There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
Objectively though it tends to be a sign of a more ‘real’ kitchen to have knives each of which was selected to be the best for the person’s cutting style and desires.
In my case I currently have and use:
a sekizo vg-10 nakiri clad in layered steel with a nearly full flat so I can cut to the board and use for 90% of my tasks. a wusthof 8” chef that I beat up for random tasks. a global deboning knife because for deboning I like their handle the most. an aristsugu 10” french profile gyuto in blue #2 which I use for meat slicing. A shun Ken onion sg2 paring knife
they’re all chosen because i like them for their particular function. If I had all one maker or line of knives one or more would be inferior.
My favored set of blades these days includes a couple Hattori French knives, a Zhen boner, Dalstrong slicer, while I use whatever folding knife I'm playing with at the time as a paring knife, currently a Maxace Wind. I still do some showing off in kitchens every now and then and I've always wanted a set of knives that work well while having similar design elements.
Moreover, there are some things I don't like on a knife. I hate round/cylindrical handles, feeling very strongly that a good blade should provide an unmistakeable tactile clue as to its fine orientation, which rules out a lot of Japanese style blades making the rounds these days. And I hate bolsters that the bottom edge of the knife runs into as any knife that is used seriously will need sharpening, and a knife that is sharpened enough will develop a gap where the blade meets the bolsters, making mincing garlic or whatever an issue, so that rules out a lot of German blades.
The Apogee, on the other hand, looks like the grip geometry satisfies my tactile clues to blade orientation preference, and doesn't have a big honking bolster on it which frankly hasn't ever made any sense to me. I'm not seeking merely a scaled down version for a boning, paring, or slicing knife, but something with kindred design elements would look good if ever cooking with eyes on you. If you've been in the food biz you know presentation and eye appeal is a big chunk of the battle, and I feel those esthetic standards apply to equipment too. If Massdrop were to develop a set over time I expect it would sell; if the first piece passed muster I'd certainly buy the ensuing ones.
And hey, if this notion of a set actually gets any attention, throw in a matching big honkin' sharpening steel as well as a stout carving fork. Or heck, shoot the moon and toss in some thematically similar garnishing tools like a corer, peeler, zester, etc. and turn this into a long term project.
But I eventually decided that i don’t like santokus as much as nakiris. in my particular use case I also found I didn’t like the global handle on a large knife.