On pocket knives in the kitchen…

[olywa]

Just about every new knife design or steel I get spends a week or so on the kitchen windowsill over the sink. This includes both fixed and folders. I'm always doing food prep near the sink and this is a good location for me to keep them handy and put them to work. I learn a lot about each new knife by putting them to use this way.

[Tristan_david2001]

Surprised I haven’t seen a mention of the spydiechef here yet. If I’m going to be cutting any kind of food in the kitchen that’s the folder I’m picking up. Great slicer, ideal for chopping, and highly corrosive resistant

[JSumm]

I use a pocket knife in the kitchen but only for science.

[Wartstein]

Surprised I haven’t seen a mention of the spydiechef here yet. If I’m going to be cutting any kind of food in the kitchen that’s the folder I’m picking up. Great slicer, ideal for chopping, and highly corrosive resistant

To be clear: I never even held a Spydiechef myself, so this is all just theory:

- Just from its specs I guess it certainly is a nice all around EDC folder, and LC 200N plus positive blade angle (good for cutting on a board) lend it towards "the kitchen", no doubt!
- But I always felt they could have given it a thinner and perhaps also a bit longer blade (which would probably mean making the whole knife a bit larger) in order to push it a bit further towards food prep?
I am sure that overall not too long and rather wide blade could easily take 2.5 or even 2.0 mm stock, which would be more like a kitchen knife ?

Just my 2c, and as said: To be taken with many grains of Salt, since I never tried the knife myself

[skeeg11]

Surprised I haven’t seen a mention of the spydiechef here yet. If I’m going to be cutting any kind of food in the kitchen that’s the folder I’m picking up. Great slicer, ideal for chopping, and highly corrosive resistant

Whenever I visit friends, the SpydieChef is with me.

[Ramonade]

I think we should always use the tool we want to use!
As long as it is only affecting us, our choice is our choice ^^

No matter how practical or impractical it may be

[Manixguy@1994]

After this thread my diet is down the tubes tonight ! Great pictures and comments . Thank you ! MG2

[Tristan_david2001]

Surprised I haven’t seen a mention of the spydiechef here yet. If I’m going to be cutting any kind of food in the kitchen that’s the folder I’m picking up. Great slicer, ideal for chopping, and highly corrosive resistant

To be clear: I never even held a Spydiechef myself, so this is all just theory:

- Just from its specs I guess it certainly is a nice all around EDC folder, and LC 200N plus positive blade angle (good for cutting on a board) lend it towards "the kitchen", no doubt!
- But I always felt they could have given it a thinner and perhaps also a bit longer blade (which would probably mean making the whole knife a bit larger) in order to push it a bit further towards food prep?
I am sure that overall not too long and rather wide blade could easily take 2.5 or even 2.0 mm stock, which would be more like a kitchen knife ?

Just my 2c, and as said: To be taken with many grains of Salt, since I never tried the knife myself

I have no doubt that a slightly slimmer blade stock and length could lend some extra positive attributes as a kitchen knife. the blade is ground very nice behind the edge and I haven’t noticed any issues slicing with it in my experience using it. I think it’s important to keep in mind too that despite the name, its not solely a pocket kitchen knife, it’s also generally a bit of harder use edc with design features that attribute it to also being a good food prep tool, and perhaps that’s why the blade is the length and thickness it is? as the model sits, I think it still makes for an ideal folder for people that frequently like to use their pocket knives as food prep kitchen tools

[skeeg11]

Defacto standard of excellence when it comes to pocketable folding food prep knives in the field. My favorite Big Game skinning blade. How's that for food prep? Outside the home kitchen, but at home in the camp kitchen.

[Danke]

Spidechef and trout caught by my son. That one that would swim around the dock and never bite.

[yablanowitz]

If we´d always say "well, there actually is a better /dedicated cutting tool": Why then carrying and EDC folder at all? A box cutter will be better at box cutting, scissors better for cutting papers or a thread, a fixed blade just generally better most times and so on...

I've seen similar arguments, "if you're cutting boxes all day why not just use a box knife" or "why not just use a hand saw for those branches". It's funny to me that even though we are generally an open minded bunch of people, some are quick to make this kind of argument and what bothers me is it's the exact mentality that anti knife people make when they tell us we don't need to carry a pocket knife. We can almost always find a better tool for the job but that's not the point of a pocket knife at all. Once we start placing limits on what we should and shouldn't use them for we've started down the same path of control where you find blade length laws and switchblade laws and all the other nonsense knife laws that control us.

