To The Test: How Do You Test Tools Before You Buy?
Go ahead! I *dare* you to destroy me!
Yesterday on our post about garlic presses, commenter David Hagan wrote the following:
“And speaking of great kitchen gadgets, I bought a pastry blender over the weekend that will actually stand up to being used. Its a heavier gage steel than the ones you normally see, and has only 4 blades instead of 5. It’s made by Norpro. They had Norpro’s with 5 blades right next to it, and the 5 blades bent with barely any pressure. the 4 blades I couldn’t bend at all. Definitely the way to go. Do I feel bad for bending the other one in the store? A little, but I want to make sure that the equipment I buy is quality.”
As someone whose sole destructive obsession in life is to poke marshmallow Peeps, Cadbury chocolate eggs and loaves of squishy white bread on leisurely strolls through the supermarket, while I’ve destroyed more than my fair share of foodstuffs out in public, I’ve confined the destruction of kitchen tools to the privacy of my own kitchen, not on public display in a retail outlet.
Lately, I’ve been pondering the creation of an e-book or iPhone app that provides guidelines on how to test a variety of tools before you buy. I understand that some of the considerations are entirely personal, such as the feel, weight and heft of a chef’s knife in your hand, while others bow down before the gods of ruggedness.
So I’d like to throw it out there for public consumption:
How do you test tools before you decide to lay down your hard-earned cash? I’d like to hear about the tried-and-true methods and the shiftier kind, like when a clerk isn’t giving you the hairy eyeball. And what about online? Do you look at the weight of a tool? The composition?
Leave a comment below, and keep checking back, you may learn something new. I know I will.
