Knives

[Joyous56]

At home, I appreciate having the right knife for the job. My current camping kit consists of several cheap multi purpose knives thrown in with my other kitchen utensils.

I'd like a set of knives that will fit in a case of some sort, and be of sufficient quality that I'm not afraid the handles will pop off or the blades break on a tough piece of meat. Nothing like a fine quality german made set, just something that makes sense for camping and preferably where I can keep them protected, both their blades and from me reaching into a box with loose knives.

Any suggestions? .....I'd like a large chefs knife, something serrated for bread etc, paring knife(s), maybe a boning knife.

[Joyous56]

Re: Knives

Thanks HS....those are some mighty fine knife sets; however, none of them are within my camping budget.

How do you pack your knives?....or do you use one multipurpose knife - which would be easier, I'll bet.

I found this campchef set on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER.

What do you think about a campchef set of knives? Certainly better than what I've got, but do you think the campchef quality reputation would warrant this purchase?

[Joyous56]

Re: Knives

I like your idea of a couple of 'essential' knives in a knife roll. I agree, there are a lot of parts to the campchef set....and that fork is redundant. I'm not trying to minimize, but I don't need to pack extra stuff for the heck of it.

Thanks for your suggestions.

[Mike]

Re: Knives

I carry a single 4" blade sheath knife which was hand made by a friend of mine.

[tplife]

Re: Knives

Knives? Ain't going there! Like guns, the missus says you'll buy no more 'til you sell one (my father was a close friend of Jim Parker). And selling is too painful! :eek:

[rajncajn]

Re: Knives

I packed a single, 6", multi-purpose kitchen knife with a plastic sheath for cooking/food use. I sharpened it before leaving & I also carried a small sharpener with my gear. It worked out perfectly for pretty much everything I wanted to cut. If you keep it sharpened, it really doesn't matter what you are trying to cut. For everything else I used one of the two multi-tools I brought along.

[NYCgrrl]

Re: Knives

I'm currently camping with 2 ceramic knives (prolly a 6" chef and a parer) that a member of this household(who doesn't cook:D) purchased after wayyy too much late night TV. You know the kind....it has a Asian name and for a nominal fee you get 2 sets for the price of one! And that's not all! For a limited time you can have a vegetable peeler too! Yeah sure..after 3 years of camp use only, I'm on the 2nd set and thank you for reminding me it needs replacing since they are impossible to sharpen and chip easily. Sigh.

I can say that the 2 sized knives have come in handy: the paring knife doubles as a cheese and fruit knife on the table; the chef style is useful when a 2nd person is cutting veggies. Oh and the veggie peelers were massive hunks of junk that hit the garbage can within 1 week; I just subbed the parer in it's place.

I store them in a retrofitted wicker picnic hamper along with other tableware and retain the plastic sheaths the knives came with. In an effort to see them better (clear plastic) I dyed them purple w/ fabric dye. No losing the sheaths now.

Somewhere in this house, I've a French folding knife and I'm pretty sure it's going on my next camping trip as a replacement to the ceramic knives. Not sure if I'll take a 2nd knife this time out or not. I recently purchased a FoodSaver and have utilised it to prep veggies and meats in advance; this makes me believe that one knife will be fine. I also have a set of serrated steak knives that multi task for bread cutting.

HTH!

[Mike]

Re: Knives

Ceramic knives have fallen out of favor because they are brittle and consequently, dangerous. If you see a chip in your blade, you have to find that chip or throw away what you are cutting/cooking. If somebody swallows a chip of ceramic blade, it is a catastrophic health concern.

Ceramic knives certainly are sharp and for this reason, there was a lot of excitement when they first came out. The food processors were the first to realize their shortcomings - chips of blades that would pass through metal detectors unnoticed. Restaurants were next to stop using them.

Now, after more than a decade of late-night infomercial success, they are disappearing like K-tel records.

I know what you mean about those ceramic "Mandolin" vegetable peelers. I am sure they have peeled as many fingers as they have carrots and potatoes. What a completely stupid and dangerous design.