Random Thought Thread

Casinostocks said:
Who makes a good cutting board which is value for the buck? I'd like to be around $50ish, give or take ;) Mine are the cheapies from Costco, "wood" and plastic types so I'm trying to step it up!
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You want end-grain maple and the like Mat. Much easier on the thin edges. Can be had for ~$50...and more of course. I’ll take a look and see if I can find where I got mine.

Edit: got mine on the great river site a few years ago. I’ve been pleased with it. Unfortunately, the seller doesn’t appear to have anything for sale right now.
 
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Casinostocks said:
The clock (well you know, the virtual type) stroke Midnight last night which meant Black Friday so what did I do? Well naturally I went knife shopping, online :D

My intention is to improve on my kitchen knife game (did I say that I'm quite cheap apart from my beloved CPKs and my folders, when it comes to spending on pointed steels?) so I found a couple of Shun Premier pieces at reasonably good price on Cutlery & More. I know that there are far more superior Japanese and Asian style knives out there in super-blue steel even challenging some CPKs in terms of pricing, but I ain't paying that much for something that others in this household can and will fudge up if left unsupervised!

ETA: Oh, I went with a 7" santoku vs an 8" chef type knife because when it comes to the kitchen and veggies (I'm eschewing meats as I get older), I actually prefer sheepfoot to stabbies!
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Honestly, the Shun Premier is a pleasure to slice onions and the like, with.

While it doesn't quite have the hardness of a carbon steel at 63HRc, it'll take a sharp edge. The fun is how thin the blades are. They zip through things like onions so easily, there's hardly any juice released to make you cry.
 
bluemax_1 said:
Honestly, the Shun Premier is a pleasure to slice onions and the like, with.

While it doesn't quite have the hardness of a carbon steel at 63HRc, it'll take a sharp edge. The fun is how thin the blades are. They zip through things like onions so easily, there's hardly any juice released to make you cry.
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I’m seriously moving away from meats so the selling point is exactly what you described which will be of importance to me. I don’t know what VG-Max is but I know that VG10 steel is a very decent steel for kitchen knives. Maybe VG-Max is a tweaked HT VG10? ;)

I’m no vegan nor intend to be heading that way but as I get older, I’d like to consume less meat at the expense of getting less but at higher prices sans all the antibiotics and the crap that the industry keeps feeding the live stock, poultry and even farmed fish. I think of this like the really old days when meat was very expensive on a working man’s budget! Meat only to be added to stews and things for flavoring rather than going all carnivore ;)

If the objective was to cut meat, specially with bones and things, I would def go more with the high carbon steels, S35VN and up! While in the subject, the Apprentice series (forgot the Japanese name!) which is being released by Spyderco uses CTS-BD1 which I think is like a D2? I don’t know what HT they use but I have that steel which I have found to be a bit too chippy for my liking. I have the pocket razor in that steel which doesn’t bother me when it chipped cutting cardboard but would p*ss me off mightily if same with kitchen knives!
 
JJ_Colt45 said:
not sure what you want to spend ... you can get a fairly nice board in lots of variations from Boos boards ...

they make some less expensive boards up to very nice costly boards ... in many sizes ... any I've had were good quaility cutting boards.
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I’m looking at them on the Big River site but the reviews are so mixed! Seems like the biggest issue to be cracks developing but who really knows what folks do with their boards!

I think that Mr. Mike157 is quite an authority when it comes to the kitchen. A man of vast knowledge and talents from what I have gathered ;)
 
Casinostocks said:
I’m seriously moving away from meats so the selling point is exactly what you described which will be of importance to me. I don’t know what VG-Max is but I know that VG10 steel is a very decent steel for kitchen knives. Maybe VG-Max is a tweaked HT VG10? ;)

I’m no vegan nor intend to be heading that way but as I get older, I’d like to consume less meat at the expense of getting less but at higher prices sans all the antibiotics and the crap that the industry keeps feeding the live stock, poultry and even farmed fish. I think of this like the really old days when meat was very expensive on a working man’s budget! Meat only to be added to stews and things for flavoring rather than going all carnivore ;)

If the objective was to cut meat, specially with bones and things, I would def go more with the high carbon steels, S35VN and up! While in the subject, the Apprentice series (forgot the Japanese name!) which is being released by Spyderco uses CTS-BD1 which I think is like a D2? I don’t know what HT they use but I have that steel which I have found to be a bit too chippy for my liking. I have the pocket razor in that steel which doesn’t bother me when it chipped cutting cardboard but would p*ss me off mightily if same with kitchen knives!
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Don't get me wrong, they're great at slicing meat too, but when you're slicing stuff like onions and tomatoes etc., a really thin blade doesn't squish anything aside as it goes through.

