Folders and food prep: Yay/Nay?

Vivi said:
Not true if you don't let the foods you're cutting contact the handle or pivot area. In that case a simple rinse is plenty.
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Plus as long as you get rid of the majority of stuff you are fine. Any residual gunk you can't see as soon as it dries out any potential bacteria can no longer live. Like I said I have cleaned many animals with folders and just give them a quick wash with hot water and soap. I have never tore apart a knife because it got dirty.

It sounds like a lot of people ought to be glad they weren't living 150 years ago when there was no refrigeration and packaged foods. Just because your knife got some meat juice on it doesn't mean it is a bio-hazard that is going to make everyone near it sick.
 
I'll cut up an apple with my Stretch, Caly3, or Ladybug if I'm at work but I generally hate getting fruit, cheese, PB, etc in the pivot or on the scales. In the kitchen I'll occasionally use a folder to open a package and very rarely test sharpness on a tomato. We have nice Murray Carter and Barkie kitchen cutlery that we prefer to use.

Now that I got my first two Salts, that might change, but neither is especially well-suited for home kitchen use (Ladybug Salt PE and Pacific Salt SE).

For backcountry food prep, I rarely even bring a folder.
 
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I use the 5.5" CUDA MAXX and the 7" MADD MAXX for whacking up melons, squashes, hams, roasts, turkeys, and wedding cakes. They have Talonite and S90V blades respectively. Grapefruit fear my Buck 186 with TiAlN coated, chisel sharpened blade. Tomatoes are spotted and oranges are filleted with a David Boye dendritic Cobalt folder which has been ground to a clip point. The SAK money clip makes short work of coring quartered apples and pears. My Benchmade 943 with an S30V blade is great for boning chicken and removing silverskin from pork tenderloins. I am out of space!
 
I used to not understand what would cause someone to use a pocket knife for food prep. But I've since started using them a lot. Mostly out of convenience. When I want to peel an apple at my parents' house, I'd rather bust out my little Opinel, then try and use any number of their dull kitchen knives (which I have sharpened before, but it's an uphill battle).

I've also used them as dinner knives at friends' houses. When they had a lot of people over, were serving steaks, and handed me a butter knife to cut with, well... I was more than happy to bust out my Tenacious to slice right through it.

It's become even more commonplace than that for me, now.
 
I mainly use folders for when I'm helping out at someone else's house mainly because most of the time my folder is much sharper and better to use despite how thick it is.
 
I tend to prefer my kitchen specific knives for kitchen work, though if my wife is not looking (she wrongly thinks my pocket knives are filthy)I'll use my folder to perform a quick task if a kitchen knife is not readily at hand.
 
Actually the more I think about it I do use my folders for some food prep. Peeling apples and cutting up limes is how I usually start a patina on my carbon slipjoints. It works great. Thin bladed slipjoints are just the thing for peeling apples.:thumbup::D
 
+1 for the Opinel and Stretch!

These are the two knives that I end up using the most in the kitchen.
Any kitchen knives that I sharpen look as if they had cut through a couple of bricks a week later.
 
I'm in a car at the moment and I got a loaf of chibata bread a few min ago and I'm waiting in the car and I used my sebenza to cut some pieces off the loaf for a snack...better than tearing off a piece and getting crumbs everywhere...it was washed twice today before cutting up a lemon for some tea and after so it's good to go!

I think it's fine to use folders for food prep, especially the seb cause it's so easy to clean if it does get messy
 
I have a Buck 110 that I use daily in the kitchen and at the table. I don't take any special care of it and its holding up great for about a year now.
 
i keep a knife block above the sink & ocassionaly grab a big eye soddie for heavier cutting on packages or cabbage ends. sometimes the soddie shines at tenderloin slicing. for onions & other tasks it's the murry carters.
 
I'm new to learning details about knives and I probably will seem quite ignorant here... but this thread is really interesting to me and I have some questions:

Is it at all harmful to wash out the pivoting components of a typical Benchmade (say a Grip, Presidio, or Barrage) or Spyderco (Delica, etc.) with soap and water? Is residual moisture in the pivot area possibly harmful?

Are common foods at all likely to cause corrosion on these typical knives?

If one were to plan for using a folder for a fair amount of food prep, would it be best to choose a knife like a Spyderco Salt 1 Plain for that purpose?

Just curious, as I am not at all inclined to use my nice new BM Barrage or Spyderco Sage I to the point where food and juices would enter the pivoting area of the knife.
 
