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Professional Chef Knives
Choosing professional chef knives doesn't have to be a hassle. While it’s true that there are a great many quality kitchen chef knives such as Wusthof™, Henckels™, and Global™ that are being sold at physical locations around the world, it's far easier and often less expensive to shop online. There are a few things that you should be aware of before you head to the web to shop. It’s important to follow all these steps to ensure your chef knives are the best for what you plan to do with them.
What To Look For
Whether you're an expert, or just someone who is looking to stock your kitchen for the first time, there are a few criteria that need to be examined before buying a knife. These criteria for chef knives are very important to help you make the right decisions. The most important thing to know about professional chef knives isn't how they're made, or where they're made, or even how high quality they are. Sure, those things will play a part in your decision, but they are all secondary concerns. The most important thing to know about professional chef knives is how they feel in your hand. Sure, you can go out and buy a 120-dollar Wusthof™ chef knife, but if it doesn't fit properly in your hand, or if you don't like the balance, the simple truth is that you've wasted your money. The kitchen chef knife that you should be the most concerned about is the one that you're going to use the most. It's true that many professional knives chefs prefer are high priced, but they also tend to be of good quality, too.
What To Choose
Professional chef knives come in different shapes and sizes based on the functions that you will be using them for. Their function will guide you in what to choose. If you have small hands, you probably don't want to jump right into the same 10 or 12-inch professional knives chefs prefer. For general cutting, slicing, mincing, and dicing, a 6 or 8-inch chef knife will suit you well. Properly maintained, they can even disassemble large cuts of meat or debone a chicken.
Once you've narrowed it down to a few comfortable picks, it's time to search for quality. Most high quality knives nowadays are typically stainless steel. This prevents them from reacting to strong food acids such as when cutting lemons or dicing tomatoes. Also, a stainless blade of proper sharpness is less likely to make many vegetables such as avocados brown as quickly.
Forged Versus Stamped
Should you choose forged chef knives, or the less expensive stamped professional chef knives? Forged kitchen chef knives include a treatment process to enhance the flexibility, density, and hardness. They tend to be heavier than stamped knives, but are much better balanced. They are hand made through a tempering and hand forging. The tempering process treats the metal, forming an extremely hard finished product. Each knife is carefully hand crafted with extreme detail. They are typically “full-tang,” meaning that the blade material extends all the way to the base of the handle. This helps with the balance of the knife. Many still prefer a hand-forged knife because of the superior balance that it offers. Forged knives also tend to be made of denser steel, allowing them to hold a finer edge.
If you aren't comfortable holding a heavier blade, then you may want to use a stamped knife. Stamped chef knives are lighter, but tend toward lower quality. They are also not as well balanced as a hand-forged knife. Because of a lower density, stamped knives don't hold edges as well as the forged knives. Stamped knives are usually less expensive, but will not hold their edge as well.
Sharpening
No matter what type of knife you choose, remember to keep it sharp. You should always have a sharpening stone on hand. Each time you clean the knife, give it a few strokes across the sharpening stone to ensure that the edge stays honed. This will give you a clean cut each time. If you find your knives are getting dull, then no amount of running it across a stone will help. You'll have to either get a whetstone and sharpen it manually, or send it off to be sharpened. There are many large commercial sharpening services available online. Avoid them all. They use high capacity mechanical grinders that will take too much material away from your knife, and it will shorten the life of the knife. Use either a local knife-sharpener who will use a proper stone sharpener, and do it by hand.
This allows the most control. Mail-in sharpening services at www.theknifeguy.com start at $35.00. That includes shipping, handling, sharpening, and return shipping for up to 5 knives at once.
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