# everything i need and knife skills???



## mrbushido (Apr 24, 2014)

Hello got a konosuke hd2 270mm gyuto and a 210 tojiro shirogami gyuto and a 220mm victorinox chefs knife and a 150mm tojiro shirogami petty.

Stones 220 king 1000 king 3000 naniwa superstone and 6000 king

And a ceramic hone.

Also gonna order a boardsmith end grain board next month.

Thats everything i need i feel or??
Just cuts vegetables and boneless protein.


So my knifeskills is pretty slow and bad any good tips to learn or some tips?


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## millionsknives (Apr 25, 2014)

First is safety, then technique, efficiency, and with practice you'll finally pick up some speed. 

If you're working with an uncommon shape, stop to think about what you're doing. Ex. You need a fine dice of bell pepper. You can cut off four sides, julienne then dice. You could cut the ends off, roll it out and de seed at the same time the julienne and dice. A beginner might try to cut from the top and deseed and then just rock chop/ mince it. It wouldn't be very fast or consistent.

Think about when you want to guillotine and glide or push cut or pull cut. 

Consider board management. Where are you cutting? Where to place products out of the way when you are done?

Don't rush it, speed comes from experience and good technique.


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## millionsknives (Apr 25, 2014)

Also about that board management thing.. I used to stand squared up to the board and cut at a diagonal with my product also diagonal to the board. You lose a lot of space this way. Now I stand with my left foot forward and cut square to the board. Much more usable space.


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## mrbushido (Apr 24, 2014)

Okay know any good places to learn knife skills?


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## millionsknives (Apr 25, 2014)

http://www.craftsy.com/class/complete-knife-skills/560 is a good start for vegatables with some good tips and tricks for common and uncommon vegatables. Ignore the knife advice and sharpening parts. It was catered to western style knives.

Chicken butchery is easy and there are lots of videos online. I took a class for whole hog butchering. Best $200 I've spent. That's the only cooking class I've ever taken.


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## mrbushido (Apr 24, 2014)

Ok thanks


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## tweakz (May 10, 2014)

The Craftsy knife skills class is great if you don't mind many emails afterward trying to sell you more classes (can probably be blocked). TBH: didn't learn anything from it, and suggest you can learn as much with more time digging. Thinking you've already learned everything about knife skills is a handicap.


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## dcarch (Jun 28, 2010)

Unless you are working for a restaurant, there is no need whatsoever to aim for cutting fast with a knife.

Learn the best way to cut food, not the fastest way. Unless you are a showoff. 

dcarch


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## millionsknives (Apr 25, 2014)

I disagree. I'm busy and hungry, why spend more time on prep than necessary? I can get one component started, whatever takes longest, then move on to the next. You can't do that if it takes 10 minutes to dice an onion.


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## spoiledbroth (Sep 25, 2014)

... Speed comes with experience... you do not "practice" being faster with a knife, that is a good way to cut yourself. Within 4 or 5 years your speed will increase exponentially, until then there is no reason for you to worry about how long it takes you to cut anything, unless you eat a lot of french onion soup. I also don't recommend cutting things piecemeal ie. cut onion, place in pan, cut garlic while onion is sweating. Cooking is always more of a joy when you've got your mise en place


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## millionsknives (Apr 25, 2014)

At the same, I know old people with slow, bad, unsafe knife skills. Time by itself is nothing. Focus on good habits every time you pick up a knife.


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## millionsknives (Apr 25, 2014)

@spoiledbroth within reason. Ex. I am roasting a chicken. I will do just what i need to get it in the oven before I start on side dishes.


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## dcarch (Jun 28, 2010)

MillionsKnives said:


> I disagree. I'm busy and hungry, why spend more time on prep than necessary? I can get one component started, whatever takes longest, then move on to the next. You can't do that if it takes 10 minutes to dice an onion.


Busy? Hungry? Use a food processor.

