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Chef's Knives with a Granton Edge


Shel_B

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I want to get an 8-inch chef knife for Toots, and one for me as well, and was thinking of the Victorinox as I like the price-value ratio and have been happy with the Victorinox knives I do have. While cruising a few sites to see what's available, I came across a model with a Granton edge, which is supposed to offer better slicing.

Anyone have experience with this edge on a chef's knife? Does it make chopping and dicing easier? Is the knife more difficult to sharpen?

 ... Shel


 

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If you do a search on YouTube on "knife skills", you will get a ton of skillful cutting, chopping, slicing, dicing -------- videos, all done without Granton edge knives, that include sushi preparation, Marin Yan's lightning fast chops.

I do have one, I don't think the dimples on the blade make any difference whatsoever. Possibly making it more difficult on some types of food, because the design is the same as suction cups.

dcarch

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I don't know about the Victorinox but I have a 270mm Glestain gyoto with a scalloped blade and highly recommend it, especially for chopping vegetables. When chopping things like potatoes or zucchini with my other primary knife I get a lot of sticking to the blade, which I find to be a real pain. With the Glestain, I get virtually no sticking. I don't find any impact to sharpening as the indentations are well above the blade edge.

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I hate the word "chopping", it belongs to an axe and firewood, not with kitchen knives.

Granton edges were developed for moist, sticky foods, like cheese, smoked salmon, roast beef, ham, etc. It doesn't do much for vegetables, although It might help with potatoes a bit, as the slices contain wet, sticky starch, that tend to cling on to the knife.

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At the risk of sounding a bit geeky, the Victorinox knife you're talking about has kullens, not grantons. The former are indentations in the side of the blade that do not extend to the cutting edge, the latter are indentations that do extend to the cutting edge. Most knives billed as having a "granton edge" actually have kullens.

Kullens don't affect sharpening. As far as cutting goes, I've used a lot of Victorinox both with and without kullens as my work knives, and I can't tell much difference. I wouldn't pay one cent extra for a knife with kullens vs one without, let's put it that way.

Hong Kong Dave

O que nao mata engorda.

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The fact that the indentations are on both sides requires the blade metal to be thicker for some knives.

I like thin blade knives better.

I have also tried Teflon coated knives. No difference either.

dcarch

Edited by dcarch (log)
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i have a lot of "True" granton knives:

http://www.granton-knives.co.uk/

i highly recommend them. the steel is very good, and thin. they sharpen up like razors with either the jewelstix or the EdgePro.

the only problem is you have to email them for them to send you a catalog and price list:

granton-knives@hotmail.co.uk

they have superb slicing knives and boning knives also. i also recoment the Ergo handle.

they are sold here and there on-line:

http://www.knifemerchant.com/products.asp?manufacturerID=6

the 'true' ie patented granton edge comes down to the blade itself. you can see this in the pics above. amazon "granton" edge knives are not true granton'sw

does this make a difference vs the scalloped edge not quite down to the edge? cant say.

Id get these knives again in a heart beat.

the edge makes a difference in things that a wet: cucumber, veg that are wet, potato, beets etc. so-so with cheese. the thinness helps with the rest and of course the edge you maintain. but this is true for all knives.

anyway, take a look.

Granton.jpg

the slicer at the top has a blade 12" long, the boner on the bottom is 4 3/4 "

as you can see the Red Ergo handle is best

:biggrin:

Edited by rotuts (log)
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