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ZDHart said:
I'm new to learning details about knives and I probably will seem quite ignorant here... but this thread is really interesting to me and I have some questions:

Is it at all harmful to wash out the pivoting components of a typical Benchmade (say a Grip, Presidio, or Barrage) or Spyderco (Delica, etc.) with soap and water? Is residual moisture in the pivot area possibly harmful?

Are common foods at all likely to cause corrosion on these typical knives?

If one were to plan for using a folder for a fair amount of food prep, would it be best to choose a knife like a Spyderco Salt 1 Plain for that purpose?
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It shouldn't be. I routinely wash my knives, and then shake dry and put right back in my pocket with no notable corrosion on the blades or pivot areas so far. My Stretch has only seen rust on the liners where moisture was trapped next to the FRN after several months of being washed at least once a week. Here's a post about the corrosion (or lack thereof) on the blade/pivot after a month or so of carry. If it's a concern, use a hair dryer, it only takes a few minutes to completely dry out the pivot.

Not if you wash them when you're finished. Staining is usually seen after an extended time period. My ZDP knives (usually a steel known for staining) showed light stains after four hours of contact. VG10 did much better, but this was an extended period of time under test conditions. During normal use I've seen no staining on S30V, VG10 or ZDP189.

I wouldn't. The Salt 1 has a hollow saber grind which is generally not good for cutting food items such as fruits or vegetables since the thick grind will bind in the food and not cut effectively. A better choice would be something like the upcoming full flat ground Endura 4 or Delica 4 or the VG10 Stretch. Food prep isn't really a consideration I make when choosing a folder though, I look more at ergonomics and general function.
 
I prepared a whole meal yesterday with my Leatherman wave. Why? Why the hell not?!
 
@ZDHart
You gave two examples of knives which in my personal opinion are the worsest choice for kitchen purpose :D
1. Back lock (Delica/Endura/Strech etc) - even lock itself is not very prone to jams caused by food, the internal liners, lightened with drilled holes are fantastic place for bacterias and other weird stuff. Big plus for those three is possibility of taking them apart for maintenance.
About Salt: +1 what spoonrobot said.
2. Axis lock is better that BL due to better dirt/moisture/sand/whatever resistance. But - especially in griptillian, you have a lot of plastic "pockets" inside the handle, which can cause the same situation as I described above while talking about BL.

As a conclusion.
I'd consider taking a frame lock if you are planning to do a lot of "dirty" jobs - including food prep ;)

PS. Recently I've discovered that ZT0500 is fantastic kitchen knife = fully open handle construction + sealed lock and pivot + non slip G10 texture + good blade geometry (high flat grind + thin edge) + nice steel :D
It's only drawback is that sometimes it's just too large for delicate tasks :D
 
I use my dedicated kitchen knives most the time but sometimes it is just good fun to use one of my folders. A freshly stropped Spyderco Military slides through food like butter.
 
I typically do not use my folders to do food prep - but mainly because I switch off between knives so often. Some knives have a light coating of wax on the blades, and some get oiled a little heavier than others depending on blade material. It's just not worth it to have to think that hard!

Also - I find myself carrying large tactical style knives around the house - and they are not always the best prep knives.
 
Thanks for the replies... sounds like using a fixed blade just makes sooo much more sense, if one is available. That's what I'll do unless I find I must use a folder - and in that event, I'll do my best to keep the mess on the blade only. No point inviting more work and effort in getting messy gunk out of the nooks, crannys, and pivot.
 
Vivi said:
With folders I take care not to get the pivot or handle dirty (Only touch knife with right hand, use left hand for food) so that clean-up is simply rinsing the blade with hot water under the sink then pat dry with a towel.
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this works well for me also
if no dedicated kitchen knife is available I generally use my FFG pacific salt

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I dont see the draw of prepping food with folders outside of camping or emergency situations but to each their own.

Kitchen knives are just so much better for food cuts due to size/geometry etc.


now if you were talking about just eating an apple out of a pack or last ditch because you are cutting food and you are at a house with dull crap knives i get it.

now worth noting if you coat your blade with a toxic substance perhaps you should rethink that and use mineral oil or something if you intend to leave food prep open. I use mineral oil just because it's what I have on hand for conditioning my butchers block, knife handles that aren't stabilized and carbon blades that are going to sit for for more than a few days.
 
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