I had this all typed up earlier, and then my ****** Earthlink timed me out!
>Chef's knives come in styles. The "German" style is a heavy, wide blade with lots of "rock" to the blade - the curvature on the edge. great for grabbing the blade right ahead of the handle and "rocking" thru the to-be-cuts.
The "French" style has a longer, straighter blade - like a long triangle. The blade tends to be thinner as well. Great for a more "drawing" style of cutting.
I have my PCD catalog here (1-800-859-6994) and am looking at their offerings - with a special eye toward price. They sell Forschner-Victorinox knives (the Swiss Army people). These knives don't have that fully-forged look like Henckels - y'know, with all that extra ground steel in the handguard. If you don't mind the "stamped&molded" look - you can get:
an 8" Chef's for $25.
a 10" Chef's for $28. French pattern - but with some "rock" esp. at the tip.
I have one of their meat slicers - it works 100% and seems like a REAL good value. As good in the blade as the dept. store eye candy.
I wish you could come down and look at my Masahiro "santuko". (Japanese vegetable knife) the way it glides precisely through carrots and mushrooms is - special. But it's $110, and you NEED to sharpen it on ceramic or diamond (another $40 and you can ruin the blade if you don't know what you're doing. Steel as hard as glass.)
If you want the Santuko shape and will accept stampings - LamsonSharp makes a good'n for $30. And regular sharpening works.
You really MUST have a good steel. And a stone is a plus. I keep my knives sharp on a steel, and every so often when the edge just gets beat out of shape I sit down with some old newspaper, some light oil and my eclectic set of stones. (They go with my nine incher.) Sharpening on a stone is a skilled, Zen pursuit, but I can do it and the result is a knife that WORKS.
Friedrich Dick steel (says F DICK right on it!), 12" round: $26.
Okay. Three knives and a steel: $109. We still talking?
Just one thing. NEVER buy one of those "Ever Sharp" or whatever knives with the serrated blade. A saw is not a knife. Jmho
Jmho #2: If you care about knives, never ever run'em thru the sharpener dingus on the back of the can opener!!! Use a steel, and every so often do real reshaping on a stone. |
