I LOVE my new kitchen knives :) (yes I get excited over such things)

[ET Awful]

http://www.calphalon.com/calphalon/consumer/jhtml/katanaShowcase.jhtml



These things are freakin AWESOME. I'd forgotten what it was like to have really good, really sharp knives.

I still need to buy a couple more knives to really finish off the set the way I want it, but so far, I'm VERY happy :) :) :)

Woohoo for security deposit refunds that let me buy things like this, pay some bills, and still have some left over :)

I got to see how sharp they really were this weekend when I was slicing up some steak tips for grilling and they damn near fell through the meat instead of having to put any pressure, I just dragged the blade across once and it was through (even through the tougher fat).

YAY . . . I've wanted good knives for years and I finally have 'em :)

[DS1]

1. heh

I didn't know knives could do that

[ET Awful]

2. You want my old ones? I know you still have just that one dull

butter knife you use for everything :)

[DS1]

4. no thanks

mine aren't ~that~ bad, but they're probably similar to your old ones

some German stainless deal

[ET Awful]

6. Sounds about right, I think my old ones are actually Chinese :)

Then again, so are the new ones, but made using Japanese steel, and I'm satisfied that they are extremely high quality :).

[radwriter0555]

3. Those are gorgeous! What's even more cool is, if you haven't, to learn how

to properly sharpen and more importantly, hone them.

Good knives like those will last you the rest of your life... and proper honing and sharpening is really important.

I too have spent ungodly amounts of money on good knives, but you only do it once. Well worth the investment.

[ET Awful]

5. What I like about these is that the bolster only extends halfway down

the blade, which allows you to sharpen (and cut) with the entire length of the knife. Unlike more traditional knives where the bolster flares out at the end of the blade and you can't sharpen it all the way :).

These things are SWEET :)

Unfortunately they left a couple out of the set that I'd like to have, like a typical bread knife, a 7" santoku knife, and a couple of other smaller ones.

Ah well, they aren't absolute necessities, so I can get them later (they run about $70 each, so I can wait a while on those ones).

[radwriter0555]

9. VERY nice.... I finally tossed out a lot of my older knives when I packed

this last time. I realized I was only using 4 of them really, and 2 of them mostly. So, now I just keep those suckers sharp as a whisker. They're not a matched set, but specific knives that tend to be multi-function.

I even know how to use a cleaver, which is very fun. I can do the BIG whack THUNK through a chicken bone with one fell swoop.

The thing I missed most while all my crap was being shipped over (it took 3 months to get here) here was my basket of knives. I love them.

I really love them.

Keep em sharp!

[ET Awful]

10. A good high-quality 7-inch Santoku is probably one of the most

versatile knives ever made :). It slices, it dices, it chops, etc. The only draw back is it has no sharp point on it which kind of comes in handy sometimes.

Give me a good pointy knife like a 6-inch utility/slicing knife, a 7-inch Santoku and a decent paring knife, and I'm good to go . . . the rest are more for convenience than necessity :)

[Midlodemocrat]

7. I just got a new set of Henckels at Costco.

Really, really nice knives.

I had a starter set from a while ago, but my son used them to carve with and well, let's just say they don't work anymore.

[ET Awful]

8. Hehehe, that set at Costco caught my eye too.

I almost went with them, but after looking at these and handling them, I had to have them.

Of course if I could have gotten them for the price of those Henckels at Costco, I would have been much, much happier :)

[Fox Mulder]

11. Can they cut through a car muffler?

A knife isn't a good knife unless it cuts through a car muffler.

:P

[ET Awful]

12. I'm sure they could, but what would be the point? :)

I'd have to spend time cleaning and re-sharpening them, so I'll pass on testing it out :)

[billyskank]

13. Now you're itching to slice things, right?

:)

[ET Awful]

14. Yup, I'm just on the prowl for sliceables :) n/t

[Gormy Cuss]

15. Be careful...

After suffering with mediocre knives I had to retrain myself on knife technique. Well-honed, well balanced knives require so little effort. No more pressure on the handle to coax the blade through hard veggies or sinewy meat. Chopping is easy again and fast. It's great isn't it?

The best knife addition I've made recently was a meat cleaver. I don't need it very often but damn are those things efficient.

Back in my renter days my landlord used my Henckel paring knife as a screwdriver. The landlord lived upstairs and he kept the rent low so I didn't want to complain too much but man was I steamed!

[ET Awful]

16. Yup, but as the old saying goes, a dull knife is more dangerous than a

sharp one.

I need to refine my sharpening technique though, with my old knives I was able to rely on an electric sharpener (which kept them pretty sharp actually), but I won't entrust my new ones to that thing :).