Patina or Baking Soda?

Some people seem to think it’s necessary to force a patina on carbon knifes.  As always, “it depends.”  A few carbon alloys are very reactive.  But most can be scoured and stabilized with baking soda. In the old days we used to rub it on with a wine cork or a potato.  Now, a Scotch-Brite [...]

Hand American Stropping Kit — Some Preliminaries

Keith De Grau of Hand American was nice enough to help with the selection of equipment from Chef’s Knives To Go (Mark Richmond).   This is only a preliminary review, but I wanted to get something up to acknowledge their help. There are limits imposed by susceptibility to corrosion and “scratch hardness” to how well an [...]

corned beef hash

  We had corned beef for dinner the 15th of March.  For dinner on St. Patrick’s day, the 17th, we had this hash.  Hash is a very good thing, but because the techniques are so simple, almost to the level of boiling water, and because there are any number of good recipes available on the [...]

“Philosophies” of Sharpening

I’m not sure how you conceptualize sharpening. Some people look at it as a series of progressive shapings and polishings; starting on the coarsest stones, and just doing the same thing only doing it finer as they move up the grits.  Deburring is an incidental nuisance, a consequence of a burr which occurs when “bevels [...]

what you need to know About kitchen knives – introduction

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT KITCHEN KNIVES Introduction Whether you’re interested in buying a new knife or just know more about the knives you already have, this is the first post in a series that will help you understand what makes some knives better – or at least different – for any given task. [...]

Overview of some Japanese and French Chef’s Knives

Just barely enough to give you the first hint of overview of quality French and Japanese carbons, and quality Japanese

HANDAMERICAN BOROSILICATE ROD

A Brief Review of, not to give anything away, The Best Knife Steeling Tool Ever.

THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT STEELS

Some very important things to know about steels and steeling — but not the complete guide.

A LITTLE ARKANSAS STONE CHAT

This article was originally posted at Chef Talk when they still hosted blogs. MORE SHARPENING, ALL ARKANSAS For whatever reason, knife and sharpening posts get huge numbers of hits. I’ve received scores of requests to do more on sharpening, and have been chipping away at something Huge and Complex Which Would Describe Everything. Then, like [...]