— Clive Allison

Okay, so, um, indeed, um, I have a range of knives and, um, you know, they, they're ceramic, they're different types of steel. They're big and small and short and skinny, and they serve specified functions or the good for general application. But I tell you, um, you know, the, probably the two that I, I use the most, um, are a San Toku, and that's a Japanese style, uh, blade design, and also a, a European style chef's knife. The San Toku is probably six and a half, seven inches, uh, in blade length. And, um, the, uh, chef's knife that we have in the drawer in the kitchen is, is an eight inch, eight inch chef's knife, eight inch blade length, plus the handle. Okay? You can certainly buy these knives, uh, at least the chef's knives anyway, um, much shorter and much longer, um, to match your, uh, you know, your hand size and your cutting board size and, uh, to match the amount of food that you'll prep at a given time. Okay? The, if you're doing a lot of prep, like in a restaurant, that's where a big cutting board and a 10, 10 inch chef's knife, some folks even use something bigger than that, but even a 10 inch chef's knife will cover more real estate on that cutting board. You can really do prep a lot faster. But for most of us at home, if you've got two or three or four people, um, you know, even six people, uh, that we're prepping for, you know, an eight inch chef's knife, I think is reasonable. Um, you know, or a seven inch chef's knife is, is quite fine. Again, if, um, uh, just due to other factors that I mentioned, uh, that all converge, you know, you can even reach for a, a six inch chef's knife, um, San Toku, uh, they will vary a little bit in length as well. Uh, but they're generally in that seven inch, uh, plus or minus, uh, a little bit, not, not as much variety as a European style chef's knife. So those are, uh, my two, uh, favorites outta convenience. I guess number three would be a paring knife. Um, I've got, um, um, some, uh, some, some sort of a pering knife. I don't even know what, what brand it is that's really not important. Um, what is important is that it, it holds a, an edge, um, for a reasonably long time, and let's be cut through little things, you know, in my hand or whatever it's that I'm doing. Okay. And how do you keep 'em sharp? So, on a daily basis, um, generally speaking, we use a, a honing steel or a honing rod. Uh, you know, it's a, you know, thin rod. Uh, most of them are made of metal. Some of them are made of ceramic. Um, some of, uh, most of them are round in cross section. Uh, some of them are, um, sort of, um, oval ish, uh, in cross-section. So it, it provides a more flat surface for you to, to run the blade against. Okay? Um, some of them have, uh, say that they have a, a, a, a diamond surface on them. Uh, I'm not, I'm not sure what that means, but, um, uh, we use that on a daily basis, and I suggest that you use it, um, once, I mean, probably for most people at home, uh, running your knife along a steel one time a day is gonna be fine. If you're doing a lot of prep, like in a restaurant type setting, or you're, or you're cooking some, uh, or cutting a lot of, um, hard, you know, dense foods, then you're going to use the steel as needed. And, um, you know, as you'll see, especially butchers who are cutting through, um, meat, um, they will stop, it could be every 15 minutes, um, just to, to put that edge, um, straight back up, uh, on their knife to, to really cut through, uh, quickly, smoothly, and safely. Um, and that's what we wanna keep in mind, right? Is that a sharp knife equals a safe knife. Um, and then, uh, the longer term, uh, you know, maintenance, the period periodic maintenance is gonna be actually sharpening the knife when it gets dull. Okay? And how frequently you do that will vary, uh, varies quite a bit. But, um, you know, there are many different tools out there ranging from, you know, manual pull through tools to electric sharpeners that, uh, you know, also, uh, have some sort of, um, sharpening wheels that you might pull the blade through, uh, to wet stones. And, uh, these mechanical devices are very easy to use. The learning curve is very short, um, and they can sharpen your knife better than having a dull knife. Um, on the other end of the spectrum, uh, a wet stone takes a lot of practice and maintenance of your skills and, um, uh, the results can be better as well. Okay? And so that's an overview of my approach to the knives in the kitchen.