• The Knife Discussion Thread
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[b]Types of Knives[/b] [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Kitchen_knives.svg[/img] [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Kitchen_Knife_Anatomy.png[/img] A Point: The very end of the knife, which is used for piercing B Tip: The first third of the blade (approximately), which is used for small or delicate work. Also known as belly or curve when curved, as on a chef's knife. C Edge: The entire cutting surface of the knife, which extends from the point to the heel. The edge may be beveled or symmetric. D Heel: The rear part of the blade, used for cutting activities that require more force E Spine: The top, thicker portion of the blade, which adds weight and strength F Bolster: The thick metal portion joining the handle and the blade, which adds weight and balance G Finger Guard: The portion of the bolster that keeps the cook's hand from slipping onto the blade H Return: The point where the heel meets the bolster J Tang: The portion of the metal blade that extends into the handle, giving the knife stability and extra weight K Scales: The two portions of handle material (wood, plastic, composite, etc.) that are attached to either side of the tang L Rivets: The metal pins (usually 3) that hold the scales to the tang M Handle Guard: The lip below the butt of the handle, which gives the knife a better grip and prevents slipping N Butt: The terminal end of the handle Paring Knife [img]http://www.blogcdn.com/www.slashfood.com/media/2008/02/beginner-paring-knife-540.jpg[/img] A paring knife has a short blade (2 to 4 inches) and a tip that can be either straight or that curves up to the point. Used for: This knife is good for peeling apples and other fruits or vegetables, mincing small items like shallots and garlic, or trimming herbs and scallions. Chef's knife [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Chef%27s_Knife.jpg[/img] In cooking, a chef's knife, also known as a French knife or a cook's knife, is a cutting tool used in food preparation. The chef's knife was originally designed primarily to slice and disjoint large cuts of beef. Today it is the primary general-utility knife for most Western cooks. A chef's knife generally has a blade eight inches (20 centimeters) in length and 11⁄2 inches (3.8 cm) in width, although individual models range from 6 to 14 inches (15 to 36 centimetres) in length. There are two common types of blade shape, French and German. German-style knives are more deeply and continuously curved along the whole cutting edge; the French style has an edge that is straighter until the end and then curves up to the tip. Neither style is inherently superior; personal preference will dictate the choice. Boning knife [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Boningknife.jpg[/img] A boning knife is a type of kitchen knife with a sharp point and narrow blade. It is used in food preparation for removing the bones of poultry, meat, and fish. Generally 12 cm to 17 cm (5 to 6 ½ in) in length (although many brands, such as Samoan Cutlery, have been known to extend out up to 9 ½ inches) it features a very narrow blade. Boning knives are not as "thick" as some of other popular kitchen/butcher knives, as this makes precision boning, especially in deep cuts and holes, much less difficult. A stiff boning knife is good for boning beef and pork, but a very flexible boning knife is preferred for poultry and fish. tourné knife [img_thumb]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Victorinox.jpg[/img_thumb] Also known as a Bird's Beak Knife, a peeling knife has a pointed tip that curves downward (sometimes upward) and from side to side (towards the blade). It can be used to cut decorative garnishes (such as rosettes or fluted mushrooms), slice soft fruits, or to remove skins and blemishes. It is also used to make a cut known as a tourné cut in vegetables such as carrots. It is a specialized type of paring knife. Santoku [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Santoku_knife.jpg[/img] The Santoku has a straighter edge than a chef's knife, with a blunted sheepsfoot-tip blade and a thinner spine, particularly near the point. From 12 cm to 18 cm (5 to 7 inches) long, a true Japanese Santoku is well-balanced, normally flat-ground, and generally lighter and thinner than its Western counterparts, often using superior blade steels to provide a blade with exceptional hardness and an acute cutting angle. This construction allows the knife to more easily slice thin-boned and boneless meats, fish, and vegetables. Many subsequent Western and Asian copies of the Japanese Santoku do not always incorporate these features, resulting in reduced cutting ability. Some Western Santoku-pattern knives are even fitted with kullen/kuhlen, scallops on the sides of the blade above the edge, in an attempt to reduce the sticking of foods and reduce cutting friction. A standard in Asian (especially Japanese) kitchens, the santoku and its Western copies have become very popular in recent years with chefs in Europe and the United States. sharpening steel [img]http://www.grohmannknives.com/images2002/sharpening.jpg[/img] A honing steel, sometimes referred to as sharpening steel, sharpening stick, sharpening rod, butcher's steel, and chef's steel is a rod of steel, ceramic or diamond coated steel used to hone or sharpen blade edges. They are flat, oval, or round in cross-section and up to one foot long (30 cm). The steel and ceramic honing steels may have longitudinal ridges, whereas the diamond coated steels are smooth but will be embedded with abrasive diamond particles.[1] The naming is often a misnomer, because a steel that hones may be called a "sharpening steel" in common parlance and vice versa. Moreover, the term "honing steel" may actually refer to a tool made from ceramic. For the purposes of this article the term "honing steel" will only refer to steels that hone, and the term "sharpening steel" will only refer to steels that sharpen. Chinese chef's knife [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Chinese_and_old_North_American_cleavers.JPG[/img] A Chinese chef's knife or Chinese kitchen knife — sometimes referred to as a "Chinese cleaver" though it is not a cleaver — is the rectangular-bladed, all-purpose knife traditionally used in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and many other Asian countries to prepare a variety of meats, fish, and vegetables. The popularity of this style of knife has spread with the associated cuisines. Several manufacturers produce Chinese-style chef's knives fabricated to the highest, modern standards with high-end carbon and stainless steel alloys — particularly in Japan but also in Germany, Brazil, etc. They resemble Western cleavers in appearance, but most Chinese chef's knives are relatively thin-bladed and designed for slicing, chopping, and mincing vegetables, fish, and boneless meats. Heavier so-called 'bone' cleavers are produced and are used much like Western-type meat cleavers to prepare large sides of beef, pork, and other boned meats. However, Chinese-style knives of this weight are not common in the West. Bread knife [img]http://www.cutlero.