Hey everyone welcome back! Today I got a package in the mail it is a brand new
knife. I thought I'd treat myself to something special and
I'm gonna unbox it, but first I thought I'd take the opportunity to talk about
knives. A question I get all the time is what's the best knife? What knife do
professional chefs use? What knife is right?
What's a quality knife? And I gotta tell you I don't own quality knives. This will
be the first knife that I've ever bought it is a quality knife. So I thought I'd
walk you through what you should look for, what I look for ,and what is the best
knife for you. So there's three things that I think of as the best knife.
The first thing is, is it sharp? Any knife that's sharp, that you maintain, and you
keep a really good edge on... that is a great knife. You can have the most
expensive knife, hand forged made by some Japanese master, you know, whose family
has been making knives for a thousand years. If that knife is dull, it's a shit
knife. No other way to put it, you have to keep your knives sharp. That's the number
one thing for a great knife. The second thing is the handle, how does it feel in
your hand? Does it feel like an extension of your hand? Does it feel like an
extension of your arm? How does it feel in your hand? Because if you're not
comfortable with it in your hand it's not a good knife for you.
And the third thing is how do you cut and chop in the kitchen?
What motion do you use to cut and chop. Because if you do this motion you
need a certain type of knife. If you do this motion you use a different type of
knife. So if you can answer those three questions and then go to a knife store
and hold a pile of knives and ask them if you can chop and you will find a
knife that's right for you. Then just keep it sharp. And you know what when you
go to a knife store and you want to try out knives take a carrot and chop
some stuff. And if they won't let you chop stuff with a knife then don't buy
from them. Move on. So the knife I've got in my hand is the very first knife I
ever bought. I've had this knife for 38 years and by all accounts by
internet knife aficionados this is a horrible knife. Really.
It's a stamped steel, doesn't have a great bevel.
The handle is crap, the rivets are popping out, but you know what it feels
really good in my hand. I like it and I can keep it sharp, so this has become my
beater knife. This is the knife that I use for hacking away at pumpkins and
winter squash. Any time that I need a knife to do something that I wouldn't
want to do with a really better quality knife I'll do it this one because I know
I can bring back the edge keep it sharp and so for me this is a great knife I
really don't care what the knife aficionados say I really like this knife
and I think everybody should have a beater knife something that they're not
afraid to use for those jobs that you know you wouldn't want to use your more
expensive knife. with the other knives that I own
are these henckles these are the ones that I use in the house they're just a
standard German henckles knife this one isn't even made in Germany this is one
of the ones made in Brazil again feels good in my hand easy to keep a nice
sharp edge on it every couple of weeks I go on to a whetstone and I sharpen them
up fantastic knife when people come to me
and say what knives should I buy I think you should be thinking of three knives I
think you need a paring knife and a paring knife is a knife that you use for
anything in your hand so you're doing potatoes peeling apples anything that
you're doing in your hand that's a paring knife you need a chef's knife
again something that feels really good in your hand and you need a serrated
knife this is a Hankel serrated knife I don't think you need to spend that much
on a serrated knife I've got this serrated knife that was $2.99 at a at a kitchen
supply store by all accounts horrible knife I've had
it now for five or six years and it still does the job it's never been
sharpened it's a perfect knife so you don't need to go and spend a lot of
money on a serrated knife I've got this serrated knife the came as part of a set
that was sent to us I don't know I don't think it's been the money on it.
and the next thing you need of course is a steel and this is not for sharpening
your knives this is just for honing or bringing back
the edge the edge will fold over and you run your knife along I'm gonna show this
you run your knife along and it straightens it out I don't know if that
actually worked but so it's not for sharpening you need a sharpening stone
and I should go and get the sharpening stones sharpening stones so these are
the ones that I own I've had this one for probably 30 years it's seen better
days and most of them so if you're watching this on youtube you have
probably looked at knife sharpening videos and people spend a lot of time
waxing poetic about the perfect water stone again the perfect water stone is
the water stone that you're comfortable using and that you use on a regular
basis to sharpen your knives if you're afraid to do this
don't be if you have a beater knife you're not gonna ruin it on a whetstone
and you're gonna figure out how to move the knife across the stone you're gonna
figure it out and you don't have to worry about the angles that much I know
everybody's gonna say oh you need this angle you need that angle you'd do it
until you get it sharp and over time it'll work out for you so these are the
knives that you'll see me use most often on set their knives that were sent to us
I'm not going to tell you who makes them because that's not what we do here
but they feel pretty good in my hand they take a really good edge if you can
if you sharpen them on a regular basis they stay very sharp they work pretty
well and they're fairly inexpensive but they do come as a set and there's a lot
of knives in this set that I just don't use so I wouldn't for me I wouldn't buy
a set I would go out and buy an individual knife it feels good for a job
that I needed to do this is a knife that we were sent supposed to have this Berg
anomic handle it shuts down I just don't I just don't feel it I don't it doesn't
this has never worked for me so it sits in the drawer unused very sad thing for
a knife and then there's there's this set up here on the top of the fridge
again another set that was sent to us I've never used it it has a pony thing
in here looks like it's got ceramic honing inside so every time you put the
knife in and take it out it would home the knife
you know what I don't I don't know why I've never used this knife that Mike
feels really good in my hand and I can tell you made in China so it's it's not
that expensive I wonder if it holds a what if it holds an edge let's see is it
hold niche oh my it does so so here's a knife that's been sitting in that block
on top of that fridge just out of sight for probably five or six years that I've
never used and you know what I probably should have been using this knife so
there you go I don't know what to tell you you don't
need to spend a lot of money on a knife how it feels in your hand is the most
important make sure that you get a steel make sure that you get a Waterstone so
that you can actually sharpen it take a class I know here in Toronto there's
five or six places that for you know 50 or 60 dollars you can go for a Saturday
or a Sunday and they will teach you how to sharpen a knife with a whetstone so
here is my new knife everything that I just told you about buying a knife about
picking it up and holding it in your hand I threw that at the window I bought
this online from a maker in Victoria British Columbia I bought it from a
picture on his website I've never held this knife so it could go horribly wrong
but he is a blacksmith he hand forges these knives out of carbon steel that's
something else I should have said all of those knives that I've shown you up to
this point have been stainless steel which means they take a little bit of
abuse if you don't clean it off immediately it's not gonna hurt the
knife that much so that's another reason I use them here in the studio because
things get busy and you know if I don't get a chance to
clean the lemon off off of the knife it's not going to hurt it
this one is carbon steel hand forged carbon steel 1084 carbon steel it is a
Japanese euro style it says here the handle is Brazilian
rosewood and maple and
this feels really nice in my hand let's get there let's get the tag off this is
made by a guy in Victoria his company is called relic wood Co and it is a hand
forged carbon steel knife feels pretty good in my hand
that's gonna be a great night a little bit worried because I hadn't held it and
that's something that I always want to do with a knife is hold it first but
having held a lot of Japanese knives over the years and lusting over them and
lusting over them and lusting over them I knew that this style of knife would
fit fairly well in my hand it's 260 millimeters long which is probably a
little bit longer than I need for most jobs but I can't wait to start cutting
with this knife so so come on back to the next few videos and we'll take it
for a test run
you