I still manage to gouge chunks out of my fingernails and/or thumbs on a regular basis. So, they're clearly sharp enough.

Nutty! You are vastly more likely to cut yourself badly with a dull knife than with a sharp one. Sharp ones cut what you want them to, in the direction you want them too, with much less force on the knife. Dull knives more mash their way through than cut, change direction without warning, and are far more dangerous because of the amount of force needed to push them through foodstuffs, so when they slip they slip with all that extra force behind them.

Hie thee to a knife sharpener and stop cutting your hands and fingers!!!!

(ATK recommends electric sharpeners if you can afford one, and manual sharpeners over honing steels.)

Huh. Interesting. I'd definitely default to ATK too. Even when Alton is right about the science, he can be wrong about the best way to get the best final result. I've always been skeptical on his take about any and all stuffings for turkeys being verbotten (mainly cause I grew up with pork stuffing in our family's birds).

I am, however, not a member of the cult of Alton Brown.

BURN THE HERETIC!!!! Ahem, sorry, got carried away.

TRIPLE X-POST! NUTTY, SHARPEN YOUR KNIVES!

it's like 5-6 bucks to do both chef's knives.

My father has all of his knives at the restaurant sharpened every 2 weeks. They pick them up and drop them off. It's wonderful, until one of the part-timers uses one and then just throws it into a drawer or slips it between the 2 butcher block tables in the back. They do this so often that my father hides his really good ones. The new rule is that no one not related to him by blood can touch any knife in his work area.

My everyday knives at home are in a block. They're not that good. My good chef's knife is in the drawer in a sleeve. I'll have to figure out another solution when more of the good knives are obtained.

Nora - do you covet the magnetic knife holder because you lack the space for one, or are you just wanting and not yet getting?

BK for lunch! not exactly what my sick self needs, but comfort food.

I did just renew my subscription to Cook's Illustrated, if that helps forestall the shunning.

Cook's Illustrated / ATK on knife sharpeners. I don't know if that article is old enough to require registration or not.

Cash, our convertible seat is also an Evenflo -- highly rated, LATCHed into the car and all. There's so much nothing we can do about it at this point that I'm just going to plug my ears and go lalalalala until the CR report goes away (or, more likely, until my dad hands me a Xerox of the article from his copy of CR and wants to know how much danger his granddaughter is in and what we're going to do about it).

Kalshane, I am so sorry. That utterly bites, every bit of it (except the 9 weeks and your boss being ready with the ear out for better jobs and the good reference). The months of dicking you over about your schedule, the constant weaseling, the dragging you up at dark-thirty this morning and escorting you out. Assheads. I'd wish them a good catastrophic-stock-tumble-type smiting, but they have already been smote by better Buffistas than me.

Damn. Vibing you an abundance of better job-ma, working for actual humans.

On the set of his show, Alton's knives hang out in built-in slots in the counter. I know the top is wooden, but who knows what materials compose the rest.

I think there was an episode where he talked about knife sharpening, but I can't remember what the subject was.

The stones look like this, and I know that you have to wet them (which leads to the alternate name of "whetstone"), but that's about all I got.

eta: Good god, what an x-post. But one thing I didn't see anyone say... if you have knives that have interesting texture along the blade (like those tiny serrations), you can actually damage that if you try to self-sharpen.

Signed, my knives suck and I'm ok with that.

I imagine the knives in the restaurant get used much more often than home knives, so we don't need to sharpen that often.

Okay Jess, Frank.... I'll bite. What's ATK? (I'm such a n00b foodie).