It's thinner than my 'laser' Gyuto (I have the Shun Premier Sumo Santoku and the Kiritsuke). I don't know how difficult it would be to hand forge blades as thin as they can make these machine forged blades.
 
mb> said:
You have to keep the boards oiled, or they will crack or separate. So you’ll probably see that on most/any reviews of end grain boards. People don’t take care of their stuff. ;)
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Yep.

End grain maple cutting boards are the shiznit (I got mine from a small company that makes them here in MI), but just like higher end kitchen knives, they require a little more TLC. John Boos has a selection of oils for butcher blocks. Just oil it once in a while.
 
If you keep the boards conditioned you shouldn't have any problems. I even like boos board cream to keep them in good shape.

It's that a lot of people use them and wash them and just leave it to dry and then reuse ...

it's about like using a kitchen knife and throwing it in the sink clanging around and not caring for the edge ... a little care and maintenance goes a long way.
 
Ended up buying an end grain board in larch wood spending over 2 times as much as I had originally stated but that’s OK. I found one on Big River which has exceptionally high reviews but I didn’t trust them once I found out it was a Chinese product. Word to the wise, Chinese manufacturers issue Amazon gift cards for 5 star reviews, I know because it happened to me a few times! Anyway, chose mine again on the same site where I bought the kitchen knives from :)

ETA: comes with the wax board conditioner too :thumbsup:
 
JJ_Colt45 said:
If you keep the boards conditioned you shouldn't have any problems. I even like boos board cream to keep them in good shape.

It's that a lot of people use them and wash them and just leave it to dry and then reuse ...

it's about like using a kitchen knife and throwing it in the sink clanging around and not caring for the edge ... a little care and maintenance goes a long way.
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Oh, I hear ya! It’s very amusing reading through some of those reviews, LOL. I’m a major type-A who’s almost impossible to live with. I think that I can even out-anal Justin @JustinFournier if I put my mind into it, and that is no easy feat :D
 
bluemax_1 said:
Honestly, the Shun Premier is a pleasure to slice onions and the like, with.

While it doesn't quite have the hardness of a carbon steel at 63HRc, it'll take a sharp edge. The fun is how thin the blades are. They zip through things like onions so easily, there's hardly any juice released to make you cry.
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Regardless of the knife or coarseness of dicing, anytime I cut up an onion my eyes protest. Maybe I linger over the cutting board too long. :)
 
trevitrace said:
Regardless of the knife or coarseness of dicing, anytime I cut up an onion my eyes protest. Maybe I linger over the cutting board too long. :)
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Yeah, the longer it takes, the more time there is for onion juice to evaporate and gas you.

Likewise, the sharper and thinner the knife, the less you crush the onion while cutting it, which releases less juice. I've gotten used to the Japanese style of dicing onions, and with these thin bladed Shun Premier knives, it goes fast.

Some other tricks folks have used is to stick the onions in the freezer for a little while (not till frozen; just long enough to chill the onion to slow the evaporation of the onion juice). Last time I tried that was a loooooong time ago, before I honed my knife skills.
 
Casinostocks said:
Ended up buying an end grain board in larch wood spending over 2 times as much as I had originally stated but that’s OK. I found one on Big River which has exceptionally high reviews but I didn’t trust them once I found out it was a Chinese product. Word to the wise, Chinese manufacturers issue Amazon gift cards for 5 star reviews, I know because it happened to me a few times! Anyway, chose mine again on the same site where I bought the kitchen knives from :)

ETA: comes with the wax board conditioner too :thumbsup:
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Here’s the one I grabbed off there.
BC3C4E37-EA04-430B-B86B-5E330F3835A6.jpeg CA385F79-20D9-48B2-93BA-946D4896FE47.jpeg

Then again I have no clue about this stuff, I thought it looked nice though lol.
 
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