Octaveman

After a couple of weeks of this problem being present I highly doubt that any grocery store would stock tomatoes grown from unsafe states/growers/distributors/etc. Specially with the hightened scrutiny and the possiblity of law suits if they stocked dem tainted tow maters. It's mass hysteria at it's best.

http://www.jrmushroomsandspecialties.com/ This place has a wide variety of qualtiy stuff. I get mushroms from them.

Man, you got a black Sharpie? Nice. Seriously, looks like there won't be anything you can't do with that kit. Great selection. Not sure about that steel and your new Japanese babies though.

I looked around the net...couldn't find a thing. Bad sign. They are probably made for give-away purposes like a toaster for opening a bank account. Another bad sign.

One of my favorite dishes is from Supatra Johnson's Cyring Tiger cookbook. Well, at least I think it is because I'm going by memory here at work. Anyway, it's chicken marinated with lemongrass and other ingredients then stirfried. It's one of my favs. Basically cut and peel the stalk in 2 inch increments, pound to open it up and release flavor. Marinate for a couple of hours. I think I use about 4 stalks at a time for this dish.

Here's another one I just received. Made by Murray Carter and is a 200mm Funayuki (all purpose) from his stainless Fukugo-zai line of knives. This is made with Super Blue steel as the and core surrounded by softer stainless. The profile The geometry of the blade The handle made from Ho wood Nice shot of the makers label

Two Abby's? Have fun with them but hope they don't drive you nuts.

You got THAT right. It's funny, I won't have a problem raking it across wetstones but I'm hesitant to use it to cut veggies. I will most definately show this sucker off when I do finally start using it. I'll even stand at an angle for optimal viewing. I re-etched my Hattori KD for the first time a few weeks ago and I've been using that beauty as my show-off knife lately. That's going to change soon though. I don't buy display knives so I'll use it.

I was trying to figure out how to describe what it is about CI that gives me the "eh" feeling. Don't need to anymore as I'm pretty much says what I was trying to figure out.

Hi Tim, Watanabe is known for his excellent out-of-the-box (OOTB) sharpening on new knives that there honestly was no need to do anything further to the edge. What you see is what he did and it is very very sharp and with very nicely refined bevels. When the time comes to touch up this baby I will most definately follow Watanabe's original bevel angles. All of his gyuto's are made with blue steel as the core surrounded by iron and the core is most likely the #2 variety given the cost. Blue steel #1 is typically a more expensive steel and not as readily available. Speaking of bevel angles, one thing that Watanabe did was to make the back of the knife almost flat while putting the majority of the combined bevel angle on the front. I'm not sure if he does this with all his gyuto's but I'm guessing mine is like this to help keep the stones from coming into contact with the engravinging while sharpening. It's very clear to see but not from any of the pics above. It will actually make sharpening much easier...and less scary for me.

Thanks Peter. I'm still wrestling with the thought of using it or not. Zogan means "an inserting eye" and are made with 24k gold.

Just got this insanely beautiful gyuto made by Shinichi Watanabe yesterday. The engraving is a Ryu Dragon with Zogan eyes. Words cannot describe. Had to share. Hope you enjoy the pics.

property taxes and the balance to Japan for a new chef knife.

So, people should've received their new stuff by now. Want pics and thoughts. Please...thank you.

Man, I'm almost willing to give it a try. If I do, I'd go with the 16 oz. New Yorks. Maybe when the economic stimulus check arrives. I've been wondering what to buy with it. What would I do with another knife anyway? Thanks for your and Sam's input.

Very good points, thanks. Also, the more I think about it I could easily spend $15 for a rib-eye at the grocery store. Sure it's cheaper per pound but would quantity override quality in this case? For a few more dollars I could get a vastly superior piece of meat albiet smaller. It sure is nice to have a mini-roast on your plate though. In general do webtailers ship fresh or is the meat frozen? If I was to spend that much I would think it wouldn't be frozen for shipment.

Sam, at what point would you say the increase in improvement is negligable? Before I made the leap to custom knives I asked myself and countless others that very same questions you stated above so I know exactly what you are saying. It took me almost two years of contemplation to make the plunge. And once I did, I will never go back for reasons that are hard to explain. I even had a quasi buyers remorse thing going on but I've come to the realization that I made the right choice with the direction I took. But we're not talking about a product that will be around for the rest of my or my children's lives. We're talking about a consumable item that will last 15 minutes. Then it's gone forever. The memory may linger but that too will dissapear. Maybe I just need to make the plunge with this too to see for myself what the hubub is about. Maybe I'm not understanding the point of buying meat at these prices because I've never tried it. I understand too the economics of location and budget but my question revolves around the justification. It's a hard one for me to fatham. It's not the money but the idea of spending that much for a steak. I can justify going out and spending $100+ for sushi because to do that at home the cost of everything, not to mention the time involved in preparation, that I would get at the sushi bar would be very lopsided. Making it at home would lose. To make a handful of basic rolls or sashimi would be easy to do at home but to have a feast would be very difficult to do and be reasonable about it all. With a steak, I could go to the store, spend $8-$10/pound for a couple of steaks and be happy. It's easy, it's at my fingertips, it's spontaneous, it's cheap, it serves it's purpose. This makes me wonder something...if the steaks are that good, do people ever go back to store bought steak or are they destined to paying these prices for the rest of their lives? I do love a tasty steak so maybe I should just try it.

