I've written before about purchasing a new knife, how there are very few things as great as a new knife. Things like: clean sheets day, new car smell, new socks, that kind of stuff.Well,....nothing compares to this knife. For so long, so long, I've wanted a real sashimi knife, a knife that would slice with 2% effort from me, a knife that wants to give perfection in it's movements, a knife that has it's own goal and purpose already built into it.
Wilson had a Misono knife last time he was in my kitchen and we talked about how important a good knife is, I mean a really good knife. He told me about a store in NY that had an old man that sat on a plank of wood with another plank in front of him and wells of water around him, in these wells where sharpening stones that he would use to personally put an edge on your knife.
Korin is the name of that store.
"The oldest known Japanese chef knife is over 1200 years old. However, even 1200 years ago, individual knives and special cutting techniques were employed for cutting different types of food. Today’s Japanese chef knives are fashioned by techniques that were originally developed for making katana or traditional samurai swords. The shift from sword-crafting to knife-crafting began in the mid-nineteenth century in response to Commodore Perry’s forced opening of Japan’s borders to Western trade. After World War II, General MacArthur totally banned Japanese sword-making, which forced large numbers of highly skilled craftsmen to turn their skills and attention to the fashioning of kitchen knives. So, for inspiration, the dedicated sword craftsmen began to look to the ambitious creations of creative chefs. In this way, they soon elevated Japanese knives to a state of universal renown. Many centuries later, the "unforgettable sharpness" of the katana is still the distinguishing mark of the Japanese knife." (source: korin.com)
