![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/knives-1-blog.jpg\" "\\"knives")
1) Chef’s Knife<\/strong>: This is\u00a0THE knife you use most of the time for cutting, slicing, dicing, chopping, you name it. In fact, if you have budget for just\u00a0one\u00a0knife, this\u00a0is it. Don’t be fooled into buying a knife\u00a0set with\u00a0other knives thrown in thinking that you are getting a good bargain. Truth is,\u00a0other knives in the set would be sitting in the knife block\u00a0unused while the\u00a0chef’s knife calls the shots day in and day out. Therefore, choose a good chef’s knife that\u00a0is either hand-made (forged)\u00a0or machined (not the cheap stamped ones). Okay to get some idea, those stamped knives sold at NTUC are the ones to avoid if you want good knives that last. To maintain the chef’s knife, you would need at least 2 good whetstones (water stones)\u00a0of different grit to sharpen it occasionally.<\/p>\n 2) Paring Knife<\/strong>: This is something like a smaller chef’s knife. It is smaller for easy peeling of\u00a0fruits, deveining prawns, intricate carvings and the like. We use this knife 20% of the time.<\/p>\n 3) Bread knife<\/strong>: This is a long knife with serrated or scalloped edge for cutting well, bread of course. If you often eat bread (I also use it to cut the cakes I bake), this would come in handy. However, unlike the chef’s knife, don’t spend too much on the bread knife as its edge is too tedious to sharpen and hence it won’t last as long as you like. Just buy a new one when the current one loses its desired sharpness.<\/p>\n 4) Cleaver<\/strong>: If\u00a0you cook Asian\u00a0dishes\u00a0like we do sometimes, you would probably find a cleaver handy on top of the 3 knives mentioned above. We use the cleaver for hacking spare ribs, coconuts and cutting through hard vegetables such as corn, winter melon, pumpkin, etc. We also use it to slice fish fillet just\u00a0in case we hit a hard bone or scales\u00a0and\u00a0chip the sharp edge of our precious chef’s knife.<\/p>\n There are just about 2 types of steel to choose in a knife. Either carbon steel or stainless steel. The former alloy will allow the knife to take on a very keen edge but the downside is maintenance. Carbon steel rust readily if not cleaned and\u00a0wiped dry immediately after use. The stainless steel knife will not rust as easily but pales somewhat in terms of screaming sharpness. Then again, there are\u00a0those sophisticated\u00a0grades of stainless steel\u00a0thanks to advanced technology\u00a0today that boast improved performance over their\u00a0inferior cousins.<\/p>\n In Singapore, it is not easy to find suitable whetstones from departmental stores. Most, however,\u00a0sell knife sharpening devices\u00a0which might be set at inappropriate angles to sharpen your knives to make them last. I bought one whetstone of 1000 grit together with the chef’s knife while in Japan and Yang helped me acquire another whetstone of 6000 grit from an online store. The 1000 grit is meant for sharpening while the\u00a06000 grit\u00a0does fine polishing to make the\u00a0edge last longer. I must\u00a0add that sharpening\u00a0knives is not as\u00a0daunting as it looks or sounds. It takes\u00a0some practice of course.<\/p>\n Finally, Ward kept reminding his readers the usefulness of having a finely grooved honing rod as well. It helps to straighten any rolled over edge on the knife to keep it at peak performance longer. This is probably the final item we would acquire to complete our knife maintenance at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1) Do you maintain your kitchen knives regularly at screaming sharp edges? 2) Do you clean and dry your knives\u00a0soon after use? 3) Do you know that\u00a0full tang is not necessary for a good knife? 4) Do you know that<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/whetstones-blog.jpg\" "\\"whetstones")