Looking for a long slicer

[Count Omulis]

At my current place of employment, we do prime rib. Unfortunately the knife we use is old, and doesn't hold an edge as well as I would like. I pulled out my 12 inch slicer and the chef told me that it was too short to cut the prime, although my edge was quite superior to the 18 inch the restaurant owns, and will not allow me to use it. I was wondering if there was a good quality 16-18" slicer that will hold an edge comparable to my knives, and that will obviously be taken care of better than the communal knives at work.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I'm sold on Croma Type-301 knives. I have been using my ten-inch chef's knife every day for the past 4 years and it's still as great as when I first took it out of the box. Here's a link for the slicing knife you're looking for.

Chroma Type 301 Ham/Salmon Slicer P26

A second link of reviews for the brand:
Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Chroma Type 301 Designed By F.A. Porsche 10 Inch Chef Knife P01 Hope this helps.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Rob Babcock]

At my current place of employment, we do prime rib. Unfortunately the knife we use is old, and doesn't hold an edge as well as I would like. I pulled out my 12 inch slicer and the chef told me that it was too short to cut the prime, although my edge was quite superior to the 18 inch the restaurant owns, and will not allow me to use it. I was wondering if there was a good quality 16-18" slicer that will hold an edge comparable to my knives, and that will obviously be taken care of better than the communal knives at work.

Jeebus, how big are your primes!? I've used a 12" for years to cut prime rib and it works well even on the largest chunks. Just how large does your chef think a blade has to be? Off the top of my head I can't think of a lot of good blades longer than 360mm (about 14.25")- is that long enough? Misono (and several others) make sujihikis and gyutos in that length- if you don't want to blow a lot of money on a knife that I can't imagine getting used much you might try the Minamoto-Kanemasa Gyuto 360mm from Japan Blades. You could probably find a yanagibi in a pretty extreme length but that's going to be pretty spendy.

Barring that, maybe your boss would allow you to sharpen the knife they normally use? Unless it's too crappy take an edge at all. Where I currently work we have two Forschner Fibrox slicers as house knives, and IIRC they're at least 14" long. Before Mother's Day my boss was only too happy to allow me to take 'em home and sharpen them both so we'd have something to cut prime rib with, since at the moment the longest blade I keep in my kit is a 270mm Hiromoto AS gyuto.

 

[Count Omulis]

Thanks for the links. It will be a little time before, unfortunately, until i have a little discretionary income seeing on as how I have a 1 month old at home right now, but those do seem to be helpful. And Rob, our primes arent that big (I think). about 6" high or so and 10-12" deep by 24-30 long. We cut between 3/4" to 1 1/4" to get between 10 and 16 oz depending on if the customer orders a small or large prime. The chef said that shorter knives will smash or mutilate the prime. From what I am figuring though, id rather have a good sharp edge that is a little shorter than a weak edge that is longer. In my mind a dull edge is going to mutilate the meat far more than a short edge.

also, there are knife sharpeners at the restaurant, but it doesn't hold an edge after one is put on it. after a little thinking, maybe the edge the sharpener puts on the blade is the wrong bevel? I work tonight so I can see what exactly the knife is and see what your recommendations are after that.

 

[jpaulg]

I'd try to get my hands on a Yatagan style carver but I can't think of anyone who makes one longer than 10".
It's hard enough finding 12" (30cm) blades now, let alone the larger sizes. I use my Yatagan carver for breaking down large cuts and it is the bomb for that job. Trenchelards are good too.

I'd do some looking on ebay "vintage carving knife" or "antique slicing knife" as my search references.

 

[Bigjim68]

Thanks for the links. It will be a little time before, unfortunately, until i have a little discretionary income seeing on as how I have a 1 month old at home right now, but those do seem to be helpful. And Rob, our primes arent that big (I think). about 6" high or so and 10-12" deep by 24-30 long. We cut between 3/4" to 1 1/4" to get between 10 and 16 oz depending on if the customer orders a small or large prime. The chef said that shorter knives will smash or mutilate the prime. From what I am figuring though, id rather have a good sharp edge that is a little shorter than a weak edge that is longer. In my mind a dull edge is going to mutilate the meat far more than a short edge.

also, there are knife sharpeners at the restaurant, but it doesn't hold an edge after one is put on it. after a little thinking, maybe the edge the sharpener puts on the blade is the wrong bevel? I work tonight so I can see what exactly the knife is and see what your recommendations are after that.

I'm curious, why would a shorter knife mutilate a prime rib? I would think that that would be a function of sharpness, not length.

 

[Rob Babcock]

I'm curious, why would a shorter knife mutilate a prime rib? I would think that that would be a function of sharpness, not length.

Sadly, 90% of the chefs out there aren't knife guys and really don't have the faintest idea what they're talking about. But that doesn't change the First Rule of the Kitchen: The Chef Is Always Right. Even when s/he's clueless.

The basic idea is that with a shorter knife you have to "saw" at the food, resulting in uneven cuts that don't look neat. But with a sharp knife that's not an issue, as I'm sure you will agree. Unfortunately most culinary pros will never use a knife as sharp as the five you use. For many of them, the sharpest their blades will ever be is when they're new.

 

[jpaulg]

That's why I laugh at other chefs and say things like "What, are you going to bludgeon me to death with that thing?"

I've got a few others in my kitchen taking more care of their knives, but you're right it is appalling the number of chefs who use sticks instead of knives.