Kitchen knife forum question

jdm61

jdm61

itinerant metal pounder
Joined
Aug 12, 2005
Messages
47,357
A couple of weeks ago, someone asked why kitchen knives and the kitchen knife subforum don't seem to get any traction on BFC? After looking a couple of weeks, I have come to a compulsion. Nobody posts in the Kitchen Knife subforum. Yeah, that sounds like a Yogi Berra answer, but that man spoke a lot of truth in his lifetime. We see a fair number of kitchen knives being sold in the makers for sale section and we see pics of new knives in the Shop Talk and custom subforms, but none of them ever make it to the kitchen knife subforum. I would suggest that posting those pics there would be the first step in bulking up that sub-forum so that we get more than a question every week or two about how swell Cutco knives are. ;) Any thoughts? As best as I can tell, this is still the biggest of the forums yet we get little or no action with the most commonly used types of knives. I think that this would be very helpful to smaller makers because the couple of specialized kitchen knife forums are VERY expensive if you want to sell anything on them as a maker. Think 10 times what you pay per year for a basic knife maker membership on BFC. That's great for established guys, but not so good for newbies. As for individuals trying to sell their own kitchen knives, there is no section for that. You get lost in the fixed blade subforum, But that is a discussion for another day.
 
Last edited:
Good point. I do have a question for the Moderators about that kitchen knife subforum. Where do the old posts go? Here in shop talk we have pages and pages of posts. Sometimes I go to respond or check up on something there and the thread is just gone.
 
I started posting there last year, but stopped when my wife got sick. I have a few knives that will be posted there in the next few weeks. It's almost like the kitchen knife forum should be a sticky in this section, or in the custom knife section.
 
Ok to be clear, there is both a Kitchen Cutlery & Tools sub forum ANd a kitchen knife for sale forum.
 
timos- said:
Ok to be clear, there is both a Kitchen Cutlery & Tools sub forum ANd a kitchen knife for sale forum.
Click to expand...
Yes. My point is that specific discussion about kitchen knives could bring more people in and they, in turn, might buy stuff. The kitchen knife "community" has moved from forum to forum, but I have never seen a concerted effort in 10 years that I have been on BFC to grab that "market"
 
I have a question about that though, is it meant for people to talk about making kitchen knives? Or is it just a place to talk about kitchen knives in general? because i quick look over there shows mostly people with mass market kitchen knives. I have several articles i ahve been working on about kitchen knife handles and marketing, would that be the kind of thing to post there?
 
You know I thought about something else the other day..Ive noticed in our own dabbling with kitchen knives just how picky kitchen knife enthusiasts are..We have made only a small amount of kitchen knives to sell and most likely the buyers were just outdoorsman that wanted a good kitchen knife..They have been pretty happy with them or so Im told...
I have noticed that most of your serious kitchen knife collectors and users are far more picky that outdoorsmen. Now I understand that many of these guys work with their knives and its no different than a mechanic trying to work with a bad tool..They seem to have no qualms about airing out their unhappiness with a knife in public either..Just from my browsing Ive seen kitchen knife collectors/chefs/users talk pretty rough about even the biggest names in custom kitchen knives...You would never see someone bad mouth a big name makers work around here..They have no such trouble,LOL. I don't mean "angry" bashing, I mean hard honest unbiased opinion .Don't get me wrong I have no problem with someone giving an honest opinion. I kinda find it refreshing honestly..
I don't think that most knife makers want to take the time to see what it is that kitchen knife guys want..Its not nearly as easy to break in that market..
 
Kentucky, I believe that kind of sentiment is directly related to a phenomena deemed "mount stupid." The basic idea is that the worst assumptions about a field are not made by those who know nothing about it, but rather than by those who do a little bit of research on it and then believe they know the whole of it.


