Traditional edge thoughts

[Obsessed with Edges]

Slicing frozen stuff with a knife sort of makes me cringe a bit. All bets are off, in that scenario. Seems like a hacksaw might've been the best solution there, as with a butcher cutting frozen meat with a bandsaw. As you mentioned, Kevin, a chopping blade might also do well enough, like a heavy cleaver.

 

[richstag]

Yup, that knife we used in the picture sawed through it with ease, better than I imagine a hacksaw would have done. My ego took a hit that day when the cheap, dull serrated knife demolished my pristine SHARP high end knife All in the name of learning. Think about that mono line in the bucket there getting tangled around someone with a 5 meter tigershark on the hook. Again, I will take a serrated knife over a plain edge with a mirror polish. We both know how sharp and effective polished edges can be. The thing with the cleaver would have been too destructive on board. Maybe on one of the research vessels, but not in that little center console All the cutting had to be done on that cooler, and I actually broke it chopping with my, practically cleaver, knife.

 

[DeadFall27]

Kevin

Hey Kevin, your brother looks a lot like my favorite teacher from high school....just thought that I would share

 

[richstag]

Very cool, Deadfall. He does teach at universities, but not highschool and not CO.

 

[jackknife]

LOL Carl, I just got this image of a bunch of knife nuts lining up at Dempsey's restaurant for biscuits and sausage gravy and coffee, sitting in their booths/tables talking about knives while sharpening their EDC's on the coffee mugs!

Did I mention that I love biscuits with sausage gravy? mmmm yeah, and not a lot of PA greasy spoons have decent gravy, too greasy. <bang head> I have to go south of the Mason-Dixon line to get good gravy with my biscuits.
The scrapple here however is first rate!

Cheers,
Griff

Don't laugh, but that actually is close to what goes on. Our Friday morning breakfast is a strange get together, and new knives get shown off, and cutting edges are put to the test. It takes a very sharp, but grabby edge to pass the hanging sausage test. No really, this is kind of legit.

We take a nice big fat country sausage, and spear it on a fork. Then holding the sausage out on the fork horizontally, you're allowed one single pass on the sausage. To get a go, your knife needs to totally sever the sausage in that one pass.
Your not allowed to hold the sausage in any way aside from just on the fork. The sausage has a skin like most country sausage, and can be a little tricky to cut while hanging unsupported off a fork. The rules for the sausage cutting is that you're allowed to touch up the knife on the bottom of the coffee mug. This puts a nice toothy edge on the knife, that if you have at least two inches of blade, will sever a sausage in one pass.

Of course, Penny and the owner thinks we're all nuts, but he likes our business. Some of the other patrons like the county road crew, power company crew, and other workers getting an early breakfast think it's some kind of local entertainment by a bunch of semi lucid old farts.

But it really is a good test of how well your knife slices. Try the hanging sausage test. A mirror polished blade won't do it. Too slippery.

Carl.

 

[richstag]

Carl,

No offense, but my mirror polished edges will do it with ease

Kevin

 

[pertinux]

Carl,

How many weeks did it take before y'all realized it worked better if you finished the coffee in the mugs first?

~ P.

 

[russde]

Don't laugh, but that actually is close to what goes on. Our Friday morning breakfast is a strange get together, and new knives get shown off, and cutting edges are put to the test. It takes a very sharp, but grabby edge to pass the hanging sausage test. No really, this is kind of legit.

We take a nice big fat country sausage, and spear it on a fork. Then holding the sausage out on the fork horizontally, you're allowed one single pass on the sausage. To get a go, your knife needs to totally sever the sausage in that one pass.
Your not allowed to hold the sausage in any way aside from just on the fork. The sausage has a skin like most country sausage, and can be a little tricky to cut while hanging unsupported off a fork. The rules for the sausage cutting is that you're allowed to touch up the knife on the bottom of the coffee mug. This puts a nice toothy edge on the knife, that if you have at least two inches of blade, will sever a sausage in one pass.

Of course, Penny and the owner thinks we're all nuts, but he likes our business. Some of the other patrons like the county road crew, power company crew, and other workers getting an early breakfast think it's some kind of local entertainment by a bunch of semi lucid old farts.

But it really is a good test of how well your knife slices. Try the hanging sausage test. A mirror polished blade won't do it. Too slippery.

Carl.

Carl,
I've read a LOT of your stories here in this forum, have liked some, teared up with others, and chuckled with a few...this one truly takes the cake. I literally laughed out loud (and that's not just the LOL text type either) as I got a mental picture of the lot of you 'semi lucid old farts' holding a sausage on a fork and cutting it. That one will live on in my memory banks for quite some time...and have me watching patrons in diners more closely to see if they are edge testing knives on sausages.
Thank you.
R