Hi everyone! Today I'm going to introduce some of the
Cutlery I often use
Including knifes in different sizes and for different uses
And auxiliary tools like planing tool, grater, and scissor
And I will also talk about the maintenance of the cutlery
And the note for sharpening it
First, I'm going to talk about the most frequently used
Knife in the kitchen
Maybe the first knife everyone gets
Which is the Chef Knife
Everyone knows that Germany and Japan
Make the greatest knives
So they are two different systems
Like the German Chef Knife looks like this
This is the western-style Chef Knife
Normally, the edge of the knife is about 20cm
The shape of it it's a long curve
The Japanese Chef Knife looks like this
It's also called Santoku Knife
This is actually the combination of
Chinese Kitchen Knife and the Western Chef Knife
So you can see that the shape of it
It's like a mini size of a kitchen knife
The length of the edge of knife is usually
Between 18-20cm
The contrast of these two knives is pretty obvious
First of all, it's the radian of the edge of knife
The edge of knife is pretty straight
The Chef Knife has a begger arc
It's because the techniques are different when using
The main technique for using this western-style
Chef Knife is go back and forth when cutting
Like this
Due to the big arc shape it has
It allows you to cut back and forth like this
So when you want to shred something into small pieces
For example spring onion or garlic
You can cut with this technique
Very handy
And the Japanese Santoku Knife
It's similar to the use of kitchen knife
You cut up and down and like this
So the techniques are kind of different
Beside the difference of materials in this two knives
The weight is pretty different too
Normally, the Santoku knife is lighter
Here is called the blade
The blade is more...
Let's compare it
Obviously, you can see the blade of the western-style
Chef Knife is thicker
That caused the difference of included angle between
The two edges of knife
So everyone knows this very simple physics principle
The smaller the force a square measure received
The higher the pressure is
So theoretically, the knife with smaller included angle
It's sharper
But because the steel and the blade are thinner
It's lighter
So the weight of the knife is very important
When you are cutting something
The force you need to put is not only based on
How sharp the knife is
It also depends on how heavy it is
If the knife is heavier
It will save you more effort
Especially when you are cutting harder ingredients
So this is why the Japanese and German western -style
Knives are different in design and weight
Because we know that most food Japanese eat are soft
Like sashimi is very soft
And the western-style knife is for hard works
Especially the western vegetables
Like pumpkin, carrot, and cabbage
Are very typical and common veggies in the west
And all get a very hard texture
Especially when cutting the hard veggies
You will save more effort by using a heavier knife
Especially when cutting veggies like pumpkin
If you cut it with a light knife like Santoku knife
Your blade might stuck in the pumpkin
I think I'll get a pumpkin to demonstrate it
I have a pumpkin here
Let's cut it with this western-style Chef Knife
Cut it from here
Cut it straight down
You can see I didn't use a lot of effort to cut it
You can see that in how I cut the pumpkin
And then, let's see how Santoku Knife works here
Obviously, you can see that the knife is stucked here
And then you have to cut it down very hard like this
So I personally think that
When cutting the veggies with hard texture
And meat like beef and pork
It's better to use the western-style Chef Knife
And when cutting the soft veggies like bok choy
Cucumber, and onion
And the meat like chicken, fish, seafood, and so on
All work better with the Santoku Knife
So if you‘re buying your first knife
And intend to get an almighty knife
Pick one among these two knives
According to your using habit
And what you normally eat
To decide which one to get
The length of the Santoku Knife is 18cm
I think this is just the right size
There are more options for the Chef Knife
From 18-24cm
I think you can get a longer Chef Knife
20cm or more than 20cm
Beside this two classic knives
That you must get one of these two knives
There are another kind of Japanese Chef Knife
Which is called Gyuto
It's very similar to the yanagi ba
Yanagi ba is the knife for cutting the sashimi
So the blade is longer and narrower
The Gyuto is the combination of yanagi ba
And the western-style Chef Knife
Santoku Knife is the combination of kitchen knife
And the Chef Knife
So these are are very different in shape
Gyuto is longer and narrower
Santoku Knife is wider
Let's look at the distinction between
Gyuto and Chef Knife
Both knives have the long and narrow blade
But the Chef Knife has a bigger arc shape
And the Gyuto gets a relative flat blade
Gyuto is similar to the Santoku Knife
Because they are all Japanese-style knives
So the blade is not very thick
And it feels very light in your hand
Gyuto is the sharpest knife among these three knives
However, it is very light
And the material it used is harder
So it's not really an almighty knife
It's perfect for cutting the soft meat like chicken and fish
And to cut something fine
Like cutting tofu
Anyway, when you want to cut something soft
And you need it sharp to cut something fine
Gyuto is perfect for it
But if you are just planning to get one knife
I will recommend you to get one of these
As for choosing the knife
You can see that these two knives
Are the one piece steel design
From the point of the knife to the handle
There's the whole piece of steel
Here's a protruding juncture and connects with a handle
When you are choosing knife
If you are available
Better choose this kind with the one piece steel
It's very compact
But there are also the one like this without the juncture
Just simply connects with something like a cow horn
This design is to make the knife lighter
And the Chef Knife or Santoku Knife can't be too light
If you don't feel the weight in your hand
Then it's hard to control strength to cut
And then here's the Damascus Knife
People discussed a lot
The knife with the forging pattern on the blade
You can see there are distinctive patterns on the blade
Speaking about the steel
This is a very complicated topic
New materials coming up in the past few years
There are a lot of distinction among the steel
Can't explain in a few words in the video
I will write more about it in my blog
You can check it out if you are interested in it
In general, the Damascus steel is more expensive
It's very beautiful, but it's not
As sharp as the other ones without the pattern
How sharp a knife can get
Depends on the steel of the blade
The patterns on the Damascus knife is not the blade
You can see the difference between these two layers
Forging several layers of steel on the surface
Is to increase the toughness of the knife
It's not really relevant to the hardness
And the sharpness of the knife
So if you want to understand more about the materials
You will have to do a lot of homeworks
Of course the knives I mentioned above
Are not the local Chinese kitchen knives we have
Because you know that it's really hard to get the good
Knife outside of China
So I only have this one kitchen knife
The very common knife bought in the supermarket
And we can compare this knife
The kitchen knife is not as thick as the Chef Knife
But it's thicker than the Santoku knife
There are several different kitchen knife either
Some knives are for cutting meat and veggies
Some knives are for chopping bones
And some knives are for both
The knife for both is that the thickness is different
From front to end
Thinner in the front and thicker in the end
So you can cut with the front
And chop with the end
Like this
Because there is nothing really special about this knife
I normally just use this knife to chop the bone
But I recently want to get a better kitchen knife
Because now there are many research
About kitchen knife in China
So I will share with you when I get a good kitchen knife
I forgot to talk about that
No matter the western or Japanese style knives you use
The most important thing is that
Don't use it to chop the bones
These knives are not designed to chop the bones
Maybe you can use the western-style Chef Knife
With this area near the handle here
Because this is the thickest part so it's the toughest
You can chop tiny bones with this part of the knife
But don't chop the bigger bones with these knives
Will damage the toughness of your knife
Because this video is too long
So I'm going to make this the part one of the video
Other knives I haven't introduced
The maintenance and the note for sharpening it
I will talk about it in part two
That's all for today
I hope these help
Thank you for watching