When someone asks me "Why not use a...(insert tool here) instead of that pocket knife", I ask to borrow theirs. Of course, they don't have the specified tool on them, and I'll be done with the job before they can get back with the "right" tool.

As an aside, I had the honor of having dinner with Sal and Gail last summer, and although sushi is supposed to be served bite-sized, we each had a knife out by the end of the meal.

[Tristan_david2001]

I’m not sure who was quick to make that sort of argument. I just gave my opinion on my personal choice for a folder to use for food prep.

[Bloke]

I cut next to nothing edible with a pocket knife. The one exception is my S30V Military with a coarse edge because it cuts bread cleanly and with way less crumbs than beloved wife’s bread knife.

[Wartstein]

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I have no doubt that a slightly slimmer blade stock and length could lend some extra positive attributes as a kitchen knife. the blade is ground very nice behind the edge and I haven’t noticed any issues slicing with it in my experience using it. I think it’s important to keep in mind too that despite the name, its not solely a pocket kitchen knife, it’s also generally a bit of harder use edc with design features that attribute it to also being a good food prep tool, and perhaps that’s why the blade is the length and thickness it is? as the model sits, I think it still makes for an ideal folder for people that frequently like to use their pocket knives as food prep kitchen tools

Thanks for the reply!

Makes sense and I can see how the Spydiechef is both a really capable general EDC folder, but also good at food prep (for a folder)
Do you ever find that the positive blade angle is a disadvantage in "not cutting stuff on a board" - tasks?

[Wartstein]

Another knife to mention here is the Kapara, since Alistair Phillips actually (quote) "originally created the Kapara as a personal carry knife to help him prepare healthy, vegetable-based meals" (https://www.spyderco.com/catalog/details/C241CF/1155)

I found mine pretty good at food prep indeed:

- Long cuttting edge

- And one can actually make use of ALL of that edge on a cutting board, due to how "low" the blade sits compared to the handle and the good amount of clearance the hand gets when working on a surface with the knife.
Things one can´t do like this let´s say with an Endura (the blade sits "higher", and there is that "guard" that gets in the way when cutting on a board) - though the Endura is already pretty good at food prep

[Tristan_david2001]

.....

.....

I have no doubt that a slightly slimmer blade stock and length could lend some extra positive attributes as a kitchen knife. the blade is ground very nice behind the edge and I haven’t noticed any issues slicing with it in my experience using it. I think it’s important to keep in mind too that despite the name, its not solely a pocket kitchen knife, it’s also generally a bit of harder use edc with design features that attribute it to also being a good food prep tool, and perhaps that’s why the blade is the length and thickness it is? as the model sits, I think it still makes for an ideal folder for people that frequently like to use their pocket knives as food prep kitchen tools

Thanks for the reply!

Makes sense and I can see how the Spydiechef is both a really capable general EDC folder, but also good at food prep (for a folder)
Do you ever find that the positive blade angle is a disadvantage in "not cutting stuff on a board" - tasks?

Good question, but I can’t really say for sure, not saying there may not be some disadvantage, I might just be unaware. The tasks I’ve used the knife for besides food have been to slice open bags/packages, widdling wood, cutting fabric, and cutting rope and I haven’t felt a disadvantage because of its blade angle. I think it’s a great all around edc

[Fireman]

Oddly enough, been using the K390 endura quite a bit in the kitchen. Getting a good patina

[Wartstein]

Oddly enough, been using the K390 endura quite a bit in the kitchen. Getting a good patina

As said, this is actually one of the nice things when using (tool steel) Spydies in the kitchen:
Without actually "artificially" forcing a patina, they start to show use and "personality" and just to look better.

Tool steels for me for such reasons are somehow more "alive" than stainless ones.

[Joshuaroyce]

Pm2 works great for me when I’m doing food prep at friends houses and they have really really crappy kitchen knives.

[kobold]

I also like to test drive folders in the kitchen and I also like the resulting patina, but not so much the juices gunking up the internals.
I used the GB2, the PM2 Maxamet, the S110V Millie, and the Rex45 Chief and they all perform well.