Using your knives in the kitchen.

B

BubbaGump

Joined
Oct 30, 2015
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Just curious how many use the knives in your collection for kitchen work? If so, what do you use?

I have never really owned dedicated kitchen knives other than the typical cheap Walmart paring and chef knife. Decided to buy a ~$100 Suntoku knife recently as I do a lot of chopping and dicing of vegetables and fruit etc.... I liked the thin profile of the blade and dimensions and thought I would try out a dedicated kitchen knife for once

I have used a lot of my blades in the kitchen. Recently acquired a Benchmade 87 balisong and even have used that. But my main 'users' in the kitchen have mainly been lower priced models I don't worry about constantly gumming up in the wash/dry cycles of daily food prep. My paring knife of choice has been the Byrd Cara Cara. Just the right size, thickness, and holds a sharp edge for slicing in hand. Have used some larger blades for meat. Even use my Cold Steel trailmaster Bowie over Thanksgiving to carve turkey. It just works well. Have used my old K-Bar for cutting up chicken and beef etc...


One thing I noticed from visiting Chef Knives/Cooking forums when researching is that they consider $100 to be a very expensive knife. I wonder what they would think of a Chris Reeve folder or even a Benchmade bugout.
 
I use my kitchen knives in the kitchen, I just don't see a need or benefit of using a folder or other non-dedicated kitchen knife in the kitchen. I do use a folder or whatever else I have on hand when not in my kitchen and have the need to cut or prepare food, mainly because I don't carry around my kitchen knives.

P.S., I consider my kitchen knives as "part of my collection".


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panoz77 said:
I use my kitchen knives in the kitchen, I just don't see a need or benefit of using a folder or other non-dedicated kitchen knife in the kitchen. I do use a folder or whatever else I have on hand when not in my kitchen and have the need to cut or prepare food, mainly because I don't carry around my kitchen knives.

P.S., I consider my kitchen knives as "part of my collection".




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Nice collection. I really don't know a lot about food prep cutlery as I always just used whatever was in the drawer. I dislike using the regular chef's knife, probably because I lack the skills with it. Just seemed too cumbersome for the stuff I do, which is normally slicing and cutting up fruit, vegetables, chicken filters etc... Make a lot of fruit smoothies, cutting up apples, oranges, pineapple etc...decided to go with the santoku knife as its lower profile, slimmer edge, etc..
 
BubbaGump said:
Nice collection. I really don't know a lot about food prep cutlery as I always just used whatever was in the drawer. I dislike using the regular chef's knife, probably because I lack the skills with it. Just seemed too cumbersome for the stuff I do, which is normally slicing and cutting up fruit, vegetables, chicken filters etc... Make a lot of fruit smoothies, cutting up apples, oranges, pineapple etc...decided to go with the santoku knife as its lower profile, slimmer edge, etc..
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My two 5 inch Caphalon Santoku knives are my most used knives in the kitchen, also some of the cheapest (both were freebies).
 
I've thought about this as I grow my collection of folders. But the bottom line is: use the right tool for the job. I have a nice set of Henckels knives in my kitchen and a few by Chicago Cutlery. They have the correct grip and blades for cutting vegetables and trimming meat and poultry. The can easily be sharpened and work great.
 
The Santoku is a very popular pattern because it works so well! I use/have everyone of the patterns I make and many other production Chef knives! I've met a Papered Chef that used nothing but a Paring knife for 90% of his work.

I'm not a fan of using folders in a kitchen because you can trap food in the pivot and possibly make people very ill of even possibly kill them! I'm always on the side of good hygienic practices in the Kitchen.

Doesn't mean I don't eat an apple, Cheese etc with a folder when I am out in the field sharpening. I just rather not if I have cleaner choices. Find what size & shape Culinary knives work best for you and have at it!:thumbsup:
 
My kitchen knives see much more use than my pocket knives.Most of them are moderately priced from various makers and perform fine.
The only one that I consider expensive is the chefs knife by Kasumi.I am not disappointed in spending the extra money on that one as it
is used daily.
 
BubbaGump said:
One thing I noticed from visiting Chef Knives/Cooking forums when researching is that they consider $100 to be a very expensive knife....
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You and I don't visit the same kitchen knife forums, then. $100 is an entry-level kitchen knife when you get beyond the department store stuff. People who are into kitchen knives spend $200 - $600 plus for good one, and may have many of them.

The kitchen subforum here is infrequently visited, but there are other forums that are very active.

I don't use pocket knives in the kitchen. I do have several decent kitchen knives (more than I need really), but mine are nothing compared to those owned by the real kitchen knife enthusiasts.
 
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Whatever is in my pocket or on my belt will get used to cut and eat my dinner.
I don't have many kitchen knives, but my two most used are a 1979 imperial serrated poultry slicer that I bought new in the package for $1 at Goodwill a few months back, and one of two identical late 80's Kaicut chef's knives.
 
