Secretary asked about a carving knife.

SALTY

SALTY

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My secretary knows that I am into knives. She signs for the boxes when they come in and has watched Beckerhead Gathering videos.

She was commenting the other day about how she has been disappointed in various carving knives that she has used and asked me what is a good knife for cutting meat, carving and other heavier-duty kitchen chores.

Well, not being a chef, though certainly no stranger to food, I instantly recommended one of only two knives that I use for food preparation: my favorite Becker, the BK-5. (The other knife is a Mora.)

She was attending a baby shower for my daughter Saturday and I sent a BK-5 off to her for evaluation and, depending on feedback, as a gift.

I was going to wait until I got her feedback before starting a thread but - here it is is advance.

Once I hear something, I'll report back.

Any thoughts on how a non-knife person will view a BK-5 for her intended tasks?
 
Most likely it will be a bit thick for her tasks. More than likely what would fit the bill for her would be like a Victorianox or Forschner. They are long, and thin, and hold a decent edge, and have a decent handle, and won't break the bank ($30-50 usually)
 
Maybe she just wanted an "in-home" demonstration and you weren't getting it......

Seriously a BK-5 is kind of a beast for anyone doing kitchen prep, especially the Becker uninitiated. Maybe a higher quality brand of carving knife and some cutco shears would have served her better. Or maybe her knives are dull, another reason for an "in-home" demonstration.
 
View attachment 736070 For sure there's better dedicated kitchen knives. Can the 5 get it done, yea , it would shine as butcher and vegetable slicer and it if sharpened good could slice turkey thin . I've done it just for fun :D but something stainless would make for an easier knife to maintain for full on kitchen duty :thumbsup:
 
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The BK-5 is my favorite kitchen knife. It along with a Mora (Robust at that) does everything i need to do - perhaps I'm just not chef level.

Anyways, she liked it. She said the parted out a chicken with it yesterday and liked it a lot. She was happy when I told her she could keep it!

She's Old School Italian cooks big meals for big appetites. She will put that 5 through it's paces - believe me.
 
That's great. I have a 15 on semi-permanent kitchen duty, but I used a 5 once to carve the Thanksgiving turkey, my family is used to my "weirdness" by now. But again, a thumbs up for the Vic Forschner. A friend of mine wanted something better than his Bubba filet when taking care of fish, and after watching some youtube vids of a guy using a curved skinner asked me if I could find him something like that. After checking the reviews on the Forschner I got him one, and tossed in a Johnson piggyback for detail work. He is in absolute love with them, awed at the ease of filleting of the thin rigid blade versus the softer filet knives he was used to.
 
SALTY said:
The BK-5 is my favorite kitchen knife. It along with a Mora (Robust at that) does everything i need to do - perhaps I'm just not chef level.

Anyways, she liked it. She said the parted out a chicken with it yesterday and liked it a lot. She was happy when I told her she could keep it!

She's Old School Italian cooks big meals for big appetites. She will put that 5 through it's paces - believe me.
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I'm with you Salty, the 5 is very capable in the kitchen and outside ;) is there better Knives for the kitchen unfortunately there is and they aren't so good outside :eek: with continuous washing it may be a good idea to remove the water and bacteria that may concentrate in the scales and cut outs in the tang. :thumbsup: But I even keep an extra 5 in the kitchen drawer for spaghetti squash and watermelon for sure and this and that I just remove the scales to wash if cutting up a whole chicken now and than .
 
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My favorite kitchen knife is probably my shun, or my wustof. Followed by the other. Then right after those is my Becker kitchen knives, followed by my 15, followed my by stock 15, followed by my 5. I might get some work done to one of my 5s. I'd love to thin it out like I did one of my 15s. I thinned it out to the thickness of the spine, all the way down.
 
I love the 5 for watermelon, pineapple and the chunkier squash. But we also have a really thick (.155) 10" Henckels chef's knife that the wife usually puts to work on those before I get back from the garage.
I do my best to keep it sharp enough for brisket, too.
 
Performance req's for kitchen knives are dramatically different than outdoors knives, though I think the BK-5 would be great for breaking down a turkey. And it's a thing of beauty in its own right.

For the kitchen you typically need one knife with a deep blade, no guard, and THIN. Or go the Japanese route, but that's a whole different set of techniques.
 
SALTY said:
The BK-5 is my favorite kitchen knife. It along with a Mora (Robust at that) does everything i need to do - perhaps I'm just not chef level.

Anyways, she liked it. She said the parted out a chicken with it yesterday and liked it a lot. She was happy when I told her she could keep it!

She's Old School Italian cooks big meals for big appetites. She will put that 5 through it's paces - believe me.
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Salty you do realize that you are responsible for sharpening that Bk5 for life now!!!:rolleyes:
 
tjswarbrick said:
I love the 5 for watermelon, pineapple and the chunkier squash. But we also have a really thick (.155) 10" Henckels chef's knife that the wife usually puts to work on those before I get back from the garage.
I do my best to keep it sharp enough for brisket, too.
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A BK-5 and a watermelon goes together like peanut butter & jelly, hot dogs & beer, hot apple pie & vanilla ice cream ... except more fun!

Tanker 1/66 said:
Salty you do realize that you are responsible for sharpening that Bk5 for life now!!!:rolleyes:
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You may be right but she puts up with me more hours each week than my wife.
 
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