[Sca-cooks] Re: Knives

[Kathleen Madsen]

Most of my knives are cheese-oriented in nature but I
do have a couple that crossover into the rest of the
kitchen.  My favorite is my Forschner 10" offset knife
followed by my Hiromoto 8" chefs knife.  The Forschner
is like an extension of my hand because I use it every
day at work (I'm a cheesemonger).  The Hiromoto is
lighter weight and more flexible so it complements the
Forschner very nicely.  I can use the chef's knife for
hours because it's so much lighter than the offset.

The knife in my kit that gets the most attention is my
22" curved gouda knife, closely followed by the 14"
single handled Pecorino knife (looks like a 14" double
handle knife but only has a handle on one side.

These are all professionally sharpened periodically
but I also do them at home if I need to.  I use a
steel on them at the beginning of the day as well.

Just a warning about those metal mesh gloves, they can
seriously damage your blades (dings and divots out of
the edge causing health and safety risks) and cause
the person using them to be very careless about safe
knife handling.  Use them with caution, imagine the
glove isn't actually there.

As far as safe knife handling goes, it's really,
really important to pay attention to what you are
doing and handle knives in a safe manner.  I always do
a quickie refresher if I'm on a cooking team and will
not allow people to use my knives if they haven't
shown they know how to take proper care of themselves
and the blades.  I keep mine sharp while most people
are used to compensating for dull blades they use at
home and so will cut themselves when they pick up
mine.

As you can tell, this subject is rather dear to my
heart because I oversee the cheese and charcuterie
departments in four stores.  This is a topic we really
harp on.  ;)

Climbing off of my soapbox,
Eibhlin