Great series of videos, Jay! You make it look easy enough that I may give this some serious thought some day.
Videos = A+, gloves = D-
I was gonna ask what their purpose was as I knew they weren't for protection.
Scotto,
Thanks for the clarification. I should have realized this was more a treatise on getting one's tools ready to shave peaches rather than how to get them ready to dice an onion.
Bruce
Sorry. Call me Marcel Marceau, but these vids will be silent due to my horrible, impossible to shake sore throat of the last two weeks. My daughter offerred to add commentary, and already received compensation, but decided it would be more fun to spend the money at the mall. Mom drove.
Ouch,
Thanks for the videos and sharpening lessons. I have several cheap knives to practice on.
How about some specific recommendations for knives to purchase? Perhaps give some recommendations for several price ranges like sub $100, $100-$300, $300+, or whatever ranges make sense. I am looking for something that not only performs really well, but also looks and feels great.
You may not get your dream knife for a c note, but you can get a mighty fine blade. Tojiro is a no brainer, and Suisin, Kiyotsuna, Misono molybdenum series, and Togiharu make some good looking knives at that price point. The $100-300 range offers considerable choice, with Hattori, Misono UX-10, Hiromoto, and Blazen powdered steel some of the favorites. At the high end of that range, you can afford two of them. Over three bills, and you get anything you want- top line Nenox, custom jobs from Carter, Takeda, Watanabe, Haslinger, you name it.
I recently purchased a couple of Tojiro DP knives from Korin - I have no frame of reference for Japanese knives as these are my first two, but I am very pleased with the quality, ergonomics and cutting ability of these knives.
These knives came with the sharpest factory-sharpened blades of any knife I've ever bought - I could shave hair off my arm with them out of the box.
I think that these may be some of the best knife values out there - around $50 for a nice chef's knife.
Hiromoto's HC line for carbon steel and Tojiro for the Stainless Steel (sneeze, mmm that followed me here as well...).
You may find you have a slight twisting action in your slice, that didn't mater with your western chef knife. It will translate in to micro chipping in a japanese blade. There are a few other quirks that pop up now and again but are easy to fix.
If you think this is too time consuming, you can always do this.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98kmvzKt2EY[/YOUTUBE]
Hey Ouch, what is your take on ceramic knives?
Regards,
Mike
They can be wicked sharp and hold an edge for a very long time, but they are brittle, easily damaged, and difficult to resharpen. They're tiny, too.
Steel is still the only game in town for knives, as far as I'm concerned.