Talk to me about....kitchen knives.

[Vinty]

I remember when i lived in London and worked on building sites, i shared digs with a Scottish mate, in them days the pubs closed at 2.30 on a Sunday.
After a night's boozing around West London, on the Sunday morning my Scottish mate Neil, would stuff a Chicken with Paxo, it went in the oven around opening time at the pub, he had it timed to cook around closing time.
We came back to the digs, the Chicken was cooked to perfection, he put it on a table and got a hacksaw from his toolbag and cut the Chicken in half, i got half and he got the other half, he had also cooked some vegetables and made gravy to give the occasion some semblance of dignity to the Chicken and ourselves.
Happy days back then in London.

 

[fillyboy]

I remember when i lived in London and worked on building sites, i shared digs with a Scottish mate, in them days the pubs closed at 2.30 on a Sunday.
After a night's boozing around West London, on the Sunday morning my Scottish mate Neil, would stuff a Chicken with Paxo, it went in the oven around opening time at the pub, he had it timed to cook around closing time.
We came back to the digs, the Chicken was cooked to perfection, he put it on a table and got a hacksaw from his toolbag and cut the Chicken in half, i got half and he got the other half, he had also cooked some vegetables and made gravy to give the occasion some semblance of dignity to the Chicken and ourselves.
Happy days back then in London.

 

[Vinty]

I like that, Brings back memories.

 

[Justin Passing]

Can’t just slice through pork crackling with a carving knife no matter how well cooked it is. Next time I’ll use either the bread knife

Ah, well, if you had a simple steel (just iron+carbon) , you would get quite a rough sawlike edge showing under a microscope however finely you polished it. That's one reason why they cut so well. Even cracklin'.
Carbon does dissolve in iron (still fairly soft) but it also forms iron carbides, which are hard. They have a load of locally variable morphologies (all ending " ite") through the mass. Where the carbide structures appear at the sharp edge they also rust at small scale, extremely quickly, which is what I've always assumed is removed by a ridged 'steel'. Mine's really a scraper, leaving the rough iron /carbide/micro-gappy edge.
If you fold and beat the thing samurai style the grains get reduced in size and squished all in one direction (called fibering) which gives beneficial anisotropy to the physical properties as well as at the edge. Folding it in a carburising flame, incorporates those carbide-hardened surface layers which get exposed at the cutting edge. Fold 10 times = 2048 layers. I doubt that would add to my carving of a chicken.
Higher alloy posh steels don't have the same dependence on structure or difference in hardness within it, and kitchen versions don't rust. They more often have fine teeth.

Our carbon steel knives always look grey/oxidised, but when sharpened, though you wouldn't bother trying to shave with them they slice through a tomato very effectively.
These antique knife sharpener machines

used to polish the carbon steel knives all over, which is a way of reducing the rust problem cos there's less surface area.

 

[Mottie]

Diastaser!

Cutting up a pork crackling joint tonight and this happened to my most used knife out of the set!

View attachment 297406

Annoying thing was, it was THE best bit of crackling pork I’d ever done - not too hard, not too soft just f*cking perfect. Crumbled and melted in my mouth. I’ll be seeing how good their 'Lifetime warranty' is next week.

Don’t know my own strength. Just shut the hitchen door and the handle snapped in half. I must have some kind of Uri Geller superpower!

 

[Mottie]

Replacement knife received today from Wusthof in Germany.

I sent this message to Mrs Mottie though but she quickly sussed me!

 

[Stivino]

I did the same trick with the fake blood they sell around halloween time.
I was cutting vegetables next to the sink and, she was in the kitchen too.
I got her hook, line, and sinker.