Hello - I`m John from Manchester - England

Hello all I am just a bloke who loves cooking and travelling and using and appreciating decent knives.I hope to get some tips and advice on sharpening especially and learning about Asian knives in particular.

Here is a partial list of my cheap and quality knives plus sharpening gear from fifty years of cooking.

Savernake bespoke powdered stainless RWL-34 8" caidao - asian ebony handle
Eden Kanso 7" blue #2 hand forged carbon Kurouchi santoku - red sandalwood handle
Motokyuichi Shirogami 9" White #2 hand forged carbon Kurouchi Gyuto - cherry handle
Tojiro / Fuji Frozen Knife 190 mm FG-3400 stainless
Chinese 5" stainless nakiri - cherry handle
Sowell 9" single bezel stainless sujihiki
Chinese 7" heavy forged stainless bunka/cleaver
Chinese 8" heavy forged stainless kiritsuke
Kiwi 8" stainless caidao
Mercer 8" stainless caidao
Ikea heavy 6" stainless bone cleaver
Chinese 7" blue #2 hand forged carbon Kurouchi caidao
Chinese 7" blue #2 hand forged carbon Kurouchi caidao
Chinese 8" blue #2 hand forged carbon Kurouchi gaidou - 768 gram bone cleaver
WAK knives 8" 67 layer damascus stainless Forged 9Cr13 Mov ( Aus10 equivalent ) kiritsuke - green ceramic handle
WAK knives 8" 67 layer damascus stainless Forged 9Cr13 Mov ( Aus10 equivalent ) santoku - ebony handle
1968 Sabatier thinned reprofiled forged stainless 6" utility
Granton Sheffield 10" stainless rounded tip beef slicer
Sabatier 10" stainless bread knife
Rockingham Forge Sunrise - 7" - X40CR13 stainless santoku - green marbled ABS handle
Chinese 14" stainless serrated slicer
Chinese 10" stainless serrated bread knife

Catrahone
Fixed angle sharpener
1000 grit diamond stone
400 grit diamond stone
3200 grit diamond stone
8000 grit blue john stone
Various grits - 80 - 30000 - carborundum, ceramic , CBN and aluminium oxide plates and Belgium Ardennes Coticules - for the cut throat razors and decent knives
Eggington - Sheffield - 12" Dual Cut Round Sharpening Steel
12" leather/cloth strop - jewellers green aluminium oxide sharpening compound and 0.5 micron/1 micron diamond paste
Plus another 20 or so antique to modern knives from all over the World

 

These are piccies of some of my big rectangular knives and mostly Asian style knives.I`m trying not to collect anymore knives just replace my cheapie knives with better ones because I cook a lot; usually everyday for my church friends and the hare kryshnas - the homeless need a lot of regular warm nourishing food and I do my best.

 

I like it! I have a lot of knives in buckets. LOL

 

Nice one Wagner.I have a tiny kitch, no drawer space, no wall space and no bench space.So I got creative and rolled my sleeves up.I made an oak box out of scrap wood and put little feet on it and put removable high density foam on the bottom.Then I made 13 custom oversized knife pouches from 3mm polyester felt and used pinking shears and fabric glue as I am dire at sewing and had no sewing machine.That way the blade edge does not touch the felt inside and spends less time on my ubiquitous 1000 grit diamond stone next to the sink.Most of my knives are inexpensive but serviceable and I have a handful of alright ones.Because I lived in the far east so long I learnt to do everything with a caidao including carving flowers out of fruit and veg.I`m not a chef
; I just like mucking about in the kitch with American talk radio on (I used to live in Kokomo Indiana) ages ago.

 

Welcome aboard!
Great to have you here.

 

Thanks Jim - what a lovely welcome.

 

Holy moly! You’ve got a collection. Welcome to the Fora!

 

Thanks for the lovely welcome Toothpick.Most of my knives are cheapies from the early 1980`s when I was a poor student but I have a few good ones.I lived and worked in Hong Kong and Macau in the 1990`s so I developed a love for the Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Malaysian culture and food.I used Asian knives all day long and eventually I used caidao`s - Chinese chef`s knives / choka bucho knives for doing every cutting job in the kitchen.Now I don`t need need to use loads of Japanese specialist knives.I usually use just the two Chinese cheapie carbon choppers with the rough black kouruchi finish.I can get my carbons incredibly sharp in no time without expensive stones.I`ve been cooking since 1972 but I`m still learning - every day.