Go get me the good knife
Everyone has one. A knife that the kids aren’t allowed to touch, a knife that Dad uses to carve the turkey, a knife that mom uses when she’s got touchy slicing to do.
For me, that knife is a John Primble Hickory knife, hickory scales and carbon steel blade.
I don’t like stainless blades as well as carbon blades, for a couple of reasons, the most important being sharpness. Even high end stainless knives don’t take and keep an edge as well as a properly tempered carbon steel knife. You have to oil and clean them when you’re done using them, but it’s a small price to pay for a decent knife.
I’ve had this knife for many years, and I only let a few people even touch it. It touches up very easily with a good steel, but if I’m gonna be doing a lot of cutting, like carving a roast or a turkey, I’ll sit with it on a white japanese waterstone for a little time, and it comes up shaving sharp in no time. Everytime I pick this knife up, I have a little shiver as I imagine what I’d have if I stopped paying attention for even an instant- when you carve with this it’s like using a lightsaber- you slice through the meat without effort and it cuts so cleanly the meat takes a few moments to realize it’s been cut and fall on the platter. It would take fingers off in no time, it would slice your palm to the gristle in nanoseconds. I don’t bother using it unless I’m 100% alert.
I wonder if I should get a locking knife block?
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I recall how once back in the ’70s I was having a party and one of my guests decided it was a good time and place to try to sell everybody knives.
The knives were a type of carbon steel. He went on and on about how stainless knives called “eversharp” were really “ever dull” because they could not be sharpened. I had heard this one before.
I was more than a bit miffed. He had been invited to my place for a party, not to sell my guests things.
I also had an ace up my figurative sleeve.
He had disdainfully shown how a stainless knife could not be sharpened on a standard sharpening steel.
I pointed out that this was irrevelant, and proceeded to pull out a silicon carbide lapidary stone, and sharpened his demo dull stainless knife right up.
He was less than pleased, but I won. He sold no knives at my party.
All a matter of having the right tools for the job.
I tried making knives once. Used an old saw blade from a timbermill. They weren’t all that pretty, but they cut well. Dunno what happened to ’em. I’m not good at keeping stuff.
Dirk, saw blades were usually L6 steel, and they make GREAT cooking knives.
1. Old Hickory knives are awesome. I used one as a “tool of my trade” one year when I slimed salmon in Juneau, Alaska. My best knife was an Old Hickory. I don’t know what happened to it. It must have been stolen during a custody battle or something.
2. I have a Wusthof Chef’s knife that instills the same kind of respect in me as your OH, freshly touched up, does. I am ALWAYS aware of where the sharp edge is when I use it.
My dad used to say “Sharp knives don’t cut people; dull knives do.”
My personal favorite isn’t a carving knife, but instead my trusty, twenty-five year old Kabar.
It never let me down during my six years in the infantry, and hasn’t considered letting me down since.
Gutting a fish or another man, it’s the best knife I’ve ever owned.
Now that’s a knife.
A friend of mine gets his custom-made by some guy in Ohio. Very sweet. I love well-made weap–er, knives.
A good knife is a necessity.
I prefer the carbon steel knives also. The ole K bar and XXX Case knives were some of the best. I also have a couple of the Hickory knives but Use a “stainfree” but not stainless high carbon Dexter Russel Filet knife the most. It come out of excellent Japanese steel and will hold a razor edge for a while. My favorite pocket knife is an old ( At least forty years old ) Old Timer. It also is black carbon steel and holds an edge about as good as anthing I have ever used and it does get a work out -or at least ges over the years-from ever thing from whitling to cutting hogs and calfs.
A good knife is a necessity. In the kitchen and in the field. I have a stainless Global chef knife that will slice your eyeball if you look at it edge on. Stunning craftsmanship. I have to warn everyone who picks it up as to what can happen if they do not pay attention. They’re so amazed at the ease of operation that they tend to stay focused.
I’ve got a story for you, too:
http://elmtreeforge.blogspot.com/2006/03/sharp-knife.html