Saturday, May 03, 2003
OK Set of Knives
I have an OK set of knives. It’s a full set, minus the heavy duty scissors, and it includes carving knife, boning knife, paring knife, butcher knife, bread knife and that knife between boning and paring that I don’t know what to call. It doesn’t stay sharp for more than five uses before needing a go, but they all work. I’ve carved turkeys with the carving knife, I’ve actually boned a duck using the boning knife. So, in a way, the knife aspect of my life is complete, if not flashy or expensive. My knives don’t have brushed titanium handles, for instance, and they don’t fit into their block very firmly. For the longest time they were all dull as bricks, until I grew proactive and bought a fool proof sharpening machine. Now, they are adequate for all my cutting needs. I’ve even had friends envy my OK knife set, because they have no knife set of their own. But lets face it, lots of people in this world have knives, and if my friends lack knives, then they must not be trying hard enough to get knives.
I love my knives, don’t misunderstand me. They’re good knives, and short of the heavy duty scissors, I can’t think of any task they can’t accomplish, cutting wise. Nevertheless, I see knife sets in the department stores and I desire them, deep in the pit of my stomach I ache for them because behind their Plexiglas display cases they look sharp and gleaming: black handles, silver steel, and an unstained edge. As good as my knife set is, it fails to fill a hole in my heart… nor is it sharp enough to open one.
