. . . to the consternation of The Chef I just cut up two apples.
She said "What the hell are you doing you can't eat all that ? !"
I said it will be OK and she just rolled her eyes and waded out of the knife dude quagmire to find something to hopefully distract her from that old nagging conundrum . . . new room mate or psychiatric intervention.
anyway . . .
For controls I added her apple preparer (my old EDC) the Wustoff classic paring knife. I had mirror polished it way back in the day; very thin very shallow edge grind.
Also my Little Monster White Paper Japanese knife.
Also for comparison the Buck 110; it is the old stock geometry.
All the knives are "sharp enough" = able to dig into my thumb nail and not skate across = Shave sharpish / some areas whittling.
As I suspected and as with box knives; right tool for the job and all that; thinner the better . . .
The best at cutting through the entire apple to produce what you see in this photo was the Wustoff by a fair bit, then The Little Monster.
I didn't notice much diff between the Opinel and the Electrician.
The 110 was awful with the slice shooting across the stove and much force involved to perform the cut. The saving grace is the 110 has BY FAR, BY FAR, BY FAR the best handle / ergonomics so that is alright then. Did I mention I absolutely LOVE the 110 handle and ergonomics ?
Moving along . . .
I cut up the slices and stacked the "fingers" side by side on the cutting board and sliced through those to produce cubes.
Between the Op and the El. the El had some edge over the Op for cutting the fingers and the Op tended to cube a bit easier.
The 110 was head and shoulders above both once we didn't have to get that thick spine in the cut; it just sailed through the fingering and cubing. No question better by far.
So bottom line . . . for this apple type . . . I found no great diff between the Opinel and the Electrician as far as ease of cutting.
The blade shape on the El. was better for dissecting the core; I tend to cut the ends of the core off, whittle out the stem and the blossom debris on the other end and eat the rest seeds and all. Today I will be eating two, count 'em, two apple cores. (I have 911 on speed dial).
Best EDC, in pocket, apple preparing choice ? ? ?
Other than putting a sheath around the Whustoff, which I used to do by the way, . . .
Best slicer ? Best handle ?
. . . that would be . . .
. . . a Buck 110 with that awful thick spine ground off.
One of these days I'm going to do just that.
PS: Having great success with water proofing the Opinel pivot from light splashes of water while washing the knife. Candle wax melted and dripped onto the end of the handle and pivot area (only) then melted in with a heat gun on very low.