Looking for a Christmas present for my son, a Sushi knife. Now I know that
they can easily cost a few hundred $$'s but he is a college kid so I don't
think I need to spend that much!!, in fact a nicely boxed set of Japenese
knives would be good. However there is a BIG problem, he (and I) is Left
Handed.
Doug

In article t,
"Doug" wrote:

Looking for a Christmas present for my son, a Sushi knife. Now I know that
they can easily cost a few hundred $$'s but he is a college kid so I don't
think I need to spend that much!!, in fact a nicely boxed set of Japenese
knives would be good. However there is a BIG problem, he (and I) is Left
Handed.
Doug

Hey, me too!

See if this helps:

http://tinyurl.com/c7gku

It's just a Google search for "left hand sushi knife"

--
Jack

think I need to spend that much!!, in fact a nicely boxed set of Japenese
knives would be good. However there is a BIG problem, he (and I) is Left

I take that you do not use kitchen knives that much yourself?

One good knife is probably much better and more usable than a whole set with the same price. However, very good (japanese) knives require much more care than ordinary knives. For example they have to be cleaned and dried immediately after each use. Some of the best knives may even rust if left lying around. Anyway, I'll admit that set of japanes knives look very nice and make a handsome present.

I have four Dreizak (german) kitchen knives but I use only one daily, the big knife. Although I have a flexible fish knife I seldom use it. Cleaning fish and cutting maki with big 'regular' knife is easy enough.

Jukka

"Doug" wrote in
k.net:

Looking for a Christmas present for my son, a Sushi knife. Now I
know that they can easily cost a few hundred $$'s but he is a
college kid so I don't think I need to spend that much!!, in fact a
nicely boxed set of Japenese knives would be good. However there is
a BIG problem, he (and I) is Left Handed.
Doug

Japanese sushi / sashimi knives aren't useful for much else besides
preparing sushi or sashimi, so unless your son is a sushi chef, he may
not find much use for the knives. These knives also require a good
deal of skill to use correctly (and they're sharp enough that you could
take off a finger if you don't use them correctly!) and to maintain
(sharpening a single-bevel knife with a water stone isn't difficult, it
just requires practice and patience).

Most sushi chefs that I know primarily use one knife, the yanagi, a
long, thin, slicing knife. If they're cutting up large fish carcasses
(a side of tuna), they will also use the deba.

Left-handed sushi knives are available, but they're not common, and
will commonly incur additional expense and lead time, see
http://www.japanese-knife.com/left/index.html for an example. That
web site also has some of the finest (and most expensive!) Japanese
sushi knives that I've seen anywhere.

Cheers
GRB

Wrong!, I do at least 1/2 the cooking around this house, the knives I/we use
are my 30 years old Sabatier ones which are not stainles steel. My son has
a couple of good knives which his room mates are not allowed to use (they
are frightened of them anyway). I know very well that a sushi knife is a
very specialized piece of equipment and will not be used much but the right
tool for the job sometimes helps.
Doug.

"Armadillo" wrote in message
news

I take that you do not use kitchen knives that much yourself?

Wrong!, I do at least 1/2 the cooking around this house, the knives I/we use
are my 30 years old Sabatier ones which are not stainles steel. My son has
a couple of good knives which his room mates are not allowed to use (they
are frightened of them anyway). I know very well that a sushi knife is a
very specialized piece of equipment and will not be used much but the right
tool for the job sometimes helps.
Doug.

I did not mean to offend. My apogoligies if I did.

It is just that very often people who are not too familiar with cooking buy as presents all kinds of unusable kitchen gadgets that some salesperson told to be must for every serious 'chef'.

I almost bought Sabatier knives myself, just for the name. Luckily i tried a few alternatives and discovered that Sabatier knives did not fit into my hand at all. They felt very unbalanced compared to my Dreizak knives. However, I would like to use carbon steel, sharpening stainless steel knives is not my idea of fun.

