Iris has this lift-the-flap book called Daddies Are For Catching Fireflies. One page shows the daddy attempted to repair a broken tricycle:

> If you say to a Daddy, “It’s broken,” he will try to fix it.

> But sometimes a Daddy can’t fix it.

Tell me about it. A while back I had the hubris to announce that I would begin sharpening my own knives. Well, it didn’t happen. Sometimes a daddy can’t fix it. In fact, this particular daddy generally can’t fix it. The other day Laurie reported that the vacuum cleaner wasn’t picking up dirt. So Iris and I disassembled it and found that the belt driving the carpet brush was broken. We reported this with delight to Laurie when she got home, and only later did I realize that we hadn’t actually fixed it yet.

I let my Henckels chef’s knife get way too dull before admitting to myself that I didn’t have the guts to attack it with the GATCO sharpener, and once again I sent it off to Bob Kramer in Olympia–or, as Iris and I like to call it, Knife Camp. A while back Laurie and I had these Jansport backpacks. Jansport has a lifetime warranty, and if you send your backpack in for service, you’ll get a couple of postcards from your backpack at camp. I didn’t get a postcard from my knife, but when it came back, I said, “Iris! My knife is back from Kramer!” and she looked offended and said, “I think you mean Knife Camp.”

Knives come back from camp so sharp that the edge will catch satisfyingly on a wooden knife rack if you don’t insert the knife perfectly.

For a recent vacation, and with the idea of having something to keep me company while my main knife was away at camp, I did buy a Forschner Victorinox chef’s knife. It cost under $30, and frankly I can’t say it’s worse than the Henckels in any way.

That’s what Cook’s Illustrated found, too, in their most recent issue, when they did yet another chef’s knife test, pitting their favorite Forschner against new entries such as the Wusthof Grand Prix II and the Shun Ken Onion. The Forschner easily won again–sort of. Obviously you can’t do a blind test of chef’s knives, and the Forschner certainly got a boost for being the old reliable. I found that my hand cramped a little when I began using the Forschner, but then I got used to it, and when the Henckels got back from Knife Camp, my hand cramped a little when I switched back.

I say the Forschner sort of won because they also threw in a ringer: a $475 chef’s knife made by Bob Kramer. The Kramer is by far the best-looking knife, but, they asked, is it really better? The answer: yes, definitely. They loved it.

Sure, I’m tempted, but my pair of knives does everything I need. I couldn’t actually describe how a better knife would be an improvement. So I guess I shouldn’t order one. But I’m still going to send my Henckels to Kramer once a year, especially if it promises to send me a postcard telling me what it’s been cutting. Or stabbing.