Show and Tell: Knives

[Margaret Pilgrim]

22 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I got a new knife today.  UPS delivered it to the wrong address.  I am very out of sorts.  And amazon does not sell sorts.

 

 

I somehow misinterpreted this as your having received a knife destined for someone at a different address.    Oh, well...

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

No but take comfort from the knowledge that if they did and you had actually bought some they would caution you about buying more. 

 

What happened was I received an email that my knife was out for delivery.  I waited (pretty much) patiently near the door with a note to UPS on said door to the effect that someone was home and to please make a lot of noise.  Long about 4:30 pm I received an email that my knife had been delivered to my front door.  I went downstairs and searched around outside to find my knife misdelivered to the wrong address.

 

Mildly annoying.  Much worse, the UPS driver did not pick up the USB microscope I was returning to amazon, as mentioned on another knife thread:

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/97818-chefs-choice-vs-prof-knife-sharpening/?do=findComment&comment=2356001

 

I don't have a vehicle and the microscope is too bulky for me to carry to a UPS pickup location.  Normally I am a cheerful and forgiving person but I lost it with the UPS digital assistant, who should be waterboarded, unplugged and shot.*  Once I reached an actual UPS human I was of course not rude but I am left in a most unpleasant frame of mind by the incident.  They put little street numbers on UPS shipping labels for a reason.

 

Worse still, in these days of war and famine, pestilence and death, I am left feeling ashamed and petty.  Which is what my new knife was.

 

 

*In that order

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

[Anna N]

21 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

What happened was I received an email that my knife was out for delivery. 

Truly, I feel your pain. It was not a knife I grieved but a replacement for an electronic gadget that I had flushed down the toilet. FedEx claimed that there was no one home when they delivered it despite that I have no means of leaving the house so I’m here 24/7. They offered that I could pick it up about 30 km from here. I declined that kind offer. Eventually I connected with one of those customer service representatives most of us can only dream of. She gave the package to a driver and it arrived within a couple of hours. I can only wish you the same courtesy. 

[liuzhou]

Today I acquired myself a new 菜刀 (cài dāo), literally vegetable knife, but 菜 (cài) is also used to just mean 'food'. Standard Chinese kitchen knife, but a good one. This is to replace an old one I've had for about 20 years and never really liked.

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

3 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Today I acquired myself a new 菜刀 (cài dāo), literally vegetable knife, but 菜 (cài) is also used to just mean 'food'. Standard Chinese kitchen knife, but a good one. This is to replace an old one I've had for about 20 years and never really liked.

 

 

 

Very attractive.  How large is it?  I assume it is lighter than a cleaver?

 

[liuzhou]

18 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Very attractive.  How large is it?  I assume it is lighter than a cleaver?

 

 

The blade is  205 mm long and it weighs 449 grams. A bone cutting cleaver woild be heavier, yes.

Edited September 3, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

[btbyrd]

On 8/30/2022 at 8:07 AM, TicTac said:

Thanks for the suggestion - the 2 Kiwi knives arrived and are wicked sharp.  Very thin blades, great for veg prep.  Certainly not super high quality, so I am curious to see how the edge holds up, but for $10/knife - a bargooon!

A bargooon indeed! I'm sure you'll be happy with them. It's really hard to beat the Kiwis on value. They're part of the cheap knife set that I just made up that I recommend for people just starting out or whoever else doesn't have that much money to drop on knives. A 8" or 10" Victorinox Fibrox chef's knife, the cheap Vic paring knife, a couple Kiwis, and a cheap bread knife from Mercer or Tojiro will get you well covered for around $100.

 

4 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Today I acquired myself a new 菜刀 (cài dāo), literally vegetable knife

 

New cleaver day is a good day! Congrats! I love a good cai dao (or chuka bocho as they're known in Japan). They're fantastic choppers and slicers, but can handle almost any ordinary kitchen task. I heard someone say that when you get a cai dao, you should use it and only it for a month. This was to train you how to use the cleaver in many ways, but it was also said to improve your knife skills with traditional western knives once you go back to them. I didn't use *only* my cai dao for the first month I had it, but it was pretty close. And I'd say that it improved my skills considerably. 

