Knife Basics by Chef Corey

Lets face it choosing a knife can be confusing, and sometimes just down right frustrating. If your amongst the general population, then you, like most probably don’t know/care to know to much about knives and their individual purpose much less what their made of and how they are made. If your one of these people then I would like just a moment of your time to give you a little bit of culinary knowledge a little “slice” if you will, into the intricate world of knives.

    We’ll start at the beginning, Steel; there are generally two different types your knife could be made out of, this being German steel or Japanese steel. Being steel they have their similarities how ever they are still worlds apart. German steel is much softer around 55 - 57 on the Rockwell scale (which is used to determine hardness) where as Japanese steel registers around 60 - 63, what does this mean? This means that german blades will lose their sharp edge much faster, while this can be annoying keeping a honing steel handy will keep your blade “sharper” longer. Although they lose their edge quicker they are a much more durable knife, heavy and perfect for breaking hard shells or cracking coconuts. Japanese steel is the complete opposite, its a much harder steel meaning it can chip easily ( on a chicken bone ) but will keep an extremely sharp edge for a long time, and like the german knife keeping a honing steel handy will keep the blade “sharper” longer. Durability however is not the forte of a Japanese knife, scary sharp but also scary fragile, use the wrong cutting board and your blade will quickly be nonexistent.