Knife Crime

I've always preferred carbon steel knives. I inherited my first carbon steel knife from my (French) grandmother when I was in my late teens. I remember it well: it's greying blade honed razor sharp had a pronounced curve to it's edge. I thought it was supposed to be like that and it wasn't until a year or two later when I bought my own first cook's knife in Paris that I realised that it's shape was the result of several decades use of the steel.

Carbon steel is softer than stainless. This means that it can be honed more easily and it's possible to get a brilliantly sharp edge to it. Of course it also means that it blunts very quickly. Carbon steel also rusts and discolours and many people wouldn't consider them as they (mistakenly) think them unhygienic and unattractive. But for a cooks knife I wouldn't consider anything else. Unfortunately, as they need sharpening often and as sharpening them is so rewarding since one ends up with such a sharp blade, it's easy to end up with a knife shaped like my grandmother's. Knife crime! it's easy to do...

Carbon steel kitchen knives are hard to find. It's really only the French who continue to produce them - usually one of the Sabatiers producers from around Thiers. But all these producers now offer knives directly to cooks around the world on their web sites. This year I realised that my own 20 year old 6" cooks knife had begun to be shaped like my grandmother's and it was time to buy another. I chose a Sabatiers 'K' knife and, having ordered it it arrived in just 48 hours. And here it is...



We're very glad to have it in Devon (though it will go back to London at the end of the summer). It joins my 8" cooks knife (also London based) and forms the base of the kitchen's preparation batterie. For preparing vegetables, chopping, mincing and slicing there's nothing to beat them.

We do use stainless knives. There are two Wusthof flexible slicing knives that are also indispensible for slicing meat and fruit and for carving. All of these are maintained with a fantastic Wusthof diamond coated steel. A cook and his knives...how obsessive is that?