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| maximaus |
| Posted: Dec 29 2006, 06:41 PM |
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Out of control
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Show us your daggers! No shame here, anything goes. Use butter knives to chop elk? Fine by me...post 'em! 
Nothing expensive in my day to day hacking kit, though I've owned expensive knives before I figured out that well honed cheapish ones are just as nice if you don't mind the finish.
Spanish Henckel's chef: $20, Chinese cleaver: $8, Meyer Commercial boner $7, parer $5, santoku $12, Henckel's slicer $25, Soligen steel $12, and Chinese stone $3.
Can't live without the first two. I lurv my cleaver.  |
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| GregMorss |
| Posted: Dec 29 2006, 08:03 PM |
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Der Stollenführer
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/me posts image to Scotland Yard 
I'm a sucker for nicely made things, so I've 4 different Henckels knives like so;
I just about manage to resharpen them with the stone, but I'm intrigued by this idea that you use a steel to 'stop them going blunt' rather than resharpen them...
My bread knife is a plainer Kitchen Devils one, but it never seem to go blunt so I can't justify replacing it. Then there's the big pizza cutter/ I mean mezzaluna...
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| maximaus |
| Posted: Dec 29 2006, 08:27 PM |
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Out of control
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A steel will never sharpen a dull knife, but it'll make a sharp one sharper, or something like that.  Can't live without a steel by my side when I'm doing prep. I usually do 25-50 strokes before each session. The main knives are honed on the oil stone at least twice a year.
I used to have the top of the line $$$ 10" Wusthoff chef, but back when I was working in a small restaurant in Washington state, a traveling "sharpener" took out enough steel for the blade to be cantelevered over the work surface from 2" in front of the tang. Enough to basically ruin the knife. From then on, I've been using mainly the 2nd tier knives by Henckels, Sabbatier, and the rest, which are usually slightly less finished, and often made in Spain. After a session on my stone and a steel honing, they cut as good as teh expensive ones. A local outlet shop pretty much always has one or another of the decent chef knives for $15 or so. Can't sneeze at that.
As far as steels go, even the fairly inexpensive ones work just fine. Eschew diamond ones, you want chrome vanadium steel or similar. The diamonds take off too much material compared to the steel ones, which really just "straighten" the edge in lieu of making the knife smaller. |
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| GregMorss |
| Posted: Dec 30 2006, 02:14 AM |
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Der Stollenführer
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Certainly the top end Henckels "Pro S" appear to differ mainly in the handle construction and material - they don't say on the website that the steel and manufacture is any different for the plastic handled ones. Going to look for a steel in the sales then...
/been looking through your flickr catalogue just now - you have marvellous use of natural and sympathetic light! I used to get that in my old kitchen which faced mainly south, but the new one only looks out to the barren wastes of a northerly snowy Stirling!
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| maximaus |
| Posted: Dec 30 2006, 03:44 AM |
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Out of control
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That kitchen window is north facing, so it gets great afternoon light. It's so tasty, I could shoot a sexeh cookbook with my lame little Fuji and natural light. The robin's egg blue walls chill out the usually overly warm color cast of natural light photos.
I guess my flickr stream looks a little odd. No people for the most part, just food, bicycles, and a few computer shots.
I combined two of those with my shaft driven rotissere bike with heated spoke concept:
and I just can't talk flickr without bringing up my square egg again:
Notice the perfectly creamy yolk.
And yes, this isn't off topic, as I've got an egg cuber as part of my arsenal. |
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| GregMorss |
| Posted: Dec 30 2006, 05:05 AM |
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Der Stollenführer
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Any thread with the word arse in it has comedy value 
It's like the football team Arsenal, who have a swedish manager called Arsene Wenger - I just can't take them seriously!
I did wonder about the meat bike. How are the spokes heated? Decomposing puncture repair patches?
The northern light out my back window is grey and soul-less, even if I sometimes get sunsets like this..
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| maximaus |
| Posted: Dec 30 2006, 06:43 AM |
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| QUOTE (GregMorss @ Dec 29 2006, 08:14 PM) | | Certainly the top end Henckels "Pro S" appear to differ mainly in the handle construction and material |
I flirted with the new "ergo"* handles a decade ago, for what it's worth, and they suck. Classic, squared off handles is the business, like what you've got. The designers of the "ergo" shit never accounted for rotational torsion when they designed their crap. 
*my long slicer is a perfect example of this bogus design. |
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| GregMorss |
| Posted: Dec 30 2006, 03:41 PM |
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Der Stollenführer
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I'd like this one in my arsenal...
Now I'll have to learn to do this
...in my sleep All the better quality steels seem to be the 'diamond' steel variety - what about the 'ceramic' ones, or do they take even more off the blade?
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| maximaus |
| Posted: Dec 30 2006, 05:04 PM |
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Diamond and ceramic steels "sharpen" as opposed to "hone" by removing bits of material. There's nothing at all wrong with that, but I'd think twice about using a stone twice a year *and* then using an again destructive way to bring the edge up. If you only use the diamond or ceramic "steel" and rarely oil stone, it's probably fine--I've used both, and I'll concede that they're faster than a steel if you want a quick edge, but they work in a different way. A steel relies on the thin edge being slightly plastic, and straightens it vs. removing a lot of material.
I'm probably a bit over-anxious about the whole deal since I had my schmancy Wusthoff destroyed by that zealot so many years ago. 
Oh, and yes, I'd mail a letter in that... |
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| red |
| Posted: Jan 2 2007, 06:06 PM |
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Making my mark
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i feel ashamed of my set. 
the stainless is hard to keep sharp
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| maximaus |
| Posted: Jan 2 2007, 08:24 PM |
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Out of control
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| QUOTE (red @ Jan 2 2007, 12:06 PM) | i feel ashamed of my set.
the stainless is hard to keep sharp |
Go to your local pan-asian superstore and get a cleaver and a paring knife. I bet you can get both for a tenner. Nothing's as satisfying as whacking whole chickens in half with one swoop of your mighty cleaver. Also good for smashing garlic and chasing off Jehovah's Witnesses. |
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| maximaus |
| Posted: Jan 2 2007, 09:09 PM |
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Out of control
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http://www.akroservices.co.uk/products.php?cat=335
Chinese Knife - 7 1/2" X 2"
Price: £3.02
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| ni |
| Posted: Jan 4 2007, 03:11 PM |
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Caffeine-fuelled
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| QUOTE (maximaus @ Dec 29 2006, 08:27 PM) | | I usually do 25-50 strokes before each session. |
Sorry but this was worth quoting. I'm here, I might as well lower the tone...
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| GregMorss |
| Posted: May 13 2007, 02:39 PM |
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Der Stollenführer
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I found this extremely comprehensive sharpening/honing guide linked from Wiki; I'm only half way through it!
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=26036
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| maximaus |
| Posted: May 13 2007, 08:37 PM |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive_compulsive
The sandpaper on mousepad idea is OK, but you can get a cultured double sided Chinese stone for under $5. I like to use them with vegetable oil. I sharpen my boning knife at a shallower angle than my chef knife which is shallower than my cleaver and so on. Then a steeling and a stropping. No need to get all wordy about it.
The "ergonomic" BS in the article is pretty bogus. As somebody that's worked in pro kitchens, I'll have ya know that most of us prefer the trad squared off handles as it keeps you safer. That ergo crap is not secure in your hand, and quite dangerous, unless your paws are bone dry. Check out my orange boning knife in the original post. It's got a nearly square handle, and is the safest feeling and best "driver" I've ever owned. I just used it this morning to remove the silverskin from a pork tenderloin, and it was like driving an MX5 on a swine motorway. |
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