- Joined
- Oct 25, 2004
- Messages
- 3,178
I remember a recent thread about the origins of the Jure. I'd been pretty curious about it myself; the knife has a very distinctive shape. I was half-joking when I suggested that it might be a barbecue knife but it did look like it might be handy in a kitchen.
Yangdu had this to say about it. At that point, I knew that I'd have to pick one up and give it a shot.
Who am I kidding? I was going to buy one anyway, sooner or later, but now I had a real reason to...sort of.
I managed to shark my Jure and an antler-handled Sarge knife last Friday. (Question: what's the only thing better than a Sarge knife? Answer: a Sarge knife with an antler handle.) They were waiting on my doormat when I returned from work today.
First things first: the handle would need to be sealed before kitchen use. I considered staining the wood but decided against it - it looked plenty good as it was. I don't know the first thing about Neem but I liked what I saw. After a quick sanding with some #1000 sandpaper I found that the wood was oily enough not to be in danger of cracking but not too oily to deal with some Tru Oil, and that's what it got - two coats, to be exact. Three hours of drying time did the trick.
After that, of course, it got sharpened. I probably should've waited to sharpen it. More on that later.
First things first: that odd hook on the bottom looked like it would make a functional bottle opener. It does indeed remove bottle caps.
It popped the first one off just fine. On the second bottle I slipped twice and nicked myself both times. The third attempt did it. On the third bottle I applied a bit of common sense and used a bottle opener instead.
The scar on my knuckle (and the hump beneath it) are a completely unrelated injury - the infamous Ganga Ram Incident. The cuts were superficial (in fact, I hadn't known that I was cut until after the cap had been removed) but hindsight tells me that I should've been wearing a glove just in case. Live and learn.
Due to the risk of possibly losing a finger during the removal of the bottle cap I can't recommend using that hook for the job. Use a bottle opener instead. No beer is that good. (Some are close, though.)
As for cutting food it works pretty well. The odd blade shape lends itself to all sorts of possibilities. The huge belly allows one to rock the knife back and forth very easily for dicing veggies. I was wondering what that upswept tip was for (other than looking neat) and it occurred to me that it could function as a stop for the hand if one were pushing down on the spine. It does.
Additionally, because of the extreme curve you can actually dice, or even cut, with the knife pointed straight down. The shape of the butt actually fits the palm extremely well when doing this - like it was meant to be.
The edge on mine was convexed when it arrived but not particularly sharp. After a bit of work on the belts and a stropping it shaved cleanly. It's a bit thick for a kitchen knife but certainly works well enough. I was able to slice up some radishes fairly thinly. There's a trick to it because the convex edge tends to wander off to one side or the other but it only takes a few cuts to get a feel for it.
Radishes? Yes, radishes are the snack of choice around here and there are always some laying around.
Although I'm dying to see what the hardened area looks like I chose not to do an etch; vinegar would take too long and I don't want any other etchants, or their residues/oxides/whatever, in my food. I figure that the food will give me an etch soon enough.
We have a duty rotation in the household for dinner prep; unfortunately, I'm not slotted to do a full dinner for the next few days. I'll try to get some time in assisting the others. I figure a few tomatoes or onions ought to do the trick with the etch. I also want to see how it handles meat, both frozen and fresh (I'm not expecting any problems) and bones. (That will be interesting.) Between the steel and the thickness and geometry of the edge, I figure that there won't be any issues. Think of it as a very light, very curved cleaver.
The Jure in its place of glory:
From left to right: inexpensive (but well made) stainless cleaver from Lee Valley, four inexpensive (but not so well made) stainless knives that see use primarily because they were a birthday present, the Jure, and a Japanese kitchen knife (extremely well made and ridiculously underpriced for how it performs), again from Lee Valley. I am covered.
Interestingly, the only one of the bunch that ever bit me is the Jure, and in the first four hours that I owned it no less. What is it with me and HI?
Yangdu had this to say about it. At that point, I knew that I'd have to pick one up and give it a shot.
