Octaveman

Hello Oliver, I'm not familiar with the brand of stone you referenced but I'm sure that 1k/4k combo would be fine for a while. You'd be surprised how long these stones last. The 1k will wear out faster than the 4k though. This would mean you'd eventually only have 1/2 of a combo stone as the 1k wears out and you still have plenty of 4k. I am familiar with Norton stones as they are pretty good for the cost. Check them out. Given what I said about wearing down of the lower grit stone, I would suggest getting a single 1k stone and a combo 4k/8k stone. The latter combo stone will last a very long time as they wear much slower. Yes, you very much need to keep your stones flat or they will not do the job of sharpening your knives correctly. A simple flattener is fine. Lee Valley calls it a truer. It is a must. Other considerations as time goes on and you get more proficient at sharpening. An even lower grit of around 600 will be needed for a couple of reasons. First, to make quicker repair of your knives if they ever get chipped. A 1k can do the job but it will take a longer time to gte the job done. Second, with frequent sharpenings over time, your edge/bevel will need to be thinned out. Same reason...a 1k would make the job very time consuming but a 500-600 grit would be much quicker. But this is not an immediate must have. Another optional but very convenient item is the stone holder also shown at Lee Valley. It holds the stones higher up on the counter giving you better knuckle clearance. The diamond stones that others have spoken about are the DMT Diasharp stones. I have three of them all in the lower grits (XXC, C & F). Nice but pricey. If you're serious about learning the art and continuing, I would suggest getting good stones one or two at a time until you have a complete and efficient collection of stones. Shapton Pro stones are damn near the best you can get...and they don't require soaking. A huge plus. Shapton Glass stones are also good but I've heard opinions on both sides of the spectrum. A few other sites to check out to make sure you're getting the best price are... Japan Woodworker Craftsman Studio Tools for Working Wood This should keep you busy for a while. Bob

Hi David, glad to see you posting. The link that I'm pretty sure you're referring to is the software that eGullet has to make arbitrary references to products on Amazon.com in an effort to raise funds for eGullet should the item be purchased. The link that the software comes up with is based on key words and is not usually referring to the actual item the poster is discussing. These links are easily distinguished with a pink color versus a member posted link usually in light blue. Bob

What does that mean..."see the board go"? Throwing it the garage and hope for the best? Sending out for repair?

Being round is a problem. I have a rectangle board and was able to fix a crack with gorilla glue and a pipe clamp I bought from Home Depot. That was over a year ago and it's still fine. Do some research on how to clamp a round board to glue it. Gotta figure the maker did it so just find out how and do it. Shouldn't be a big deal. David at The Boardsmith might be able to give you some advice. If not, try someone else or look around the internet. http://theboardsmith.com/

This has no barring on anyone here but it cracks me up when $150-$200 for a cast iron pot is considered a good deal. Compared to it's retail price, I guess it IS a good deal but this thought pops into my head...why not pay $50 for a Lodge? It's not ceramic coated but still could be used with success. If not Lodge, why not a large Chamba casserole clay pot if you're worried about acidity reaction? Is spending that much just for the ease of use and versatility?

Ebay is a good place for these cookbooks too. Braised garlic chicken: brown chicken, saute' 20+ cloves of garlic along with 4 sprigs of fresh thyme, deglaze with white wine, put chicken back in and add more wine. Cook until falling off the bone. Reduce wine/juices and thicken. OMG. Also, I've roasted lots of garlic and infused olive oil with it. Great flavor.

Glestain is about the only brand where the scallops actually work. Since just about every brand charges extra for this feature, unless you get Glestain, it ain't worth it. Glestain's slicer is pretty sexay too.

Sounds good to me...thanks for the review.

stupid question alert!!! Where is this place? Page after page has not revealed the answer. Tired of looking. Thanks.

I wouldn't call the Hard Rock upscale by any means and frankly I would avoid it. Nobu in the Hard Rock? Hmmm...I'd rather go to the original Nobu in Solana Beach but maybe would be okay in a pinch. If I was recommending upscale to friends I would say Croce's is very nice with wide variety of food. Greystone is an excellent steakhouse. George's on 5th is also an excellent steakhouse. For Thai, Rama is very cool and very delicious (ask to sit by the waterfall in the back). Monsoon is also very very tasty. There is a pretty nice sushi bar that's down the street from Ghirardelli but I can't remember the name of it. It's on 5th. All these places are in the Gaslamp downtown. Yeah, Mexican here is hit and miss. If you have good places in PA then I wouldn't look too hard for it here as it probably won't be any better or different. Be prepared for somewhat rainy weather.

