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Dull knives to use

R

RobbW

Joined
Oct 15, 2003
Messages
2,988
I normally keep my knives fairly sharp on my Edge Pro. I do more slicing and fine cutting and never do any batoning or chopping so I keep the edges thin and they cut really well for me.

I'm normally so concerned with keeping them sharp I don't stop to think there are knives that work better dull--at least with really obtuse edges. Any oyster knife is one example. You don't want a sharp edge coming into you really fast when you open the back of an oyster. I usually put the knife and oyster in my off hand and squeeze them together.

Are there other examples of knives or situation where dull equalls better?
 
There are many knives which are designed to not actually be sharp, a putty knife for example and scraper blades, though these are not really "knives" as they are not actually used to cut things.

-Cliff
 
Well the forward edge on my DB (Strider) isn't supposed to be sharp but I'd still call it a knife. I've used it to scrape paint off metal, cut countless strips of sandpaper, and pry like no tomorrow. It's one of my 2 favourite FB's. If it had a thin sharp forward edge on it I'd shy away from using it the way I do. The primary edge on it is also extremely thick, but can handle most cutting chores.
 
An over sharp fish filleting knife is normally too sharp to skin a fillet of fish, so I fillet with my Global filleting knife and then use another duller knife for removing the skin from the fillet.
 
I find that many times kitchen paring knives do not need to be sharp. I prefer it that way. If I'm just using a medium sharp, paring knife and I scrape my hand or finger or something it will not even cut my hand. It will continue to cut my apple or whatever else I'm cutting but not cut me. However if I get out one of my sharp folders and cut some fruit or even a SAK, I will cut myself if I even graze my skin on accident.

Sometimes sharp is not always good. ;)
 
I think "sharp enough" is good enough for some applications. I've noticed the same thing in the kitchen. I still like uber-sharp paring knives, but for cleavers I like 'em more obtuse and only meduim sharp.

I think I'll always want very sharp EDCs though...
 
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