Knives in the Kitchen

I don’t know what it is with guys and knives. We love them. I’m sure there are guys out there that don’t like them, or don’t care, but for most of us, knives are just something special. Mind you, not all guys like the same kind of knives, but most guys at least will express interest in one kind or another.

If you and your fiancée are filling out your wedding registry, and he isn’t all that thrilled, take him to the kitchen knives, you can share outrage at how expensive the ones he wants are, and maybe he’ll complain a little less about the process. Or let him register for power tools.

A guy may have no interest at all in cooking, but still want to carve the turkey or ham. Or he may be a culinary artiste, and have a full collection of the finest knives that money can buy.

Personally, I want a knife that doesn’t catch on anything. If I could use a lightsaber I would, but it might cook the meat, melt the cheese, burn the veggies etc… and they don’t exist. Barring that a knife that cuts like a razor and doesn’t ever need to be sharpened.

Some people claim that sharper knives make food taste better because the food isn’t bruised by the blade. I just want a tool that works properly.

So, in the interest of making my knives more approachable to more people, I have been focusing a little more on kitchen knives and utility knives (with the odd outside project: a lord-of-the-rings-esqe machete, a custom camp knife, and such).

I recently finished this stainless steel Japanese style chopper:

And this high carbon chef’s knife:

And I’m really close on these two kitchen carver/boners (they are farther along than this picture shows:

And now I’m fixing a Henkel’s Santoku for my Aunt, we’ll see if quenching it again destroys it. Henkel’s apparently welds bolsters and tang to their slightly higher quality blades. And they use non-stainless for the tang, because hers rusted and broke off in the handle. So, it’s changed shape a little, and hopefully it isn’t destroyed in the next step. It’s a little thinner than I like for quenching.

Let me know what you’d like to see in a knife and maybe I’ll make one just for you.

Adam

Kateigaho

Fall 2009 Kateigaho Internation Edition

My dad gave me a copy of this magazine for Christmas – If you have any interest in sushi, knives, the fall, tea, pottery…or just japan in general, check it out. He bought it for me due to the knife aspect.

As a knife guy, Japanese swords have always been the pinnacle of the craft. I hadn’t really thought too much about what happened to the swordsmiths and technology after swords weren’t quite as necessary. Yes there are certainly a few who still make high quality katana. But what about the rest?

The answer is apparently kitchen knives.

The same excessive detail that went into crafting a katana now goes into a wide variety of special purpose kitchen knives, some specific to particular types of fish. Who knew?

Just like for swords, they use a combination of hard and soft steel, but unlike swords and unlike western kitchen knives, the majority of them are single ground (like a chisel). Apparently this allows finer slices, preventing damage to the meat of the fish.

And just like for the swords, the bladesmith gets the blade to its rough shape and then its up to the polisher to finish it up.

A little obsessive for my taste, but interesting none the less.

So check it out for something a little different.