Knives

We bought knives from Kamata in Kappabashi last summer. It's the first time we've had excellent knives & it's been terrific.

I am eyeing the sani-tuff cutting board talked about above. The price is giving me pause but I don't really ever buy cutting boards for the amount that I cook.

I will rep hard for my Sabatier carbon steel chef knife, although I think it's less the brand and more the carbon steel. I bake a lot of whole chickens, and the Sabatier makes spatchcocking really easy.

I also have knives from Kamata, they hold a fiendish edge. I sliced the end off my thumb last time I sharpened mine on the stone rather than the steel. It healed ok, very clean cut.

I had decided on the MAC knife listed above but now it seems like because of the beveled edge the left handed person in the house won't be able to use it? Or I see that it can be sharpened into a symmetrical edge? I don't own any Japanese knives so this is all new to me.

That Sanituff board has lasted FOREVER btw. It is a monster. I have sanded down both sides at least twice. I also bought some smaller (and hella lighter) boards from Epicurean that are made of the same composite used for skate parks and they are also excellent.

Yeah, I have used an epicurean board for the last 5 years (love it) but wanted something heftier You just use regular sandpaper for the sanituff board?

You can get Japanese knives with a double bevel, particularly the western style shapes. Putting a double bevel on a single bevel knife is not really possible, the back side is flat all the way up.

Yep, I use regular fine grit sandpaper and then extrafine emery cloth with a sanding block on the sani-tuff board.

Finally got my sanituff board. this shit is heavy. And the surface texture is different than I expected.

My latest knife is a little Opinel folding knife. It makes me want to stroll the French countryside deftly cutting into cheeses and pears and hard country sausages. More likely I will get searched and arrested on the subway for having it in my bag.

― Paul Eater (eater), Friday, November 18, 2005 8:39 PM (twelve years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

YO I never clocked the post before but I "discovered" Opinel last summer when one of my family brought one camping, and I liked it so much I gave my bf a semi-custom engraved one for Christmas. Whatever you're cutting, this knife will definitely class it up in a rustic European mountain meadow picnic kind of way.

I live opinel knives, an almost perfect penknife. Very simple, I love that you knock the heel on your boot to open them, the simple ring lock. Much better than your fancy Swiss Army knives.

OOOOH I DIDN'T KNOW THAT. Youtube was very educational.

The Opinel is the Platonic ideal of the simple folding knife. I have never seen its simplicity and functionality done better.

The Swiss Army knives are too multiform to pick one version as "the" Platonic ideal, but I strongly favor the Recruit variant: long blade, short blade, can opener w/ small screwdriver, bottle opener w/ large screwdriver, toothpick, tweezers.

nb: a corkscrew on a Swiss Army knive is only favored by poltroons; it is fsr too important a tool to exist as a subordinated afterthought on a knife.

I am completely sold on getting an opinel now.

I have one and I probably don't use it for anything other than opening packages and it's still a great tool

Leathermen (Leathermans?) and the like surpass the Swiss Army knife in actual multi tool utility. If I can have one thing that’ll be my one thing and the knife is usable but an opinel is an actual good knife.

as a late-stage sufferer of smartphone poisoning I am increasingly drawn to single-purpose devices of all kinds; that's why I bought an electronic metronome instead of downloading an app etc.

I think I lost my leatherman while crabbing one year.

i've seen opinels in stores and thought they were cool. didn't know they had such a great provenance. now i want one.

i have a stupidly expensive chris reeve folder and a dumb old opinel no8 and tbh i think the opinel is better. it took an edge in about five minutes the other day

Trying to pick out a nakiri knife now. One problem is that the niceness of the knife is directly proportional to how unlikely my spouse will use it (he doesn't want to mess it up.)

lol what exactly does he plan on doing with this knife that will mess it up ?

I received a very nice nakiri as a gift several years ago and suffer from the same affliction. It sits on the rack and I just use my 10yo global instead

I think he got traumatized when he tried to sharpen some scissors on whetstone on a whim. He's worried that he will ruin knives now even though he was sharpening them before. I just got a MAC santoku and he keep using the shitty ikea knife.

xp - sounds like somebody shamed your husband for 'mistreating' a knife and now he's mildly traumatized about it. if the knife would be a gift you're giving him, try to soothe him and promise he can treat it any way he likes and won't hear a peep out of you.

The first gift he ever gave me, like when I was 21 yrs old was a henckels chef's knife. The handle finally split. I think he is just worried about having to sharpen it and also chipping it. I probably should not have mentioned how every Shun knife (at friends' houses) I have used was chipped.

