Hi, my name's Dan Delavan.
I'm the owner/operator of Plaza Cutlery in
Costa Mesa, California.
We have a great selection.
We also have a website, plazacutlery.com.
And today, we're going to be talking about
knives.
The paring knife is a small general-use knife.
Usually, it's your catch-all knife for opening
packages, for trimming anything.
If you have a piece of meat and there's a
piece of fat on it or something you have to
get off and you don't want to grab the bigger
knife, chances are the paring knife will be
the knife that's already out on the counter.
So you're going to grab that and use it.
So it does a little bit of everything.
The standard paring knife is usually going
to have a three-inch to a four-inch blade.
And this is about a three and a half, so it's
kind of right in the middle.
This is a Wusthof Ikon, standard knife, very
slight curve.
And if you notice the profile in all the knives,
profile is very similar, just a slight curve
up.
Forge guard, larger handle, again ergonomic
but full tang.
Ikon has got a steel butt, which you can use
for smashing garlic and but it grips right
in the hand.
Some people will use a paring knife in this
manner in order to trim.
So it's whatever way that you use it, but
paring knife, usually about three to four
inches.
A lot of people just like something real basic,
Victorinox again, puts out some really basic
knives.
They're not very expensive.
They're only, you know, from $5 to $10, but
it's a fibrox handle.
This particular one is a serrated edge.
It does come in a plain edge and it comes
a little bit bigger, which is a nice simple
paring knife.
This particular one is very popular because
the handle is comfortable, and also being
serrated, you don't have to sharpen it.
It'll stay sharp for a long time, and eventually,
when it does become dull, in most cases you're
just going to replace it because it's not
that much money anyway.
Okay, now for a couple of specialty paring
knives.
This is called a Bird's Beak.
Also, a tournee knife.
This is a Shun Classic and you notice it's
kind of a hook blade.
And it's used for peeling and garmdige work
and so forth.
It's meant to be held in the hand like so.
Some people again will put their finger behind
it and then they'll use the tip to really
guide it in order to cut in a very exact spot,
usually in a drawing motion where you're pulling
back on it.
This is a Hinkle Four Star II.
This is a mini boning knife.
A lot of the characteristics of a regular
full-size boning knife, but just in a paring
knife.
Again, you have the narrow blade with the
curved area here where you can cut with this
back end and then it tapers up to a fine point.
It's not flexible, just barely, you know,
like the regular boning knife.
And it grips in the hand really nice and you
have the curve back.
The Four Star II is a very popular handle
with a lot of women because there's no corners.
It's a very clean knife because there's no
seam around.
It does have a metal butt cap.
It's a great little knife used for a lot of
different things.
