Kitchen Knives for Left-handers

Ok, I'm getting tired of using my 20-year old Chicago Cutlery knives...I can get them moderately sharp but it takes a fair amount of effort and time for mediocre knives.

I've always thought about getting a decent set of knives...not a lot of them, but some good quality...Henkels, Wusthof, Messermeister, maybe Global, maybe even something like Warther. However, to complicate things, I'm a lefty (and do most of the cooking and kitchen stuff) but my wife is right-handed. I know a few companies make some knives for left-handers, but I am not of the right mind (or budget) to buy 2 of everything.

Any thoughts on great (reasonably priced) knives in gerneral and specifically about cutlery for left-handers?

I never realized that there was any difference. I suppose that a serrated knife has the serrations on one side, but all the handles on my knives are ambidextrous. Kind of like tennis racquets. Not that i am a knife expert.

-Will

WillG wrote:I never realized that there was any difference. I suppose that a serrated knife has the serrations on one side, but all the handles on my knives are ambidextrous. Kind of like tennis racquets. Not that i am a knife expert.

-Will

You'll find some knives where the blade, handle or both are specifically calibrated for use by one hand or the other. It's not very common and tends to come into play with higher-priced and custom-made units. I'm pretty sure Bob Kramer used to produce such knives but I can find no current mention of it on his web site.

=R=

As a fellow leftie, my 2 cents is that this knife is worth every penny:
http://www.cutleryandmore.com/details.asp?SKU=1071

I use it as much as, if not more than my chef's knife and it's remarkable how sharp it is and how well it keeps its edge. My girlfriend (who's right-handed) doesn't seem to have a problem with it either.

Er, on that note, hi LTHers! This is Puppy's first post. Puppy is from Malaysia by way of Toronto and is now semi-settled in Chicago as a grad student. He's been in Chicago about 2 years now, and has been lurking on these forums for a while (and been extremely lucky enough to dine at Chicago's yummy spots ). He LOVES all sorts of food/drink and is looking forward to learning from and talking to all you LTH gurus!

Puppy wrote:As a fellow leftie, my 2 cents is that this knife is worth every penny:
http://www.cutleryandmore.com/details.asp?SKU=1071

Sweet lefty blade! As a fellow lefty, I have to consider picking one up, right...erm, I mean, correct?

Thanks for the link and welcome to LTHForum.com!

=R=

Welcome to LTHForum! And, as a fellow leftie, thanks for the knife advice.

On a trip to California early in our marriage, my husband and I picked up a terrific pair of left-handed scissors. Oddly enough, my two right-handed daughters insist on using them and frequently lose them around the house, forcing me to use the right-handed scissors I purchased for them.

Suzy

RSMBob wrote:Any thoughts on great (reasonably priced) knives in gerneral and specifically about cutlery for left-handers?

Bob,

We may be leaving reasonably priced in the dust, but Korin Trading, purveyor of high quality Japanese knives, offers a custom service switching blade orientation.

I've purchased knives from Korin, though never used the left-hand service, and have had nothing but positive experiences.

http://www.korin.com/
Left-Handed knives
Are you left-handed? We can customize the blade edges on Western-style gyutou, sujihiki and petty knives for left-handed customers. Please inquire and we'll be happy to try and meet your needs.

In Chicago a good place to start is Northwestern Cutlery.

Enjoy,
Gary

Northwestern Cutlery
810 W Lake Street
(between Green St & Halsted St)
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 421-3666
www.nwcutlery.com/

I have a version of a Shun chef's knife that is lefty, which means, as far as I can tell, that the shape of the handle is different than for the right-handed versions (the handle is asymmetrical). I don't believe that there is any difference on blade orientation, angling, etc. That said, my righty wife uses the knife all the time and doesn't have a problem with it. Perhaps she's just nutty, though. [Obligatory self-deprecating joke about her having to be nutty to marry me, etc.]

The Epicurean Edge carries left-handed knives. They're located in Kirkland, Washington, but they ship anywhere. High quality knives, excellent sharpening service, great customer service.

http://www.epicureanedge.com/

Disclaimer: I am a friend of the owner. Regardless of friendship, I do think he has a fantastic store and is passionate about his knives and blades.

Interesting aside: some of the artisans he works with also make jewelry. If you go to the "Custom Knives" tab. there's a link on the left side of the page that will take you to the jewelry. Very nice unusual stuff.

-gtgirl

Wusthof makes a number of left handed versions.
I currently use http://www.cutleryandmore.com/wusthof.h ... kw=wusthof for my knives and have an extensive number of Wusthof.-Dick

I never knew there were asymmetrical knives.

I just looked in our knife drawer. We've got a variety of different brands, some of which are reasonably high quality (Sabatier, Henckels, and Hoffritz). All of ours are symmetrical, which means they are equally suitable for righties and lefties.

I'm not posting this to dispute any of what's been posted above, only to note that there are also many high-quality symmetrical knives on the market.

As a lifetime lefty, I'm kind of skeptical about right/left-handed knives. Reading the text of Puppy's link, there itsn't a single word about why that knife is "left-handed". The cross-section of the knife blade is perfectly symmetrical, and there's no mention of a somehow-different handle.

As I've mentioned before, the only knife I know of that is -handed is a cabinet-maker's marking knife. It's used instead of a pencil for a much smaller and more precise mark on the workpiece. It's beveled on one side only, since the flat side of the blade needs to be against the measuring instrument, so they come in left- and right-beveled models.

For -handed knives, I'd like to know just what makes them so.

Mike

MikeLM wrote:As a lifetime lefty, I'm kind of skeptical about right/left-handed knives. Reading the text of Puppy's link, there itsn't a single word about why that knife is "left-handed". The cross-section of the knife blade is perfectly symmetrical, and there's no mention of a somehow-different handle.

For -handed knives, I'd like to know just what makes them so.

I noticed the same thing. They go into excruciating detail about the design, materials, and construction, etc., but do not mention anything at all about it's qualifications to be a lefty-friendly tool. If symmetrical designs are "right-handed" designs by default, which seems to be the implication here, I don't understand why.

MikeLM wrote:As a lifetime lefty, I'm kind of skeptical about right/left-handed knives.

For what it is worth, I bought this knife from Korin in a left-handed version. I also bought a sharpening stone that I am too afraid to use. They showed me how to sharpen on a stone and definitely made some hay about how you do not sharpen both sides of the edge in the same way because of the asymmetry. I believe I read somewhere that it was 70/30.

Anyway, I finally needed to get the thing sharpened (lasted a good couple of years with moderate use) and I took it to Northwestern Cutlery. I let them know that the blade was supposed to be asymmetrical for left-handed use. The guy stopped, looked it up and down and said it looked 50/50 to him and that's how he sharpened it.

I'm no expert and they know a lot more about knives there than I ever will. Until I get up the nerve to sharpen on the stone, I imagine I will trust their judgment. In theory, by sharpening it evenly, they undid whatever benefits came from the original 'changing' process. But it still cuts just fine, thank you and that's the true test.