This is a a graph showing the williningess to talk about a subject related to your knowledge of it. I find a lot of kitchen knife enthusiasts fall into that mount, with simplistic ideas about knives they picked p online, things like water quenches are always best, forged knives are stronger than stock removal because of grains and "the natural flow of the steel," everything Japanese is best, western makers can not rival the supreme godlike skills of the Japanese craftsman. These are the same people who will always say that your damascus "isnt real, the real secret was lost thousands of year ago, it made a steel that modern metallurgy cant beat" and then some B.S about carbon nanotubes.
 
jdm61 said:
Yes. My point is that specific discussion about kitchen knives could bring more people in and they, in turn, might buy stuff. The kitchen knife "community" has moved from forum to forum, but I have never seen a concerted effort in 10 years that I have been on BFC to grab that "market"
Click to expand...

Well one thing I like about Shop Talk is the excellent way it is run along with high quality information based on science type stuff:) Alot of the kitchen knife world seems to be alot about marketing more than anything else. Id like to talk kitchen knife making with "makers" all day, but sometimes it gets hairy when you are talking with mostly kitchen knife users.
 
Serious kitchen knife guys are some of the most knowledgable non-knifemamaker folks out there. That can be a good thing and a bad thing. :D To expand on what Ben said yes, there can be a Mount Stupid, but there can also be a Mount Arrogance and Mount Snobby further up the creek. :p
 
Last edited:
Angry? Maybe not. Other words that start with the letter A? On occasion. :D
Kentucky said:
You know I thought about something else the other day..Ive noticed in our own dabbling with kitchen knives just how picky kitchen knife enthusiasts are..We have made only a small amount of kitchen knives to sell and most likely the buyers were just outdoorsman that wanted a good kitchen knife..They have been pretty happy with them or so Im told...
I have noticed that most of your serious kitchen knife collectors and users are far more picky that outdoorsmen. Now I understand that many of these guys work with their knives and its no different than a mechanic trying to work with a bad tool..They seem to have no qualms about airing out their unhappiness with a knife in public either..Just from my browsing Ive seen kitchen knife collectors/chefs/users talk pretty rough about even the biggest names in custom kitchen knives...You would never see someone bad mouth a big name makers work around here..They have no such trouble,LOL. I don't mean "angry" bashing, I mean hard honest unbiased opinion .Don't get me wrong I have no problem with someone giving an honest opinion. I kinda find it refreshing honestly..
I don't think that most knife makers want to take the time to see what it is that kitchen knife guys want..Its not nearly as easy to break in that market..
Click to expand...
 
Greenbergwoods, no doubt that's some of it. I think we got a bit of that everywhere..
jdm61, yea Id say some of that too,LOL
Your right too, some of those guys are a fountain of knowledge when it comes to kitchen cutlery if you can sort through and find it..Ive learned some valuable info from them. I guess its like anything else you have to be able to sort the good from the bad..
 
The bottom line is, making a high performance kitchen knife is a lot more difficult than it seems. You need to know how to do several subtle, difficult grinds, understand balance, edge geometry, and really listen to what the buyer wants. It's a very collaborative process.
 
I like the idea of posting and interacting with potential customers in the Kitchen Cutlery & Tools sub-forum. I'll start posting there. Honestly, I never really noticed it before. Maybe we can bring it to life. :)
 
It's not so much that making them is harder. It is slower for sure because you are working with such think material.If you already know how to make knife reasonably well, there is not a huge learning curve, but you do need to learn the peculiarities of the knives for sure. The straight razor guys are almost as bad as the kitchen knife guys as far as how the view their turf and their art form. :D
Willie71 said:
The bottom line is, making a high performance kitchen knife is a lot more difficult than it seems. You need to know how to do several subtle, difficult grinds, understand balance, edge geometry, and really listen to what the buyer wants. It's a very collaborative process.
Click to expand...
 
As for what to post in the subforum, I say everything to do with kitchen knives, be they custom, semi-custom or factory. For some of the custom guys, they would just be double posting what they have already posted in the Custom, General or Shop Talk subforums.
 
jdm61 said:
As for what to post in the subforum, I say everything to do with kitchen knives, be they custom, semi-custom or factory. For some of the custom guys, they would just be double posting what they have already posted in the Custom, General or Shop Talk subforums.
Click to expand...

So if I was going to make a specific type of kitchen knife, would it be appropriate to post in that Kitchen section to discuss the particulars and maybe get some input from the user community to help tune it in to their needs?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top