Study in blade curvature

H

Hesparus

Joined
Oct 31, 2004
Messages
1,442
Hi Everyone,

I have been wanting to take this picture for a while to show the progressive differences in blade shape across a variety of kitchen knives. I finally have all of the knives that I need to do this picture. These knives differ mostly in the amount of curve in the belly.
Top to bottom:
Nakiri
Santoku/wabocho
Gyuto
French Chef's knife
German Chef's knife (I didn't make this one)

12189804_952017108201339_494544971021036521_n.jpg


I hope someone else finds this as interesting as I do.
Thanks for looking.
Chris
 
Notice that the French shape and the Gyuto are the most similar. There is a reason for that. ;)
 
Yep! I've been using both the French knife and the gyuto and they are hard to tell apart in practice.
If I'm being honest, though, this particular French knife has more in common with a gyuto. It has no bolster, feels feather-light in the hand, insanely sharp, and is less than 0.01" behind the edge.
 
I switched to a gyuto from a german chef knife about two years ago and love the thin lightweight blade but I still can't fully get away from rock chopping. Your french knife looks to be a little more rock chopping friendly while maintaining what I like about the gyuto's. :thumbup:
 
Gyutos and French knives are both fine for rock chopping. There is nothing about the deep belly of the German knife that makes it more suitable for that. In some ways it is less good because you have to raise the handle higher to get the same blade clearance.
 
Hesparus said:
Gyutos and French knives are both fine for rock chopping. There is nothing about the deep belly of the German knife that makes it more suitable for that. In some ways it is less good because you have to raise the handle higher to get the same blade clearance.
Click to expand...
Or just lower the board?
 
The difference for me is the pivot point (blade in contact with the board) while rocking is a smooth and slower transition to the tip (often never getting there and pivoting in the belly of the blade) with the german profile, the Gyuto is more of an abrupt transition to the pivot point which is closer to the tip. This is even more noticeable when rocking a Nakiri.
 
I'm not an expert but I thought the nakiri was for straight up and down chopping, not rocking. Another point - do you all like the last 1/2 or even more of the blade to be flat?

Tim
 
I agree that a nakiri is t really for rocking, but I know that some people do it. A nakiri is basically a small chukabocho, and rocking is normal for those.
I like the heel-side half of most of these blades to be slightly non-flat. When it is perfectly flat I find rocking to have an abrupt feeling at the end of the motion.

Chris
 
tim37a said:
I'm not an expert but I thought the nakiri was for straight up and down chopping, not rocking.
Click to expand...


and this was the point I was trying to make concerning the blade profiles and their chopping styles which is that the flatter/straighter/less belly the edge potion, the less conducive the knife is to rocking.

Not an expert either :o
 
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