Octopod Knife Launch

An Intro Kitchen Knives and Full Details on Getting the Octo Knife

Greetings Anon! 🏝

Let’s talk about one of the most important kitchen tools at your disposal… 

Yup… we are talking Blades today. 

Why does this deserve a Sub drop? Sinple

Safety: You are more likely to cut yourself in a kitchen with a dull knife, than with a sharp knife. Seems counter-intuitive on the surface, but trust me. Dull knives have a nasty habit of sliding off ingredients when cutting and chopping, instead of slicing cleanly through. 

Since keeping all of our appendages attached is a high priority, especially for this cephalopod, a sharp knife, is the best and safest knife!

Flavor: There are differences in flavor when using a sharp vs dull knife. I’m not trolling. Do a quick experiment if you don’t believe me. Dice an onion with a sharp knife, then dice another onion with a dull knife. 

The first thing you will notice is that the onion cut with the dull knife smells intensely of the sharp-sulfurous compounds present in the onion. This is because the dull knife has “squeezed” and “pressed” on all of those tiny cells and burst them open, whereas the the sharp knife slides cleanly through, leaving most of the uncut cells intact… this has a flavor difference in raw and cooked applications. 

Another classic example are chives. Known for their delicate, sweet and mild allium flavor, cut a bunch with a dull knife and your chives will smell like grass in the bag-catch of your lawnmower… not desirable. 

In fact, one of the first jobs you have in a high end kitchen (if you get to bypass picking herbs for hours at a time), is cutting chives razor thin for the Chef. If they’re thick, choppy or uneven, they get tossed in the Stock Veg bin and you get to start over. 

Staying on track let’s go over the basics so we are on the same page moving forward. 

Anatomy of a Knife

Tip: Where the Spine of the Blade, meets the Cutting Edge. Prone to chipping if the user is careless. 

Belly: The curvature rolling the tip of the blade, the shape off the belly impacts the length of cutting surface. You can infer if a blade is designed for slicing vs hoping/rocking, for example. 

Cutting Edge: Defined in later posts as a Primary and Secondary Edge. For today’s purposes, the Primary Cutting edge is the part of the blade that leads the cutting, chopping, slicing movement.

Bolster: Where the handle meets the blade. The bolster has a direct impact on the weight, and feel of the knife. Not all knives will have a blister, depending on maker/manufacturer. Some cooks prefer heavy weighted knives, others prefer lighter weight blades. Purely a matter of preference.

Heel: Heel of the blade, that is usually the thickest part and used for more blunt-force applications. 

Tang: This is the extension of the blade that runs into the handle. You will knives with no-, partial, or full tangs. Common generalization is that full tang knives tend to have better weight balance and less likely to break at the handle. 

Handle: You will see handles made from synthetics, plastics, wood, and also more exotics like Ivory, Horns Etc. 

It’s also important to note you will see different styles of handle. Primarily Western (or Yo) (as seen above) which tend to be heavier, riveted full tang knives compared to Japanese (or Wa) handles, which are 8-sided, lighter, no rivets, usually 3/4 tang and glued. 

Japanese/Wa Handles

This is a matter of personal preference and function. I have both styles in my toolkit but have a preference. 

Types:

Depending on where you are in the world, you will find a different number and types of kitchen knives used. 

I love using the example of China vs Japan in regards to knives. It is a macro look into two food cultures close in proximity, but very different in approach. 

Chinese Cuisine is primarily based on Efficiency. I saw this in person when I had the pleasure of visiting China. Chefs moving a million miles per hour and cranking out delicious meals… using a vegetable cleaver or meat (butchering) cleaver. 

Contrast this with the Precision approach of Japanese Cuisine. There is a specific knife, for a specific job. Here’s a list of the different blades common in Japanese cuisine. 

Deba

Gyuto 

Hankotsu

Honesuki

Kiritsuke 

Nakiri 

Santoku

Sujihiki

Usuba

Yanigba

I went through an unhealthy obsession with Japanese knives and these days find myself enjoying the versatility of well made Chinese cleavers… Will save for future posts!

