Surviving the kitchen with the Cold Steel Chef’s Knife is our topic today.
People Talking About “Surviving”
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard it repeated; people are talking about “surviving” whatever it is that is coming our way. More often than not, I hear people telling me they are going to bug out to the mountains or the wilderness and survive there without giving it any thought or preparations. I’m sorry, if you believe that you are living a lie or a fantasy, or you are misguided. I used to live in Chicago, and I couldn’t tell you how many times I heard people say if “something” happens, they are heading to the “hills”, the mountains, or some place remote, without even having can of beans to eat. It’s not real. Wake up!
Misguided People Plan To Bug To Mountains
I hear from preppers all the time. Many of my friends are preppers, too, and some of them are misguided in their belief that they will bug out to the “mountains”. Well, I live in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, and I’m here to tell you it is very rugged terrain no matter how you look at it or how well trained and equipped you might be. It would be my last resort for surviving “whatever” may come my way.
Survival For The Day Today
While many people honestly believe that bugging out to the mountains is what survival is all about, I look at it in a much different way. I look at getting up in the mornings and just trying to “survive” what the day may bring my way. It could be any number of things. One thing that is always on my mind is financial survival, and there is no good way to prepare for this on a fixed or limited income. I know; I survive this each and every day, and I amaze myself at how well I get through it all.
A dear friend in Alaska is always telling me that I’ve been a financial survivor all my life and they want to know how I do it. Quite honestly, I don’t know. I just do whatever it takes to get through each and every day. Sometimes, it is a miracle, and sometimes it’s a lot of work.
Different Challenges Require Right Tool
Living out in the boonies, we face different challenges each and every day. You either survive or you don’t. Most challenges aren’t a life or death thing, far from it. But many times, you must have the right tool to get the job done.
Right Tools For Working Around The Kitchen
I’ll probably get some flack on this, but working around the kitchen, every single day, requires a certain amount of skill, preparations, and tools. And one tool I can’t live without is a good kitchen knife. Let’s stop and think about this. You are preparing three meals per day. Quite often you have to cut up products to cook them, and this requires a good knife. We always have a big variety of cutlery to choose from in our kitchen, especially on one of the kitchen counters. I do a lot of the cooking. I’m not a chef, but I’m a “cook” just the same, and I enjoy it. The job is easier with the right tools.
Super Sharp 10” Cold Steel Chef’s Knife
Lynn Thompson, at Cold Steel, sent me their 10” Chef’s Knife for testing. (Their chef knife comes in smaller bladed versions, if 10” is a bit too long for your cooking tasks.) A Mexican restaurant my family and I used to frequent would bring out their kitchen knives for me to sharpen, and they would always be super dull. A dull knife is harder to work with and more dangerous, too. A keen-edge blade makes your work easier and faster as well as safer! It wouldn’t take me long before my meal was served to put a good working edge back on their cutlery, and they were amazed how sharp the knives were and how much easier it was to cut with them. Now that’s kitchen survival! Very few of the knives they used in their kitchen were what we would consider “small”; most were 8-10 inches in length. It just makes the job easier with a longer blade. Professionals know what works best!
The Chef’s Knife that Cold Steel sent to me is their 10” model from their commercial series. I know, a lot of folks believe that Cold Steel only sells tactical knives. That’s not so! They sell a lot of different tools for different applications. You really need to look on their website. They have a huge selection of various knives and tools to pick from!
Specs on the Chef’s Knife
The Chef’s Knife I received has a blade manufactured out of German 4116 stainless steel, which is tough stuff that holds an edge. The handle of the knife is 5¼” long, so there is plenty to grip and hold onto. The interior of the handle material is made out of Zy-Ex, while the outside material is Kray-Ex and softer material for a sure hold. The large knife only weighs 7.3 oz, so it was designed for all-day use.
Sharpness and Size
Needless to say, the blade was hair-poppin’ sharp out of the box. I expect no less from any cutlery from Cold Steel; they set the Gold Standard when it comes to sharp knives, many years ago. I have a drawer full of various kitchen knives, and many have long blades, up to 8”. This was my first experience using a kitchen knife with a 10” blade. At first it felt a lot bigger than it actually is. But with practice and use, it felt like a natural extension of my hand, when cutting. That was nice, very nice, indeed!
No matter what cutting tasks you can envision in the kitchen, the Cold Steel Chef’s Knife took care of those cutting chores with ease, I might add. Of course, some cutting chores are done easier with a shorter bladed kitchen knife; however, the long bladed chef’s knife never failed me. As I stated, it does take a little bit of practice to get used to working with a long blade, but once mastered it was quick work on anything I applied the blade to.
