Non Traditional Kitchen Knives?

P

primalgunner

Joined
Oct 8, 2013
Messages
11
Hey Guy's,
I asked this on the Esee Boards. I am getting divorced, moving to new Apt. & looking for a couple new knives. Instead of a Chefs & Paring knife what about an Esee 6 & Izula II?? Pair a new Junglas with my 3??
Or some combination of maybe a 8-10 in blade and a 2-4 in?? I can't really cook anyway so I figured it would be fun to have some blades designed for the woods in the kitchen.
OK maybe a little kooky but suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks, Mike
 
Last edited:
Do whatever you want, but those knives are going to perform pretty poorly in the kitchen. All knives are designed their intended purpose, and when you use knives for other purposes they will not have the design features that make them useful in these other areas.
Here are my reasons:
1) Too thick behind the edge. Big chopping knives like the junglas or the esee 6 are going to be very thick behind the edge to give the edge strength (I'm guessing they're in the area of 0.03" behind the edge). Kitchen knives need to be very thin behind the edge so they can slice easily (0.002-0.008"). Even smaller knives like the izula are going to be around 0.01" behind the edge, whereas a good paring knife will be as close to zero as possible.
2) Too thick at the spine. 1/8" is pretty much the thickest you want to go for a chef's knife, and 3/32" is the thickest you want to go for a paring knife (some people say 1/6"). When you go thicker than this, you start to get problems with wedging.
3) Blade shape. A chefs knife needs to have a blade profile that is always convex on the cutting edge. Any concavity due to blade profile, a guard or the edge stopping before the end of the blade will prevent the edge from contacting the board when you are cutting, rendering it almost completely useless for the task. A paring knife needs to be fairly narrow so it can cut curves. An izula is too wide to be good for this.
4) Balance. A knife for chopping wood needs to have the point of balance forward. A chef's knife needs to have the point of balance closer to the handle so it doesn't cause fatigue when you're using it and so you have good control.

In the end you are free to use whatever knives you want for whatever you want, but the knives you list will not perform as well in the kitchen.

- Chris
 
Hesparus said:
Do whatever you want, but those knives are going to perform pretty poorly in the kitchen. All knives are designed their intended purpose, and when you use knives for other purposes they will not have the design features that make them useful in these other areas.
Here are my reasons:
1) Too thick behind the edge. Big chopping knives like the junglas or the esee 6 are going to be very thick behind the edge to give the edge strength (I'm guessing they're in the area of 0.03" behind the edge). Kitchen knives need to be very thin behind the edge so they can slice easily (0.002-0.008"). Even smaller knives like the izula are going to be around 0.01" behind the edge, whereas a good paring knife will be as close to zero as possible.
2) Too thick at the spine. 1/8" is pretty much the thickest you want to go for a chef's knife, and 3/32" is the thickest you want to go for a paring knife (some people say 1/6"). When you go thicker than this, you start to get problems with wedging.
3) Blade shape. A chefs knife needs to have a blade profile that is always convex on the cutting edge. Any concavity due to blade profile, a guard or the edge stopping before the end of the blade will prevent the edge from contacting the board when you are cutting, rendering it almost completely useless for the task. A paring knife needs to be fairly narrow so it can cut curves. An izula is too wide to be good for this.
4) Balance. A knife for chopping wood needs to have the point of balance forward. A chef's knife needs to have the point of balance closer to the handle so it doesn't cause fatigue when you're using it and so you have good control.

In the end you are free to use whatever knives you want for whatever you want, but the knives you list will not perform as well in the kitchen.

- Chris
Click to expand...

Thank You very much for the time you have spent on educating me. I think I will stop fooling around and buy a real Chefs & paring knife.
Again Thanks!
 
Excellent choice! If you have a price range the people here can give you recommendations.

- Chris
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top