Welcome lonelyboy

Welcome @lonelyboy

Please join me in welcoming our newest member, lonelyboy. We are happy to have you as part of our community.
Why not start by telling us something about yourself!

 

Welcome!

 

Wow, thanks! I grew up with some old carbon knives (very simple carbon steel, I think) that developed a beautiful and stable dark grey patina very quickly. One of my chores, almost as far back as I can remember, was keeping them sharp, with an old whetstone that looked a lot like this:



using a single heel-to-tip swiping motion. Usually, I did that whenever the edge became almost as dark as the side. My mother always told me how terrible stainless steel knives (at that time) were, but foolishly, I had no idea how great those knives were (a boning knife and sheepsfoot paring knife) and was constantly drooling over big "fancy" knife blocks. So, when I moved into my condo, I went and bought a $70 Hampton Forge block from Target because I couldn't fathom paying for the higher-priced ones. With some sharpening, they could be usable, but were never good, and when I moved in with my girlfriend, I started doing more cooking, and was a little frustrated with them.

One day we were walking the neighborhood and wandered into a local cooking supply store (Metier, in Austin) and I saw a few of the very nice knives they had there and got the bug again. And, I'm better-off enough to be willing to pay for a couple of actual nice knives. First I replaced the girl's old Wusthof Classic santoku with a Takamura R2, which was amazing (and made me internalize that modern stainless can be very good, though I still like the evolving personality of patinas on carbon). To that end, "my" knife is a 240mm Tanaka blue2 from K&S.

Before I bought a bunch of factory knives (fortunately) I decided I'd really rather have a few "special" knives than mass-produced ones, so the impetus of me joining here was to get in touch with Dalman, because I just can't get over that S-grind (. The girl and I will be making a trip to Santa Fe either late this year or early next, and I'll pick up a 52100 from Shihan at that point, direct from the forge. Other knives on my list, pending funds and continued motivation, are a Takeda (if I can find one with the classic grind), Catcheside, and Brian Raquin (in no particular order). Maybe Blenheim, too. I almost certainly won't spend the thousands it would take to get one of each of those, but those are the ones I'm interested in.

I do also want to try a nakiri, but that I will probably just get in a cheaper factory option. The fancy ones would likely all be gyutos.

 

Welcome along! Nice introduction as well

 

Welcome to the KKFora! Thanks for sharing the story

 

Glad you guys enjoyed it, and that it was what you were looking for! I look forward to spending more time around here and getting to know everyone.

Edit: Also, should anyone wonder, the name is a Gossip Girl reference (guilty pleasure); I've been with the girlfriend for three years and we're buying a house together later this year, and we'll be getting married (no-frills) sometime before that. No worries about my social life.

 

Welcome and congrats.

 

Welcome to the fora...buying a house lends itself to less money for knives...just say'n

 

Congrats on the upcoming house purchase and marriage

 

Thanks and thanks all - Matt, while I'm sure I'll be told "famous last words", I don't anticipate much trouble on that front; the house will only be ~20% more than the condo we were living in, which she purchased on her on (shortly before we met) on her income alone from two jobs ago. So, the mortgage should still leave plenty of budget free, and she's extremely supportive of my hobbies as I am of hers (which, itself, is very expensive - Ironman). Plus, as a side benefit to both of us, I'm cooking a bunch more and better because I want excuses to use the toys (not just knives; we started doing cast iron cookware as well).

But, of course, famous last words.

 

Welcome to the Fora!