So I got this knife for Christmas that I'd never heard of. A Santoku. From what I read, it's supposed to be the perfect all-in-one knife. Perfect balance, small package w/a long blade, chopping, Dicing, Slicing, scaling fish, whatever. banana.gif

I tried to use it last night and it seems like Noone would ever use any part of the blade besides the last 1/3 of the blade. So I guess I was underwhelmed. I mean, it cut through everything I tried better than my serrated knives, and yet still gave me enough feedback to feel the differences in texture in the middle of the cuts. But I just felt like it was supposed make me a better chef than I am. rolleyes.gif

So this leads me to asking a "tool question". Does anybody have a favorite type of blade? Why do you like that style? Are there certain brands you avoid? Are there knives you'd like to get "if you could afford them"? You know, stuff like that... cool.gif

 

Santoku blades are fantastic! The only downside to them is the lack of a sharp point for package piercing. I own 4 of them. They have the divits on the blade to create air as your slicing so the part being chopped off has less a chance to sticking to your blade, not to mention the tang is much thicker then a standard chef's knife. No chance of busting your knucles with the santoku. I think the only downfall to these is length. Can't really successfully complete tasks like cleaning a whole salmon or cut through a whole block of cheddar in one turn.

At home, IMHO, it's the best knife to have. I'll use it 99% of the time over anything else in the block.

 

My view of a "kitchen" knife might be skewed because I usually have multi purpose knives that are my favorite.

My all time favorite is my Kershaw set. It is one handle with interchangable blades. I have the boning, filet, and bone saw blades for it. The vast majority of the time that I am cutting things it's a piece of dead animal. Most of that time it's a dead game animal. On deer and elk the fat is not liquid at human body temperature so it is imperitive that you remove nearly all fat unless you want a waxy cast of the inside of your mouth. I remove most of the non-attached fat with the a boning knife and prepare the rest of the cut for attached fat removal and the removal of any thick muscle sheaths or tendons. For that I use the filet knife. I like this particular style of filet knife because of the way the blade's leading edge is shaped. It has an obviously rounded profile as you approach the blades cutting edge which allows you to press the blade's side flat against the cutting board once you have started fileting off a thin muscle sheath so that you lose almost no muscle in the process. A more angular leading edge seems to creep up into the muscle or cut down through the muscle sheath too easily in comparison.

I prefer standard bladed knives to serrated, although I have a full set of each in my kitchen.

 

So yeah. I went out and bought one because it didn't come in the set.



And this is what I was talking about with the lessened chance of knucle busting.


^As for nature boy, lol (JFWY) If your into killing and cleaning your own food, you may need a complete set to successfully prepare your food.

 

I *can* get it done with only a folding pocket knife from live animal to prepared on the table but it's not optimal. tongue.gif

 

Sorry, shouldn't have said successfully prepare. More like get the most out of.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bdiggy @ Jan 7 2009, 01:11 PM) </div><div class='quotemain'>At home, IMHO, it's the best knife to have. I'll use it 99% of the time over anything else in the block.</div>

So am I using it wrong or what? huh.gif

I did notice that the stuff I cut stuck to the blade less. wink.gif

 

No. I just think your one of those people that doesn't have great knife skills. One that tends to use the front half of the blade when cutting because it gives you better control. Try holding both the knife and the blade when you use it next. Kind of like choking up on the knife. This will give you more stability and force you to cut more with the center of the blade. Eventually, you can ween yourself back to just the handle, but still have the blade control you desire.

 

Sounds like advice you'd give to someone learning to use a hammer: to change where they're holding it.

I don't place my index finger along the back of the blade, but I do try to start cuts about 4/5 towards the back of the blade, and try to only move to the tip when I want manueverability. When I think about it, I use the knife kinda like a seesaw: The closer to the tip I'm cutting, the farther down the handle I hold the knife. So when I'm using the back of the blade, I'm holding the handle pretty close to the blade.

 

Most people don't hold knives correctly.

I prefer a nice, heavy Chef's knife.

This is what I have:

http://www.wusthof.com/en/database2-classi...a=8410&s=cl

My brother and I are both big-time into cooking. He has a degree in pastry arts from Johnson and Wales. I've actually been thinking about applying there myself, but man... the tuition's a killer.