Who am I kidding? I was going to buy one anyway, sooner or later, but now I had a real reason to...sort of.
I managed to shark my Jure and an antler-handled Sarge knife last Friday. (Question: what's the only thing better than a Sarge knife? Answer: a Sarge knife with an antler handle.) They were waiting on my doormat when I returned from work today.
First things first: the handle would need to be sealed before kitchen use. I considered staining the wood but decided against it - it looked plenty good as it was. I don't know the first thing about Neem but I liked what I saw. After a quick sanding with some #1000 sandpaper I found that the wood was oily enough not to be in danger of cracking but not too oily to deal with some Tru Oil, and that's what it got - two coats, to be exact. Three hours of drying time did the trick.
After that, of course, it got sharpened. I probably should've waited to sharpen it. More on that later.
First things first: that odd hook on the bottom looked like it would make a functional bottle opener. It does indeed remove bottle caps.
It popped the first one off just fine. On the second bottle I slipped twice and nicked myself both times. The third attempt did it. On the third bottle I applied a bit of common sense and used a bottle opener instead.
The scar on my knuckle (and the hump beneath it) are a completely unrelated injury - the infamous Ganga Ram Incident. The cuts were superficial (in fact, I hadn't known that I was cut until after the cap had been removed) but hindsight tells me that I should've been wearing a glove just in case. Live and learn.
Due to the risk of possibly losing a finger during the removal of the bottle cap I can't recommend using that hook for the job. Use a bottle opener instead. No beer is that good. (Some are close, though.)
As for cutting food it works pretty well. The odd blade shape lends itself to all sorts of possibilities. The huge belly allows one to rock the knife back and forth very easily for dicing veggies. I was wondering what that upswept tip was for (other than looking neat) and it occurred to me that it could function as a stop for the hand if one were pushing down on the spine. It does.
Additionally, because of the extreme curve you can actually dice, or even cut, with the knife pointed straight down. The shape of the butt actually fits the palm extremely well when doing this - like it was meant to be.
The edge on mine was convexed when it arrived but not particularly sharp. After a bit of work on the belts and a stropping it shaved cleanly. It's a bit thick for a kitchen knife but certainly works well enough. I was able to slice up some radishes fairly thinly. There's a trick to it because the convex edge tends to wander off to one side or the other but it only takes a few cuts to get a feel for it.
Radishes? Yes, radishes are the snack of choice around here and there are always some laying around.
Although I'm dying to see what the hardened area looks like I chose not to do an etch; vinegar would take too long and I don't want any other etchants, or their residues/oxides/whatever, in my food. I figure that the food will give me an etch soon enough.
We have a duty rotation in the household for dinner prep; unfortunately, I'm not slotted to do a full dinner for the next few days. I'll try to get some time in assisting the others. I figure a few tomatoes or onions ought to do the trick with the etch. I also want to see how it handles meat, both frozen and fresh (I'm not expecting any problems) and bones. (That will be interesting.) Between the steel and the thickness and geometry of the edge, I figure that there won't be any issues. Think of it as a very light, very curved cleaver.
The Jure in its place of glory:
From left to right: inexpensive (but well made) stainless cleaver from Lee Valley, four inexpensive (but not so well made) stainless knives that see use primarily because they were a birthday present, the Jure, and a Japanese kitchen knife (extremely well made and ridiculously underpriced for how it performs), again from Lee Valley. I am covered.
Interestingly, the only one of the bunch that ever bit me is the Jure, and in the first four hours that I owned it no less. What is it with me and HI?
Now i gotta get me one of these
I was thinking I might need one for food prep, but the built in guinness bottle opener was the clincher. HI knives are some of my favorite kitchen blades to work with. I use a seax for just about everything from cutting the bad spots out of potatoes to carving the marble out of pot roast before it's cooked. The AK bowie gets rib and bone duty. An antler handled JKM is MY steak knife. They way I cook 'em, you don't need a saw to cut the meat
