Sinister kitchen knives.

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Sinister kitchen knives.
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Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 17 1:28 pm Post subject: Sinister kitchen knives.
Can anybody recommend sources for reasonable kitchen knives for left handed folk? My initial searches are only finding proper serious chef's knives and I don't love her that much.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 17 2:03 pm Post subject:
I'm left-handed and use normal knives without a problem. Some people reckon a left-handed bread knife is worth the money, I'm unconvinced. A decent pair of left-handed scissors is a boon however. Mine are Fiskars and I can't recommend them highly enough.

Shan

Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 9075
Location: South Wales

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 17 2:22 pm Post subject:
Mr Shan is also left handed and uses ordinary knives.

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6622
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 17 2:31 pm Post subject:
Should I be embarassed that I don't understand how a knife has a handed-ness unless the handle is particularly angled? All of my kitchen knives feel the same in either hand and their handles appear to be symmetrical.....

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 17 3:53 pm Post subject:
Knives do not have to be handed at all.

Shan

Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 9075
Location: South Wales

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 17 5:19 pm Post subject:
No. I'm not sure I get it either.... but the Downsizers are a strange lot.

NorthernMonkeyGirl

Joined: 10 Apr 2011
Posts: 4632
Location: Peeping over your shoulder

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 17 8:11 pm Post subject:
I've got a little knife that has a different finish to each side of the blade, so I suppose that coating plus any angles it's ground at could make it "handed"? Could you have the blade sharpened in such a way that it's leftie?

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 17 8:54 pm Post subject:

Slim wrote:

Should I be embarassed that I don't understand how a knife has a handed-ness unless the handle is particularly angled?

Not at al. It's not a thing I'd've thought about if I'd not been moaned at about.

On some knives the cutting edge is beveled. I can see it might make a difference and I'm not minded to argue that it doesn't.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 17 10:40 pm Post subject:

Hairyloon wrote:

Slim wrote:

Should I be embarassed that I don't understand how a knife has a handed-ness unless the handle is particularly angled?

The meat does not give a rats arse which way the steel slides thru it. She's been had.

You can buy her her desires or correct her error. Only you know if you love her or the truth more.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 17 10:59 pm Post subject:

Nick wrote:

The meat does not give a rats arse which way the steel slides thru it.

No, but the wrong bevel tends to make the vegetable slices go wonky...

And did we ever discuss the rat based cat food? If you're gutting one of those you'd want it to give a rat's arse...

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28245
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sun Aug 27, 17 6:30 am Post subject:
Nothing I have read about knives suggests a one side bevel is normal.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Sun Aug 27, 17 9:48 am Post subject:

jema wrote:

Nothing I have read about knives suggests a one side bevel is normal.

It's a Japanese style.

You could look here https://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/acatalog/chef_knives.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjw24nNBRChARIsALldLD303vJTklNz7j7HZzthC3lJ7Vl5VEeDa0ztC47_kM6CngWFNKkdkcMaApo9EALw_wcB

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sun Aug 27, 17 9:50 am Post subject:

Nick wrote:

jema wrote:

Nothing I have read about knives suggests a one side bevel is normal.

Funnily enough, I went shopping there yesterday.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sat Oct 07, 17 8:16 pm Post subject:

Hairyloon wrote:

Nick wrote:

You could look here https://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk

Funnily enough, I went shopping there yesterday.

And I would not go there again. A blunt knife without a point: won't cut a pepper...
The first thought is that it is a return that has been resold, but they assure me that they don't do that sort of thing and the knife is supposed to be like that...
But in a separate letter they say that if we're not happy and return it in a saleable condition then they would give a refund...

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46287
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Oct 07, 17 11:18 pm Post subject:

ok i have my general purpose kitchen blade in front of me , i will try to describe it.

the handle is roughly symmetrical but with a slight dimple for the thumb, the handle/tang is hand sized

the blade is 4mm thick, 125 mm long and 60 mm wide ie rectangular

the ridge to end has a rounded corner with a 6mm hole through it

think small cleaver

it is made of forge welded steels in the jacobs ladder pattern ( rather nice metal )

it came with an "unhanded" edge with a hollow ground form of about 15mm and was edged for about 1.5mm at 20 degrees

i have improved on that

on the thumb side it now has a flat ground edge about 5mm wide retaining the hollow grind behind that

on the finger side it is flat ground for about 18 mm from the edge, this gives a slightly wavy line between the edge and flat due to the metal being forged rather than pressed.

the ground surfaces are then polished with a good fine stone ( not cheap nasty carborundum )

the edge can be resharpened with a diamond steel quite a lot before a minor regrind becomes necessary.
sharpening with a good waterstone (arkansas greenstone or wichita whitestone are even better than the japanese stuff ) should be a skill learned by any blade user

mine is right handed ie hold the food in the left hand and slices come off to the right with no vacuum adhesion to the slice or the lump.

as a general cooks blade for anything from dismantling a raw chicken or cubing beef via peeling ginger or coring a pepper to fine slicing a cucumber it is ideal, it will slice,dice,chop herbs, crush garlic, scoop stuff off the board . tis pretty handy for opening packaging and the ridge is ideal for cracking bones for stock.

tis a beasty

and if i had to save one blade in an emergency it would be that one as i recon i could build a house and make a fire as well as cook dinner with it.

that sort of handedness style can be ground from any unhanded blade of a decent build quality

my tojiro slicing knife is similarly handed and made of a 128 fold white steel combo with a cloud hamon
being much thinner it misses the hollow ground aspect simply having one side at a slightly steeper angle than the other which is flat, again it still demonstrates handedness that does not work well for using in the "wrong"hand.

of my antiques the boning knife is ambidextrous as is my curved small butchers knife cos i find it best to be ambidextrous when dealing with a carcase

my hook style tojiro prep knife (64 fold white steels ) is right handed and again has the grind it came with ie one side sharpened flat the other at a slight angle

all that said how much do you want to spend?

there are some fairly decent stainless blades which can be sharpened properly or used with an unhanded edge even among the basics of commercial kit but if you really want a good knife it either takes lots of cash or lots of looking .

ps really good blades are not dishwasher safe which is a bit of a faff but hey ho tis worth a quick wash in hot water to have an easy time cutting

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