Kitchen Safety 124:
is yours Knife Skill? or just Knife Confidence?
[first] if you are pinching the blade, at all, YOU ARE WRONG!
well, unless you want control of the hilt and not of the blade.
also, pinching the blade leaves you vulnerable to finger and wrist fatigue {which affects your skill, or capacity for} and the 90° edges of the “spine” of the blade.
kitchen knives are designed to be guided [by hand] through a cut, not forced to attempt to be used as if it’s a hatchet!
why do you think that one knife is the same as the next?
do you know your tools? or is it just that you’re confident that you naturally can perfectly execute use of any given thing that you pick up?
… and from where does your confidence come?
do you know what your edges look like? are are you confident that they’re all the same?
why are you a monkey who sees then does just because it LOOKS “professional”? because you Have Yet To sever a finger—or you’ve heard Chef Ramsay mention how many times he cut himself while learning knife skills—and you have upwards of “10,000 hours” of getting away with wrong knife skills so you’re confident that you’re a master of Good Practice?
largely discontinued German/Western-edge: 50%/50% dual-bevel, 18°-20° on either side. wide, so would rather bounce than slice, so most people [both home cooks and “professional” chefs] apply an obscene amount of force to their “karate chop” motion because that motion looks impressive even though it is not safe for the knife, not safe for the food, and not safe for the person. the concensus is that speed = skill, and that you’re knife is sharp or not depending on its capability to withstand this abuse and cut.
“French”-edge [70/30]: three strokes on one side of the bevel to every seven on the other side, and an offset inclusive angle; my own desired edge, for a very specific knife, is 25°/10°.
Flat {or Chisel} bevel: typically, 0°/15°
“Japanese”-edge: double-bevel, 50%/50%, 12°-15° on either side
“Traditional”-edge: zero bevel; my own fine knives have a concave edge {the blade rolls into a taper to the edge}; others’ knives have a convex edge {the edge presses into a taper to the edge}
i would ask, “Do you know …,” and [of course] your answer would be yes even if you are wrong; it would be yes because you’ve gotten away with being wrong for a very long time.
who taught you how to use a kitchen knife? or a stiele? perhaps they are wrong, and you are just the follow-through of their wrongness.
is your knife HONESTLY sharp? or do you just call it “good” should it pass the thumb-brush or “paper”-cut challenge?
why are you confident that you haven’t destroyed your edge? so it might cut satisfactorily and yet not cut how the knife is designed to.
— my own collection, wishlist:
The Pioneer Woman Signature {white hilt or floral} just because they’re pretty and because i’m somewhat brand-loyal.
Forged-brand 11cm “petty” knife and [x2; one to frequently destroy the edge of, the other to maintain and to demonstrate Good Practices with] 25.5cm chef’s knife with olive hilt.
Yoshihiro [combination] “petty”/kiritsuke; Mizu Yaki.
Yoshihiro [combination] sujihiki/kiritsuke; both 240cm and 270cm.
Yoshihiro Mazaki-forged “petty” with camphor hilt.
Yoshihiro Mazaki-forged paring with camphor hilt.
— my own collection, current:
one Farberware “miniature” santoku [has a straight-ish edge] and one Royal Norfolk “miniature” santoku [has a curved edge].
various steak knives; i use the serate-edged ones for tomatoes/miscillaneous, and the “clean”-edged ones for dining.
random picnic-sized [combination] “meat knife”/”cheese knife”.
Dau Vua: convex {or “rolled”} edge; one sujihiki, one “petty”, one steak/utility
Maxam [vintage]: chisel-edge, except for the novelty Sukiyaki design {which is Western-standard; 18°/18°}—and i would like to re-edge my Sukiyaki to “French”-edge [25°/10°] because it is conceptually awkward to use it with any other edge design.
Ronco Showtime Six Star+: #10 {which i use most often for cakes/pies} and #13
Chicago Cutlery [my “workhorse”]: Western-standard specifications, German-standard steel, finer-than-standard “Japanese”-edge.
Avondale; full set, including santoku which i purchased separately.
Burling; full set, including santoku which i purchased separately.
all of my knives are sharp.
at least, they pass the “thumb-brush” and “paper-cut” checks.
they would not pass the “dropped paper cut” check that we used to see on television, though, and i don’t destroy my edges by using them as if they are hatchets like you might see “professional” chefs in a restaurant like Diamaru {in Salina, KS} do and so you might mistakenly think that it’s Good Knife Skill instead of just Fair Skill with not self-harming.
also, now that i have an appropriate oil for them, i do oil half of my knives; this helps to preserve my edges as much as it helps to preserve the steels [wholely] and the woods; my edges aren’t brittle when i go to sharpen or even just re-hone them.
tsubaki or choji oil are very good choices, in case you would like to learn more.
… and the vast majority of “professional” cooks/chefs in USA use their countertops for cutting surfaces because it's convenient to; the vast majority of these countertops are either stainless steel or fine stone.
even vinyl countertops, like in most home kitchens, have a lot more cons than pros for use as cutting surfaces.
— my cutting surfaces, wishlist:
— cutting boards that i own:
2x soft, flimsy, textured vinyl-feeling plastic sheets which i was given during a cooking class, and which i use casually.
a slate board that i use as a heat guard for things which i stow on top of my frige.
a textured acrylic board which i use decoratively on my prep table.
a one-piece cherry board which i keep oiled with the same tsubaki oil which i use for my knives and some of my cast iron.
likely, the only things which i would use the ash boards for would be portioning steaks or cross-body slicing [“deli-slicing”] of meats; limited edge-to-board contact.
what i think you should consider, for your own choice of cutting surface, is how smooth your slice sounds.
speed comes with comfort, not with skill, and far too many people mistake comfort for skill so have mistaken confidence. steady and focused is the way to go, so slower is often more efficient than rushed.
when i am rushing, i dismiss the feedback which i feel through my knife and i get cut.
to anyone who feels timid about knife skills: the main thing is to trust yourself and not let others guide you into use of your knives which you feel uncomfortable with.
to anyone who feels comfortable with abusing your knives, if only because “it all works out anyway”: please, choose to respect your workspace {including your tools}; this will make what you call good food service better.