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Graham88
Completely surprised by the lack of blade diversity here on Drop...
I’ve been a collector of Blades since before my teens, and a retailer coming up on 15… or maybe 20 years. Drop has really been kind of an interesting experience for me, because I do occasionally get to see some unusual tech and sometimes EDC items that otherwise I might not have been aware of. And maybe it’s because I have a deep love of cutlery and bladed weapons, but I find myself trolling through the site looking at it what’s available; and it’s just it’s pretty much the same. And the bladed community here is just always confused me.. every single knife is about the same, they’re almost all drop points and although the handle materials change and brands change.. it’s really just the same knife over and over and over again... occasionally you’ll see a tanto or a slight variant; but rarely… and almost never a serrated blade. And I’m just deeply amazed at this diversion of serrated blades. And I’m just surprised there isn’t more of a request for diversity here.... and I...
Mar 12, 2020
JellyDPhoto
Can we get Sony E-Mount or other mirrorless camera options please..
Would be nice to see some Sony E mount full frame cameras on here. I currently shoot with a A99 and they killed the lense path for better or more option lenses and now is all E-Mount. 🤔
Jan 13, 2020
RayF
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
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If you're looking for a first knife and looking at this one, I would recommend looking elsewhere. This drop has been pretty poorly handled in terms of QC and quality of the product delivered for the price.
Grab the victorinox that the internet loves, the steel is easy to learn to sharpen on and forgiving in that it won't chip to hell if misused. It's also cheap enough that you'll feel guilty messing it up by using it or learning to sharpen on it. Victorinox 45520 8 Inch Fibrox Pro Chef's Knife is what you're looking for in the amazon search box, the 8 inch one. Goes for $34.30 at the time of this posting. It is a softer steel, so you'll be sharpening it every 2 weeks or so depending on how heavy your usage is, but the knife is light and thin, which makes it easy to use.
Next up is the serrated/bread knife. Mercer Culinary Millennia Wavy Edge Slicer Knife, 12 Inch is a great go to. If you bake a lot of bread or large roasts, then you could upgrade to one of the longer lengths. Keep in mind when using a serrated knife you're doing a combo of sawing/slicing, so the effective length is less then the actual length. This knife is a joy to use, incredibly sharp out of the box and it demolishes anything you put in front of it, while also being dirt cheap. Keep in mind a bread knife is essentially a consumable item, granted for most people it's consumable on the timescale of years but sharpening a serrated knife is a test of patience and not something I'd recommend dealing with, just buy a new one for 20 bucks every few years if you need. 12 Incher is $16.89 at time of writing.
That brings us to the paring knife. Victorinox 4-Inch Swiss Classic Paring Knife with Straight Blade, Spear Point, Red. The color doesn't matter, I'd go for whatevers cheapest or you can splurge for black to keep everything coordinated. Steel isn't great, but a paring knife doesn't need and shouldn't be razor sharp due to how you're using it in cutting towards itself, makes it safer to use when it's not a lightsaber as it reduces the chances of maiming your thumb. Sharpen it when you sharpen your chefs knife, will only take a minute or so on a knife this small. Again cheap enough that you won't shed tears over it. $7.99 at time of posting.
You'll need two pieces more from here.
First off is the honing steel. WINCO Sharpening Steel, 14-Inch, but it doesn't really matter. Most honing steels are going to be effectively the same, longer is easier to deal with for a chef's knife so as long as you have drawer space I'd go for the 14 inch over the 12. Use this before you cook, plenty of videos out there on proper usage. it acts to realign a rolled edge on a knife, helps to restore some sharpness and increase the time you can go between sharpenings on softer steels like the above knives will have. Use it on the chefs and paring, never on a serrated knife. $11.99 as of writing.
