Kitchen knife bevel question

mccandmatt

mccandmatt

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Oct 29, 2013
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I am making a santoku for myself, nothing fancy, could just use a new kitchen knife. Is it better to do a flat bevel all the way to the spine, or can a bevel partially up the blade perform just fine for straight cuts? also would a straight sharp bevel any better than a convex? I try not to go by mass produced blade as examples, I have seen both kinds of bevels just not sure one is better or not. Thanks in advanced

Matt
 
Flat grind works, but if it tapers a little it does slice better.

As for edge bevels, I guess keep them flat, user could convex them if wished.
 
Kitchen knife geometry can get complicated, but having a high grind and a thin edge will get you far. Going convex is fine if it's what you want, but make sure it's a gentle convex so that it doesn't get too thick too fast. I personally think full flat grind is the way to go. What steel do you plan on using?

- Chris
 
A chef somewhere correct me please, but I thought a santoku had a long chisel grind... in other words, one side flat and the other a dead flat taper spine to edge. And I thought they cut right or left handed so to speak? No?

And some of those even have a very slight concave to the flat side as well I thought.

I always thought that was the desire with a santoku so you could get those rice paper thin slices going on. I plan a foray into kitchen implements in the future so I truly would like to know, but certainly not any in my shop at the moment...

Cheers.
 
I believe you're right Lucy, however the majority of all Western versions of the Santuko have standard bevels.
 
Damn that does make sense with a chisel grind. Damn it! lol I can see how that would be very effective for thin slicing. Damn I already put the bevels in. Well I can start over lol

Kitchen knife geometry can get complicated, but having a high grind and a thin edge will get you far. Going convex is fine if it's what you want, but make sure it's a gentle convex so that it doesn't get too thick too fast. I personally think full flat grind is the way to go. What steel do you plan on using?

- Chris
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. Yeah I did not realize how thin steel is a little trickier, at least for me. I am using 1095 3/32w
 
the Santoku meaning three virtues or three uses is the japanese all purpose knife and everyone that I have seen are double beveled. most japanese santoku are also convex ground either a thin blade with a partial grind or a thicker blade with a full grind. some so very lightly convexed that they are almost flat but when a straight edge is held across the blade the convexity can be seen. the only flat ground santokus I have seen are western.

An usuba while being slightly similar to a santoku, is a dedicated vegetable knife and is what was described above being chisel ground on the right side and slightly hollow ground on the left. A kiritsuke is a similar knife in use but completely different in shape. here is a video of the usuba in use.

[video=youtube;3HDro-KP9Wo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HDro-KP9Wo[/video]
 
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Spaghetti-O's
Riceroni
Hamburger Helper...

Yep, that pretty much covers my kithen knowledge...
:)

And you can count the Japanese words I know on one hand... I think the Usuba shown above was what I was thinking of...

Thanks Bill.
 
Tonight I was making a snack before running off to the jam session, and pulled my carry knife out of the clip sheath to cut up a zucchini. Been a long time since I'd used a hollow grind in the kitchen, and I gotta say, it pretty much sucks.
This knife is sharp, and the hollow grind is very subtle- it's done on one of Nathan's 36" platens (same curve as a 36" wheel), and it's still nowhere near as slick as my flat grind/gentle convex knives that I use every day.
So yeah, what the guys said- a touch of convex helps cut smoothly through food. Not much is needed, just like not much hollow grind is needed to make it sticky in vegetables.
 
bill nailed it
and its not hard at all to get confused after all there are hundreds of knives in Asian cooking
 
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