Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/02/16/the-right-knife-can-change-you.html
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To cheap by half.
Well more than half in many cases.
Oh and I don’t use my (is it 11" or 12"?) Wusthof chef knife at all anymore.
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I love Laguiole knives, gorgeous! But a $55 steak knife that is prone to rust when it gets wet or cuts acidic steak meat?
Am I too critical here?
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Seems like the adds picked up for the holidays, of course, but then have the adds been more steady than prior to the holidays?
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Those mottled blades scare the crap out of me. When I’m cutting, I want to see the knife edge clearly at all times.
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Gonna ask someone here to do the heavy lifting.
What’s this about what everybody calls Damascus steel not really being Damascus steel?
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Saving for that messermeister carving fork these days.
In a steak knife? No. But I carry a gorgeous Laguiole pocket knife. As long as I wipe the blade if it gets dirty, it doesn’t rust or discolor.
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At least nobody mentioned sharpening them… Oh wait sorry.
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You only need maybe 1/2 dozen or so knives for virtually any meal preparation; most use will often be with a single favorite knife. My full set:
7" Santoku knife
9" Chef’s knife
10" Bread knife
Filleting knife
Paring knife
Potato peeler
Cleaver
The Santoku does all the basics for me. It’s important to have well balanced knives with slip resistant handles.
Obsidian and ceramic blades don’t discolor vegetables because they don’t react with acids in food like metal blades can. They also keep an edge better than steel blades but are brittle, chipping instead of flexing or bending under sideways force as a thin steel blade edge will. A tiny chipped piece of blade in your food is very dangerous.
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I only need a paring knife, my Shun santoku and a serrated bread knife.
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As I understand it, the metallurgy of Danascus steel has actually been lost to time. There have been a few attempts over the years to replicate (1) the metallurgical composition of the billet (Wootz steel), and (2) the specific pattern-welding techniques and chemistry resulting in Damascus steel blades and implements. I think the current belief is that we have pretty close approximation to the Damascus steel process, but are not 100% certain we have nailed it. The Wikipedia article on Damascus steel is reasonable, and there are some decent write-ups of investigations by metallurgists on the web.
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I have 3 of those, in the back of a draw. My got to knife is the sharpe one…
Never never ask that question, ever. Unless you are willing to sharpen the knife in question!
I HAVE spoken.
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I use a Shun vegetable knife, pairing knife, filet knife and sometimes a 16" Forschner scimitar(mostly for pizza,oh, and a bread knife too, sometimes.
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Go to your local restaurant supply outlet, and get some Dexter-Russell knives.
I have a 600 grit stone, a 1000 grit stone and an 8000 grit diamond faced steel plate, all used as/when required. The diamond plate is scary in how it will hone a straight edge. It actually makes the edge of kitchen knives too smooth - no micro serrations to quickly cut through food.
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The metallurgy of wootz (what people like to call the “true” damascus) was lost, but has been rediscovered. It’s a hypereutectoid steel with enough (usually vanadium) alloying to cause carbide banding, thus the patterning. Dr. Verhoeven and Al Pendray figured it out a while back. Now anyone with a crucible and a decent heat source can make it.
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