Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I was in a cooking supply store a few weeks ago when a girl came in and asked the woman behind the counter if they carried left-handed knives for making sushi. I'm a lefty, and cook a lot, and it made me titter to think that a lefty needs a special knife. On the other hand, I know that using a screwdriver is a lot harder for a lefty than for a righty, so maybe it makes sense.

Fellow lefties, what say ye?

Not a lefty, but it makes sense if the blade is only sharpened on one edge, as per this wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cutlery

Probably for 'normal' knives it doesn't make a difference.

Yes! Serrated knives are DANGEROUS for lefties. I've cut myself badly as a kid trying to use one of those stupid things. My mother only uses serrated knives. As a result, I've been afraid of knives all my life because they are so clumsy to use.

I bought my own non-serrated chef knife and now I'm good. Actually, the first Christmas after I started to cook a lot, my mom bought me some fancy $80 chef knife, but it was serrated and said right on the package "not suitable for left handed use."

I still can't cut bread or tomatoes worth a damn. I'd love a lefty serrated or bread knife.

For tomatoes, a ceramic knife is my go-to. I'm not sure about bread though, I always use a serrated knife for that.

my folks and myself are left-handed, and my hubby is too. growing-up, i'm pretty sure all the knives we had in our house were regular knives. hubby & i do not have any special left-handed knives. honestly, had no idea they existed.

I forgot to mention that, my husband has cut bread with our bread knife and he is a lefty. I never paid attention.

Really? My left-handed boyfriend has been using the same bread knife as me for years and has no problem with it (actually, it's me that has the problem with it, but I just suck at slicing bread).

Well, they are dangerous for me. If I try to chop an onion with a stupid serrated knife, it's pretty scary. No issues at all with my nice smooth chef knife.

I'm not alone since knife packages even warn against lefty use. You are basically cutting your food with a dull knife but are poised to cut yourself with a sharp knife because of the way they are sharpened.

I only recently found out that serrated knives are an objective problem for lefties and thought, "NO WONDER I can't cut bread straight." Sheesh. It's not my fault!

i had no idea. I'm not partial to serrated knives, though, and have always been a knife snob. all my horrible knife injuries have been from washing, not from use, just sayin. (or from the mandoline, which plays no favorites)

We have mostly Wusthof knives and a few years ago I got my husband a leftie serrated utility and bread knife. He doesn't cook much but why risk it? For non-serrated knives, though, I think you probably need to plunk down serious $$$$ and you would probably know it if you were buying a Japanese knife sharpened on just one side. (I thought the nice vegetable knife in Tokyo I got would be one-side-sharpened, but...no.)