after dinner sneeze

t says: You probably clicked on this page thinking you’d see pictures of food.  Unfortunately, that is not the case.  Instead, you have stumbled upon a space dedicated to our kitchen knives.  This page proves that I am not a normal person.  But is it really not normal to want to pay homage to these super-important tools that allow you to fit your food into your heat application apparatus?  Or maybe I just need someplace to channel my surgeon-esque tendencies?  As you can see from the buying guide, I’ve put a lot of thought into the significance of decent kitchen cutlery … perhaps more than is considered healthy … boy am I glad that g puts up with me …

Hattori.

g’s go-to chef’s knife is a 210mm (~8.25″) Hattori FH gyuto.  It’s a Japanese (i.e. actually from Japan), stainless, Western-handled knife with a shnazzy ebony handle.  Similar to those Hattori Hanzo swords in the Kill Bill movies, this knife was designed/finished by a wizened old Japanese man named Hattori who has spent a life-time making really sharp pieces of metal.  As you can see, it’s always ready to strike dramatically cool poses like “Blue Steel” and “Magnum”.  And proving that “there’s more to life than just being really really ridiculously good-looking”, the steel in this knife takes a quite a wicked edge as well.  (n.b. g prefers Zoolander to Kill Bill 1000000:1 … for me it’s more like 10:1)

Our cute little paring knife, Missy.

This is our super short and skinny paring knife – by far the best I’ve used.  It also used to be a lot cheaper – but now Misono hiked their prices – yikes!

My former chef’s knife, Zoe.

This is where my infatuation with kitchen cutlery began.  It was a 240mm Suisin Inox Wa-gyuto (meaning it has that funny-looking Japanese-style handle).  The blade was made of stainless steel and was ridiculously thin.  The day I had to sell it (to afford a newer, longer, awesomer knife), I did feel a little sad.  Zoe will always hold a special place in my heart – even if she was replaced by:

Zoe’s replacement: Serena

… with better lighting

Coming in with a ~260mm cutting edge of semi-stainless steel, this Konosuke HD features a custom bakelite, buffalo horn, and faux damascus handle and a spine thickness <2.25 mm.  And just in case the handle doesn’t look remarkable in the above picture – here’s a close-up:

Yea – it’s a little insane to put so much $$ into the handle of a knife … but it looks cool, right?

Proudly showing off a scar from where the handle cracked on me after several years of use. Filled in with CA by Dave at JKS.com

My first all-carbon knife: Hiromoto Shiroko 240mm with Wa- Conversion (it used to be western-handled).  I liked the knife a whole lot, but it never put a smile on my face like Serena, so I sold it.  It might mean that I missed out on a “collector’s item” – but it is better for a knife to be used than to become a drawer queen.