Rare knife showing up at Bay Area restaurant tables, confusing people | Hacker News Reader

Rare knife showing up at Bay Area restaurant tables, confusing people

sfchronicle.com

21 pointserehweb18 comments

OMG, it's just a 'sheepsfoot' blade shape (as TFA mentions, but doesn't emphasize enough, IMO). That's the kind of thing you would have seen in hardware store knife displays, or scouting manuals, when I was a kid. It IS a good shape for cutting hand-held fruit. Or for cutting round-ish objects NEAR the EDGE of a hard surface (like a cutting board). But it is a bad shape for cutting meat or hard vegetables on a plate. You want a decently curved blade for that latter use. Both for ergonomics, and to keep your fingers & wrist ABOVE the surface of the plate or raised rim. This is not rocket surgery...

As mentioned in TFA: "Beyond form, there is function: Both Rich and Blease say their French knives keep their edge longer than other table knives, meaning they require far less frequent sharpening. Rich says he has replaced a few sets of steak knives, while his Lannier knives have been in action since 2018."

That's it. It's a cost-saving play by the restaurant (sharpening is time-consuming if your staff does it manually; and increasingly expensive if you out-source it to a sharpening service).

The stuff about the 'form', and the artisanal knife production is mostly PR for the restaurant.

Though I've heard of that knife-maker; and positive things about them. And the Thiers region is historically a major area for edged tools.

==== FWIW: I'm not a Chef; but I have a nephew who is; and I discuss restaurant knives and sharpening with him. But, more usefully, I'm a woodworker, and I have whole books just on sharpening, and tools from Thiers. Again, this is not rocket surgery, but hopefully one or two readers will be today's "lucky 10,000"!

==== ETA: grammar fix.

As an American, I saw the picture and thought "that looks like an ordinary pairing knife", which the article mentions... are Californians really not familiar with pairing knives? Seems like an odd choice for cutting meat, but whatever.

Californians are familiar with pairing knives, just not being given one to cut a steak.

Are we getting dumber by the hour to need a tutorial on how to use a knife?

Playing diners advocate here, it's odd to see a knife where the curved part is not the cutting part. I know most knives I've eaten with are curved so you can sort of "roll" it thru a cut.

Combine that with dark restaurant lighting and the need to not seem like an idiot around polite company, I don't think I would personally clue in right away that I need to hold the knife opposite to every other steak knife I've ever used, nor inspect it close enough to realize the cutting edge is on the "back" in front of people who will think this is the first time I've used a steak knife before or something.

Hmm...I think the comment about people getting dumber still stands.

If you're not dumb, then you would figure out how to use the knife after taking a look at it and seeing which side is the sharp one.

That's almost textbook intelligence; being able to resolve abstract problems based on limited information.

I think I just dislike the framing that

not investigating something = being dumb

You can just ask if you aren't sure. If I welcomed you into my house, and asked you to turn on the lights, while not telling you it's wired in a three-way switch config where another switch has to be turned on first, I think the dumb solution there is flicking on and off every light switch for 5 minutes till you get it, rather than just asking me. To me, holding the knife up to my phone's flashlight, or gently grazing the side against my palm has the same sort of "why are you doing that" energy everyone wants to avoid.

Dark restaurant, social pressure to not do weird things at the table, I get why anyone could mess up.

Santoku-style chef's knives and sailor's knives are other examples with a straight blade and curved spine.

It's so dumb I'm tempted to believe that it's outrage bait invented by the author to advertise the knife.

i'm gonna say the author mistakenly held their knife upside down at lunch, and then instead of just saying "haha that was dumb" like a normal person, wrote a whole article to explain how it was actually the knife's fault.

Can't wait for the 10 minute Youtube tutorials on how to properly use a knife.

Are we getting dumber by the hour to need to gain attention by reversing the standard knife blade orientation?

After reading the design of everyday things, I no longer blame that stupidity on me...

Yes, yes we are...

https://archive.is/jXjnf

I wonder if these "confused" people were the same people that thought they were best-positioned to tell everybody else how to think and behave?

This is some hard-hitting journalism here.

Counter strike irl.

You would think! But no the curved side is the blunt side

Reply on news.ycombinator.com