Welcome To Chefknivestogo Forums! Introduce Yourself!

[Tarak83]

Long time lurker, just posting.

My name is Chris, live in Iowa, work in healthcare administration. Back in 2016 I got intentionally focused on cooking, and quickly found knives inadequate. After research got a Misono 440 Dantoku and Masamaoto VG Gyuto in a couple lengths.

In 2019, as a present to myself for finishing grad school, I got a Masakage Yuki Gyuto in 240 and oh my goodness, I fell in love with carbon steel and wa handles. Just ordered a 210 Yoshimi Kato Nashiji AS Gyuto.

Love chefknivestogo and this forum.

[trancher]

Hey, Chris. Welcome to the forum, man!

You've picked out some nice knives! No doubt your culinary game has become a lot more exciting with those beauties.

[Tarak83]

Hey, Chris. Welcome to the forum, man!

You've picked out some nice knives! No doubt your culinary game has become a lot more exciting with those beauties.

Thank you, it certainly has!

[Tarak83]

Hello all!

I am no newbie to knives, but have only started intensive knife research over the last few years. I have spent many hours learning freehand sharpening and enjoy it as a hobby. However I am new to Japanese kitchen knives and look forward to learning more here. My first Japanese knife is from CKTG, a Yahiko Ginsan Nashiji Santoku, and I'm excited to find out what a high quality kitchen knife can do!

That should serve you well!

[roaduck]

Hello I am John from Manchester in Northern England.
I am a disabled retired Hi-Fi salesman and medical herbalist; I have lived and worked all over the UK and abroad.

I started cooking as a child in the early seventies and I don`t follow the rules!
I don`t use recipes, I don`t weigh things and I don`t need to look at a clock in the kitchen.
A friend who is a pro-chef of 25 years says I`m a natural.
I cook for the homeless, my local churches and the Hare Krishna's in the city voluntarily as often as I can which I absolutely adore.

I have a little collection of mostly inexpensive Asian type knives and a few good Japanese carbons and a bespoke caidao.

I want learn to improve my sharpening technique and eventually replace my cheapie stainless and softer steel knives and get some decent monosteel carbons.

[Jeff B]

Hi John, welcome to our community. A fun and knowledgeable group!

[roaduck]

Thanks for the lovely warm welcome Jeff B.

I have loads to learn about knives and metallurgy and need to learn to sharpen Japanese single bezel knives better.

[roaduck]

The reason why I have a mixture of knives is because I used to use any old cheapy knife in the 1980`s because I was a poor student.I sharpened them on the pavement/sidewalk, bricks, rocks, bottom of plates, edge of car windows etc and with practice got acceptable results with £5 - £20 stamped European style kitchen knives.

My girlfriend loves sushi and Japanese/ Malay/ Vietnamese / Thai food so most of the Japanese specialist knives are hers.

I lived and worked in Hong Kong and Macau in the 1990`s and cooked World cuisine and fusion of 2-10 different styles East/West, North/South, Old/New simultaneously but I learnt to do everything with a caidao or Chinese Chef`s Knife - including carving fruit and vegetable flowers and preparing everything from a 3-tier wedding cake to barbecuing a 200 lb shark on a beach at midnight.

In China where I lived most chefs used $20 8` inch carbon or stainless caidao`s and they could do anything with just one knife - pastry, veggies, butchery, ribs, anything!

I have one bespoke 8" x 4" caidao in RWL-34 powdered steel with
Asian ebony handle which is mega but is harder to sharpen than my carbon cleavers.
My favourite steels are Aogami #2 blue paper steel and Shirogami #1 Hitachi white paper steel but I have a couple of PM`s and a black ceramic 6" nakiri (which is impossible to sharpen even on diamond plates.)

So I do less washing up than my other half with her specialist Japanese knives and I can prepare a commercial quantity of ingredients with a budget chopper in no time.

I got my lady a 11 inch single-sided yanagiba in 4CR13MOV stainless steel and she loves it, now she wants a better Deba and a sujihiki but without the maintenance of carbons.

I just got a Ruixin pro - 009 fixed angle sharpener for her and some big diamond plates so hopefully in time she will grind my knives with practice.

I have an electric Catrahone 3-stage sharpener which is no good for Asian knives really so I am saving up for a Tormek T-4 or a T-8 with 10" cbn wheels.

[Jeff B]

You have a very unique collection of knives and a very interesting back ground. We hope to hear more from you and share your experience and knowledge! Come over to the General Discussion Forum and post away!

[Kekoa]

Welcome to the forum, roaduck!

