Knives and Knife Skills for School.
Learn to sharpen, and learn to sharpen well. Knives are all about sharpness. All knives dull eventually. Any dull knife -- no matter how expensive, how good, how skillfully used -- is a dull knife. A sharp knife makes learning knife skills and knife prep work vastly less onerous, and probably safer as well.
8" or 10"? 10"! It cuts bigger handfuls, has a longer flat section, and stays sharp longer. While it's a matter of taste to some degree, as a student you don't have taste yet. You think you do, but you're mistaken. You might as well learn the more productive length. While 8" seems easier to point than 10" when you don't have any skills, a 10" is just as intuitive when you do. This will help explain. A dull knife will force a strong (as opposed to a soft) grip. A soft grip is easier to control, more comfortable, less tiresome, sexier, and will earn you discounts at bars everywhere.
Modern chef's knives come in two basic types of profiles, German and French. Nearly all Japanese made chef's knives are French. Shun, to name a counter example, are Japanese made but German profiled.
The German profile's blade has more arc (called "belly") than a French profile. The rocking action the belly imposes is one source of its power. Weight is the other. Unfortunately, power requires a strong grip.
German knives are typically heavier, and -- as said -- more "powerful." Power mostly pays off in the sense that a German will work better dull than a French shape. No knife works well dull, though. German knives are thicker, and tend to wedge. They're made from "tough" steels which hold up to abuse without chipping easily, but they "roll" easily and need a lot of steeling. It's a good idea to have a heavy duty knife for heavy duty work in any case, but a German will allow you to get away with a lot more abuse.
Japanese made French profile knives are lighter and more agile. They get and stay much sharper than German knives, and have far less propensity to wedge. On the other hand, they require more skill and better kit to get them sharp; and you need to carry something else for heavy duty tasks (like cutting chickens, portioning spare ribs, cutting thick-skinned gourds, pineapple, etc.). For the vast majority of prep tasks, a Japanese chef's knife is more productive.
We can talk about French made, French profiles if you want.
Learn to sharpen.
"Heft" always feel better in the store. Lightness always feels better on the line -- especially after a few minutes.
If you already have well-developed chopping and slicing actions, one style will suit you better than the other. If you don't (and you don't), then your knife's profile will help determine your action. The French is quieter, and gets more edge on the board without as much rocking. The German will have you pumping the handle, but is -- as I said -- more powerful. Sharp beats power, in my opinion. Here's an explanation of a French action.
Each style has its trade offs and strong points. If you're going to keep your knives sharp, I think a Japanese made French profile is better by far. It's certainly the modern trend with good knife technicians; but superiority is arguable, and at the end of the day, a matter of taste.
Learn to sharpen.
For a lot of reasons, as a student or pro, you're better off not buying a set. Put your money into your most important and most used shape(s) and get only as good as you actually need for the rest.
I suggest getting an entry level Japanese chef's such as a Fujiwara FKM (~$80) or Tojiro DP (~$100) and with one exception filling out the rest of your kit with R. H. Forschners / Victorinox. Forschner makes two R. H. Forschner lines, Rosewood and Fibrox. The only difference between them is the handles. The 10.5" bread knife and all of the butchering shapes are absolutely gold standard, but priced very reasonably. No brainers. Their other knives are good enough, and priced reasonably. There's certainly competition for parers, petties and so forth, but there's no reason to get a headache searching them out for a student kit. Forschner is a good choice for everything but your chef de chef (aka "heavy duty") knife. Good, special purpose, heavy duty knives are expensive. A decent, used German will do fine for that. So will an Old Hickory "Butcher's" profile, a machete, a CCK meat cleaver, and a lot of other cheap choices.
Learn to sharpen.
Don't get an 8" "sharpening steel." If your longest knife is 8", get a 10" rod hone. If it's 10", get a 12" rod. Don't buy an oval, only buy round. Don't buy medium, coarse or diamond; only fine, extra fine or polished. I usually recommend the Idahone 12" fine (sometimes sold as the "1200") ceramic, but there are a bunch of other choices. Some may be more suitable for you if you're going to be shlepping it around a lot.
Something like 93.8% of the people you see using a steel are using it wrong. Learn the right way. You might as well read this too, while you're there.
Learn to sharpen.
Honing on a rod is not sharpening. Get an appropriate set of stones or an Edge Pro if you can afford one, and learn to use them. Honing on a rod is not sharpening. A manual pull through isn't adequate for a professional. Avoid carbide sharpeners like the plague. Like putting retreads on a race car, junk sharpeners won't get you anywhere near your knives' potential.
Learn to sharpen.
You don't need special safety gloves or shields as a student. You need to learn a good grip, and the basic techniques of "claw," and "cut and retreat" with your offhand. Some people say that a sharp knife is safer than a dull one because it's more predictable. While I agree, I don't think it's nearly as important as paying attention. The key to safety is paying attention. If you can't listen and work, or work and talk, pick whichever's most important and do that. When you've got a knife in your hand, pay attention.
Pay attention. Learn to sharpen.
Learning to cut planks, sticks and dice is very easy once you know how to hold the knife and use your offhand as a claw and for "cut and retreat." Don't worry about speed or perfect accuracy until you can learn to make the basic cuts without overthinking. Now, however, is the time to overthink. Enjoy yourself. Grip, claw, cut and retreat. You don't need perfect sizing yet. That and speed come automatically with practice. The less you try, the better you become. But it takes awhile to get beyond the "trying" stage.
If you really want to master a useful skill outside of school, invest in some rice or dried beans, put a handful or two in a skillet and and practice tossing it. Clean up, and keep doing it until your arms scream. Toss turning without spilling is one of the things which separates joes from pros. Like knife skills.
Learn to sharpen. Pay attention.
We can start a thread on sharpening if you're interested.
Learn to sharpen. Pay attention.
Good luck,
BDL
Edited by boar_d_laze - 10/27/11 at 5:02pm
