welcome friends welcome back to the kitchen I'm here again with gage from
sharp knife in Hamilton yes sir and today we're going to talk about
choosing a knife I don't want to overemphasize that it's the most
important decision that you're going to make in your kitchen but it is a very
important decision because it affects almost every operation that you do in
your kitchen yep I would agree with that you have to be comfortable with a knife
in your hand in order to get the most out of it
percent so when I come into your shop in Hamilton how do you guide me through
choosing the correct knife yeah so first I start off just by asking what it is
you're looking for what are you get what are your needs but like what what is it
that you want and the most common response that I get is an all-purpose
knife sort of in and around the $200 range okay so I'll start off by trying
to figure out there the level of maintenance that they're that they're
comfortable with so the two big differences are whether we're gonna go
with a stainless steel with a carbon steel or something in between
so stainless steel as the name implies will never rust will never discolor or
get any sort of spots on it whereas a carbon steel has has advantages like
better edge retention and sharpen ability but could rust and discolor if
it's not kept dry and clean patina patina which is a good thing some people
don't like it and and if you don't want your knife to change and sort of develop
character over time go with the stainless steel but if you kind of enjoy
things that kind of change and tell a story sort of well in that patina
eventually protects the knight it does yeah exactly so you know it's the first
couple months using a carbon steel knife that you really have to be diligent to
your point once that patina is formed it does a lot to protect the knife and
makes it much easier to to care for so you know if we don't want to totally go
stainless steel and we don't want to go totally carbon steel there is an
in-between which would be a stainless clad knife and those are made in a
process called sanma or or forged welding where they take three layers of
material forge them together normally putting two softer pieces of stainless
steel on the outside of a course core layer of steel that's
made from carbon steel okay so if we look at the knife it's a little bit
tough to see on some of them but there's a yeah there's a little wavy line close
to the edge of the knife there and that's where the carbons are part of me
that's where the stainless steel layers on the outside are coming to an end and
the carbon steel is just poking out beyond that okay so only you know those
two to three millimeters right at the edge of the knife could rust if not
properly maintained so it gives you to sort of dip your toes into the carbon
steel without going all the way in and just kind of test the water and if you
like the edge retention in the end the way it cuts and sharpens and all that
sort of stuff and you think you want to move into a fully carbon steel knife you
can make that decision go that I go that way yeah so if I come
to you and say I want a knife but I'm not someone who's going to sharpen it
that often yeah so I like to say that I've taken sort of some of the guesswork
out of it because of the way that I test the
knives and I and and the the steel types that we work with so even if you go with
a stainless steel knife that arguably has less than desirable edge retention
in comparison to two carbon steel like for instance if we look at a knife like
this made from our two which is a type of stainless steel okay you could even
argue that the edge retention on this is better than some of the carbon steels
out there you may have a more difficult time sharpening this knife stainless
steels can be notoriously difficult to get a really nice keen edge on but in my
experience are two is one of the easier stainless steels to sharpen because it
has that higher rockwell rating hardness durability it's even got to sharpen up a
little bit easier you know every knife is gonna need to be sharpened so that
that's something to keep in mind and and you know I would I would say if if if
you feel like you're gonna get into sharpening if you if you think it's a a
or or or like something you want to learn carbon steel is definitely the way
to go in my opinion it's way more fun to sharpen there's more to it there's more
you can learn about it stainless steel sharpening is is good like it's it's
it's still fun to sharpen any knife in my opinion but stainless
steels require a couple extra jumps in your progression of water stones to get
them to the same level but I generally will set a home cook just getting into
Japanese knives up with a stainless steel knife and that way they don't have
to worry about maintaining it and they'll still get really good good edge
retention just maybe not quite as good as with some of the carbon steels okay
so now what we've we've decided on material yep and we've decided that say
I want to send kuku or which style of knife I want what is the next step to
actually choosing the night yeah so we're so to your point we've decided
steel type we're gonna say go with we've decided that we're a home cook we feel
more comfortable with the santoku over say for instance the Guto which is just
a little bit too long and now I just pull down a whole bunch of knives from
the wall and I get people picking them up and feeling them the the balance in
Japanese knives is going to be a little bit further forward on this particular
knife pretty much right smack dab in the middle but for instance something like
this gonna be balanced a little bit further forward but there's going to be
differences between every knife right so balance point is a big one it kind of
determines where the weight and the knife is and and some people feel more
comfortable with a blade balanced further forward and some people feel
more comfortable with the balance for their back me personally I like
