Good Argument for Sharp Knives (as if we need one)

[wickededge]

Last week I did some comparisons between a brand new Wicked Edge sharpened Shun and another Shun sharpened on a popular electric unit. Here is the thread: Conservation of Metal. At the same time, I did some tests cutting produce to see how the veggies would fare over a period of days when cut by differently sharpened knives. The methodology was simple: I took one fresh stalk of celery and cut it in two. I then cut each half into smaller pieces, one with the Wicked Edge sharpened knife and one with the electric sharpened knife respectively. I bagged each in Zip-Loc baggies and labelled them, then kept them in the refrigerator over the weekend. After 2.5 days, here is what they look like:

Anyone care to hazard a guess as to which knife cut which piece of celery? It’s hard to see the difference with the small image, so here’s a link to the Large Image

Attachments:

• Wicked-Edge-vs-Chefs-Choice—Celery-2.5-Days.jpg

-Clay

[Chris]

Shun on the left, the right one is in shock from the more agressive (blunt) cut? 😉

[Josh]

Shun on the left, the right one is in shock from the more agressive (blunt) cut? 😉

+1

I love it 🙂

[wickededge]

I’ll check and photograph again tomorrow, but so far it looks to be fairly easy to demonstrate the extra shelf life possible when cutting with a super sharp knife. I got the idea from watching florists when cutting flower stems and how picky they are about having a very sharp knife.

-Clay

[Mark76]

Shun on the left, the right one is in shock from the more agressive (blunt) cut? 😉

+1

I love it :-)[/quote]

Yes, this is absolutely great. Even though I realize we are knife *nuts* and that the average cook won’t see a bit of a difference :-).

For some reason I’m suddenly into high-end kitchen knives. If everything works out well, some well known sharpener will soon post a video here of him sharpening a really nice Japanese yanagiba on the WEPS…

We need a “what’s cooking” section here, too. Dunno how many cooks there are here, but I love the pictures of well cut roasts and other foods on another forum. But, even though this celery looks less mouth-watering, this picture says it all. Anyone into slicing sashimi?

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Phil Pasteur]

Shun on the left, the right one is in shock from the more agressive (blunt) cut? 😉

Aren’t they both Shun knives?

The one on the right looks like it was cut with the machine sharpened Shun, one on the left with the WEPS sharpened Shun…

Are we guessing correctly Clay?

[Chris]

Shun on the left, the right one is in shock from the more agressive (blunt) cut? 😉

Aren’t they both Shun knives?[/quote]

I think the one on the right was cut with a lettuce knife?

edit – I am joking, the Shun on the left vs the Shun on the right is what I meant. 😉

[wickededge]

Both are Shuns, the one on the left is Wicked Edge sharpened. The one on the right was sharpened with an electric sharpener.

-Clay

[Chris]

I would be interested to look at the edges of the celery with your microscope.

[Sean White]

I’ll weigh in on this, I’m a meat cutter and it’s well known that knife cuts vs saw cuts last longer (and obviously look better) and since I got the Wicked Edge there is a discernible difference in Not only the appearance (Which is beautiful) but probably another day in shelf life vs my hand sharpened knife using a 3 way stone, max 320 grit.
I found this rather incredible.

[David Hill]

Clay ! ,did you show these results to the CIA ( my alma mater )on your recent visit ? How did that go ?.Iam sure they were impressed .

[wickededge]

Clay ! ,did you show these results to the CIA ( my alma mater )on your recent visit ? How did that go ?.Iam sure they were impressed .

I didn’t get a chance to show them the produce results but they did really love the sharpener. With luck, they’ll be acquiring a bunch for their classrooms.

-Clay

[wickededge]

Now that I’m back in the office, I decided to look at the celery samples again. It’s been 9.5 days and here is how they look:

Any guesses as to which were cut with the knife sharpened on a popular electric sharpener? I knew I’d see a difference, but wow!

Eventually we’ll do a full white paper for restaurants showing how properly sharpened knives can improve their food costs and food prep labor costs. The electric sharpened knife has an edge similar to what they get back from knife swap programs and professional sharpening services.

Attachments:

• Wicked-Edge-vs-Chefs-Choice—Celery-9.5-Days.jpg

-Clay

[Mark76]

Now that I’m back in the office, I decided to look at the celery samples again. It’s been 9.5 days and here is how they look:

Wow Clay, this is incredible! Much more so than the initial photographs. This should really convice cooks.

A white paper sounds like something to publish on this site. And even though I’m no marketing professional, this looks like extremely good marketing material for a much broader audience.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[wickededge]

The results are so striking that they almost seem like they had to have been fudged, but no fudging was done; I simply pulled them out of the fridge and too the photos and since they came from the exact same stalk of celery, I don’t think there can be any worry of the initial samples being of varying quality.

-Clay

[Author]

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