Sunday, January 24, 2016

Knife Snob

In either my late teens or early twenties, while visiting my dad I cooked for him. I love to cook; for me it is a creative outlet, and I had wanted to share it with him. When I moved away and went to college, I had gotten an el cheapo set of knives. I thought knives were knives and that they all cut equally. Oh, how wrong I was. Using my dad's fancy Wusthofs made with German steel and honed to perfection, I was brought into the light and I instantly became a knife snob.

I used to hate food prep. Cutting up potatoes with cheap knives is torture, much less trying to hack through raw chicken with tough tendons. Later than same year, my dad bought me a set of Henckels which is a sister brand to his Wustofs. They too, are made with premium German Steel and can hold an edge like no other. Food prep became a breeze as the knives glided through potatoes and even half frozen chicken as if they were butter. The knives are heavier than cheap knives and the weight is a part of their advantage. The weight of the knife is often enough to do most of the work of the cut and all I have to do is just guide the blade. Contrary to first instinct, a dull knife is much more dangerous than a sharp one. (For one you don't have to fight a sharp knife and risk things getting out of hand).

I recently found an 8in chef's knife that is made by a company called Happy Moon and after reading some of the research the company had made prior to designing the knife I just had to try it out and see how it stacked up to my Henckels.

The Happy Moon knife is very similar to the Henckel that I have, however the devil is in the details. The shape of the blade, particularly the way it tapers (quite a bit less than the Henckel) towards the tip. The shape of the handle is different too as it carries a little bit more of a curve allowing me a little bit more leverage on each pass of the blade.


I know the picture below doesn't do a good job of showing it, but the thickness of the blade on the Happy Moon knife is slightly more than that of the Henckel. This results in the Happy Moon blade being a little bit more hefty. As I mentioned before I don't mind the heft especially since the tang of the knife goes through the handle and the little metal cap at the end of the hand also provides a nice counter weight for a well balanced blade.






For the most part, the Happy Moon knife has me 'over the moon' so to speak. I am excited to see some nice quality knives designed here in the US rather than Europe, and at a much more affordable price than the German blades.











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Disclaimer: please be aware that any item mentioned in this blog may have been received for free or at a discount in exchange for a fair and honest review. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own regardless of how the items were acquired.

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