
The Kitchen Bladesmith - taivare
http://craftsmanship.net/the-kitchen-bladesmith/#sthash.LHF69bVQ
======
jseliger
Great article. BTW, those of us who are kitchen mortals may find this:
[http://thesweethome.com/reviews/the-best-chefs-knife-for-
mos...](http://thesweethome.com/reviews/the-best-chefs-knife-for-most-cooks/)
and this:
[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/04/never-a-...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/04/never-
a-dull-moment/305689/2/) useful. I have the Victoronix chef's knife and it
performs quite nicely, as long as you keep it sharp.

I use this:
[http://kk.org/cooltools/archives/607](http://kk.org/cooltools/archives/607) ,
which works as well as promised.

[http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/129/Chefs-
Knives-...](http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/129/Chefs-Knives-Rated)

~~~
kemitchell
Seconded! I have owned several Forschner/Victorinox chef knives and
consistently recommend them to friends. (No, they didn't break. One was lost
to heat, another I sharpened down toward boning knife territory.) Kitchens
without contracts for D-R or whatever often have some floating around. If I'm
not mistaken, the 8" is still the house knife at America's Test Kitchen.

I also own a Sharpmaker, which I recommend, but don't personally use for chef
knives, but for pocket and camping knives.

You wouldn't happen to know of an affordable blade with a more French profile
that I could recommend? I try to start everyone on a Forschner, but some end
up gravitating toward something more like a Sebatier. I'm not aware of a
Victorinox-caliber bargain in that sub-category.

~~~
vonmoltke
Mercer[1] makes excellent knives, and their chef's knives are pretty much a
French profile. I own a Mercer 10" carving knife and a 10" bread knife, and I
think all my future knife purchases will be Mercer blades. The Genesis line
uses the same steel as Forschner's blades, but IIRC the knives are actually
forged in Taiwan and so are 10% - 40% cheaper. Many of their knives have a
Granton-edged version as well.

The only drawback is that Mercer is a true professional brand and only
available from restaurant supply stores. I only discovered the brand when I
started shopping at a local one.[2] Fortunately, they have online ordering and
ship anywhere in the US.

[1] [http://www.mercercutlery.com/professional-
cutlery](http://www.mercercutlery.com/professional-cutlery)

[2] [http://www.acemart.com/index.ep](http://www.acemart.com/index.ep)

~~~
kemitchell
Thanks for this comment!

Alas, the Victorinox itself is being pushed back into restaurant supply, with
a less spartan-looking, "consumer-friendly" version replacing it at retail.

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pkaye
Never heard of craftmanship.net. They have lots of other interesting articles!

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bobdvb
If you are after something rare, exceptionally hand crafted and historical
then think about a knife set made in Sheffield, England. Sheffield was the
cutler to the world at one point but mass production has destroyed most of
that business now.

[http://www.steelcitycutlery.com/pocketknife.html](http://www.steelcitycutlery.com/pocketknife.html)
[http://www.ferrabyknives.co.uk/hand-forged-4-knife-
set.html](http://www.ferrabyknives.co.uk/hand-forged-4-knife-set.html)

~~~
julian_t
I've got an Ablett pocket knife, which is a wonderful piece of work.

And I just bought my wife a chef's knife from Blok ([http://www.blok-
knives.co.uk/](http://www.blok-knives.co.uk/)). I would thoroughly recommend
them... not only great craftsmanship, but lovely to use.

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camperman
I just sharpened the kitchen knives today with my set of Japanese whetstones.
After you've done it often enough, you can tell a lot about the blade steel by
the swarf it makes and how it feels.

~~~
kjs3
I use pedestrian domestic whetstones and oil stones (from Arkansas, I
believe), but agree you can tell so much about the knife by how it feels and
the residue it leaves. My Grandfather taught me how to do it, and it makes me
a bit wistful when I take my pocket knife to the stone.

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p_eter_p
If you like custom knives, this video is worth watching:

[http://thisismadebyhand.com/film/the_knife_maker](http://thisismadebyhand.com/film/the_knife_maker)

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voltagex_
Does anyone know who makes the "Gordon Ramsay by Royal Dolton" knives?