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/detail_2030_4166_23_Kopie.jpg[/img] Serrated knives are able to cut soft bread without crushing it; one was exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 in Chicago by the Friedrich Dick company (Esslingen, Germany).[5] One design was patented in the United States by Joseph E. Burns of Syracuse, New York. His knife had sections of grooves or serrations, inclined with respect to the axis of the blade, that form individual small cutting edges which were perpendicular to the blade and thus cut without the excessive normal pressure required of a scalloped blade and without the horizontal force required by positive-raked teeth that would dig into the bread like a wood saw. There were also sections of grooves with the opposite direction of inclination, separated by a section of smooth blade, and the knife thus cut cleanly in both directions in both hard and soft bread. Bread knives are usually between 15 cm and 25 cm (6 and 10 inches). An offset serrated knife uses an offset handle to ensure the cook's knuckles will not touch the cutting surface when the blade has cut all of the way through the food. [b]HOW TO SHARPEN YOUR KNIFE[/b] Keeping your chef's knife sharp will make your job in the kitchen easier — and safer, too. That's because when you're using a dull knife you have to apply more pressure than you would with a sharper blade, which makes the knife more likely to slip. Sharpening with Sharpening Stone [img]http://www.metrokitchen.com/images/sharpening.jpg[/img] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBXRkMZfIXk[/media] The best way of sharpening a knife is with a whetstone. There are other knife sharpening devices available, but most of them tend to grind away too much of your knife's blade. Learning the right way to use a whetstone may take a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it you'll be able to keep knives razor sharp, and save time and money. Difficulty: Average Time Required: 2 minutes Here's How: Place the whetstone on a cutting board or countertop, with the coarse grit face up. A wet paper towel underneath the stone can help keep it from sliding. With one hand, grasp the knife by the handle and hold the edge against the stone, point-first, with the cutting edge meeting the stone at a 22½-degree angle. Here's a picture of what 22½ degrees looks like. You can stabilize the blade with your other hand. With moderate pressure, slide the blade forward and across the the whetstone, covering the entire length of the blade and keeping the blade flush against the stone at a constant 22½-degree angle. Do this 10 times, then flip the knife over and give the other side of the blade 10 strokes on the whetstone. Now flip the whetstone over to the fine grit side and give each side of the blade 10 strokes. Finish by using a sharpening steel to hone the blade, then rinse and wipe the blade dry to remove any metal particles. Tips: Always sharpen in the same direction, whether it's front-to-back or back-to-front. Despite what its name might suggest, keep your whetstone dry. Using oil or water on a whetstone traps tiny metal particles in the liquid, which in turn produce a more ragged edge than when using a dry stone. Don't believe the hype about knives that supposedly "never need sharpening." Cutting produces friction, and friction causes a knife's edge to lose its sharpness. There's no avoiding the laws of physics. What You Need Whetstone Chef's knife in need of sharpening Sharpening with a Sharpening Steel [img]http://www.fmb.com.au/contents/media/ultimate-edge-guide.gif[/img] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syvvxx3eGpI[/media] When we use a whetstone to sharpen a knife, what we're doing is reshaping its cutting edge by grinding away tiny amounts of the blade. And while it's the best way to sharpen a knife, all that grinding can leave the knife's edge rough and uneven. Using a knife steel, also called a sharpening steel or honing steel, helps smooth out that roughness, leaving a nice, straight edge. Difficulty: Easy Time Required: 1 minute Here's How: With your left hand (or your right hand if you're left-handed), hold the sharpening steel point-down, with its tip resting firmly on a dry cutting board — as if it were a large nail you were about to hammer into the board. With your other hand, hold the knife crossways against the steel with the back of the blade (the part nearest the handle) touching the steel. You're going to be pulling the knife backward, toward you, so you want to start with most of the blade in front of the steel. Tilt the knife so that its cutting edge meets the shaft of the sharpening steel at a 22½-degree angle. Don't have a protractor handy? That's OK! Remember that 90 degrees is a right angle, and 45 degrees is half of that. So 22½ degrees is just half of that. You can pretty much eyeball it. Now, maintaining this 22½-degree angle, gently pull the blade toward you while simultaneously gliding it downward along the shaft of the steel. You want to cover the entire length of the blade, keeping the blade at that 22½-degree angle the whole time. Do this step 10 times. Switch to the other side of the blade, give it ten more strokes on the steel and you're done! Tips: Make sure your sharpening steel is at least as long as the blade you are honing. For instance, if you are using a 10-inch chef's knife, your knife steel should be no shorter than 10 inches as well. After using the sharpening steel, rinse and carefully wipe the blade dry with a towel so that any tiny metal filings on the knife's edge don't end up in the food you're about to work with. Keep your knife steel handy while you're working in the kitchen. Just a few minutes of ordinary slicing on a wooden or plastic cutting board can knock your knife's delicate edge out of alignment. Once you're accustomed to the feel of a sharp knife, you'll feel the difference right away. When you do, just a few quick strokes on the steel will straighten it right out again, without having to grind away any more blade on a whetstone. What You Need Sharpening steel Chef's knife in need of honing Electric Sharpener [img]http://www.edgewareproducts.com/uploaded/thumbnails/db_file_img_25_400x400.jpg[/img] Useless as fuck, doesn't last long. A alternative for both steel and stone. Mainly used by housewives.