ACK! I had to look. Gross.

I've never used sandpaper but I've heard good and not so good things about the system. I've read that you go through a lot of paper too.

Since people are enjoying their boards from The Boardsmith, I thought I'd post a link to a news article that also includes a little video on David and his board making business. The Boardsmith at work Bekki, it would be a shame if you're too ascared to use your board. I can help you out if it burdens you too much to have it laying around unused. Bob

Liason in Hillcrest closed some time ago so now I'm looking for a good replacement. And I'd like to take my wife there for Valentine's day. Quick suggestions please. Thanks much, Bob

Right tool for job, got it. A Honesuki or small western deba would work great. The honesuki is a dedicated boning knife. A western deba can be used any way the user sees fit. I know a pro chef who uses a 165mm western deba for chicken among other things. Honesuki's a typically 150mm but I think 165mm is more versatile.

Cool, man! Good to hear more people are considering them enough to actually buy them. Pretty damn good knife for the money.

Not me. The Yoshikane is basically the stainless version of the Kumagoro and a kick-ass knife. Some people who have tried both will give a very slight edge (no pun) to the Kumagoro but to the average user the difference will not be noticable. Actually even to well seasoned users it might be difficult to tell a difference. Of the other choices you had the Blazen is excellent. Obviously the main difference between them is the traditional Japanese handle. I have no problem with them and find it makes for a unique look to the knife. As far as size is concerned 240mm would be my recommendation. Specially if you use a pinch grip when using your knives. These knives will balance just fine at either length and the extra length would definitely come in handy. I did the same thing as you before making my first Gyuto purchase. If money is not keeping you from buying the Yoshikane then absolutely, buy it. You will not be disappointed. Also, EE.com is a great place to buy knives. If you get it and decide the knife is just not what you thought (can't hang with the handle style for example) then they are good with returns. I seriously don't think you will decide to return it. Let us know what you decide and most definitely report back when you get it. Bob

Dock, nice summary. Thanks.

Of course you don't sharpen at the same angle, the German knife couldn't hold it. The German knife at 12* would fold the first time it hit the cutting board. A Japanese knife sharpened at 15-18* both sides would still perform very well. It could still get razor sharp and it would indeed be mui strong. I would rather have a knife that chips every now and then than have and edge that ripples or rolls. SOME Japanese steels are brittle. Making all encompassing statements like the one you made are inaccurate. BTW, we're not talking big chips here. I'm talking chips that can only be seen or felt upon close inspection. I had a Hiromoto AS that I banged the edge against the Thai granite mortar and there was barely and I mean barely a chip. Then there was the Hattori HD I used and it chipped in three places the first time I used it. Again, not all Japanese steels are brittle. Well, since your gyuto is RC62-63. I wouldn't recommend it unless you changed your angles. A gyuto that was 59-61 would certainly be less of an issue. To me, THESE you mention are specialized tasks that require specilized knives. But to answer your question directly... 1. "hack" up chickens - no, but only because my gyuto's are almost 11" long and it just doesn't make sense. I wouldn't even use an 8" knife for this. I would use a smaller 165mm Japanese boning knife RC-62-64 to bone a chicken. Matter of fact, I have been using a single beveled deba (more "fragile" edge than a gyuto with combined angle behind the edge of about 10 degrees) for chickens for over a year now and without a single chip....nada...never...nope. It is RC 60-61. 2. "chop" chocolate - not to chop but to sliver, absolutely, and I have. 3. Cut heads and tails off of fish - if I worked with whole fish regularly I could sharpen one of my gyuto's accordingly and use it, yes. I'm really not saying anybody should do anything. I'm just a proponent for Japanese knives and attempting to correct erroneous statements that... 1. Japanese knives are brittle; 2. Japanese knives are specialized. They are NOT all brittle and they are NOT all specialized. If someone had a set of German knives and wanted to get a Gyuto, I would not say ditch all your German knives and replace all of them with Japanese knives. I would and have said get a gyuto. The only other thing I might say is to keep is the heavy duty chef for those times when it would be nice to have if money is tight. If money wasn't an issue, then I would most definately say sell the German knives to someone on ebay and get all Japanese knives. This brings up another opinion of mine. A Japanese western deba can do anything a heavy duty German knife can do except roll it's edge. Actually, it probably could do more. I have a Western Deba that has gone through chicken thigh/leg bones cleanly without fraying and the edge is still 100%. I've actually had this knife over a year and it's not needed to be sharpened. But this is beside the point at hand. AGAIN, The OP was asking for rec's for a single good knife. Not a single knife to replace everything. A German knife would not be my recommendation for a single good knife. I do have many recs for great knives though. Bob

