Left-Handed Cheese Knife: A Tale of Woe & Discovery

[byrd1956]

Recent customers were asking me about the Cheese Knife. I did my best to answer their questions, but felt inadequate, because it is somewhat awkward for me to use. I sometimes feel like it is actually a left-handed cheese knife. I looked for a video to see it in action, but no luck. So I e-mailed the home office. They sent me a copy of the use & care info. I re-contacted them and they forwarded to the test kitchen. They sent me the picture below. Is is just me or does the way they are showing us to plane cheese look dangerous? I think I should plane away with no fingers in the path of the sharp edges. They did say if the pictures did help they would try to do a short video. I am thinking of taking them up on that and asking them to post it as a you-tube video. Any thoughts??

 

[raebates]

I rarely use the cheese knife. I forget we have it. I find our other knifes work just fine for cheeses.

I did look over the files. I agree that a video might be better.

 

[Shari in TX]

I have always felt that the knife should have been designed to be used by pushing away from you rather than toward you. Those pictures look like an accident just waiting to happen.

Shari in TX

 

[DebPC]

I always used the crinkle cutter for cutting cheese.

 

[byrd1956]

I do like the crinkle cutter for cheese, but when I want it very thin due to the awkwardness I too use a knife.
I have replied to the home office asking for a video.

 

[Teri Dona]

Wow, that does seem mighty awkward. I think I would've been cutting right-to-left (since I'm right-handed) rather than toward or away...?

 

[byrd1956]

I do plane the cheese right to left, but it is still awkward and my hands get tired quickly.

 

[Teri Dona]

My husband suggested maybe we should turn the cheese block upright and slice downward with it.

 

[byrd1956]

I have sliced down. To plane down does not work as the planner need to 'slice' through the end of the cheese.

 

[cochef]

It makes a great tomato knife!

 

[helgajones]

That cheese knife looks good. But I agree with most of the posts here, that a video presentation would be cooler. I have a lot of knives at home, but never had a cheese knife like that.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

A lot of it, for me anyway, is how hard the cheese is. Soft cheeses (like Colby) don't plane very well. It works better with harder cheese. (And yes, I've done the "put it in the freezer for a few minutes to firm it up" trick.

I also find planing away from me does not have the control that planing toward me does. It's much easier to control thickness planing toward me. One just must concentrate when using it.

By the way, I like using it as a knife on Colby, it is far more effective than even a Santoku. The planing blade forces the slice away from the block so it doesn't stick to the blade and crush as it is wont to do with a regular knife.