What's up with kitchen knives?

I make a few kitchen knives, but they are my hardest sellers. For the most part I make a few for friends and family. Not to mention that there not as much fun to make.

One thing about kitchen knives, they'll let you know if your doing it right. Any time I want to test a new methoud of ataching the hadle, or stabilizing handle material I test it on a kitchen knife and give it to Mom, if it survives her, it'll survive anything. The woman has destroyed Gensu knives!:eek:
 
You folks have been talking about kitchen knives and damscus kitchen knives possibly being used on TV. At least 1 TV chef is doing that right now. This season, on Good Eats, Alton Brown started using Kershaw Shun Classic knives (http://www.altonbrown.com/pages/kershaw.html).

They're not custom knives but they are damascus. Quite attractive too and pretty reasonably priced.

There are a LOT of clublike kitchen knives out there in the high end and a lot of yuppies buying expensive "professional" knives that I don't think function very well. I've spoken to quite a number of professional chefs and I think there is a reason most of them use industrial Dexter-Russel (or similar brand) chef's knives. The blades have good balance, thin but not too thin, keep an edge, and are IMPERVIOUS to the dishwasher. Oh yeah, they cost less than $50.

I've made a few kitchen knives for myself to use. I think the worst part about making them is heat treating without serious warpage. I like my chef's knives with pretty thin blades and I'm always warping them in the heat treat. I end up pounding them straight like David Boye describes in his book. Straight up though, they perform just as well or better than my store bought knives.

Rick Johnson
 
Originally posted by mightyrick
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I've made a few kitchen knives for myself to use. I think the worst part about making them is heat treating without serious warpage. I like my chef's knives with pretty thin blades and I'm always warping them in the heat treat. I end up pounding them straight like David Boye describes in his book. Straight up though, they perform just as well or better than my store bought knives.

Rick Johnson
Click to expand...

Rick, welcome to BFC.
You might want to try having your profiled blanks heat treated first, then grind the bevels after, especially if you are using thin stock to begin with. A lot of folder makers do it. Just be careful not to overheat.
:)
 
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