A while back, I had a conversation with a purveyor of knives. I asked her to recommend two knives; a general purpose knife and something to use to carve a turkey, steak etc. Both her recommendations surprised me; one was a 175 mm Santoku, the other was a 150 mm universal knife (this one: http://shop.skjerp-deg.no/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_60_80&product_id=100)
The reason I was surprised at the second, was that I was expecting her to recommend something at least 180 mm long.
So, to my question: what are the relative advantages of using a long carving knife, as opposed to a short one?
Best Answer
A very long blade is only useful in specialty situations, such as cutting very thin slices from wide cuts like an entire top round, or a full sized ham where there is no bone to be negotiated around (in the ham, the slice is only down through half, until the bone is reached).
Otherwise, for more typical home carving purposes, extra length just gets in the way, especially for oddly shaped meats like an actual turkey. I find that a traditional chef's knife or my santuko are the best tools for most home carving jobs—and they are also useful for many other purposes.
I have a 10 inch (25 cm) granton ham slicer, but I never use it for carving: it is reserved for slicing layer cakes in half horizontally in one pass.