[Sca-cooks] My thoughts on kitchen knives

[R J]

Wistan asked what we think of as our basic knives.

 He and I share a kitchen, so we chose our knives
together.

 I prefer a slightly smaller chef's knife. Rather than
a 10", I gravitate towards an 8 1/2".
 
 For a good, user friendly, comfortable-to-me knife, I
look for a handle that wont get slippery or cause me
to smack knuckles,  a collar that wont get in the way
of cutting ( some are kind of large ), a good tang,
and either good steel or a good warrantee. 

 My "best" knife shattered the day I got it, a
Burgvogel with a temper problem.

 Currently, I like Wistan's santoku, but other than
that, all the ones I reach for in the drawer are
Forschner.  We bought a crappy one, decided we liked
it enough that we wished we had a good one, and fixed
it.

 My list
 Small french chef's knife, ( sabatier )
 Slicer, forschner
 Santoku, ( Wasabi. Not kidding )
 Parer. ( a few, mostly forschner )
 Boner forschner

 We have a decent collection of very useful one-job
knives, but they live elsewhere in the kitchen. (
mostly for butchering )

 Understanding metal is helpful, however, a good fit
is much more important in knife selection than most
other things.  Hands are either too cold or too hot,
things are sticky or otherwise messy, often there is
tension due to time requirements. 
 
Hand size and body size in relation to the preferred
work surface have a lot to do with leverage, therefore
comfort with any potential kitchen tool.
 
 Once you know what fits, and what features are not
good, shopping goes a lot quicker.

 One way to try knives on is to call department stores
which carry brands you are interested in, and ask when
they will have a demo. Usually the representative is
happy to let the shopper try the wares in store.

 Enough rambling,

 AEsa
 


		
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