Knife thread

I've also got my knives in a block, PET, so we can have our own knife-block club or something.    When I outgrew the basic block, I received one of those "boxes of bamboo skewers" blocks as a gift.  It works just fine for me.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHOXBoxHVHA

20 years ago I started my own kitchen out with a set of Wusthof knives, the kind that has one chef's knife, one long knife that I primarily use for slicing layer cakes, a bread knife, two paring knives, and then a "free gift" inclusion of a small serrated knife.  I've since added a twin for the chef's knife and a santoku.  I feel like you can never have too many good knives, so Hugs sometimes surprises me with new ones for birthdays/Christmas.  My Wusthofs have been joined by a bunch of Shuns, including a huge chef's knife; a smaller chef's knife; and a santoku, and I got a fancy-ass chef's knife that's one of those "Bob Kramer!!!!! (um, actually Zwilling, with a Bob Kramer stamp on it)*" models a few years ago (I love it).  And I have a small chef's knife from Bloodroot Blades, which is supposedly custom-made just for my hand (I had to send them hand measurements), but I find it sort of awkwardly small so I rarely use it.  Oh, and we have a set of Shun steak knives filling out the knife block, and a random decorative cake knife that was randomly given to us as a Christmas gift that I feel bad tossing out but have nowhere else to go with it despite my never ever ever using it (I should just toss it).

So that's all there is to know about my knives.


*I get these all professionally sharpened once or twice a year.  I used to be able to drop them off at a kitchen goods store in town, but they went out of business this past spring, so instead I had them done by a knife-sharpener guy who was in residence at my CSA farm for a weekend.  When he unwrapped the "Bob Kramer" knife he got SO excited, and whipped out his phone to take pictures of it while murmuring that it was the first one he'd ever seen.  I didn't have the heart to tell him this was mass-produced, and if I had a real Bob Kramer knife I sure as shit wouldn't bring it to a random neighborhood dude to sharpen it.

Being of the "if one is good, ten is better" approach to things, I feel like two flats of knives is juuuuust creeping up into being enough knives. You can't ever have too many!  Now I want two flats of knives!

Also, I was kind of hoping that "squirreled away for..." up there was going to lead to some kind of post-apocalyptic weaponry uses, but alas... just "sorting, sharpening, and using".  Although I guess you didn't specify what the "using" was going to be, so hope springs eternal.

My ex got me a black Leatherman Super Tool 200 and a leather sheath sometime in the early 2000s, and I've worn it to work pretty much every day since at least 2010 but my memory is only so good. You would think that a librarian wouldn't have much call for a multitool, but I've used it at least twice a week. I had a Gerber first, and I think that actually fell apart, and I have a generic one in my tool drawer at home.
I've been thinking of getting a new one, partly because there are newer and easier-to-use ones out there, partly because the sheath is starting to red rot, and partly because my ex and I have been divorced for almost six years and maybe I should get a new thing without the baggage? But this is still really good and very serviceable -- the only complaint is that I didn't know it had a hanging ring until 20 minutes ago when I looked it up on the Multitool Wiki.


click to embiggen

::skeptically raised eyebrow::

I have a couple full knife blocks but really only use a global 8" chef's knife we got from a Friend with Connections for a wedding gift. I also have a sorely neglected Henckel's 10' with a slightly curved, ergonomic handle. Because plague, I haven't been able to get my knives sharpened for over a year. I was all set to go to a somewhat nearby Sur La Table and dump my collection on them, then they up and closed. I found a local guy who will come pick up your knives, sharpen, and drop them back off again in a day. I had set up an appointment with him, then was perusing his facebook page and spotted a COVID IS A HOAX YOU PUSSIES video he posted and noped out of that one. So now my options are shipping off to some place and being without knives for a week or more.

Was Dallas, now Houston. We have no independent kitchen stores close by; it's a drive in town. I called a nearby Ace Hardware and they had no idea what I was talking about with knife sharpening despite coming up on a google map search for that term. They only do things like garden tools and lawnmower blades. 

One recommendation I've heard (maybe even I heard it here?!) is to call around to local hair salons/barbershops.  They should be able to let you know who sharpens their scissors for them.  Because many hairstylists are basically contractors, and good haircutting scissors are expensive, they'll generally have names of really reliable people.

I thankfully have a neighbourhood dude at the farmers market who does mine while I go have a pupusa and beer.

Hugs is a librarian, and one of her all-time favorite customer interactions was when someone came to her to ask for the book pronounced "Med: You Ess Ay", like Med: United States of America.  It took her FOREVER to figure out it was the Clive Cussler book:

I mostly use the Yaxell paring/utility knife in the upright knife block, a Shun santoku from the upright block, and a short-handled utility knife by Boker in the flat knife block. Most of what's in the upright knife block is Shun, as we have a full set. (Not the steak knives - those are Cutco and they are just as sharp as the day they were bought about 15 years ago.) The orange-handled knife in the upright block is actually an oyster knife, and its blade is about 2" wide, so it gives much better leverage than a traditional oyster knife.

And one complaint: we have a Rosle peeler, of which the blades are ridged, and I hate that fucking thing so much that I bypass it and go for the old Henckel regular-type peeler every single time. (There's a full set of Henckels, made in Germany, in the attic, and they are mine upon moving out.) Or sometimes a ceramic paring knife is even better.