Knives and Sharpening

Victorinox Santoku is my favourite knife. It is a decent size and chips and slices nicely.


The tiny one in the pic is only about £6 and attacked wifey last week. 3 stitches in the thumb, and a reminder it is not for scraping glue off stuff.

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I was just about to buy one of those Victorinox Santoku knives, but have held off for now. A conversation with a friend at work has resulted in a couple of additions to my existing knife set. My trusty Nakiri now has a couple of brothers (the matching Santoku and Chef’s knife). The Santoku had a couple of tiny chips out of the blade, but my minosharp made short work of them (well, not that short, but it took them out).

I’ve now sharpened all the old knives in the block and concluded that most of them are fucked, so I plan to use them to kill people I don’t like, or maybe take them to the tip to be responsibly disposed of (the knives).

Sharpening knives is curiously therapeutic.

Gratuitous pics of new knives is mandatory.

Ah, now this highlights something I’ve noticed. Your chef’s knife on the far right has what appears to now be the “old” Victorinox handle shape, and the Santuko seems to be what all the new stuff is coming with. I’m very much not a fan of the new handles compared to the old ones.

Also, those little Victorinox paring knives are probably the best value knife in existence - they always seem to be about £5 for a pair (excuse the pun) and they hold an edge like nobodies business. As I moved up the ladder ranks I generally kept my Victorinox’s as “crap knives” - something I could use in a situation where I wouldn’t want to use a good knife, such as frozen meat, or cutting near metal or ceramics, and they stay sharp through some mad abuse.

Also have to give a hearty thumbs up to the little Opinel folding knife I have on that front, it’s been abused to fuck and still remarkably sharp. Also, the locking collar on that thing is such a brilliant piece of design.

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Apart from the slicing knife they were all bought within a few weeks of each other from Nisbets in Northampton.
The slicing knife is fairly old, and initially belonged to the ex husband of and ex girlfriend. Found it in a box in the loft. Quite good for slicing up bread.

The edge of the paring knife is now chipped to fuck, as it gets used for things it really shouldn’t. Will get another couple.



Finally bought a bread knife.

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Bread weapon

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Every slice will be respected with a farewell ceremony.

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Just happened across this thread.
I initially went with some Global knives and the obligatory water sharpener.
After finding these to be ‘less than wonderful’ mainly due to the handles being totally the wrong shape for my hand. I’ve found Pro Cooks Damascus range which I find far easier to handle and superior in all ways.
Sharpening is now taken care of one of those rolly things with an angle block with 4 magnetic sides.
A couple of rolls and I can shiv up tomato’s like there no tomorrow.
More practically chopping up the bulk meat from Costco is now far easier.

Is there a cunty pots and pans thread as Pro Cook is doing the business there after my beloved Circulons started looking a bit tired.

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You have to ask?

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Retirement present landing tomorrow, check spill kit, tick.

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When gripping the what?

We need to know!

They arrived this morning. Have downy an she working my way through the inevitable marketing BS around Japanese knives, looking for a knife with a large element of master blacksmith input using traditional methods that also have a utility i will use.

Already have a Wusthof Amici chefs knife so wasn’t looking for a.Guyoto, so settled on a Sujihiki ( slicer) and narrowed the search down to a handful of blacksmiths. Trawled through a fair few Jap knife shops when i was in London and pretty much gave up, the BS and misleading descriptions were just frustrating. However, an online only outfit who wfh , Ally and James from Cutting Edge Knives, took delivery of some Naoki Mazaki knives, including a Sujihiki. My recent leaving collection from work funded most of it, which was nice.

It’s a Shirogami 2 (aka white 2) core, iron clad construction, all hand forged ( no bought in blanks used here) with a Blacksmith and Pear combined finish, 310mm cutting edge length. Over the moon with it, even the Magnolia handle is nicely finished with buffalo horn.

They even threw in a couple of blue plasters :slight_smile:

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I also bought a smaller general purpose knife, a Santoku, again all hand forged with an Aogami 2 (blue steel 2) core with a stainless cladding. Satin hairline and damascuss finish, rosewood handle with buffolo horn. Some really nice details on the finish not usually found at this price point. Muenishi blacksmith, but at this price it’s produced as part of a range. It was the last one in stock, a lucky find.

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I’m on the look out for a small one (Santoku) like that - nicely played and a very nice retirement pressie to one’s self.

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