cutlery unpopular?

[tiguy7]

I am partial to the Hamaguri-Ba (Clam Edge) Gyutos in ZDP-189. These were made by Kanjo Tsukahara. View attachment 1924170

 

[jc57]

Funny that one of the most active kitchen knife threads in quite a while, isn't even in the Kitchen Cutlery subforum.

 

[K.O.D.]

When I was younger, and lived alone (for most of my adult life) I enjoyed cooking and did it often. I bought a lower end stainless Zwilling/henckels knife set and block about 15 years ago. 10 years ago I bought a San Mai Shun 6" utility knife.

6 months after I got married the Shun was thrown in the dishwasher with all the other utensils by my ex-mother-in-law and chipped badly. It happened again while I was out of town by my own mother, and the blade was irreparable.

Shortly after the divorce and moving home due to liver disease, I realized stuff like that needs to be kept "hidden" when company is over. I've never purchased anything like that since knowing it would not survive. Plus these modern "green" dishwashers don't actually dry the dishes, so if a carbon steel knife were to accidentally get put in there, it would probably develop rust before it got put away.

The new camp kitchen knife I bought is coming in about a week, and I will be sure to watch it like a hawk. With my father gone, most of the time dishes get washed by hand immediately upon use anyway, so I'm not super concerned. However, come a big family party it will be relocated to my safe. The Zwilling and Cutco knives are good enough.

 

[jc57]

Yeah, that is certainly a thing with good kitchen knives. There is a whole care regime that comes with them. Use the right cutting techniques, use the right kinds of cutting boards, hand wash and hand dry the knives very soon after use, store them in a manner where the blades are protected from damage.

If other residents of your home are not similarly interested in knives and their proper care, best to have some sacrificial knives for their use. So if they get run through a dishwasher, stored loose in a drawer with who knows what all, used to cut food on ceramic or stoneware plates, you just sigh, get out the basic sharpening stone, and sharpen them up again.

I have some very cheap kitchen knives of a soft steel, that cut just fine when they are sharp, and easily respond to a honing steel, Arkansas stone, and a simple strop.

I save the nicer stuff (nice for me at least) for when I am doing some genuine prep work where there is lots of chopping, dicing, mincing, slicing. Those get well cared for, though sharpening is a bit more lengthy of a process.

I have a lot of Shun knives from several of their different product lines. I know that the real Japanese knife folks look down on them, but I like them and they work for me.

 

[toker]

I find this more with the Japanese kitchen knives, a lot of the makers are old and one will never be able to buy their knives in the future

I went down that rabbit hole a while back and haven't stopped.

 

[The Grendels]

When I was younger, and lived alone (for most of my adult life) I enjoyed cooking and did it often. I bought a lower end stainless Zwilling/henckels knife set and block about 15 years ago. 10 years ago I bought a San Mai Shun 6" utility knife.

6 months after I got married the Shun was thrown in the dishwasher with all the other utensils by my ex-mother-in-law and chipped badly. It happened again while I was out of town by my own mother, and the blade was irreparable.

Shortly after the divorce and moving home due to liver disease, I realized stuff like that needs to be kept "hidden" when company is over. I've never purchased anything like that since knowing it would not survive. Plus these modern "green" dishwashers don't actually dry the dishes, so if a carbon steel knife were to accidentally get put in there, it would probably develop rust before it got put away.

The new camp kitchen knife I bought is coming in about a week, and I will be sure to watch it like a hawk. With my father gone, most of the time dishes get washed by hand immediately upon use anyway, so I'm not super concerned. However, come a big family party it will be relocated to my safe. The Zwilling and Cutco knives are good enough.

I have similar experiences to inlaws using my high end, non-stick frying pans and sauce pans; doing their best to strip off the surface material with a fork. Some people require a lot of supervision when they play with new toys.