 

@JoNorvelleWalker They're sometimes described as vegetable cleavers (like a big nakiri, which evolved from the cai dao) but they can certainly be used to cut boneless protein. Or even protein with bones if you're not a monster about it. If you do need to hack through bones, there are thicker offerings available for that purpose. I think of it as the equivalent to a chef's knife or gyuto in the Chinese kitchen. 

 

The weight on these can vary a lot. I'd bet that a lot of the weight in liuzhou's cleaver is in the bolster and handle. The CCK cleaver that I have is the same length but 40% lighter. And the Takeda chuka that my heart most desires also weighs less, despite being freaking gigantic.

 

Anyway, I really enjoy this style of knife and also enjoy the fact that there are many good, inexpensive cleavers out there to try. I'd also love to try some of the expensive ones!

[lindag]

13 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I got a new knife today.  UPS delivered it to the wrong address.  I am very out of sorts.  And amazon does not sell sorts.

 

 

Brilliant!!!!!!

[weinoo]

34 minutes ago, btbyrd said:

A 8" or 10" Victorinox Fibrox chef's knife, the cheap Vic paring knife, a couple Kiwis, and a cheap bread knife from Mercer or Tojiro will get you well covered for around $100.

 

Also works really well as a traveling knife set. For catering jobs, etc.

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, btbyrd said:

The weight on these can vary a lot. I'd bet that a lot of the weight in liuzhou's cleaver is in the bolster and handle.

 

No. By far, most of the weight is in the blade.

Edited September 3, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

[btbyrd]

Weird. Then I’d wager it’s much thicker than what I’m used to.

[lindag]

On 8/24/2022 at 1:09 PM, btbyrd said:

 

Beautiful! The Zwilling/Kramer Meiji line is very nice and I'm sure you'll get a lifetime of joy from it. Such good looking knives!

 

 

Good find! Some even less expensive knives that are highly regarded in the knife world are the offerings from Kiwi (a Thai brand). They're made from soft stainless (so the edges don't last super long) but the blades are very thin and cut well. You can get a pair of them for like $12 on Amazon. (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

I was enabled yet again!

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, btbyrd said:

Weird.

 

Not at all weird. All Chinese 菜刀 are the same. I don't know what you are used to but it ain't these!

Edited September 3, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

[btbyrd]

I'm used to CCK, Shibazi, Fook Kee, and Chopper King, all of which are considerably lighter than your knife. But there is variance, I grant you that.

[Anna N]

4 hours ago, btbyrd said:

A bargooon indeed! I'm sure you'll be happy with them. It's really hard to beat the Kiwis on value. They're part of the cheap knife set that I just made up that I recommend for people just starting out or whoever else doesn't have that much money to drop on knives. A 8" or 10" Victorinox Fibrox chef's knife, the cheap Vic paring knife, a couple Kiwis, and a cheap bread knife from Mercer or Tojiro will get you well covered for around $100.

Thanks for this. I love knives and I love looking at what other people are buying but I also know that not everyone can afford to drop huge sums of money on a knife. It is good to point out that a functional knife set is within reach of most people. 

[FlashJack]

17 hours ago, liuzhou said:

a good one

That is a great looking cleaver. Mine is old and battered. Can I justify getting a beauty like that?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

On 9/3/2022 at 9:52 PM, FlashJack said:

That is a great looking cleaver. Mine is old and battered. Can I justify getting a beauty like that?

 

Do you know what audience you're asking?

 

[kayb]

Took my new Kiwi nakiri for a spin yesterday with veggies…slicing corn from cob, carving up eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash. Wicked sharp. Easy to handle. Well wroth the, I think, $9.08 I spent on it.

