Razor Sharp

I do believe in every household kitchen that I have ever encountered there is a drawer of kitchen knives. With a few exceptions in all of those drawers all of those many, many knives are dull and nasty. Some of those knives have saw- like serrated edges to awkwardly and laboriously hack through an onion rather than elegantly and cleanly slice it.

The truth is: this past Thanksgiving millions of American men hacked through their Thanksgiving turkey with an electric “carving” knife. A Milwaukee Tool Sawzall would have been more manly, more elegant, and with the right blade would have done a better job.

In all the drawers of all the dull knives only four items are needed to make everything right: a six or seven in boning knife, an eight or ten in French chefs knife, a stone and a steel. Also needed is an accurate judgment of 22^o.  22^o is the dynamic angle that one draws the knife blade over the stone and steel to maintain an edge. The steel straightens the edge. The stone sharpens it. Diamond stones do quick work.

This maintenance isn’t time consuming. A short visit with the steal once or twice a week usually does it. And ten minutes with the stone two or three times a year will keep household knives razor sharp.  

This brings me to the topic of razors and shaving. While this has nothing directly related to cooking, it has all to do with the household economy. For over 30 years, I have been had by Gillett. They have moved me from the injector razor, to the costly twin edge cartridge razor and are now trying to seduce me into buying cartridge razors with edges stacked four or five, one upon the other. They promise a smoother, closer shave. They gain a $150 a year razor cartridge customer. It’s a scam.

My son gave me an old fashion single blade safety razor on Thanksgiving. He said they give a better shave and the blades cost about a buck apiece and last for a month. I somewhat nervously tried it out the next day. With the exception of a few nicks, he was right. After two mornings I had it mastered.

Sunday he stopped by for dinner. I told him the razor worked well and found I had been scammed again.

Then I think I’ll get one, he said. I thought I’d use your face for my testing ground.