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puzzlefan

Electric knives

puzzlefan
9 years ago

Despite a range of brands, I have had to buy an electric knife after 12 - 18 months. The motors are fine, the blades dull. I use mine almost exclusively for cutting bread each week. Buying replacement blades is about as expensive as buying the whole unit. Can anyone recommend a brand with blades that last?

Comments (3)

  • barryv_gw
    9 years ago

    Sorry, no experience with electric knives, but I bought a Chef's Choice Model 610 slicer ( I posted a link to Bed Bath Beyond, though it is available elsewhere) and it does a great job slicing homemade 100 % whole wheat bread. They make one that is even cheaper ( model 609) , or you can spend even more and move up the line which gets you a faster motor and more metal. Mine is quite a bit of metal, but also some plastic, which is fine by me because I take it on and off the counter a lot so I appreciate the light weight.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Chef's choice 610

  • foodonastump
    9 years ago

    And now you know why sliced bread is so often hailed as one of the greatest inventions of all time!

    Even with weekly use, I'm a little surprised that you're going through blades so quickly. My first thought was to wonder what kind of cutting board you're using - not glass I hope - and if you're cutting down into the board unnecessarily hard.

    You can somewhat "sharpen" scalloped blades with the stropping wheel of a knife sharpener such as a Chef's Choice, but I wouldn't go out and buy one just for the purpose.

    I think the bottom line is these just have cheap steel blades, that's about all you can expect considering the whole system is typically less than $25. Maybe buy at BB&B and replace for free every year? I'd probably just buy new ones as needed.

    I guess I didn't answer you're question. But I doubt one brand's blade will last significantly longer than another.

    This post was edited by foodonastump on Thu, Jul 17, 14 at 2:00

  • jwvideo
    9 years ago

    With foodonastump, I also have to ask, what kind of cutting board are you using?

    As for Chef's Choice knife sharpeners, the electric ones are pretty expensive (like over $100 expensive) but I think Edgecraft also makes a manual sharpener for serrated blades, IIRC, it is the Chef's Choice model 430 and can be had for around $15 to $20 at places like Amazon. Might be worth a try.

    I'm usually okay with regular knives but, for some reason, slicing bread and slicing roasts seems to affect my arthritic/carpal-tunnel-prone wrists, which is what led me to buy a Cuisinart electric knife some years ago at Costco. The motor lasted six or seven years before giving out. Because I liked the big-fat handle and the trigger position, I got I got another one about three years ago at BB&B. Even with a coupon, though, it was still the most expensive electric knife they had.

    I'm still using the blades from the first one, too. Never sharpened any of them. (I rotate blades sets as one set goes into the dishwasher for cleaning.) Even the old sets do not seem dull to me. The electric kinfe gets used two-to-three times daily for slicing home-made bread on a wooden bread board. Weekly for other slicing tasks, some on softish plastic cutting boards. I really doubt there is anything special about the blades. (I suspect the high price is just for the premium brand-name rather than premium quality blades) I got Cuisinart again because the big fat handle suits my big, old, fat hands, but YMMV.

    This post was edited by JWVideo on Thu, Jul 17, 14 at 3:01