Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Knives

For some reason, cyclocross just didn't have the appeal for me this year that is has in years past. Even a G-Whiz new cyclocross bike couldn't get me excited for my traditional late-fall suffer fest. DR and I got out several times on the mountain bike for extra-innings rides, which were fun. But then it got wet and I didn't get around to trading my MTBs for my CX bikes. Instead, I have turned to knives. Kitchen cutlery, actually. My perseverations have focused on everything to do with razor sharp edges. From Forschner to Shun to Wusthof to Henckels to Global and back to Shun. The round trip also picked up some sharpening implements along the way. I finally settled on primarily Henckels for my wife and general use because they take a reasonably sharp edge and hold the edge reasonably well. I also settled on Shun for me because, well, because AB said so. That's not the only reason - it's just that his advertising was most compelling. Much like his scientific approach to cooking makes sense to me, his geometry/Rockwell hardness argument also made sense. So, Shun Classics it is. Now to move on to another perseveration. Hopefully this one will take me back to something fitness related. Knives are good for cooking. Cooking is good for eating. Eating is good for gaining weight.

5 comments:

Mr. Flynn said...

Huh? Knives is what gets you goin'? It is like you converted to some new religion or something. Or you started speaking some new language with the Forschner Shun Wusthof stuff.

I may have followed you to road bikes and then cyclocross, but I am not ready to get sucked in by samuri sushi knifes that can split atoms. I can appreciate the quality but...I will watch from a distance oh great protege of Chef Brown. But I don't mind eating the scraps here and there.

Sabrosa Cycles said...

"Instead, I have turned to knives."
I am not sure if that was supposed to funny or not, but I nearly wet myself when I read that line. Very funny. I also really liked the comment about Rockwell Hardness. I wonder what the Rockwell value is for my Henckels.

pqrs - your new pony is six miters closer as of last night (and that was just for the seat tube/downtube/bb junction). Wrap your brain around that for a while.

Fish said...

For your Henckels - and most Solingen steel for that matter - the rockwell hardness is between about 51 and 53. A lot of the Japanese makers use knives in the 56-61 range for "mid-range" stuff and 62-64 for the high-end stuff. The mid-range stuff runs an average of 100 per knife while the high end stuff runs 200+. Mid-range is more like buying what you'd generally consider a mid-to-high end bike. Something like a pretty trick Fisher. The really high end stuff is like buying a custom carbon Serotta - pretty over the top for a marginal gain.

Sabrosa Cycles said...

fwhew! there for a second I thought the RH was going to be down in the B92's (no, not the B-52's). Guess I am just used to 4130. Thanks. Also, thanks for putting things in bicycle terminology. Things are a lot clearer now.

You still haven't talked about full length tangs or how the knife is balanced.

Mr. Flynn said...

how about a carbon fiber blade? You could take it on an airplane and not set off any alarms.

http://www.pbase.com/sniper308/image/38003399/large.jpg

Not exactly good for a chef though. Maybe a paranoid chef though.