Next up is a sharpening stone. It's easy to pick up, and will greatly improve your happiness with your knives. You can either go with a pullthrough sharpener if you hate your knives and want them to die early but don't want to waste time doing it traditionally, or if you intend on picking up more expensive knives in the future then you can go the traditional sharpening stone route. It's easy enough to pick up in about 30 minutes from watching some videos, so don't fret. King Japanese Grit 1000/6000 Combination Sharpening Stone KW-65 and King #8000 Nagura Stone : Bundle - 2 Items is a good go-to. As I said free handing is quite easy, Just remember to soak your stones for 15-30 minutes prior to using em, and keep the surface wet while using them. Place blade flat on the stone, raise the spine slightly until the bevel is flat against the stone and slide it back and forth using light pressure until it's cutting to your liking on test cuts, or use the sharpie trick. Start with the brown side, switch to the tan side once you've sharpened to completion on the brown. See above statement regarding serrated knives, I don't recommend trying to sharpen them, the points are harder on the stone and you can't effectively sharpen them. $36.98 as of writing.
Oh and get a decent cutting board, GORILLA GRIP Original Reversible Cutting Board (3-Piece), BPA Free, Juice Grooves, Larger Thicker Boards, Easy Grip Handle, Dishwasher Safe, Non-Porous, Extra Large, Kitchen (Set of Three: Black) is $16.99 and can be tossed in the dishwasher (Also a nono for your knives by the way) with impunity, larger boards if you have the counter space are more pleasant to work on. Don't use glass, hard plastic boards, bamboo or most exotic woods, they're all capable of destroying an edge pretty quick. Boards like the ones I linked, hisoft, walnut, maple, cherry and japanese elm are all good materials for prolonging the life of your edge.
Like any hobby, I'd recommend starting with cheap, quality tools like the above, and get spendier as your tastes expand and you discover what style of knives you like when your current ones can't scratch an itch for a blade shape or steel.
Hopethat helps!
Knife blocks take up counterspace and if they aren't universal may either have way to many knife slots for your needs or too few, or simply the wrong size. That being said they are an easy and convenient way to store your knives. They can also be a little pricey for a nice one, but they'll get the job done.
Magnetic knife racks are exactly what they sound like, a flat plate with magnets inside it that attract your knives to them and hold them securely. They can be mounted to walls and cabinetry, using otherwise unused space to store knives which can be a boon. On the plus side they can also be very reasonably priced, such as Ikeas version https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40334921/.
Depending on the material the plate touching the knife is made of it might end up scratching the knife if you aren't careful in removing it. Just remember to always slightly roll the knife towards the spine and pull it as straight off as you can instead of sliding the length of the knife along the rack to prevent it. The good news is the scratches won't affect your performance, so not a huge deal and many magnetic racks are built out of wood so they shouldn't scratch your knives up. Plus, if you're handy magnetic knife racks are pretty easy to build yourself, which lets you design them to your wall size and material used if you feel the need.
The biggest two advantages to these racks other then keeping your knives safely out of reach of little ones and clearing up counterspace is that they're extremely versatile in what you can store. There's a lot of oddly shaped cutlery out there once you go deep into the kitchen knife hobby, finding a block to store them would be pretty tricky but magnetic rack won't have that issue.
They also give you the option of putting your knives where you need them. For example if you find a section of the counter where you prefer to always do your cutting, you can mount the rack to the counter behind the area so you won't have to move out of your way to grab a knife, and you can do it one handed if you find the knife you grabbed isn't up to the task. If you have a ton of counterspace a block allows you to do the same, but as an apartment dweller space is a luxury for me. A sheath normally requires two hands to remove safely, which depending on what you're prepping may require you to wash your hands if you're changing knives.
Sheaths are the final option, I'm using one for my Vital. They basically make it safe to toss your knives in a drawer and make them safer to travel with, both pluses for me. Downside is that you need to find ones that fit your knives, or can be modified to do so.
For travel it's as Erik said, you use both sheaths/edge guards and a knife roll. Knife rolls are basically just canvas or leather that's meant to securely wrap up the knifes, to keep them scuffing each others handles out and to minimize their own movement in case an edge guard comes loose and let's a sharp edge loose. Edge guard is just a strip of plastic, either friction or magnetically fitted to slide over the edge and prevent it from doing what it's best at to anything unlucky enough to touch it in transit. In essence the knife roll let's you carry your knives as one bundle, the edge guards let you carry your knife as one bundle SAFELY.