In a typical meal on the average, recipes requiring lots of cutting still can be done without rushing. No one needs 10 minutes to cut an onion. two minutes may be. Why try to save 30 seconds and risk serious injuries?

Learn the best way to bone a chicken (Jacques Pepin), not the fastest way to bone a chicken (Martin Yan)

dcarch


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## ordo (Mar 19, 2009)

There's a pleasure in cutting fast (and a necessity) and there's a pleasure in cutting slow. For a begginer, i'm with dcarch. It's like that advice to practice piano; First, play slow. Then slower. Then even slower. If your moves are ingrained in your muscular memory, fast will come by its own.


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## mrbushido (Apr 24, 2014)

Ok thanks guys


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## rick alan (Nov 15, 2012)

One more thing.  There is a trick that all professional athletes use and it is called Mental Imaging.  In this case the trick is you see in your mind what you want the knife to do, and pretty soon it just starts doing it.  Go slow and slower as suggested, breaking down the motions till you got everything straight, and you are always "seeing" things like you want them to happen.  Then when you've got that down build up the speed gradually.

Rick


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## mrbushido (Apr 24, 2014)

Yes but is what knife skills that fit my blades the most so i can practise them slow


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## rick alan (Nov 15, 2012)

Just the guillotine-and-glide I'm sure you heard about.  And what you'd do for any knife, keeping it straight on the board, no twisting, so your edge doesn't get damaged.

Rick


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## spoiledbroth (Sep 25, 2014)

Practice paring too, get a cheap if you are scared of using your petty or whatever and just take the edge off it abit. Look up some videos of how to peel potatoes and apply the skill to whatever kind of produce with a skin you can get cheaply. It's a pretty good skill to have. There are alot more skills you can practice with your knives but it's kind of impractical for you to buy 20 whole chickens and practice deboning them. Practicing the varous french cuts is a good way to develop alot of skill. Take the same potatoes once you are done peeling them and look up a video on how to Tournee -- you do not need a birds beak to do it, there's a few videos on youtube that show you how to use a spear point paring knife. And make sure you are always making the "bear claw" with the hand opposite to the knife when cutting things on the cutting board. Good luck!


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## tweakz (May 10, 2014)

Speed can reduce stiction, resistance, and deflection under certain circumstances. Practice speed with a cut resistant glove if there's a danger.


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## dcarch (Jun 28, 2010)

tweakz said:


> Speed can reduce stiction, resistance, and deflection under certain circumstances. Practice speed with a cut resistant glove if there's a danger.


Another way to really practice speed cutting with no danger is to get a trash knife, completely grind off the edge, and use that to practice the cutting motion as fast as you want.

dcarch


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## spoiledbroth (Sep 25, 2014)

Again, practice speed once you have mastered the basics. IMO totally unnecessary for cooking at home unless you want to impress. It's pretty lame to speed chop like a pro and then fumble around trying to section an orange or something like simple like that. Also make sure you're not just sauteeing and braising everything- become as well rounded as possible- many culinary tasks don't even require knives, they require all kinds of other fun kit.


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## millionsknives (Apr 25, 2014)

Chopping straight up and down looks cool on TV, but the sound drives me nuts.


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## spoiledbroth (Sep 25, 2014)

Ya I don't do it personally and I have seen alot of people in the kitchen who have hacked up their fingertips trying to tack-cut white button mushrooms like that (never consistent end product). And these are people who have held a knife for a good 3000+ hours I might add. I think especially in alot of youtube videos (reviewing knives) they are wayyyy too hard on the knives. Could also be that I'm born and bred on the plastic commercial type ones, I guess they deaden the sound considerably but I do use some nicer boards at friends'


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## mrbushido (Apr 24, 2014)

Yeah its that i mean i see hell of a lot off knife abuse 

I want to learn fast cutting that is best for my blades with least abuse.


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## spoiledbroth (Sep 25, 2014)




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