I honestly don’t know how long this knife will hold an edge, because over the course of several weeks of cutting, I never had to re-sharpen the blade. Then again, many kitchen cutting chores are easier than some outside cutting chores. Still, I did a lot of chopping, dicing, and slicing, and the blade remained super-sharp. No wonder this is a favorite knife among professional chef’s and cooks. It works and works very well.
Comfortable Handle Material
I really liked the Kray-Ex soft handle material on the outside of the handle. It is pretty much non-slip, too, which is very important when you are cutting all day long. You don’t want your hand to slip off the handle and onto the blade. That’s not a good thing!
One Great Bargain On Professional Knife For Surviving The Kitchen
So, to my way of thinking, as always, “survival” comes in many forms. And if you stop and think about it, you are “surviving” each and every day as best you can with the tools you have on hand, and you want those tools to make your survival as easy as possible. If you spend a lot of time in the kitchen, as a homemaker or a professional chef or cook, you want to make your job as pleasant and easy as possible. You want to “survive” your day, and any tools that make it easier are a welcomed addition. The Cold Steel Chef’s Knife only retails for $39.99, and that is one great bargain, if you ask me. It will last you a lifetime with very little care, too. I don’t mind “surviving” my chores in the kitchen now days, with a good, large, professional kitchen knife.
Looks like a nice knife.
One of the keys to a good knife is balance. I test balance by placing a finger under the front-most part of the handle to see if it will balance on my finger. If it drops toward the blade very handily, the knife is not balanced and extended use will likely cause fatigue in the wrist and fingers.
Another key, which is mentioned in the article is a non-slip grip which is very important, especially if cutting something slippery like raw chicken.
I will give this knife a try since the company is very reputable and the price is not bad…
Enjoyed your comments about Al Millspaugh and the
B-24. Had a friend who was Captain of B-24 in WWII. He died about 6 years ago at age 89. Many missions over Europe. Was hit by enemy fire on every mission but only forced to land once in Belgium for repairs. A great guy.
Could you please publish the Cold Steel part or catalog number for this knife?
@Don,
I’ve included a link to the knife in the article.
Cold Steel knives are great. I have recently purchased several Rawles Survival Blog knives as well as a heavy duty sword cane. I’m pleased with them all. For a Chef’s knife, I find 10″ to be a bit unwieldy and prefer an 8″. And apparently Cold Steel has me covered. My order for the Cold Steel 8″ Chef’s knife was placed today. Thanks for the heads up.
My Dad was a fifty caliber waist gunner on a B-24 bomber and flew 33 missions in the European theater, barely getting back to his base in England on one instance after his ship was shot to pieces. I’ve seen pictures of B-24s after they had returned from their combat missions and was amazed that they had flown back with barely any tail left or with two engines destroyed or large pieces of wing missing. It seems like the B-17s get most of the glory but I will always be a fan of the B-24 Liberator.
Thank you Pat for the nice write-up. These knives look very compelling. Unfortunately, they are almost impossible to find on the web site. I had to search for “Chef’s Knife” and still do not see the 8″ model Rod mentioned. I typically use a 10″ knife in the kitchen anyway.
My recommendation to Mr. Thompson is to make the web site more easy to navigate. Sure, dozens of pictures on the front page looks nice but takes the patience of Job to scroll through.
My Dad was a waist gunner on a b24 in the pacific, when he talked about the war, it was always the funny things that had happened, never anything else. Then a period of time before he passed, he started telling about more and more not so funny things that had happened. After reading the book ” unbroken”, I amazed that my Dad even survived at all. AS far as bugging out in the case of shtf, I won’t be bugging out, why? Good question, maybe because I’m passed 70, live alone ( except my son and his wife are a short distance away ), where would I go, what would I do? Heck, if it wasn’t for the dog catching a pheasant yesterday, I wouldn”have that.
Pat I appreciate your wisdom! I once lived in the foothills of the Cascades and now live in the foothills of the Rockies. There’s not much to eat in the mountains. They’re not even a great place to hide anymore, not in this current age of infrared scopes/detectors.
The people who say they are going to bug out to the wilderness are going to be the golden horde often discussed here.
The knife featured here looks like a standard stamped flat blade knife(the knife is stamped out of a sheet of metal and a handle attached). This type of knife is light and inexpensive but will eventually fail due to stress at the handle or the blade can break if twisted. Look for a dorged blade knife that has a thicker spine and a tang that is too wide for a wrap around handle but uses plates of material riveted to the sides(you will see the metal down the center),these are heavyier but much stronger and will last a lifetime.