I own a lotta knives…. Finnish Pukko knives.
I’m a knife geek.
I own a lotta knives. All sorts of knives. Pocket knives. Hunting knives. Balisong/butterfly knives. Switchblades. Bayonets. Finnish Pukko knives. Tactical folders. Skean Dubhs. And kitchen knives. Way more than I need. French, german. At least four serious chef’s knives (wait, no, it’s six). Several paring knives. Couple fillet knives. A butcher knife or two.
One of the key things is, I keep them fucking sharp. If they’re not close to being razors, what’s the point?
My all time favorite is the carbon steel french knife from Thiers-Issard. It takes an incredible edge, and like the knives I grew up using, it goes black with age. I love this knife.
But one of the facts is, you use knives, you’re gonna get cut. I got my first knife when I was six, and then made my first trip to the emergency room for stitches shortly after. Cooks get cut all the damned time.
Tonight I was making dinner; I grabbed the carbon steel knife, picked up my sharpener to freshen the edge (one of those ceramic deals with two rods in a big V). As usual, I hold the sharpener with my left hand, the knife in my right. Tonight, I missed the rod and whacked down hard enough on my hand to make an audible thunk.
Ow, thought, and then went on. It just felt like a whack. But then I realized how sharp this knife is. I looked at my hand, and there was a razor-thin red line. Then I bent the knuckle.
That’s gonna bleed a lot, I said to myself.
The thing with cuts on that hand is, they’re hard to bandage by yourself. After about three tries, I was about to call a friend to come help me. But the thing is, I don’t have the fucking patience. So I went for the biggest damned bandaid I could find, slapped it on, and finished dinner.
All this is, of course, only an excuse to try my new iSight camera out. But here’s the result.
Really though, I’m good with a knife. Damned good. I’m just not so good with bandages.
[made with ecto]