[lindag]

1 hour ago, kayb said:

Took my new Kiwi nakiri for a spin yesterday with veggies…slicing corn ...

You need one of these  It will change your life.

Edited September 6, 2022 by lindag (log)

[kayb]

I have one, and generally use it. But I wanted to play with the nakiri.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I thought I would update the opinion of my recent New West knife purchases...

 

 

Plus the 6 inch petty knife not shown.

 

The 6 inch serrated deli knife I have been using every day for citrus.  I love it.  The petty looks the same but is not serrated.  Feels good in hand but I've not found much use for it.  The serrated bread knife is disappointing only because the blade is too short for the breads I bake.  Bakers of small loaves should rush out and buy one.

 

The chopper is the big disappointment.  I had such hopes.  I have not found a use for it.

 

More nuanced is the 8 inch chef knife.  Compared to my older New West 9 inch chef knife, the tine of the 8 inch chef knife is much thicker, with the result that the 8 inch knife is perfectly balanced at the grip.  Whereas the older 9 inch knife is blade heavy.  I'm not sure which I prefer but they are different.  For me the length difference is insignificant.

 

[scubadoo97]

On 8/25/2022 at 10:23 AM, Margaret Pilgrim said:

 

Yes, the Opinel does fold and has a sliding lock to prevent damage or injury.   

The biggest problem with a pocket(book) knife is remembering to move it to checked luggage when traveling.

 

eta I notice that the pictured knife if INOX    Both of mine are vintage and carbon steel.    As a French woman told me, no need to wash them.  Just wipe them on a piece of bread.   The sausage or cheese fat is perfect protection.

i have the same knife.  It was a group buy with my bourbon group with our group name on the handle.  And yes they are carbon steel

[paulraphael]

 

Here's my first new knife in over a decade. I've been splitting time between two kitchens ... the new one is unrenovated and being used kind of like a camping kitchen. We've just minimally equipped it. But I realized I needed a knife. Seemed like an excuse to finally get a good beater knife ... something that performs well enough but is cheap and demands no pampering. 

 

I was about to just get a Victorinox chef's knife on Amazon. Can't go wrong with those, especially for $40. But they're so boring. I really like a wa-gyuto. I knew the days of sub-$100 Tojiros and the like are long passed, but maybe the internet knows some new tricks?

 

Yes, it does. This is Dauvua 240mm gyuto. Made in Vietnam. As the story goes, the maker is a blacksmith who works barefoot, and who only recently started making knives. Uses steel from truck axles and leaf springs (probably something similar to 52100 steel). Charges next to nothing.

 

He got picked up by Chefsknivestogo.com, and they gave him some design advice, and tips on how to clean up the workmanship, at least a little. This is the version-2 after CKTG's feedback. Might be made in a factory now, by people who wear shoes. It's pretty nice! Well-made hardwood handle (made from the side panels of old station wagons??) and pretty rough workmanship overall, about what you'd expect from a country-style kuroichi knife. 

 

I won't get a chance to sharpen it and clean it up until it's in the same city as my stones. So no real review. But out of the box it cuts as well as my German knives do when sharpened. I think I'll enjoy it.

 

Incidentally, I bought from Tokushu Knife, which I hadn't heard of before. They had it for $65 ... a bit less than others. Great service, but even more important, they shipped it in this box, which I will cherish forever:

 

 

 

Edited October 11, 2022 by paulraphael (log)

[rotuts]

@paulraphael 

 

wonderful post and ver interesting

 

Im am intested in that same knife 

 

i went to the web site 

 

and got this page :

 

 

any help w further navigation  to that knife 

 

aid appreciate it 

 

thanks 

[btbyrd]

I will forever be envious of your "evidence" box @paulraphael!

 

@rotutsHere's a link to their Dao Vua knives.

Edited October 11, 2022 by btbyrd (log)