Each of the participants spent anywhere from 30 seconds to 2-3 minutes describing how the wine in more expensive bottle had better bouquet, aroma, aftertaste and bunch of other wine tasting terms, the amount of terms varied from reviewer to reviewer. Obviously, the more they have read or knew about wine tasting the more eloquently they went about the wine from expensive bottle being so much better. Except none of them guesses they were tasting the same wine. Simply put, more knowledgeable wine tasters spewed out a lot more BS, in more sophisticated terms.
You have no idea how right you are
The thing is, some ingredients, take fillet of beef only has this delicious succulence to it when you do it the old school way. It might be overcooked here and there, but you want your perfect flavour or you want your perfect doneness? you can choose.
Same with knives, isnt it?
......someone having done this as a sole source of income for say 50 years, and learning from dad/ a master knifesmith who has even more, should be able to produce a better product than your average hobbyist out of Hicksville USA with a desire to make an extra buck or two...
Sorry for the harsh words here, but come on, it's all good to support local artisans and all,but to expect them to top the very best of this game with just a few years of "homemaking" in the shed is kinda ridiculous.
You're telling me that western knife makers aren't using more advanced heat treatment methods with a greater range of high quality steel? Are you calling Devin and Pierre Hicksville hobbyists? LOL Your words not only come off as pretentious, they sound quite racist and insulting too. Coming from a guy who cuts one onion a week, poorly at that, I'd say maybe you should tone it down a little there.
I may be a jerk at times, but even I will admit, that was cold.
"Themsis some fighten words I tell you what!"
I hate to say it Bernardo but your opinions are wrong.
And your status as a foster parent is poor support for your arguments.
I find your elitist and anti-American ranting to be annoying and somehow boring at the same time.
Your idea that someone is a better knife maker because their daddy did it too is strange to me.
I am guessing your daddy was a pretentious a$$hole because you are AMAZING at it.
I am guessing your daddy was a pretentious a$$hole because you are AMAZING at it.
lus1: I'm looking forward to more details about how it will be structured, and the results.I haven't followed this thread too closely in the last couple of days so I am a little surprised by negativity. Tone it down folks.There is nothing wrong having an opinion and stating it, and nothing wrong with challenging a person's opinion as long as it is done in constructive way. I challenged Birnando to a contest and he accepted it, and both of us are looking forward to it. M
Exactly about the US makers (not 'Western' - that could me from several countries). I think the communication thing is the one advantage US makers have to have in the eyes of most KKFers. As I said before, imagine if suddenly everyone could talk directly with the Japanese makers without the language/cultural barrier? Would change everything.
Completely natural, then, that customers would be raving about knives they've had input on, which is often the case with the US custom makers.
Don't assume that if you could communicate with the maker directly, you would get exactly what you want. Some times things don't make production sense, or sense in general, or a maker is not going to change his method to accommodate a customer (try to get a mono blade from a san mai maker like Shigefusa or try to get a knife in a steel like M390 or K390 from a maker like Yoshikane).
Recommending to put Japanese knife in home oven because it chipped to make it softer "because i know better then those Japanese blacksmith" is very good example !
And yeah in any i mean ANY feld you get better the more you do what you do. So you can not really compare one that makes knives for 2 year and one that have been making for 50, i think its quite logical
I find that a silly and ignorant remark, very typical of the fanboyism one can sometimes see online in communities like this.
What constitutes a good knife depends on a number of factors.
In addition, we all have our own preferences......
Oh, did I mention I have two foster-kids?
Both from Thailand.
How's that for a racist?
What initiated my rant if you will, was the blanket statement of four named artisans improving on Japanese knives, indicating that the US makers like the four mentioned made better products. Period.
As for the racist part, I find it hard to take that seriously, and put it in the account of hurt feelings..
A side-effect of fanboyism if you will.
What's funny to me is that the gyuto is actually the Japanese interpretation/improvement of a European/Western knife. And now we have makers like Marko, Devin, HHH, Pierre, etc. improving upon THAT now as well. Full circle perhaps?
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