What kind of reaction do you suppose a culinary school teacher would have if you told him the culinary school knives were garbage...? (though admittedly I like Mercers better than Wusthof)
These little remarks started a little debate about knives one day. I didn't really ever feel the need to back down from my chefs at school since I was paying them. Ya know?? Anyway, one of them was hassling me about using my knives at school and I told him I don't even know what happened to my knife kit knives. And it was the truth, I left them at work and they made their way into the line dogs rotation of work knives. Never to be used by me again. He was saying that the Mercer are better then the Forschner knives that were previously part of the kit. His ONLY argument was the full bolster or w/e and that it was forged. He also went on so say my Watanabe was unbalanced and wasn't forged. (I think he thinks that forged means Wusthof style with the one piece construction)
This pretty much ended the conversation for me. I told him it was hand made by a smith in Japan and that yes it was forged. I just didn't feel like taking the conversation any further at that point. You should of seen his face one day when I whipped out a Suien VC...
My point is that most chef's know the cr4p they read in textbooks about knives. Steel to sharpen, full tang, bolsters, balance, blah blah blah....
Not much else. Its a shame. I never have been able to understand a chef that doesn't care about his knives. They are all over the place and it really just baffles me.