A gyuto is an all-around prep/chef's knife. General food prep is NOT a specialized duty therefore a gyuto is NOT a specialized knife. It cuts any usual prep stuff any German knife does. Nobody would call a German knife a specialized tool so the same goes for the Gyuto. This is another term that people label Japanese knives with (besides "fragile") that makes no sense to me. Some Japanese knives are indeed specialized but so are German knives but we're not talking about them...we're talking about the loley chef's knife aka Gyuto. But a gyuto is based very closely to the French styled chef's knife. Nobody was/is calling the Sabatier chef knife specialized. Just because the Japanese changed the steel type doesn't make the knife a specialty knife. It is made/designed to be a workhorse every day chef's knife. Sure, there are knives that are more prone to chipping than others so if you have a problem with that, don't buy it. Buy the die-tooled steels that are forged to HRC 61-63 (no harder than most other Japanese steels) except these tool steels are made to cut steel and form tools. I think these tough tool steels can handle chocolate just fine. Or you can buy Japanese knives that are HRC 59-61 (Misono UX10 for example...a fantastic knife) rather than those knives a few points higher (too many to list). And to add to what Scargo touched upon, even though you sharpen your blade to a slightly more obtuse angle the geometry of Japanese blades are still in a different class than German knives. Meaning it's still much thinner and will still glide through food with ease more efficiently than the German knife regardless of the minute 0.5-1mm difference worth of obtuseness you make the angle on your edge.

There are various different styles of German knives just as their Japanese counterparts. German brands have chef knives, boning knives, petty's, parers, etc. So do Japanese brands. So whether you buy German or you buy Japanese, there is no one single all knowing all doing knife to do every single thing a cook would need to do. If German brands are so good, why would anyone even need or want any Japanese knife? Why have one to use 75% of the time when German knives can do it all? If I knew nothing about knives and someone told me I could have a knife that was only 25% effective in the kitchen versus a different knife that was 75% effective and I only had to choose one, it would be (duh) the knife that gave me 75% effectiveness. And that's just following Paul's percentage of usage. It would be 90%/10% for me. Saying the German knife would be the #1 pick then follow that statement saying the Japanese knife is your most used knife is very odd to me. I will never understand people when they say Japanese knives are too fragile. Anyone can talk/write until they are blue in the face and I will still say it's not the knife's fault. If you don't want it to chip, don't make the edge so thin when you sharpen it. If you want it to cut up a chicken, then make the edge slightly more obtuse when you sharpen it. No Japanese knife should be so "fragile" that you couldn't use it and abuse it. If a chip does occur, the knife is still 100% functional. Sometimes my knive's chip. I leave it there until the blade gets dull then remove it when I resharpen. It's not a big deal and it's not a fault of the knife. Following Paul's format after reading the very first post, I would still say buy a Japanese Gyuto for every day prep and keep the old crap German knife for the heavy-duty beater jobs. Since the OP was asking for recs on a single good knife I take the intent was to not replace everything he/she owns but is/was looking to invest in a single, good, all-around knife. Zee, glad you like the Shun. Bob

Another option is the Fujiwara carbon steel series just put on JCK's sight today as a matter of fact. They are comparable to the Hiromoto HC's. http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/FKHSeries.html

Holy crap...that's GORGEOUS!!! I'm SOOOO jealous. Dave is definitely the man. when I finally order a 18x24 walnut board I'm going to show him a picture of yours and tell him I want that too. Man, super sweet. Get some of Dave's (not the Boardsmith) Boardwax. It really is great stuff and is what I use. Your board will love it.

Yeah, I was going to say an email will be fine. Glad they caught it before shipping.

I'd love to see a picture of it.