I think that the right tool is the one you feel comfortable working with. If you can prepare fish for sushi with a monkey wrench it is the right tool. ;-)

Jukka

"Greg R. Broderick" wrote in message
...
"Doug" wrote in
k.net:

Looking for a Christmas present for my son, a Sushi knife. Now I
know that they can easily cost a few hundred $$'s but he is a
college kid so I don't think I need to spend that much!!, in fact a
nicely boxed set of Japenese knives would be good. However there is
a BIG problem, he (and I) is Left Handed.
Doug

Japanese sushi / sashimi knives aren't useful for much else besides
preparing sushi or sashimi, so unless your son is a sushi chef, he may
not find much use for the knives. These knives also require a good
deal of skill to use correctly (and they're sharp enough that you could
take off a finger if you don't use them correctly!) and to maintain
(sharpening a single-bevel knife with a water stone isn't difficult, it
just requires practice and patience).

Most sushi chefs that I know primarily use one knife, the yanagi, a
long, thin, slicing knife. If they're cutting up large fish carcasses
(a side of tuna), they will also use the deba.


Just to clarify. The Yanagi-ba (willow-leaf) knife is used for slicing
and is therefore the only one you see used behind the counter.
To dress a whole fish, including removing head and to filet,
the Deba (protruding blade) is used.
Sometimes a Ko-Deba (small Deba) may be used for tight spots.
A large fish like Tuna requires the use of a Maguro-Boucho, a knife that is
more like a sword in length to reduce the fish into quarters that are then
cut down with a Deba.
For practical purposes a Yanagi-Ba and Deba set would be ideal for
for working with most fish.

M

Doug wrote:
Looking for a Christmas present for my son, a Sushi knife. Now I know that
they can easily cost a few hundred $$'s but he is a college kid so I don't
think I need to spend that much!!, in fact a nicely boxed set of Japenese
knives would be good. However there is a BIG problem, he (and I) is Left
Handed.
Doug




I've gottten great knives from www.korin.com
Currently they have a 15% discount on all knives

To be honest, for sushi purposes (which I had been making well before I
got more expensive knives) I found relatively inexpensive rapala or
other 'fish' knives work just fine.

Das

"I've gottten great knives from www.korin.com "


Interesting website!

I purchased mine from them and am very happy with it. I've been meaning
to ask... since it has a raw wood handle, is there something I should
treat it with? I was thinking of just putting something like olive oil
on it? Or just leave it alone? It always gets hand washed and dried.

Keith wrote:
I purchased mine from them and am very happy with it. I've been meaning
to ask... since it has a raw wood handle, is there something I should
treat it with? I was thinking of just putting something like olive oil
on it? Or just leave it alone? It always gets hand washed and dried.

Keith, I have no idea of the traditional method of caring for the raw
wood handle, but we just got a bamboo 'lazy susan' that called for using
food grade mineral oil on it. It is also recommended for other wooden
products such as bowls and cutting boards. We got a small bottle at our
local hardware store (I doubt the big box stores carry it) but some of
the drug stores might carry it. The oil goes a long way and is very thin
and carries no taste.

--
- George
"... are you going to finish that?"

George wrote on Wed, 14 Dec 2005 10:09:21 -0500:

G Keith wrote:
?? I purchased mine from them and am very happy with it. I've
?? been meaning to ask... since it has a raw wood handle, is
?? there something I should treat it with? I was thinking of
?? just putting something like olive oil on it? Or just leave
?? it alone? It always gets hand washed and dried.
??
G Keith, I have no idea of the traditional method of caring
G for the raw wood handle, but we just got a bamboo 'lazy
G susan' that called for using food grade mineral oil on it.
G It is also recommended for other wooden products such as
G bowls and cutting boards. We got a small bottle at our local
G hardware store (I doubt the big box stores carry it) but
G some of the drug stores might carry it. The oil goes a long
G way and is very thin and carries no taste.

It's not really a contribution to handle care but there is
bamboo spatula around the kitchen that was labelled machine
washable and it has gone thro uncountable cycles without looking
any worse for wear!

James Silverton.

Keith wrote:
I purchased mine from them and am very happy with it. I've been meaning
to ask... since it has a raw wood handle, is there something I should
treat it with? I was thinking of just putting something like olive oil
on it? Or just leave it alone? It always gets hand washed and dried.


I periodically rub soy oil or something like that into wooden kitchen
implements.

Dont use olive oil.....it will go rancid. You should use mineral oil only.


"Keith" wrote in message
oups.com...
I purchased mine from them and am very happy with it. I've been meaning
to ask... since it has a raw wood handle, is there something I should
treat it with? I was thinking of just putting something like olive oil
on it? Or just leave it alone? It always gets hand washed and dried.