"knives" news and stories

Ever wonder why there's a whole slew of different cheese knives in those fancy sets?

Shun's santoku knife on caramelized onion tart. Photo: Alex Van Buren

Knives. Outside of the full-time food dork world, people -- even foodies -- don't tend to talk about them much.

They have a bad association as, um, dull conversational topics: There's the unwelcome knife salesman banging on the door, or that eternal infomercial ("Only $39.95 in three easy installments!"). I owned a sub-par knife for years, until a friend trained at a local culinary institute basically took it away from me.

I've been shopping ever since with an eagle eye for sales. The santoku style caught my attention for its multiuse blade (note the indentations, which purportedly help keep food from sticking) and stylish look. And when I grabbed a Shun in hand at a local shop -- its base has a slight teardrop shape, perfectly suited to that soft nub between thumb and index finger -- I fell in love.

A knife loses its sharpness when the fine tip of the cutting edge gets knocked slightly out of alignment. But how do you determine when your knife needs to be sharpened? Put it to the paper test.

I rue the day I first put my manual can opener in the dishwasher -- it was the beginning of a long process of rusting. Now, I keep a solid list of tools that should stay far away from the dishwasher.

I'm the clumsiest person ever -- a likely candidate for finger loss in the kitchen. To protect myself (and my cooking skills), I've tried to research some tips for disaster-proofing my workspace.