For our Purposes, here’s the basic list of Western Knife Styles:

Chefs Knife: commonly ranging in length from 8-10 inches, this is a chefs workhorse knife. Sturdy enough for breaking down chickens and, when sharp, able to thinly slice, dice and mince vegetables. 

Slicer: a long and thin blade, traditionally with scalloped indentations to facilitate thin, clean cuts for carving roasts, etc. 

Boning: a thin and flexible blade, that is easy maneuverable when filleting fish or butchering various beef and pork primals. 

Bread: Thicker, serrated blade, designed for slicing through crusty sourdough loaves. 

Utility: This is an “in between” knife, with a shorter blade, usually thinner, than the all purpose Chef knife. 

Paring: For small and delicate tasks, the paring knife should fit in the pal of your hand is useful for coring tomatoes, peeling apples, deseeding chilis, scraping vanilla bean pods. 

If you could only pick 2, a chefs knife and a paring knife would allow you to accomplish 95% of kitchen tasks. 

Metal:

Here is where knife snobs will debate for hours on end on the “best” metal for kitchen knives… 

There is no right answer. It all depends on the user, preferences and tasks needing to be accomplished. 

There are two main types of steel used to make kitchen knives: Carbon steel, and Stainless Steel. 

Carbon steel will take a screaming edge, is tough, and sharpens relatively easy . However, it is reactive (high acid foods like lemon, tomato, etc can stain the blade unless maintained) and will rust if not kept dry. It can also be more brittle than stainless steel, resulting in being more prone to chipping. You will see Blue and White carbon steels used in knife making. 

Stainless Steel contains iron, carbon, and at least 10.5% chromium content. The chromium protects the steel from corrosion and rust. Stainless tends to be a softer metal and is more of a challenge to achieve that screaming edge that carbon steel knives boast. Most home cooks reach for stainless due to convenience and maintenance. 

Maintaining an Edge:

Most people are unaware that there is a huge difference between honing a knife, and sharpening a knife. 

The cutting edge of a knife is made up of billions of metallic teeth. When these teeth are all lined up and converging evenly, you have a nice sharp cutting instrument. But with use… a lot of those teeth will become misaligned an out of place. To fix this, you will see chefs run the knife blade against a honing steel. When done properly, this quickly realigns the metallic teeth back in unison, and cutting is optimized. 

However at a certain point, the entire cutting surface will lose it’s edge, and at this point it’s necessary to remove the dull teeth with abrasion, to establish a new edge… and THIS is the difference between honing and sharpening. 

There will be a dedicated Sub on Knife sharpening; too much to tackle for 1 Sub here. 

Autist Note: This is far from a comprehensive deep dive. This is a Macro-NGMI post. I’ve had the pleasure of talking knives with many of you in my DM’s on Twitter, we will surely go down the rabbit hole further in the future. 

The Octopod Chef Knife

As many of you saw on Twitter (LINK) , I have now finished a Collab with a Japanese Knife maker to bring the first Octopod Chef Knives to you. 

This is a really special moment and collaboration, as I embark on curating and providing high quality cookware for you all Online. 

For this First and Limited Release, I wanted a knife that an inexperienced or experienced cook could use and appreciate. 

If you are new to cooking, this knife will be a joy to cut and cook with. If you’re a kitchen veteran, the blade takes a great edge and is easy to maintain. Weight and length are perfect for male or female cooks.

Behold!

The Knife maker is Kikuichi Cutlery. 

The family has been making knives in Japan for 750 years.  

The Octopod Avi is Laser-Etched, with “Few” underneath.

Blade: Molybdenum AUS 10 Stainless Steel

Length: 8.2”

Note: The Molybdenum gives the blade a super-fine edge ability. Giving you the best of both worlds between carbon steel and stainless steel.

For the Knife Nerds: Rockwell Rating of 59; Double Bevel Blade. 

So how do you get this knife?

Upgrade to the Founders Subscription which will give you an Annual Paid Sub, and the knife shipped to you (first shipments go out in next 7-10 days. Free shipping in US; Intl DM me to calculate overseas shipping). 

This will be available for 6 weeks, then the production run will be over. So plan accordingly, and get a piece of Jungle History. 

Thank you for your continued enthusiasm and support! 

WAGMI 🥂