There must be a difference between "Lady" sharp and "Man" sharp..

L

Lavan

Joined
Nov 8, 2000
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I swear my wife would use a knife until the HANDLE was the sharpest end. Me on the other hand, I ....consider.....what to cut and if it is worth dulling my blade.
:D

Well, maybe not THAT bad, but when my knife won't stall on a fingernail or slice paper into molecules, it's TIME TO SHARPEN!

;)
 
Lady sharp ist "Bitchin" sharp. My X keept her knives so sharp she could shave a mosquitos beaver....

But i know what you mean, but i know a lot of non knife guys who work with dull blades....#

Matthias
 
Many women seem to regard sharp kitchen knives with a mixture of longing and dread. There is a dream of the knife that makes food preperation easier (that's why there will always be another "Ginzu") and there is a fear that a sharp knife will suddenly attack them. My stepmother won't allow sharp knives in her kitchen, while my mother just didn't want the sharp knives in the bottom of the dishpan.

It is interresting to see what happens when you put the sharp knives in a social context. If other women seem to be using sharper knives, envy steps in and sharp knives become desireable. I bring about 50 sharp knives with me when my church volunteers to fix lunch at the local soup kitchen. All the knives are very sharp and the majority are medium length chefs-knife-like designs that work well on cutting boards. There are some true American, Swiss, German and French chefs knives, there are some offset blade Gold 3 utility knives, there are a couple Japanese Usuba vegetable knives with square tips, and there are several Japanese MAC utility knives. The MAC knives have the thinnest blades and are made of an alloy close to AUS-8 that takes an extremely sharp edge and is strong enough to hold up with a real thin edge. I have thinned most of the edges on all the types of knives and they are all sharper than any of the women have ever seen. At first there are people who want to use the dull soup kitchen knives since that is more like home, but then they see the other women whipping through stuff with my razor edge knives and they hear the appreciative comments. Suddenly they all want the "best" knives. The MAC knives set the standard that the other knives have to live up to. Women come to me with a razor sharp German knife and ask me if I can sharpen it (cause it doesn't slice as easily as the MAC). I have to reprofile the blade to about 12 degrees per side before they are happy. The social context makes converts out of women who otherwise wouldn't touch a sharp knife.
 
I like my knives as sharp as I can get 'em. I don't even like it if the edge of my F4 touches the sheath as it goes in.

I can understand the knives in the dishpan thing. Ever been bitten by an edge you didn't know was lurking there? I don't like to see edges looking up at me from the knife drawer or when knives are sitting on the table.

I've been cut more than I like to think about and I swear I see stars every time it happens. :)
 
My partner visited the daughter last year and she didn't have a sharp knife in the house so my partner went out and bought a sharpening stone and sharpened all the knives. Daughters useless husband (he is from the mother country) was astounded - he couldn't understand how a female could do "males work" that he couldn't or maybe wouldn't do.

In my sharpening business I find that women are most particular about having sharp knives it's their husbands who say "don't make it too sharp I don't want the missus to cut herself". I reckon there would be less knife accidents in the kitchen if the male spouses took time to sharpen the knives.

I also often have women in with their scissors to be sharpened because their husbands used them to cut "sandpaper"!!!
 
cutting sand paper? that'd be me.... :D how else do you cut sandpaper?

I keep my kitchen knives rough grit tho' - they don't shave but they'll zip through veggies with a "crunch" and they'll slice through chicken breasts nicely...
 
how else do you cut sandpaper?
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Fold it in half, bend it back and forth, and tear it.

Oddly, (apart from myself) the few males I know that carry knives keep theirs about as sharp as a 2 by 4. And the one girl I knew that carried a knife kept hers as sharp as the Devil himself (a Spyderco Ladybug used to trim her oboe reeds in shape).

I've gone to knifeshops, asked what the clerk used, and found that his wasn't what I'd consider "sharp" either.

And the one guy I knew that carried a knife actually sharp enough to cut skin...used one of those cheap-ass $4 Spyderco knockoffs you buy at hardware stores, and sharpened it with cheap, extremely coarse diamond rod. Proof that a sharp $4 is more useful than a dull $400 one.
 
IMHO sharpness has nothing to do with gender; it depends on whether or not a person -- male or female -- is actually using a knife. For example, my wife is a serious cook, teaches cooking classes, etc. & trust me, her knives are kept *sharp,* & she knows exactly when they start getting dull.

If there's a difference it might be that guys (on average) might be more inclined to obsess about their knives & sharpen them all the time even if they haven't used them for anything, etc., whereas women (on average) might take a more pragmatic approach. I'm sure we could get all Freudian on this topic but let's not go there..... ;-)

Best,

Andrew
 
I get both ends of the spectrum. There's me and a few friends of mine who keep knives good and sharp, but still work 'em hard if need be. At the other end sits my dad. He uses a Cam 2nd, sharpens it maybe once a month( :eek: ) and just puts it to work. When it dies, I'll probably get another grab bag o' seconds from SMKW, and toss a few more his way. ;)
 
When my wife ended up with eight stitches in her finger, she blamed me because the knife was too sharp. The truth is that she does not know how to safely use a knife. I cringe every time I watch her cut stuff in the kitchen. I learned many arguments ago to keep my mouth shut and just leave because I can't watch. :eek:
 
My wife used to be scared of sharp kitchen knives. Learned it from her mother who uses the dullest knives I have ever seen. She was at our house one time and freaked out at how sharp the knive she was using was. My wife has gotten used to sharp knives. Every so often I get a request to sharpen her knives.
Don't think it is a gender thing. Seen a lot of men use dull knives.
 
