[Sca-cooks] Another knife question

[marilyn traber 011221]

> I’m writing this because I need to replace a few of my worn out 
> knives. Have a few handles that have come loose and a few knifes 
> where the tang wasn’t thick enough. My main deal is that I don’t 
> care for knives that are stainless, and can’t afford the high carbon 
> stainless. I was thinking of just getting a small set of the Old 
> Hickory knives but can’t seem to find any in my area. Seems that 
> most people have a low opinion of them I guess. And while I could 
> just get them through mail order I simply get tired of always doing that.

Dunno what all this noise is about liking or disliking one brand or another- 
I think many of us have been suckered by the "brand names you can trust" way 
of thinking, the grand Madison Avenue hustle.

Knives for cooking are a very personal item. If you like Old Hickory, for 
heaven's sakes, use old Hickory- I like them well enough that I'll cheerfully 
use them- they're a decent, inexpensive knife.

Myself, I don't go out of my way to buy brand names. If something has a 
popular brand name, it generally tells me a little bit about the knife, but 
it isn't until you hold it in your hand and use it, and see how it feels when 
you work with it, then use it, and see how long its edge lasts, and how 
difficult it is to sharpen, then you know the knife.

If you want to pick up inexpensive but decent knives, don't go to the cooking 
supply shops in malls, go check out your local hardware stores. They will 
often have a selection of decent, useful knoves for reasonable prices. Don't 
worry about a matched set, unless you get a good deal on a set that at least 
half of them are something you think will fit well in your hand.

As a general rule, I'd stay away from the cheap Asian knock-offs of various 
brands, the reason being that their steels are very inconsistant- they 
haven't gotten the tech organized well enough to produce a consistant quality 
of steel, so you might get one knife that's absolutely wonderful, and the 
next one is absolutely worthless.

But, get what YOU like, and ignore the people who play the game of knife envy-
 most of them don't know what they're talking about in the first place.

> So anyone else know of a brand of kinves that are well made without 
> all the bells-n-whistles? All I’m looking for is a few good, plain 
> jane carbon steel knives that will do what I want and not cost me an 
> arm and a leg.

OBC (Obligatory Blacksmith Content ;-)

Why not consider making your own? But some good carbon steel, and shape it to 
suit your fancy. If you buy it already heat treated you can work and grind it 
using power tools (belt sander or bench grinder) as long as you don't let it 
heat up- that means touching it to the abrasive, removing and letting it 
cool, etc, until you have the shape you like. Carbon steel is certainly cheap 
enough, even with the ridiculous price increases we've been dealing with 
lately, and you can even have a pro heat treat it for you fairly 
inexpensively. Handles are easy- wood and a couple rivets aren't a big deal.

For your purposes, a 1080 or a 1095 steel would be fine, it's easy to get, 
and you'll likely wind up with another craft addiction ;-)

Saint Phlip,
CoD

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