Generic Oyster Knives

Most of the time when you're shopping for an oyster knife and when you come around something that doesn't really specify where the knife is from or what design it belongs to, there's a big possibility that this particular knife is just a generic.

These "generics" are often a mix of many different styles and looks from many different oyster knives.  For example one generic oyster knife can be made in Japan, have a wooden handle in shape of a pear, a blade stop and a long, 9cm blade.

While generic oyster knives can be of high quality there are also bad quality ones. As long as they're made in different places no one would be able to guess right away if this is a good or a bad knife without closer evaluation as there is no brand name on it to judge from.

Generics will usually be fairly priced as they are normally "fair" quality, so you get what you pay for. At times generic oyster knives' makers will copy the styles of more popular oyster knives designs like Boston oyster knives or Galveston's and then combine them together into one knife that features the qualities of two or more "brand" designers'.

For instance, a generic stabber oyster knife can be made exactly like a good brand stabber with a long, narrow blade with dull edges, feature a rounded wooden handle but still have a lever at the top of the blade. The lever is used to prop open the shell. It's also useful when you don't want to damage the tender meat inside the shell, because the slightly curved tip of this blade would go slide over the meat without touching it and the lenght of the blade would be enough to cut the adductor muscle if you're using the front entry method.

Front entry method is when you break off the beak of the oyster, slide the tip of your knife inside the oyster and twist the handle to open up the gap. Then you gently press the blade inside the oyster and move it towards the adductor muscle that holds the shell havles together. After you locate it, cut it with a slashing motion (not too rough) and the oyster should open. The adductor muscle is what holds the halves together for the most part. Now that the adductor muscle is cut all you need to do is break off the hinge, (the last part that's holding the oyster together) which is pretty easy to do, and now you have your oyster meat.

As you can see, a generic oyster knife can do this just as well as some brand name oyster knife. One of the best things about those oyster knives is that they might cost you much, much less than a brand name oyster knife, while being almost the same quality.