[jyl]

Okay, this is a very small thing but I'm sort of pleased about it.

Some good friends of ours have a great kitchen, are eager and good cooks, but had the most awful set of knives. Chicago Cutlery that they bought in grad school, blades as thick as clubs, probably hadn't been properly sharpened in decades, you basically had to crush your way through the food.

So I took their chef's knife home, sharpened it, they loved it. Then I turned the husband on to Victorinox Forschner, said he could get his wife a whole set of professional-quality knives for $130, and so she got new knives for Christmas. We gave them a 10" chefs to complement the set's 8" chefs.

Whenever the wife sees my wife, she raves about her knives, how she never knew how easy cutting could be, its made her life so much easier, etc.

Today I was in a junk store, saw a 12" slicer that was as dull as a butter knife but I recognized it to be a decent brand. Bought it for $1.50, spent an hour re-grinding the edge then polishing, now it is sharper than anything in my block. I'll give that to them since they don't have a roast slicer and my block is full.

Rather satisfying, you know?

When I go to people's houses, at least 1/5th of the time their kitchen knives are crap - totally dull and sometimes a mediocre brand too. I think often its because they just don't know any better. They don't know how easy it is to work with sharp knives, and how inexpensive good knives can be, they don't even realize their knives are dull. Just acquainting them with inexpensive sharp knives can turn on the light bulb, so to speak.

So, I know there are some knife-a-holics here. In 2010, make it your goal to bring one other family/person into the light.