This is an honest question. How can spending $30/pound or $20 each for New York strip be justified? I love steak as much as the next guy but looking at it in terms of cost I have a real hard time pulling the trigger. The steaks look great and I'm sure they are very good but sheesh, that's a lot of money. This question is not directed at DeBragga either as it applies to any retailer. I don't go to Morton's or Ruth Chris or any of the other high-end steak joints because I always leave dissapointed and my wallet is a lot lighter than it was before walking in the door. I get my meat from Costco which I feel is pretty good most of the time. But given the cost differences I'm left wondering if the 500% increase in price to buy at Debragga, etc. is worth it. Of course, I'll have no problem spending $100 for my wife and I to eat out for sushi so maybe it comes down to perspective. Thanks for your thoughts. Bob

THIS ebay item is your exact knife It's not a great knife but used as a slicer of fish it should do a pretty decent job for quite a while. Don't take the description from the seller as accurate either. Most of them are not known to be very knowledgable...and Swordandgift is no exception.

Yes, there have been lots of studies going back at least to the 70's. First wood was antibacterial, then it wasn't and now it's back to being antibacterial. Any end-grain butcher block type board is antibacterial. They go into the wood fibers (think tight straw broom) where they die. With edge-grain wood or poly boards, the bacteria stays out in the open until washed off.

Some people are hard corps about raw meat on boards but not me. I just wash it well with hot water and antibacterial soap when I'm done. No issues so far. Being an end grain board also helps kill bacteria. There are also those flexible plastic boards that can be used over your cutting board too. I used to use them often but my knives kept slicing through them. If the raw meat has so much bacteria in or on them they probably shouldn't be eatin let alone cut up on a cutting board. Smelling them should help tip you off. I seriously don't think fresh meat these days are so loaded with bad stuff that you have to have a dedicated cutting board you have to wash with bleach to keep from killing your family. There's a lot of paranoid people out there that do this though. I'm just not one of them. Besdies, how else am I going to build up my immunity?

I'm hungry

Another good resource are a couple of knife forums that go into extreme detail on sharpening knives all the time in various threads. Going through previous threads would help you get more detail as what I wrote was just a quick and dirty run down of the basic idea. What you should actually do is based on a few factors revolving around the stones you have. http://www.foodieforums.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=6 and http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showforum.php?fid/26/ Plus Chad's sharpening tutorial here of EG. Not sure if it covers traditional Japanese knives though. I'd check but I can't find it right now in my lazy search.

A single-beveled knife will have the tendancy to turn clockwise as you slice. Your knife is a slicing knife and should not get near bones. If you paid $20 it could use a LOT of sharpening. It just takes practice to control the turning. There are also different ways to cut a filet. You can cut it from the right side or the left. I can't recall the specifics right now like which side the trailing end of the filet goes and which side you cut. If you have a block of fish like Marguro I think you cut from the left side. Anyway, it probably doesn't matter a whole lot but it just takes practice using the knife compensating for the turning effect. Regarding sharpening it, you do sharpen both sides. The large bevel on the front is layed down flat and worked until you get a burr on the edge. Since most of these have a convex bevel/edge (slightly rounded) you may have to lift the spine up a little (not a lot) to make sure you're hitting the edge. Then you turn it over and lay the entire blade flat on the stone to move the burr back to the other side and repeat until the burr is gone. The back is concave so the only part of the blade that touches the stone is the outside rim all around the knife. Once the burr is gone you do just a few light swipes to clean up the edge and your done. This is based on having just a couple of stones starting with the lower grit and finishing with the higher grit. This is very general info as one could spend hours writing a how-to for your knife alone. But the idea is there. Work the beveled side until you get a burr, turn it over laying it flat to move the burr back to the other side, repeat until burr is gone or has come off. The idea is to remove the burr so all you have left is a sharp edge. No steal will be needed because the burr is gone. As times goes by that edge will dull and get weak. No steel can fix that. It's back to the stones again. I highly recommend getting a DVD that explains all of this in great detail. The why's and how's of sharpening a single beveled knife will be made clear to you and while your knife is not all that good, the DVD can help make the knife a very useful tool. I highly recommend it as it's easier to grasp by visual instruction than from reading alone. http://japaneseknifesharpening.com/ On the left side is the link for the DVD. Dave is a very thorough instructor so I know it will help you greatly.

Steels aren't used on single-beveled knives either. Your posts are begging the question...what are you using your yanagiba for?