something that's balanced quite forward I like a knife that's light overall and
and very thin that's my preference I know a lot of guys prefer something with
a little bit more heft to it and they want it a little bit thicker at the
spine it just makes them feel like it's it's more substantial well and and so
that that to me that feeling in my hand is probably the most important to me
yeah when I'm choosing a knife yeah for sure and you know buying online can be
tough for sure I try to I do my absolute best to get
product videos of all the knives that I carry done and and put up on the website
I'm still in the process of doing so but what I try to convey in those videos is
is the balance point everything that you may want
know about the knife I tried it to get across in those videos yeah how it feels
how light it is how thin the blade we look at the edge geometry how thin it is
behind the edge we look at the fit and finish of the knife how the blade and
the handle come together is the handle nice is it flush between the furrow and
the handle is it good for lefties and righties or is it good just for
right-handed users what type of steel isn't made from will it rust will it
will it not I try to get all that across in the videos and make it as easy for
people as I possibly can online to buy a 92 finite yeah and I also make it very
easy to return knives if they're not into it
we accept returns with no questions asked and we pay for the return shipping
as well so cool you're not stuck with a knife if you don't like it so pretty
pretty painless I like I try to make it as painless as possible yeah yeah I'm
I'm here trying to get people set up with the right knife for them is it
easier to do it in store probably but can it be done online absolutely cool do
people show up with carrots I know they don't need to because I have them
already there yeah you do I do it's it's it's it's hard to know which knife
you're gonna like if you don't get to cut with it a little bit right so
carrots are a good one carrots in my experience really show you
what a knife can do and they're a little bit on the harder more durable side and
they really seem to respond well to knives that are very very thin behind
the edge that edge geometry is something we haven't really touched on but the
thinness behind the edge or just the sort of way the blade comes to a point
okay how high up on the blade does it start for instance on most Japanese
knives it starts pretty much midway through the blades
yeah it's angling in and then they put what's called a micro bevel on it so
again right at the edge they'll increase their angle a little bit more and
sharpen it again and that adds a little bit of dirt durability to the edge of
the knife but a blade that's very very thin behind the edge is not going to
wedge an ingredient apart or cause it to sort of like push or accept air
that's a good yeah so these were again I've made this point before but the
first time you cut with a Japanese knife it just feels like it it needs to it
that's its life purpose is to go through things with as little effort as possible
and that's a wonderful feeling in the kitchen yeah it really it really is it's
one of those if you're fighting with your knife cooking can be less enjoyable
oh 100 yes 100% I've had a lot of people tell me that they just they like the
cooking aspect so that toss and stuff in a pan baking stuff in the oven but they
don't like the the prep work I love the prep work I love the prep
work and that's something that Julie often yells at me she's like why did you
cut these so small stop chopping and it's like but I enjoy yeah yeah I enjoy
that precision I enjoy that aspect of the process of that's a great point
because you could easily do a lot of what you do with a knife in an a food
processor if you're making mirepoix just throw a bunch of stuff in there and have
it done in 30 seconds but as that is fun no I would also make the argument that
that like mulch definitely doesn't have the same don't feel as beautifully
chopped vegetables as well and so so yeah so we've decided on the knife we're
getting people picking up and feeling stuff I've talked a little bit about my
personal preference and I always incorporate that into the the knife
buying process it shouldn't I always try to empower people to make their own
decision no I I never push people towards anything I don't try to push
people towards a more expensive stuff or you know whatever
and I I empower people give people the knowledge that they need to make their
own informed decision so when we're talking about expense in knives does a
costlier knife necessarily mean a better knife in a lot of cases it does and I
know it sounds like I'm just trying to sell you a more expensive knife but the
more you're willing to spend them typically the more you're gonna get out
of the knife there are definitely some of those like value picks out there that
for whatever reason they're they're very affordable and they're very high
performing I typically find the value picks and more if like the carbon steel
range so you have to be able bit more diligent with their maintenance
okay a finish that's commonly found in those more affordable ranges is what's
called a crew chief finished this guy here with this black part here the most
difficult knife to maintain but because of the finish the labor required to make
it is quite a bit lower and therefore the price gets down I think though this
knife looks will look really cool I mean it looks really cool right now but it
will look really cool when it when it develops that patina yes absolutely and
that goes back to the if you're if you're interested in something that's
going to change and develop character carbon steel is for you if you want it
to look the exact same forever stainless steel is for you cool so we'll end that
here check it the online store and we'll come back and talk about knife
maintenance perfect thanks for stopping by see you again soon
you