Sharp Things
By Mr.e

Leaning into the task I was trying to accomplish; I realized my prize kitchen tool wasn’t in the optimum working condition. My chefs’ knife was dull! Seems I broke two of three pre-conditions for a useful knife while trying to slice a ripe tomato.

My chef’s knife did not perform this operation with authority nor could it have done so safely by slicing clean and easy. Had I continued squeezing this ripe and near bursting specimen with a thin but dull metal edge, chances were good that I might have slabbed the pad right off my left thumb; (the kind of horrific fun that brute force can sometimes suddenly conjure up).

We should keep in mind that a fairly useful knife demonstrates three elements: comfort in your hand, completing the job at hand and sharpness.

I felt chastised as I got out the sharpener, pulled the shank of my stamped blade carefully along the ceramic wheels a few times.
Determined to keep the knife as sharp as I could with the tools at hand, I adjusted the edge on the steel. (Another ritual that should be performed ad nauseum.) Mind you, all the clever and impressive looking steelwork is kind of useless on stamped blades, as they do not retain their edge for any length of time.

This I didn’t know until I recently became the owner of a big used chef’s knife. I didn’t read the blade inscriptions, but I felt that this bit of metal felt different, cut different and … had balance.

I admit that I’ve never spent a penny on my kitchen knives. Never really knew that it would make the difference in my day to day chopping, slicing and general good mangling. That is - not until I got a good grip on this new favorite.

This forged sucker holds its edge, needs only a few strokes of the steel each day to realign the edge and slices anything like warm butter.

When considering a kitchen knife, think about this. Do dull knives frustrate you? Do you like knife work in the kitchen?
These are not silly questions. I’ve known people who will go out to buy some cheesy gadget that does all the slicing and dicing for them.

I also know people who have never had the thrill of guiding a razor sharp blade through anything let alone warm butter.

If that’s you, I offer my condolences. In my books if you’re too lazy to work the food you intend to cook, with the most basic yet versatile food processor at your disposal, you should be doomed to an eternity of TV dinners, an ancient microwave and a single TV channel with non-stop Survivor reruns.

Now I make sure my main blade is good to go (read: sharp) before I put it in the block. Consider that a stamped knife should be sharpened professionally once a year, once every five years for a forged knife and once every five or ‘more’ years for ceramic blades.

Heck, I’m seeing my favorite new kitchen knife in a new light and predictably this light is casting a very dark shadow on the set I’ve owned for many years, and couldn’t sharpen to cut smoke. Consider me a forged blade guy.

All too many home cooks continue to hack and force their blades through whatever it is they’re trying to ‘cut’. Sort of like being served a tough well-done steak and having to use one of those really fat butter knives to inflict only blunt trauma.

Come on, we’re not using rocks here. Obsidian could be a natural alternative but who has the time or the inclination to knap their own blades. Now there was the first ever-sharp serrated blade.