Yet another chef knife casualty..

May 29, 2006
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I recently got back from a two month visit to the states. When I got back I ask my lovely if she knew where my chef knife was~the one I had had for about ten years. It took about three days for her to fess up that she had accidently destroyed it while trying to crack open a coconut with it! Oops. It took another two days for her to finally show me the remains. I spent six months keeping it out of reach telling them it wasn't like the dollar store knives here. This was a beautifully forged knife made in Korea using Japanese metal and an excellent curve. I used to regularly cut 200- 400 pounds of produce a day with it during my chef days. She must have put a chip in the edge at some point, then took it to be "sharpened" using a bench grinder. This immediately took off the brittle hardened steel core, leaving it no sharper than a butter knife. I would have taken the thing with me, but I got a cheap ticket and couldn't check the thing. It's a hard loss.
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
30,247
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Start a new love affair........

with a new knife................... or wife !!

hahaha
go for the knife ..........
 

SantiagoDR

The "REAL" SantiagoDR
Jan 12, 2006
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My lovely showed me a defected knife we had, the handle mysterious separated from the blade one day.
 

the gorgon

Platinum
Sep 16, 2010
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I recently got back from a two month visit to the states. When I got back I ask my lovely if she knew where my chef knife was~the one I had had for about ten years. It took about three days for her to fess up that she had accidently destroyed it while trying to crack open a coconut with it! Oops. It took another two days for her to finally show me the remains. I spent six months keeping it out of reach telling them it wasn't like the dollar store knives here. This was a beautifully forged knife made in Korea using Japanese metal and an excellent curve. I used to regularly cut 200- 400 pounds of produce a day with it during my chef days. She must have put a chip in the edge at some point, then took it to be "sharpened" using a bench grinder. This immediately took off the brittle hardened steel core, leaving it no sharper than a butter knife. I would have taken the thing with me, but I got a cheap ticket and couldn't check the thing. It's a hard loss.

cracking open a coconut with a chef's knife...

all righty then..
 

bob saunders

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
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I bought my MIL a butcher knife that is like a giant bowie knife and has considerable heft to it. I also got a good can opener and taught the maid how to use it, and she now prefers it to any knife. Coconuts are cut with a machete. I feel for you Peter, but hardly a relationship breaker.
 
Jul 28, 2014
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I recently got back from a two month visit to the states. When I got back I ask my lovely if she knew where my chef knife was~the one I had had for about ten years. It took about three days for her to fess up that she had accidently destroyed it while trying to crack open a coconut with it! Oops. It took another two days for her to finally show me the remains. I spent six months keeping it out of reach telling them it wasn't like the dollar store knives here. This was a beautifully forged knife made in Korea using Japanese metal and an excellent curve. I used to regularly cut 200- 400 pounds of produce a day with it during my chef days. She must have put a chip in the edge at some point, then took it to be "sharpened" using a bench grinder. This immediately took off the brittle hardened steel core, leaving it no sharper than a butter knife. I would have taken the thing with me, but I got a cheap ticket and couldn't check the thing. It's a hard loss.


Shave your face with her razor a few times, pay back is a bi7ch...
 

the gorgon

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Sep 16, 2010
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I bought my MIL a butcher knife that is like a giant bowie knife and has considerable heft to it. I also got a good can opener and taught the maid how to use it, and she now prefers it to any knife. Coconuts are cut with a machete. I feel for you Peter, but hardly a relationship breaker.

bob, he says she tried to crack open a coconut with his chef's knife. you don't crack open coconuts with machetes.
 

ElVenao

New member
Mar 16, 2017
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grab her favorite dress and use it to clean the toilet... Say that you couldn't find the cleaning scrub

that should teach her.
 

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
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Very sad.

I don't have chef's knives, but have some excellent Calphalon's in various forms.

One day I noticed a 1/4" chunk missing from the tip of an 4 1/2" paring knife. Nobody seems to know what happened. :cheeky:
 

the gorgon

Platinum
Sep 16, 2010
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I've never seen one opened with anything except a machete. Every coconut vendor and Dominican I know uses one.

AE, the coconut is made up of what we caribbean people call the husk, then the shell, then the meat and the water. you use the machete to get rid of the husk, the green stuff on the outside. on the indide is the hard shell, which is cracked open with a hammer or some such blunt instrument, in order to get the meat out.

so, you see vendors removing the husk, in order to make a hole for the water to pour out. you don't usually see them cracking coconuts.
 

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
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I've never seen one opened with anything except a machete. Every coconut vendor and Dominican I know uses one.
It's interesting to see coconuts processed by street vendors.

Whack whack whack pull pull pull...the husk is off.

Whack...the top of the hard nut is off, milk is removed. poured into a container or drunk.

Whack, coconut is split in half, meat removed.

It's an art science...
 

jd426

Gold
Dec 12, 2009
9,512
2,781
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I feel your pain.. this is one of my big Pet Peeves .. they just dont get it .
they will even open cans with Fish Filet Knives , the blades of which were painstakingly sharpened to razor edge. and intended for ONE function in the Fish filet Process , PEELING the skin off a fish with almost zero waste of fish flesh , with surgical Precision., . and now reduced to hacking open olive cans
. and you just cant explain that to them.. all you can do is find a really good hiding spot.
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
30,247
4,329
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It's interesting to see coconuts processed by street vendors.

Whack whack whack pull pull pull...the husk is off.

Whack...the top of the hard nut is off, milk is removed. poured into a container or drunk.

Whack, coconut is split in half, meat removed.

It's an art science...

And fast......

Notice that they have all their digits...........
 

AlterEgo

Administrator
Staff member
Jan 9, 2009
23,097
6,247
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South Coast
AE, the coconut is made up of what we caribbean people call the husk, then the shell, then the meat and the water. you use the machete to get rid of the husk, the green stuff on the outside. on the indide is the hard shell, which is cracked open with a hammer or some such blunt instrument, in order to get the meat out.

so, you see vendors removing the husk, in order to make a hole for the water to pour out. you don't usually see them cracking coconuts.

They always crack it in half with the machete after the liquid is gone. Then they give you a perfect slice of the green outside to use as a spoon to scoop out the soft meat. At home I use a spoon. :)

This can't be only the south coast........Can it?? It's all I've seen for 40+ years.

PS. And they never remove the green husk unless it's an old, dried coconut