An Excellent Guide to Knives

Faith

I've just spotted this on Reddit and thought it would be useful here. I know we have a long-running thread on knives, but it would probably get lost in there so I gave it its own thread. Much of it might be well known, but it's no doubt useful for a lot of people still.

Loire

Thanks Faith! Never knew about dipping the knife in water before cutting potatoes and it's been driving me bonkers for years

Merkin

That's brilliant. Great tip about root vegetables, makes perfect sense! Where did you see that about potatoes Loire? Why are you meant to dip the knife in water?

awec

Merkin wrote: »

That's brilliant. Great tip about root vegetables, makes perfect sense! Where did you see that about potatoes Loire? Why are you meant to dip the knife in water?

Stops the potato from sticking to the blade while cutting.

Faith

Merkin wrote: »

That's brilliant. Great tip about root vegetables, makes perfect sense! Where did you see that about potatoes Loire? Why are you meant to dip the knife in water?

It says it under the 'pick the right blade' heading

hullaballoo

It's also crucial that you use the spine to move chopped food across/off the chopping board. If you use the blade, you'll need to sharpen every time you use the knife and it won't last very long.

hullaballoo

Also, the following video is how to properly (and safely) sharpen a knife. (I watched Gordon Ramsay's how-to on this as well, but he was using too obtuse an angle imo.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIz8QNVb4P8

Loire

I tried wetting the blade before cutting potatoes and it made a small difference. The easiest way I've found though is the us the tip of the knife (enough to cut the potato) and it doesn't stick at all..

Deise Musashi

Grantons can help with the stickage, one of the best solutions I've seen was a knife convexed spine to edge.

The apple seed profile means there isn't a flat surface for the food to adhere to, and there is an amount of wedging the food out from the blade.

Mad Rookie does a lot of custom sharpening though, this knife is a Konosuke ZDP-189 Chef's knife (Gyuto) of 240mm long with custom Wa handle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfN9_B9Hvvw

Swiper the fox

Sorry all, was looking for the big knife thread but couldn't see it so I've arrived here.

Has anybody checked out the "Thomas" knives currently on offer as part of the Tesco promotion, I could do with picking up a couple of new knives and don't want to spend too much right now, I'd appreciate it if any of ye know anything about these, they appear to have quite a high RRP so was wondering were they worth getting?

Alun

Saw them the other day, they look quite nice. They're made by WMF as far as I could tell.

oscarBravo

I must see if I can persuade someone in my local store to take a cleaver out of its box, I generally like to test knives for heft and balance before I buy.

Johnny_Fontane

my little tip is always sharpen your knives under the tap.

i use a stone to sharpen my japanese steel, but for some reason doing it under the tap does a much better job.