Ceramic knives are pretty awesome, we've got a ceramic chefs knife and a little utility knife (about 7cm blade) and they're really nice, sharp as hell (easily sharper than our metal ones, even after the metal's sharpened) and are getting much cheaper these days, I think that the knives were only something like a tenner each. I still use the metal ones, but if you're willing to be careful not to drop them or use for leverage, ceramics are pretty damn nice, as you've always got a perfectly sharp blade. A good steel knife is a joy to use, just sharpen it nicely and it'll do you fine, I quite like the boning knife I use, too. Also, if you're in uni and need some knives for cooking, all you really need is a chefs knife and utility knife and a bread knife if you like getting unsliced bread. Don't go for the very cheapest knives, though, try to get a nice solid one that's going to last. A good knife can last a few decades, even if it does need a new handle, and sometimes they can be found for £10-£20 if lucky. You're much more likely to injure yourself with a blunt knife (esp if left handed, sliced my hand pretty badly once) and spending £20 once saves you from getting in a cycle of buying strangely flexible, poor quality knives, which can cost more in the long run.
I really want a Chinese cleaver/cleaver and my own collection of knives for cooking, the ones we have at home are fucking dull as shit and sharpening them doesn't give them much of a edge.
Fuck, should had gotten a Shun knife. Got a Henckels instead. But fuck a Shun cost 200 bucks here.
My knives are all from the Robert Welch range [img]http://mikeh269.com/filedump/knives.jpg[/img] 7" santoku, 7" chefs and a paring knife - each about £40. the balance on them is absolutely beautiful.
So... Ceramic knives, what do you guys think about them? I've heard a lot about them, some favorably, some less so.
For your average kitchen work, sure. But don't count on it too much. Plus, my chef said the coloured ones are bad, the colours could fuck your food
Have a informative as fuck video on knife sharpening [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwW89H1olxE&feature=related[/media]
I have tupperware knives, they've actually served me ultra well for cutting anything. There's a cheese knife (although it resembles a frigging combat knife), a bread knife, and a couple of paring knives, one is more the length of a butcher's knife but not the shape or anything. Tupperware are also smart and have their knife blocks set up so you enter blades sideways so they stay sharp, and it came with a whetstone.
Great thread, I found it really interesting to read. I really have to get me a Chef's knife! I've been using shitty small knives for far too long, it's such a pain in the ass to cut onions with it.
Basically this picture covers almost everything [img]http://img.gawkerassets.com/post/4/2012/10/knifeskillsgraphic.jpg[/img]
this is a real thread isnt that something
Also, a good knife brand is Global. I used it, not only does it look nice, it feels heavy, and stays sharp for long. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulJLys9lbWw[/media]
I think the question this thread has been waiting for is: "But which knife is better, the Samurai Sw-- I mean Samurai Knife, or the 2 Handed Knife that Medieval warriors use?"
Working as a prep in a restaurant is quite fun. You get to cut, slice, dice, and blend produce all day. I had to learn a few things on my own though :v:
During class our teacher was telling us about the different kind of knives they use and when we got to the boning knife our teacher said sometimes chef will even call the knife boners. "Hey can I borrow your boner?" Sounds pretty awkward in a kitchen.
[QUOTE=Squirrel2531;38142747]"Hey can I borrow your boner?" Sounds pretty awkward in a kitchen.[/QUOTE] As opposed to when its used outside of a kitchen? It's not awkward?
[QUOTE=discodude;38143253]As opposed to when its used outside of a kitchen? It's not awkward?[/QUOTE] Not as much
i greatly approve of this thread, ive loved this video since i saw it a little while ago, i feel like if you enjoy kitchen knives its worth a watch. these are beautiful. [media]http://youtu.be/OtyMrFMW3Fg[/media] i apparently dont know how to use media tags anymore
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