I prep food with most of my folders. Whatever is in my pocket. Tonight it was a Bugout to cut steak for a salad and a few potatoes and cucumbers. Works for me. :thumbsup:
 
3353A8BB-03BC-4A2D-9FD1-1E208F98CC44.jpeg Some of my folders find their way into the kitchen because their steel is superior to standard kitchen knife fare. I also like the Havalon replaceable blade knives. They work well for removing silver skin from tenderloins, and they can be resharpened. They even have bone saw blades
 
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From time to time I will bring my camping/hiking fixed blades in the kitchen mostly because I like the feel of them in my hand compared to most of our kitchen knives at home. As for folders I never use them in my own kitchen. When I go to my parents house or their beach house I almost always end up using the knife in my pocket because their knives are so dull. I offer to sharpen them but they think they are fine:(
 
I do like using this folder for food prep. It cleans up with no hassle.


I will put other blades to task when I'm seeing how they work. It's nice to cut a big chunk of meat and see how the blade handles.
 
Right off, I'll say I prefer not to use a folding knife in the kitchen...it's just too much work to clean and dry the pivot area after prep.

Other than that I try every fixed blade I own in the kitchen. Some, which to be fair aren't intended for slicing and dicing, are like working with a pry bar...like the Entrek I owned. Fine knife, poor kitchen mate. Although it probably would have excelled at opening raw clams and oysters.

One of the best little fixed blades I've used in the kitchen is the Spyderco Street Beat.
 
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At home I mostly stick to the knives in the block. If it’s a small job and the paring knife is in the wash, I may use whatever is clipped to my pocket. The other day I used a Zancudo to cut up a green bell, an onion and a habanero for my sausage and peppers. It made for a nimble paring knife in a pinch.

I am fortunate in that I’m able to do quite a bit of food prep at work for my break. And it’s a lot of fun for me because I get to use my favorite “kitchen folder”, an Okapi.
 
Here are all my kitchen knives. Buck 105 and a couple other of the smaller knives (custom Jim Ragsdale small skinner in micarta and wood handle knife made by a guy I know in MT in 1095) get used in the outdoors too, but they live in the kitchen and get used there most. I will probably add a Mora companion to this bunch. The bread knife is a wustoff and is awesome. The chef's knife is a Victorinox. The last picture is a hand made ulu my wife gave me. It is great for chopping, scraping, and some slicing.
kitchen1.jpg kitchen2.jpg kitchen3.jpg
 
I use kitchen knives (Tojiro DP gyuto, Nakiri, Victorinox Santoku, bread knife, Opinel #112 paring knife) in the kitchen and honestly I use them more than I use any of my other knives. When I use them, they are usually in use for longer (vs trimming a thread, opening a package, etc), and usually more times a week.​

I don't really use any of my folders in the kitchen, mostly because I don't want to clean out the pivots/etc, but also because my folders aren't really long enough for most kitchen work (~3in range). I do have an apple knife I keep in my work bag though, and have used my folder a time or two on a steak while out. But typically, don't use them.

Of my non kitchen fixed blades, I've used them a few at times, mostly for meat or otherwise on/near the grill. I used my Becker BK9 to cut one of the turkeys for thanksgiving. Becker BK15 for steak/roast/tritip. They work just fine for that type of work, but not really good for cutting anything firmer (onions, carrots, etc).
 
Being an amateur chef and a part time caterer gave me the excuse to purchase even more knives. I never use any of my carry/hunting/edc knives in the kitchen. None of my 100 or so edc/hunting knives are fast enough for cuts I need, and frankly, weren't made to be. The right tool for the job is the ticket for me. After years of searching for the "right knife" for me I settled on an inexpensive 8" chef's knife for $99 on closeout (a steal!). I like it so much I bought another when I found it.

I do a lot of food prep for the family and it isn't unusual for me to chop up a few pounds of potatoes, a pound or two of carrots, some celery, and a onion or two to roast for dinner. Cut up a chicken to its proper pieces (8), then prep and cut a green salad. If I have the time, I will also knock out a quick dressing and I mince herbs from the garden, and then finely mince fresh garlic. With the right knife and some practice you can speed through those tasks quickly. But anything other than a specifically designed tool like a chef's knife for me is a waste of time; the kitchen knives actually get used more than any of the knives I own. They are MUCH, MUCH faster in the hand to use for kitchen prep chores such as to mince an onion, it's more accurate when dicing veggies, and you are able to get uniform, clean cuts no matter the medium when you have the right knife.

Alton Brown (TV chef) is a knife nut. His personal knives are (Shun damascus) are quite expensive, and he has even collaborated with AG Russel on the newer folding chef's knife AGR offers. On one of his cooking shows when teaching about cutlery, he claimed he has asked several pedigreed chefs what the hardest thing was to teach aspiring chefs in cooking school. The answer? Knife skills!

Robert
 
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