03-23-2018, 12:47 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-23-2018, 12:51 PM by Mark Reich.)
Hm. Interesting things going on here, along with the appreciated comedy relief. 
The Jaques Pepin video is informative, but pretty silly. Mr. Pepin showed how one should operate a knife at the 2:45 mark, but it is obvious that he only uses that motion as a demonstration. The only time he wasn't chopping, rocking or dragging sideways is when he showed the "correct" slicing motion. Otherwise he was constantly chopping, which was odd for a video of "proper technique" by a professional.
To be fair though, I think chopping is a necessity for efficiency, and if you chop lightly, straight up and down as Mr. Pepin does, I don't think it's unnecessarily hard on the edge, but a lot of people cut with a rocking motion. In other words, the front to middle of the blade stays in contact with the board while the blade is rotated. This is actually what is very hard on an edge. If you think about it, it torques the edge like crazy, resulting in rolled and/or chipped edges, depending on the steel.
Most people that actually bone meat (such as cutting up wild game) do it in a way that really magnifies this effect, unless they are cognizant of it.
There is a very good book, "An Edge in the Kitchen" by Chad Ward, which is probably the best selling kitchen knife book in history. I got it years ago when it was the #1 best seller. It will come up by the time you search "an edg". I haven't read it since I got it, but I'm going to try to find it to read again.
Oh yeah, if you read from the Shun site, chipping occurs from oxidation as much as anything, And they are speaking of stainless steel.
The Jaques Pepin video is informative, but pretty silly. Mr. Pepin showed how one should operate a knife at the 2:45 mark, but it is obvious that he only uses that motion as a demonstration. The only time he wasn't chopping, rocking or dragging sideways is when he showed the "correct" slicing motion. Otherwise he was constantly chopping, which was odd for a video of "proper technique" by a professional.
To be fair though, I think chopping is a necessity for efficiency, and if you chop lightly, straight up and down as Mr. Pepin does, I don't think it's unnecessarily hard on the edge, but a lot of people cut with a rocking motion. In other words, the front to middle of the blade stays in contact with the board while the blade is rotated. This is actually what is very hard on an edge. If you think about it, it torques the edge like crazy, resulting in rolled and/or chipped edges, depending on the steel.
Most people that actually bone meat (such as cutting up wild game) do it in a way that really magnifies this effect, unless they are cognizant of it.
There is a very good book, "An Edge in the Kitchen" by Chad Ward, which is probably the best selling kitchen knife book in history. I got it years ago when it was the #1 best seller. It will come up by the time you search "an edg". I haven't read it since I got it, but I'm going to try to find it to read again.
Oh yeah, if you read from the Shun site, chipping occurs from oxidation as much as anything, And they are speaking of stainless steel.