Lavan said:
I swear my wife would use a knife until the HANDLE was the sharpest end. Me on the other hand, I ....consider.....what to cut and if it is worth dulling my blade.
:D

Well, maybe not THAT bad, but when my knife won't stall on a fingernail or slice paper into molecules, it's TIME TO SHARPEN!

;)
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I once sharpend our (me and my girlfriend's) kitchen knives to shaving sharp.
When she complained that she was "afraid" of them, I rolled my eyes. :rolleyes:

That is...
until I realized I was WRONG. :grumpy:

I put myself in her shoes and I understood. A person, not familiar with knives who only uses them in the kitchen as a tool...
One little slip and she could lose a finger! :eek:

It's REALLY not neccessary to make a kitchen knife very sharp. A utility edge will do just fine.

I put her precious fingers in danger by sharpening those kitchen knives to razor-sharp that time and I regret it and I'll never do it again.

Sure, a dull knife is dangerous, but a razor-sharp knife can do BIGTIME damage with a small mistake.

Now, I just use my Spyderco Sharpmaker to put a utility edge on our kitchen knives every year or so and we use a kitchen-steel to maintain that edge. I think that's the right thing to do.

P.S. I DO keep my own PERSONAL carry knives scary sharp, but I'm using them myself only and if I cut myself it's MY problem.
 
My wife likes sharp kitchen knives but isn't particularly interested in learning to keep them sharp herself. I like to sharpen knives. I've noticed the difference in our attitudes has a lot to do with how we treat knives. When I cook (most weeknights) I rinse every blade after I use it. I don't want food on it any longer than necessary. I wash it in a dishpan and I dry it and put it away as soon as I'm done. I use a cleaver or a heavy chef's knife to cut up chickens or anything with bones in it. My wife will leave a knife on the counter with food all over it, and if she doesn't do the dishes right away it'll be there with food dried on it in the morning. She will use our good santoku, which is a killer vegetable prep blade, to cut up a chicken, which is why there is a little ding in the blade that I'm slowly working out. But after 36 years of wedded bliss, you learn to pick your battles ...
 
I have an advantage in setting the sharp knife standard in our house, I do most of the cooking. My wife and I have been together since we were college students (over 30 years ago). One of the first things I brought in to equipping our kitchen was sharp knives. I showed my wife how to use sharp knives and there has never been a period of excess finger cuts. Our kids have grown up with sharp knives and there are no missing digits or prominent scars. When I look at the scars on my hands they come from tin cans, broken glasses, and industrial equipment. Sharp knives just aren't that dangerous if you have fair warning and get used to them.

On the other hand when I bring 50 razor sharp kitchen knives with me to the local soup kitchen and 30 church volunteers do a blitz on meal preparation there are accidents. I would say it averages one cut a shift. This is most commonly from volunteers who don't have a lot of food preparation experience. The worst are young men (one lost the very tip of his thumb), followed by older men (I watched one slice his hand on his first cut), then young women, and finally old women. Most of the hazards of using knives are similar if the knife is sharp or dull. You cut towards yourself, you cut too close to your fingers or you cut something that is not stable (like an apple that can roll). Apples are fairly dangerous since it takes some pressure to cut through the skin and then the blade zips through the rest of the apple quickly. I would rate apples as more dangerous than sharp knives.

Once people get experience with the job and the sharp knives all but the most timid really learn to love the sharp knives. The reduced cutting pressure is not only easier, it also gives more control. The job gets done quicker so the interval where you are at risk is shorter and there is less fatigue. As long as you aren't surprised by a sharp knife or are switching back and forth between sharp and dull knives the sharp knives are safer. The real problem is exagerated fear of the consequences of being cut by a sharp knife. If you use enough force to cut something with a dull knife it will do about the same amount of injury as if you were cut by a sharp knife wielded with the lesser forces required with the better edge. If you are chopping with a dull cleaver with enough force to break a bone it is not much more dangerous than a sharp cleaver.

The place where a sharp knife is more of a hazard is not when you are using it, it is when you come into incidental contact with the blade. If you have a kitchen drawer with a mixture of serving utensils and very sharp knives it is a recipe for trouble. You need to store sharp knives with extreme care and access them carefully. You don't shove your hand into a drawer full of sharp knives without looking. You don't leave sharp knives in a suds-shrouded dishpan. You don't leave sharp knives in places that they can fall. You need some sharp knife safety rules and habits, that are more about handling and placement than they are about using. It is like watching where your muzzle is pointed as you hunt and always treating a gun as if it is loaded. Once you have the right habits sharp knives are safer than dull ones.
 
"If you use enough force to cut something with a dull knife it will do about the same amount of injury as if you were cut by a sharp knife wielded with the lesser forces required with the better edge."

wise, very wise.
 
What he said. ^^^

Sharp knives are only unsafe because of dull ones, and stupidity/carelessness. The problem is that dull knives are common. You don't have to tell someone that a chainsaw is dangerous. But many people are used knives so dull they have trouble cutting butter in August. So in their hands, a sharp knife is dangerous. But a dull knife is dangerous in anyone's hands.
Jeff Clark said:
I would rate apples as more dangerous than sharp knives.
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If I were allowed a signature, I'd change it to say this. :p
 
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