Ok, I hate my crappy cutting board. Are you liking the sani tuff, Yerac? Rly don't wanna spend $80 on a decent-sized one right now. Any other recs anybody?

Yeah, I like it. I like how heavy it is (doesn't slide or warp) and hopefully it's better for my new knives. It does stain but who cares. I got the 12x18 one so that was only $38 and it's heavy enough I kind of wouldn't want a bigger one. I do still use my epicurean ones too for quick things.

I wanted a nakiri veggie cleaver but ended up getting this as my new knife for now. I spent the entire Friday watching knife sharpening/shropping videos.

https://www.cutleryandmore.com/enso-hd/prep-knife-p135306

These are surprisingly good nakiri-style knives that one's spouse can abuse without excessive guilt: https://importfood.com/item/set-of-two-chopping-knives-kiwi-thailand

I assume 12.5 inches is end to end and not just the blade? They are in BOISE!

I need to get new cutting boards and I can’t find anything like a sani tuff here in Australia and shipping one in is heinously expensive. The Japanese equivalent appears to be an Asahi so i’ll have to pick one up in January.

My gyutou and Santoku are really good and I got the same Santoku for my sister. Nothing overly fancy but really easy to keep a good edge on. I’d really like a Usuba and an kitrisuke next.

How are you sharpening your knives? I think I am going to just buy a 800 or 1000 grit King block to start and practice on my friends' crappy knives first.

Yeah, I that enso I ordered (it had an additional 20% off) supposedly is useful to use as a paring and utility knife while looking like a small kiriitsuke.

according to my knife/metal guru acquaintance (whose house in Paradise didn't burn!) this is what to get for actual sharpening: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004WFU7/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
he gave me a little demo once and seemed to like to push his knife away from himself in his sharpening motion, which i'd never seen anybody do before. he had some theory about why he thought sharpening was more effective that way.

bonus: it'll get you high

oh, and aforementioned friend recommended using oil and not water or dry

I care for my knives with this guy; probably not going to spend the time learning to use stones in this lifetime

https://brodandtaylor.com/knife-sharpener/

Yeah, I was watching a ton of videos on different sharpening stones, grits, methods. Some need to be water soaked, perma soaked, oiled, or splash and go. It's a whole thing.

'burrfection' was the youtube channel I was watching where he has tons of videos of different sharpening stones/methods, stropping methods and how to sharpen different types of knives. He's not a professional chef, I think he just became ocd about knives. But I like how he wings it a bit.

I have a diamond coated steel from ikea for day to day and a global 1000 grit stone for more serious sharpening. I can get a fierce edge with these, I’ve taken my knives in for sharpeneing I once or twice along the way.

i like 'burrfection,' he's got a lot of enthusiasm and his sang froid about destroying extremely nice knives is...bracing

i use a wusthof 800/2000 and it's fine, but i'd really like some proper japanese waterstones and a sink bridge

I was going to get something to hold the stone then realized that I could just use the sanituff board with towels and maybe a brick on top.

I am very into sharpening knives on the whetstone now. I think I have the touch.

I did a knife sharpening class yesterday and it was somewhat revelatory. I didn’t think I was that bad at it but I got so much better at in a few hours.

Biggest revelation, which I feel dumb for not knowing about, is that your whetstone becomes less than flat very easily. We were to to bring our stones to the class we went over them with a flattener and the difference is remarkable.

I guess I should watch more sharpening stuff on YouTube or whatever.

oh yeah, did they make you do the sharpie grid on top to see how not flat it is? I haven't flattened mine yet. I have just been trying to be good about using the entire thing.

my newest knife is an Enso Bunka.

It was a 6B pencil but the effect is much the same.

Interesting how much work it took to sharpen my 15+ year old global vs my kamata (basic stainless one). Both professionally done not so long ago but the softer global took a lot more work than the harder kamata.

I suspect I’m going to get very nerdy about this. Sharpening knives is very relaxing.

Only available till the end of today (Sunday) but this documentary about master knife sharpener, Katsunobu Sakashita is fantastic. Some next level techniques on display here and his arch shaped stone is really interesting.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/4003127/

oh yeah pencil not sharpie. I don't know if I find sharpening relaxing yet. The time does fly by though and I am shocked that I spend an hour on a couple of knives. I am thinking of getting a splash and go whetstone because having to soak is something that I sometimes don't want to prepare just for 1 or 2 knives. I have only been honing on cardboard and want to try something else.