[Sca-cooks] Great Knife Score?

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

Personally, if I owned anything quite that effective, I would have images  
of my wrists wondering where my hands went.

This said, I do own a full  set of knives (rather amusingly, since years as 
an impoverished musician have  left me using a steak knife for a host of 
unintended purposes, even though I  have the exact implement for each purpose 
hanging above my counter). I do use a  (no doubt much duller) cleaver for 
chopping vegetables sometimes.

The  advantage, if you've ever seen a really efficient chef use one, is the 
weight of  the blade, which allows you to build up a sequential rhythm so 
that you can  simply feed the food in question under the cleaver and almost 
industrially  produce a series of slices. Be sure you have a steady surface 
for this and be  aware that if clumsily done (my default method) it can lead 
to bits of food  flying around. But yes it does speed up things like 
chopping carrots,  considerably.
 
Jim  Chevallier
www.chezjim.com

Newly translated from Pierre Jean-Baptiste  Le Grand d'Aussy:
Eggs, Cheese and Butter in Old Regime France  

 
In a message dated 3/17/2013 9:12:33 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
susanrlin at gmail.com writes:

I have  seen people very adept at using one and they use it
almost like a chef's  knife.  I suppose if I practiced with it more I would
be more  comfortable.