New Knife Designs!?

[GabeMabry]

I was genuinely curious as to what the consensus was on styles / shapes / knife patterns available. Is there a specific Knife that is not being offered anywhere that's culinary or culinary related that people would love to see / buy?

High end Oyster knives or anything like that? Just curious as to what people might think they are missing from their collection or something thats under represented in the market!

Gabe

pic for attention

[salemj]

There seems to be a demand for tall knives that are shorter in length. Whenever requests for such knives come it, it is always interesting to see the recommendations (and how they might reflect a hole in the market). Usually, the person is steered towards a bunka or nakiri or petty. But some people want something a bit closer to a gyuto, meaning a knife with a very functional tip/point and perhaps some angle or sweep on the edge (if not "belly").

I think the difficulty with such knives are many. First, the profile can be awkward because it requires the handle to be pointed up at a rather steep angle if the tip has a thinner, more functional point (meaning that the tip is the point of an isosceles triangle rather than something closer to a K-tip or santoku tip...making such a shape means the edge has a lot of angle, which means when the edge is flat, the handle sticks up at the same angle as the spine normally). Second, getting the right thickness can be hard, as the blade needs to be really thinned out to perform, but should have some convex at the rear. And last but not least, a lot of people who want shorter knives that can chop, etc., are shorter or smaller in stature. Having a handle that sticks up at an angle only increases the discomfort of taller counters or boards for shorter people.

All that said, it can be done. For me, honesuki (or gurosuki) profiles are often close. But other people like even shorter knives with height, like a 120-130mm knife with 40mm or more.

Anyways, these are just some thoughts. It is hard to know if there is "lots" of demand for such knives. But the fact that whatever demand there is for them always seems to be met with some compromise suggests there's a bit of a hole or opportunity in the market.

[ex1580]

Gyutos styled after the Masamoto KS are nice. It would be a different design than your current chef knives too. That plus a 130ish mm petty that is still short enough to pare with (30mm tall is about my max). With those two I can get most of the work done and everything else is a specialty knife.

[Kekoa]

You know, I have been thinking about an idea that you might call the slicing chef knife. I'm not sure if this would appeal to the general crowd, but two things put this idea into my head. First I noticed that based on percieved bigness, my mom usually goes to use the knife with the least evident form factor. So instead of a Santoku that I would use, she wants a paring knife. If I would use a chef knife, she would use a slicing knife. But because neither of her preferences have very tall blades they aren't very good for some tasks. I got to wondering if she would like something that has enough heel height to have good knuckle clearance, but narrows quickly as to feel agile and unintimidating in her hands.

I also found myself wondering if I might like something similar as the ultimate jack of all trades knife. I really like using the same knife for many tasks, and for the most part my gyuto does great at anything that I wouldn't use a paring knife for. The one thing that I felt could be slightly improved was slicing performance on meat. I actually do butterfly chicken breasts with my gyuto because it is pretty much going to be the sharpest thing in the kitchen, but the narrow slicing knife is easier to manage with when it is sharp enough. So it had me thinking that a knife that a knife that basically becomes a slicer a third of the way down, or halfway down maybe, would be an interesting multi use knife. Kind of a more dramatic version of the shape used on this Xin knife is what formed in my head.

xinChefKnife.jpg (34.45 KiB) Viewed 776 times

Tim (timos) also made this knife that seems pretty similar in concept by using a clip point shape.

Again I'm not sure how much other people would be interested in the general direction, but it has me intrigued.

[GabeMabry]

You know, I have been thinking about an idea that you might call the slicing chef knife. I'm not sure if this would appeal to the general crowd, but two things put this idea into my head. First I noticed that based on percieved bigness, my mom usually goes to use the knife with the least evident form factor. So instead of a Santoku that I would use, she wants a paring knife. If I would use a chef knife, she would use a slicing knife. But because neither of her preferences have very tall blades they aren't very good for some tasks. I got to wondering if she would like something that has enough heel height to have good knuckle clearance, but narrows quickly as to feel agile and unintimidating in her hands.

I also found myself wondering if I might like something similar as the ultimate jack of all trades knife. I really like using the same knife for many tasks, and for the most part my gyuto does great at anything that I wouldn't use a paring knife for. The one thing that I felt could be slightly improved was slicing performance on meat. I actually do butterfly chicken breasts with my gyuto because it is pretty much going to be the sharpest thing in the kitchen, but the narrow slicing knife is easier to manage with when it is sharp enough. So it had me thinking that a knife that a knife that basically becomes a slicer a third of the way down, or halfway down maybe, would be an interesting multi use knife. Kind of a more dramatic version of the shape used on this Xin knife is what formed in my head.

xinChefKnife.jpg

Tim (timos) also made this knife that seems pretty similar in concept by using a clip point shape.

timSlicingChefKnife.jpg

Again I'm not sure how much other people would be interested in the general direction, but it has me intrigued.

If seen a few guys making Offset slicers similar to this- im not sure how i feel about either idea but its interesting! When i do craft shows women almost always tend to be afraid or apprehensive of anything over 6-7" from what i can tell. And most dont like a very tall knife - i dont know how these people get their food cut! My grandmother cut everything with a 3" paring knife in her hand into a bowl =\

[ex1580]

If seen a few guys making Offset slicers similar to this- im not sure how i feel about either idea but its interesting! When i do craft shows women almost always tend to be afraid or apprehensive of anything over 6-7" from what i can tell. And most dont like a very tall knife - i dont know how these people get their food cut! My grandmother cut everything with a 3" paring knife in her hand into a bowl =\

My wife uses a Gihei 150mm Petty almost exclusively, except for sometimes a paring knife. The French Chef knife will forever be safe from her, haha.