Knives On The Cutting Edge

Meld your mind with your palate with this in-depth look at the culinary ventures of many great chefs and restaurants, and an examination of some of the most current megatrends in dining and wining experiences.

Twelve former and three current Cutco Cutlery sales professionals--with more than $300 million combined in Cutco Cutlery sales--have gathered together to collaborate and share their influence, secrets, and real world wisdom.

History's first technical book ever written on the subject of sharpening. THE RAZOR EDGE BOOK OF SHARPENING by John Juranitch is the result of over 30 years of dedicated research and study on the subject of cutting edges. Prior to the publication of his book there was virtually no written information available about sharpening. THE RAZOR EDGE BOOK OF SHARPENING dispels old wives tales, and covers topics such as sharpening stones, proper angles, sharpening axes, fishooks, chainsaws and much more.

Why are most of us so woefully uninformed about our kitchen knives? We are intimidated by our knives when they are sharp, annoyed by them when they are dull, and quietly ashamed that we don't know how to use them with any competence. For a species that has been using knives for nearly as long as we have been walking upright, that's a serious problem. An Edge in the Kitchen is the solution, an intelligent and delightful debunking of the mysteries of kitchen knives once and for all. If you can stack blocks, you can cut restaurant-quality diced vegetables. If you can fold a paper airplane, you can sharpen your knives better than many professionals. Veteran cook Chad Ward provides an in-depth guide to the most important tool in the kitchen, including how to choose the best kitchen knives in your price range, practical tutorials on knife skills, a step-by-step section on sharpening, and more——all illustrated with beautiful photographs throughout. Along the way you will discover what a cow sword is, and why you might want one; why chefs are abandoning their heavy knives in droves; and why the Pinch and the Claw, strange as they may sound, are in fact the best way to make precision vegetable cuts with speed and style. An Edge in the Kitchen is the one and only guide to the most important tool in the kitchen.

"African throwing knives constitute a unique category of weapons found nowhere else in the world. They were weapons of war and implements of the hunt. The end of the functional use of the throwing knife was during the last two decennia of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th century. However, the end of traditional warfare did not mean that the throwing knife disappeared. Its persistence may be attributed to its potential to take on the role of ceremonial and ritual weapon and other completely new roles"--

An in-depth exploration of the effects of different steels, heat treatments, and edge geometries on knife performance. This book provides ratings for toughness, edge retention, and corrosion resistance for all of the popular knife steels. Micrographs of over 50 steels. Specific recommended heat treatments for each steel. And answers to questions like: 1) Does a thinner or thicker edge last longer? 2) What heat treatment leads to the best performance? 3) Are there performance benefits to forging blades? 4) Should I use stainless or carbon steel? All of these questions and more are answered by a metallurgist who grew up around the knife industry.