I'm fairly new here myself and the people here are always happy to help with any sharpening questions. Your collection of Chinese style chef knives is quite interesting. I am becoming increasingly interested in them and think a Chinese cleaver may very well be the next kitchen knife I purchase.

[roaduck]

Welcome to the forum, roaduck!

I'm fairly new here myself and the people here are always happy to help with any sharpening questions. Your collection of Chinese style chef knives is quite interesting. I am becoming increasingly interested in them and think a Chinese cleaver may very well be the next kitchen knife I purchase.

Ah thanks so much Kekoa I am constantly trying to learn and absorb salient facts intermittently.
A Chinese chef`s knife is, to me, a good all-rounder and an exceptionally versatile tool.Apart from an axe or a chisel an Asian style cleaver is probably the most employed hand-tool in the World - definitely used by hundreds of millions of people East and West - North and South.I`ve had four passports and visited/worked in dozens of Countries in over forty years so I know the score first hand.

The one proviso I would say Kekoa is learn your own way in your own good time to wield a caidao - nevermind youtube videos - just practice as much as possible to hone your knife skills and if possible get some tips from an experienced Asian-style cook or do what I did years ago on the World famous Curry Mile in Manchester and help out in the restaurant kitchen at the back of house for a free or discount meal with usage demonstrations before or after service has started or finished - worth a try maybe.If you don`t try and ask - you don`t get and sometimes there is golden opportunities for those with patience and diligence.

The Chinese have a different philosophy compared to the Japanese and used to have constant long wars with them like the English and the French did for centuries at a time - the poor daft blighters.One uses one knife - the other uses loads of different ones.

I say vive la difference - but respect your neighbours too.

We only have one little World and we should learn to get on for the sake of everybody and everything.

But I`m just an old hippy ; no longer naive but realistic and hopefully steering towards being reasonably pragmatic.

[Jeffxu]

Hello everyone
Thanks for accepting me, I am reading a lot in here.
See you soon

Jeff

[trancher]

Welcome, Jeff!

Thanks for visiting our forum. Feel free to hop into the conversations anytime.

[skyfire1]

hello everyone, I have a knife acquiring problem. Hope I came to the right place.

[XexoX]

hello everyone, I have a knife acquiring problem. Hope I came to the right place.

We are all enablers here, so yes you've come to the right place. We will always advice you to buy the knife and encourage you to buy more than one. Soon you will be acquiring knives left and right, no problem.

[alanhuth]

Hi, Alan Huth here. alanhuth on CKTG. I've been a member for a several years, but don't know if I ever introduced myself. I'm kind of getting out of knives now, which seems to happen with each hobby/obsession I get into. They last about 5 years and then I feel I have what I need and I move on. In my case, I found the Moritaka KS-clone kurouchi and that was it. Never needed another knife. Why that one? It's not that special. Who knows? I just love it and nothing is more satisfying than that knife. Having found it, my interest starts straying. It was flashlights for a while, then pens, now audio. OMG - stay away from audio. You need to be very wealthy to play in that arena. Just as I never thought I would buy a knife that costs $1000, now it's the same with audio but there's another zero or two on the number. Jeez. Is there anything fascinating about bottle caps or dead beetles?

[XexoX]

Hi, Alan Huth here. alanhuth on CKTG. I've been a member for a several years, but don't know if I ever introduced myself. I'm kind of getting out of knives now, which seems to happen with each hobby/obsession I get into. They last about 5 years and then I feel I have what I need and I move on. In my case, I found the Moritaka KS-clone kurouchi and that was it. Never needed another knife. Why that one? It's not that special. Who knows? I just love it and nothing is more satisfying than that knife. Having found it, my interest starts straying. It was flashlights for a while, then pens, now audio. OMG - stay away from audio. You need to be very wealthy to play in that arena. Just as I never thought I would buy a knife that costs $1000, now it's the same with audio but there's another zero or two on the number. Jeez. Is there anything fascinating about bottle caps or dead beetles?

Never too late to say hi! Stay away from orchids and carnivorous plants too. Those are expensive hobbies, with lots of tears. Don't ask me how I know.

[RedSnapper]

Hello nice to meet everyone. Been looking to join Japanese knife forums to learn more about sharpening.

[Jeff B]

Welcome to the forum RedSnapper, lots of knowledgeable people here ready to help in anyway they can!

[oriade]

New to the forum so thought I had better introduce myself.

Have got some useful info off here over the years so i have finally joined, I’m not the most active person on computers etc so I don’t expect to rack up thousands of posts just like you guys thank you for having me posts like some of you have in your signatures. Thank you for accepting me to the family