This post started out as just talking about a knife from last week, but my slow posting rate mixed with a slip over the weekend has expand today’s topic.
First off, the knife! Heather and I got a lot of really nice things as wedding and shower gifts. One of those things was Pampered chef knives. Well technically, the knives weren’t a gift, the gift money from the shower paid for them… but yeah, close enough.
I should start off by saying I really like the knives in general. They are really nice! Very sharp and the handles are, for the most part, comfortable in my hand. The problem is with the parring knife, the blade is extremely fine, so thin its like having a handle on a cut down razor blade. It’s so sharp it kind of made me nervous to begin with, and for some reason the thin sharp blade seemed hard to maneuver. I was cutting the eyes out of a potato, and really not too happy with the knife, somehow the balance felt wrong, and it was hard to control. Instead of cutting neat circle-plugs around the eyes I kept having the blade gouge out across the potato as I was trying to turn it. I suppose it didn’t help I was a little unnerved by the fact I was so tired I hurt, and I knew how incredibly sharp the knife was.
I did, however manage to finish preparing things to go into the crock-pot that night. I was washing up the parring knife it slipped out of my hand, fell maybe four inches tip first into the steel bottomed sink, and bent the leading 1/8th inch of the blade. It was a sad moment, I was somewhat glad I hadn’t tried to grab the knife or something… As tired as I was right then my reflexes would have been bad enough to probably make a real mess of my hand trying something like that. On the other hand I was pretty mad at myself for dropping the knife. In hindsight I am kind of annoyed that the knife could destroy itself that easily.
My second great mishap, again came from a shockingly sharp new kitchen implement. I was peeling potatoes Saturday night, and somehow let my left index finger slip up into the path of the peeler. A few seconds prior to that I had been really enjoying how amazingly fast and easily the peeler was going over the potato. I was thinking to myself “wow I guess peeling potatoes isn’t so bad when you have a nice sharp peeler.” Then it took a bite out of my finger!
I now have one of the deepest cuts I have given myself in years, and from a very sharp implement! It managed to cut its way out as I was reflexively pulling away, so there wasn’t any flap of skin, just a bite gone out of my fingertip. Every time I changed band aids it was still bleeding profusely, even 18 hours later. It did eventually stop bleeding, but it was a really clean, deep cut.
-Jordan
Nelsons 