Holding Kitchen Knives: Part 2

Video Transcript

"My name is Brandon Sarkis, on behalf of Expert Village. Today, I'd like to speak with you about what to look for when buying kitchen knives. This is just your standard polypropylene kitchen style grip. It's not going to force you into that angle as much, but still; you're going to want to wrap your finger on the top, just like that. Thumb on that side, so basically, you're pinching it. Then you're just going to go like this; that's how you do your work. The one thing to watch out for on these knives though; because this knife has got a much larger butt on it; it's much wider at the bottom point. You want to watch out for racking your knuckles up against the cutting board. So if your knuckles are too low; you're going to sit there and constantly hit your knuckles or you're going to hit your knuckles, and not finish the cut at the back of the knife. That's something to be aware of too, when using something like this. You want to really get on top of it so you can really control what's going on. This doesn't work, because your blade wobbles, and this really doesn't work, because your blade wobbles even more. The time that grip is appropriate is on a boning knife. A boning knife; you want to get nice and delicate, like this. A little pinch between these two fingers. That way; you can really get your finger in there to really do some nice, good, close detail work. That's when that grip is appropriate. Same thing with a paring knife. Paring knife; finger on the back. You'll notice the curvature on this blade, so you can really get in there, and do what you're doing, or get into that joint and twist it, or whatever. That's when that grip is appropriate."