Kitchen knives

Essential culinary tools here. Bought a new set of 5 yesterday, well discounted. Well I have a set of 6 kitchen knives already + a superb cook’s knife which I have owned for 20 years or so.

So why buy more? If you cook, you would know why. Firstly the ones that I have, the set that is, are a bit on the light side. They all have serrated edges and are two riveted which means the tang only goes half way down the handle. Quite honestly, I was never happy with them. When I bought them, it was said they never needed sharpening. Rubbish. When I bought an electric knife sharpener their performance improved overnight.

The new ones are fine. Full length tang and 3 rivets. Plus a proper bolster which leads me to believe they are one piece forged steel. The grain marks on the blades add to that conclusion. They have good weight and balance too so I’ll see how we get along.

Elsewhere in this house, I have a boning knife which I bought several years ago. This too is a full length knife with a three rivet handle. It says the cutting edge is formed of tungsten carbide and will never need sharpening. So far it hasn’t.

Finally I have a Chinese cleaver and this is the only kitchen ‘knife’ I own that has a metal handle. Looks to be a single piece of steel and does its job well.