's here? Hi W.!) We didn't reach a final conclusion of the project, but developing some prototypes was super interesting, including slanted scales, slanted plunges, and finally on to a plunge-less model with a particular scale-fronts-to-edge relationship that put the edge right under your fingers for precise control. It was a really educational project.
 
I meant I don't use paring knives in hand anymore. But when I used to do so, small birds beak felt perfect in hand.

These days I grab paring knife mainly to quickly cut apple or 🍌 for an infant

How do you core the apple if you don't use your left hand? I use my left hand to rotate the apple and adjust for the coring. I would think this is a in hand operation? Maybe there is another way. I am only a home cook.
 
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a retired celebrity chef and I jammed for awhile on paring knife designs. (Maybe he's here? Hi W.!) We didn't reach a final conclusion of the project, but developing some prototypes was super interesting, including slanted scales, slanted plunges, and finally on to a plunge-less model with a particular scale-fronts-to-edge relationship that put the edge right under your fingers for precise control.
Would love to see some of those designs if possible.
 
Here's an update on the paring knife lot I posted earlier:
07.jpg

From left to right:
A carbon Herder. I was most interested in this one in particular. A bit worn and part of the 'R' and 'H' in Robert Herder have been sharpened away.
A Victorinox. This one had some serious pulling-away of the handles down by the bolster. Nothing a little epoxy and sanding couldn't fix.
A "Le Diamant De Cusinier" marked blade which Googles tells me to be related to Sabatier.
A couple of commonish, small blades.
The blue handled knife is marked "L'Econome Inox France" with an umbrella logo.
After that just miscellaneous junk.
Of the first 8 I sanded, epoxied as needed, polished the heavily scratched ones, and then sharpened and oiled them all.
The first two responded really well at work and I haven't taken any others there, yet.

I forgot to show the unmarked Sabatier oyster knife. Still a work in progress.
 
Ericfg said:
Would love to see some of those designs if possible.

A good idea of the profile:

IMG_20210906_130732-small.jpg


This blade has no plunge yet is effectively FFG and still rigid. The entire piece of steel is tapered in a sort of shallow diagonal. Here's the spine:

IMG_20210906_130720-small.jpg


And the underside:

IMG_20210906_130711-small.jpg
 
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