Sunday, January 31, 2010
Food, Q&A

The sharpest tool

SP chats with Harald Wüsthof about one of the world’s leading knife brands

By Hope S. Philbrick

Harald WŸsthof, managing partner of WŸsthof Dreizackwerk, recently traveled from Solingen, Germany, to visit the Cook’s Warehouse Decatur and Ansley Mall locations. While in Atlanta, the seventh-generation knife guru dished with The Sunday Paper about how he helps continue the caveman’s legacy, the risk of buying a car without wheels and which tool is as essential as a toothbrush.

 Is your job a cut above?

 Knives are a very interesting product. It may sound boring, but you’re talking about the oldest tool of mankind. The difference between the flint stone and knives are just material: Both are meant to cut. It’s challenging to improve something thousands of generations have already thought about. It’s one of the very few tools every human being uses. Whether it’s to spread jam in the morning or peel an apple or slice bread or cut a steak or whatever, there are a couple of occasions to use a knife every single day, from childhood until your very last day.

How have WŸsthof knives changed over seven generations?

Almost 200 years is a significant time; still, every single knife we produce comes out of Germany. What’s changed is the manufacturing processes, which improves quality. No question, better machinery and equipment work much more precisely, and the edge of a knife is very precise. The steel quality nowadays is much better than it used to be. The handle material 100 years ago was just wood; nowadays, you’ve got different kinds of materials. The shape of the handle has changed. There are some trends; for example, wood is coming back while stainless steel is declining, whereas five to 10 years ago, stainless steel was considered state of the art.

How about blade shapes?

There are basic ones—paring knife, bread knife and a chef’s knife—that always were there and always will be. But then you’ve got different trends going more toward the Asian cuisine.

There is not one universal knife. All different knives serve different purposes. Even if you’re talking about a chef’s knife, you might like the seven-inch while I might prefer the eight-inch. It’s just whatever you feel most comfortable with, since knives should be the extension of your arm or hand while you’re cooking. It’s about what feels most comfortable, weight and balance. They all cut.

Which knife is most essential?

No. 1, 2 and 3 would be paring, chef’s and serrated bread. Of course, whenever you buy a first knife, buy a sharpening steel—otherwise it’s like buying a car without wheels.

I compare a sharpening steel and professional sharpening service with your toothbrush and your dentist. You use a toothbrush daily. When a knife gets dull there are very tiny little teeth on the edge that start to bend over, and with a sharpening steel, you’re realigning them to keep the knife sharp. You can do that 200 times, though like a paper clip, sooner or later they will break. Then you come either to a sharpening service—you go to the dentist, sort of—or take care of it with a more aggressive sharpening device. You have to know what you’re doing, but it’s not rocket science; it’s easy but sometimes looks scary. Everybody can do it.

How long can a good knife be expected to last?

Easily 15 to 20 years. Coming back to the toothbrush comparison, you can buy a toothbrush for $4 and you use it 60 times, it’s a couple of cents every day. Buy a knife at maybe $100, divide that by 20 years by 365 days by a couple of times a day and it’s nothing compared to the toothbrush. Plus, you’re making your kitchen life easier with a sharp knife.

What distinguishes Wüsthof knives?

Every blade is made of a single piece of steel so it’s solidly constructed. The materials are state of the art. We use high carbon steel especially brewed for us. We’re very picky on quality. Every single knife we make—and we do 7,000 a day—goes through quality control steps ending with a cutting test. We have by far the widest collection of blade shapes: Within our flagship line, we have almost 65 different blade shapes. SP