Pointless Knives

[mitch_the_chef]

Well yesterday I was looking at knives and guess what I saw, a tomato knife. Well this is horrible. Why would someone need a knife just for cutting tomato's. And utility knives, hahaha well isn't this just a chef's knife? Anyway if you know some more pointless knives then post them here lol.

 

[jkath]

Love the title - "Pointless Knives" - very funny!

Mitch, my mom found the same thing when she was trying to get add-ons for her silverware set on ebay. She got some larger serving pieces that were like that, such as "the tomato server", the "crouton server", the "sugar cube tongs" (which looked like the crouton server), the "meat server", the "cheese server" etc...

Apparently I've been doing it all wrong, and if I am to eat another tomato, I must go out, but a special knife, and then, I must buy a server, in order to properly eat it!

 

[velochic]

I love my tomato knife.

 

[mitch_the_chef]

Haha !Thats right folks you now need a cheese slicer if you want to be the coolest foodie in town. And while your at it you might as well get a crouton tosser. This is no ordanary tongs. Its much...better. lol

 

[jkath]

When I went to Williams Sonoma, I was (again) looking for one of those lime-squeezer thingies (the kind with a hinge) and then it occurred to me I could just use my electric citrus juicer. I mentioned that outloud, and the girl working there said, "you can't juice a lime on those! They're for lemons!"

Which is why Williams Sonoma is so well off.

 

[mitch_the_chef]

Hehe yeah I mean what's the difference? And about the tamato slicer, what so you use it for?

 

[AllenOK]

I work professionally in a kitchen. Every day, when I start my shift, I go to my toolbox, and grab five items out. My 10" chef's knife, my paring knife, my serrated curved bread knife, an ink pen, and a Sharpie Marker. 'nuff said.

Every now and then, I'll go back to my toolbox, and pull out my boning knife, or my slicer (big, 15" hollow-ground blade, plus handle, great for prime rib). Maybe four times a year, the oyster knife comes out.

It's the same at home. I use a chef's knife, a paring knife, and a serrated knife. I have no need to spend good $$$ on a specific tool, when I can get the same thing done with what I already have.

 

[mitch_the_chef]

It's great to get an opinion from someone who works in a restaurant. A strong tested opinion to me is the best proof. I sometimes want to just take some pointless knives from some peoples '16 piece global knife set, there just useless.

 

[ironchef]

For the average home cook, I still believe you only REALLY need two knives. When I cook at home, 99% of the time I only use one of these two knives:

8" or 10" Chef's Knife
Bread Knife

As long as you invest in a sharpening steel and good quality sharpening stone, you can do pretty much anything and everything with those two knives. Well ok, what about other knives?

Utility Knife: It's basically a shorter Chef's knife. Unless you don't feel comfortable wielding an 8" knife, then this might be better although you'll be handicapped when tackling larger items

Paring Knife: Do regularly make turned vegetables at home? Do you only peel your potatoes or fruits this way? If the answer is no, then you don't need this knife.

Carving Knife: If you keep your Chef's knife sharp you can carve 1/8" thick slices of prime rib.

Boning Knife: Do you regularly french your racks of veal/pork/lamb? Do you regularly buy bone-in chicken thighs then debone them yourself? If the answer is no, then you don't need this knife. If the answer is yes, then buy a paring knife because you can use it for more things.

Santoku Knife: Very Trendy. You can use it in place of a Chef's knife but do you need it in addition to a chef's knife? No.

 

[GB]

They are only useless if you don't use them. I love my cheese knife for instance. Here is a picture of one similar to what I have (the one with the holes). What is great about it is that because of the lack of surface area the cheese does not stick to the blade. Try slicing some swiss or jarlsberg with a chefs knife and then with a cheese knife like this and you will see the benefit

I agree though, there are a ton of knives out there that are unnecessary, however that will be different to each person. As long as you use the knife (doesn't matter what the name is. A tomato knife can be used for a lot more than just tomatoes) then it serves a purpose.

 

[RPCookin]

Different strokes for different folks. Could I get by with just a couple of knives... certainly. But I don't have to, and some knives work better for certain cutting jobs than others. I have a 10" chef's knife, and a 6" one. The 6" one is my "utility" knife, and probably used more than the big one, but the longer stroke of the 10 incher is better for larger things like dicing onions. I also have a 5" boning knife that I use a lot, and not just for boning. I have a standard 2" and larger 4" paring knife. Both are great for small jobs. I do wish I had a better bread slicer (mine has a narrow blade), but what I have works ok if I'm careful.

I think having a good selection of knives just gives me more options. Makes more sense to me than having 15 stand mixers, like "someone" on this forum. j/k chocolatechef

 

[choclatechef]

I think having a good selection of knives just gives me more options. Makes more sense to me than having 15 stand mixers, like "someone" on this forum. j/k chocolatechef

I'll have you know I only have 6 mixers!

I have over 130 knives.

 

[mitch_the_chef]

130 knives!! wow choclate chef what do you use them all for?! I bet some of them are antiques that you don't use anymore though. Please you have to have some cool stories with 130 knives, please tell.

 

[choclatechef]

Out of the approximately 130 knives, I only use about 30. The rest are carbon steel antiques and curiousities.

I have a 33 inch long Foster Bros. meat cleaver that looks like an axe! There are a couple of huge carbon steel butcher knives that have 15 inch blades or longer. There are humongous slicing knives.

I have carbon steel Henckels, Wusthof, Ka-bar, L.F.C., Universal, Forschner, F. Dick, Dexter, Foster Bros., Village Blacksmith, and I forget -- and of course Sabatier.

 

[Mr_Dove]

mrsdove and I experienced this same thing a few months ago. We always had a cheap set of knives with lots of pieces. At some point we decided that we wanted to get some nice knives but didn't want to spend big bucks on the knives that we would never use.

It was also an effort to de-clutter the house and kitchen, which is a project that we're currently working on.

We looked at all our knives to decide which ones we actually used on a regular basis. The answer was 2. We used our chefs knife and a paring knife.

So, we trashed the knife set and spent about $100 on a good quality Santoku and about $40 on a parer from the same set. We haven't looked back and we have no regrets.

 

[GB]

33 inches
Do you have a picture? I would love to see that.

 

[choclatechef]

I don't have a digital camera remember? But there is a similiar one on Ebay right now. I will get a photo of that one if you want.

 

[GB]

That would be great, or you could post the link to the auction if that is easier.

 

[choclatechef]

Huge,old, slaughter house ,2 handed meat cleaver ,measuring apprx 32.5" long,and marked on the blade:FOSTER w/an Arrow under it with: "Mark 14". W4 30 17 is also marked on the blade. The blade alone is apprx. 13.5" long,and 7-1/4" at the widest point.The wood handle has a nice patina to it with smooth wear. The blade is on the dull side. This has an eye on the blade for hanging.

Mine is just exactly like this! I bought it on Ebay about 4 years ago.

 

[GB]

That is WILD!!!