[Sca-cooks] A question about knives

[Huette von Ahrens]

Thank you.  You all have helped me immensely.

I have only in the last few months been washing
the old knives in the dishwasher, not because
I wish to ruin them but because I had noticed
that we had a large amount of knives sitting
[sometimes for days] on the counter waiting to
be hand washed.  I felt it would be better for
the knives to be washed quicker than to leave
them dirty for days before washing.  My
dishwasher has a special flat area when I can
put knives and large utensils where they don't
get knocked around while the washer is on. 

As much as I would like to have the time to 
handwash them, I just don't.  Taking care of
my invalid mother takes up most of my time.
When I was working and caring for my mother, I 
had even less time for such.  I have been going
through the kitchen in my spare moments and
trying to streamline everything so that I have
very few items that need handwashing.

As for the Flint knives, I have looked at them
again and they call themselves Flint Vanadium.
Whether this is high carbon or not, I don't know.
But the dark stains are only on the chef knives
and not on the bread knife, the cutting knife,
or the paring/utility knives. And the stains
pre-date my putting them in the dishwasher. 
Interestingly enough, the chef knives are the 
only ones that rust, which makes me believe that
the carbon is wearing through the vanadium.  And
we store them, when they are clean, in a wooden
wall rack that came with the set.  We also have a
wooden knife rack that is fastened under one of
the cupboards. We have 25 kitchen knives of
various shapes, sizes and qualities.  Some we can
remember where they came from, but others seem to
have just appeared with no one remembering how
they came into our home or posession. 

Anyway, thanks again for the comments.  I have
decided not to buy the knives I mentioned.  I
probably won't use them enough to make the cost
worth the purchase.

Huette







--- Chris Stanifer <jugglethis at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> --- Bill Fisher <liamfisher at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Older knives are carbon steel and should not
> be 
> > left in the dishwasher.
> 
> 
> No steel knife, high carbon or not, should ever
> be placed in the dishwasher, with the exception
> of
> Stainless Steel (though i still advise against
> this).  First, you may rust your knife if you
> don't
> dry it immediately (especially high carbon),
> and the beating they take in an automatic
> dishwasher
> will ruin the edge.  Same is true for placing
> quality knives in a drawer with other utensils.
>  No,
> if you have a good set of knives, and you want
> to keep them that way, please wash them by
> hand,
> dry them immediately, and keep them safe from
> being banged aorund.  Try rubbing a little
> shortening or lard into the blade after use, to
> keep it from rusting.
> 
> As for an older, high carbon knife, the
> darkening of the blade may be due to the action
> of acid on
> the blade.  If you have been using a HC knife
> to cut citrus, tomatoes, or anything with a
> high
> acid content, and you don't wash it
> immediately, the acid may darken and eventually
> pit your
> blade.  HC blades also darken naturally over
> time, and a 50 year old set like yours would
> actually
> be quite uncommon if it didn't darken.
> 
>  
> > > 1) What is a birdbeak knife and what do you
> do
> > > with it?  [And no wiseacre answers about
> chopping
> > > birdbeaks!]
> > 
> > It is a little paring knife, used for cutting
> things like 
> > veggies, decorative peices, etc.  I suppose
> you 
> > could use it for cutting birds beaks, but it
> is named
> > for the shape of the blade.
> 
> Also called a Tourne knife, used for 'turning'
> vegetables, and makes fluting a mushroom cap a
> real
> breeze.  I haven't had much call to use a
> Tourne knife professionally since the decline
> of
> 'nouvelle cuisine' in the late 80's, though I
> still think the technique of turning vegetables
> is
> worth the time it takes to learn.
> 
> 
> I do not now own, nor have I ever owned, a
> cleaver.  This is not to say that they are not
> a useful
> tool... but I have found that a solidly built
> French or German Chef's Knife can do the job of
> a
> cleaver 98% of the time.  And, the local
> Butcher can fill any gaps...
> 
> William de Grandfort
> 
> 
> =====
> Every heart to love will come... but like a
> refugee.
> 
> 
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=====
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shall never cease to be amused.


		
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