Michael in FtW said:
The presence, or absence, of a boslter is not an indication of if a knife is stamped or forged. Henckels has a couple of lines that have bolsters that are stamped ... I have several forged knives that don't have bolsters. The only thing that I have found that gives an indication (when reading ads) is in the description of a knife - if it is forged it will say so.
When it comes to caring for your knives .... if you want something to just make a slice and toss into the dishwasher .... get one of those $19.95 "As Seen on TV" sets from Chef Tony or Ginsu. These are made from stamped Stainless Steel - not high carbon stain resistent steel like good knives. But, they will fill the bill for "cutting one slice of onion and tossing it into the dishwasher". No need in wasting good money on a knife you don't want to care for properly - and it probably takes 30-seconds or less to wash and dry one by hand.
Even very expensive ceramic knives need to be treated with respect and not tossed in the dishwasher. For example - from the folks at Kyocera regarding their knives ... "This material, which is second in hardness only to diamond, was originally developed for industrial applications where metal components failed." There is nothing to rust or rot in their knives .... yet their cleaning and care instructions say, "Hand Wash with Mild Detergent".
I will be the first to admit that perhaps there is something in my rearing that leaves me wondering why some people think the only way to wash anything is in a dishwasher when with little, if any, more effort it can be done by hand.
Michael,
It seems we basically agree. You may have missed my point. Perhaps I was unclear, so please allow me to elaborate.
The presence of a bolster is certainly not a guarantee that a knife is forged, but it at least used to be a pretty good indicator. On a blade that is
simply stamped, there is no bolster that is part of the blade. Period. However, with SCT (Separate Component Technology, or as Henckels puts it "Sintermetal Component Technology") a bolster can be added to a stamped blade.
According to Henckels' website, apparently they do not make forged knives at all anymore. They are all SCT technology, with the stamped blade and the bolster made of different metals. (Oh, say it ain't so!) It was this that led me to the comment that the WP knives were probably closer in quality to
real knives than I had previously suspected, as I am pretty sure the WP knives that do
not claim to be forged are made with SCT.
And yes, it
is inappropriate (or at least unneccessary) for some knives to have bolsters, stamped
or forged. Slicers and fillet knives come to mind. And ceramic knives need to be treated with even more respect than steel ones of
any variety, because they break or chip far more easily.
All decent knives of which I know require hand-washing. My point was that I (somewhat facetiously) wanted a cheap knife I didn't need to worry about, so I
could chuck it in the dishwasher, and that the WP stuff was cheap enough that I could do that. Twenty bucks for a chef's knife, a paring knife, and a (small) hardwood cutting board.
I am certainly not too lazy to wash my Henckels knives, but sometimes it just seems like too much of a production to make a cut or two, and then have to wash a knife. For instance, this afternoon I brought home a bunch of celery, and sighed because I needed to cut the end off it to stick it in a pitcher of water in the fridge. This was the only cut I needed to make, and I had just washed my chef's knife. I wished for a knife I could do this with and throw in the dishwashwer. If that's lazy, then I'm lazy.
Kelly
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