Ultimate Knife Tip

John Yeah, knives, knives, knives.

The knife market has changed so much over the years. The Germans dominating the scene. But the Japanese own the place now. And I have to say right now, the knife I… if I was gonna buy a knife, I’d go to Amazon and get the Shan Zu 8-inch Chef Knife. The one that’s on sale. It’s 44% off, it’s 49 bucks, which is cheap. Because this is a 67-layer Damascus knife. In other words, it’s been folded 67 times.

Adam: That’s a pretty knife.

John: Yeah, it’s dynamite.

Adam: I’m adding it to my cart. Right now.

John: I was thinking you buy it now while they still have ’em.

Adam: Yep. I’m buying it. Right now.

John: Because it’s the sale price because… Couple of things you should note. One: This sort of knife is not sharp… you can’t use a device I recommended recently to sharpen a knife like this.

Adam: Mmhmm. This is carbon. This is carbon, you can’t even sharpen that can you?

John: No you can sharpen it but you need a stone. You need a real good Japanese sharpening stone. So this is problem number one with this knife.

Adam: Ah… but I already bought it. Ugh.

John: Good. Well you should have this knife. It won’t go dull right away. But get a stone because once you learn how to use a stone to sharpen knives it’s unbelievable.

Adam: A whetting stone?

John: A whetting stone. Exactly. With knives like this… I have to say… I recommend to the highest degree a pair of chain mail gloves. These aren’t really knives as much as they are razor blades

Amazon has them but they’re all over the place. Look up chain mail gloves. These are gloves you can wear, they’re usually made out of a weavable stainless steel. And I have a pair.

Adam: Oh. It’s like chain mail. So you can’t cut your finger off.

John: You can’t cut your finger off. I use the chain mail gloves a lot when I’m using the real French Mandolin that I have. I have a real big giant one. Not the little Japanese wimpy Mandolin… a big boy. All steel. And you have to have some… you have to have some protection when you use these things. You’re gonna kill yourself.

Adam: You hear that Tina? She’s lefty, whenever I see her cutting something it’s the oddest thing. It just makes me so uncomfortable.

John: Well, with this knife here… you’re gonna get really uncomfortable when she cuts it for the first time. This is the kind of knife that you could hold up kind of in the air and throw a tomato at it and go right through it.

Adam: Whoa.

John: That’s the kind of knife it is. Okay, now…

Adam: I’m keeping it under lock and key. I’m not letting my wife touch it.

John: Well, it’s just one of those knives. It’s one of those things. Now, that said, I have one other thing to note.

With Japanese products, without execption pretty much, price equals quality. And that’s why this knife at 49 bucks is actually rediculously cheap because it’s been discounted. Which is unusual. The more you spend on a Damascus knife, the better.

Here is the seconday recommendation: This is a knife block set with 14 pieces.

This is a $62 deal. It’s not even marked down that much. I have one of these knives from this company. This is the knife block set from Fickshot. And they’re a one piece knife, they’re very light. You can use the sharpening device on these knives. And you get a whole set for 62 bucks of about six steak knives, a chef’s knife, a bunch of knives, a paring knife, you get a bunch of knives.

Adam: And scissors? And they give you scissors?

John: And you get the scissors and you get a block. Unfortunately the block’s a piece of crap, but except for the block that holds the knives, you got some nice, cheap knives that would make a terrific gift.

Adam: Ah.

John: I wouldn’t gift anybody a Damascus knife.

Adam: It’s a stocking stuffer.

John: Well… if you have a big stocking. So those are the nice things that you should know about. But a stone. You need a stone.

Adam: Get yourself a stone, people!

MEA CULPA (december 18)

John: I have a mea culpa to correct the record on the knife, whatever that knife was that we had. It’s Chinese.

Which is OK, because it’s still a folded knife. But that’s why it’s cheap.

Adam: Although I saw the price went up to 75 dollars on Amazon. Suddenly.

John: It’s 75. I think we sold out of the sale price ones.

Adam: I was lucky.

John: Yeah, you had to get them right away. So I did. Seventy-five is still cheap because that’s a two hundred fifty dollar plus knife if it was Japanese. I probably knew this. But the pattern, the classic pattern that you get on the knife from dipping in water and flodingthe blade so much, that’s on there. It’s like they’ve toned it down. I think the Japanese emphasize it. So they put dye or something to make it look really—so it really stands out. But it’s still a killer knife. I got a number of notes from people telling me to make sure I correct the record on the origin of this.