10 Tools You Need to Take Your Grill Setup to the Next Level

You bought a grill, extra-long tongs and a bag of charcoal. What followed was the slow realization that your out-of-the-box setup is limited. The grates create flare-ups, the coals take too long to light and you’ve burned off every hair on your forearm. Sound familiar? Then this guide is for you.

FireBoard Snap-On Blower

Temperature is paramount when it comes to cooking with wood or charcoal, and for those natural fuel sources, airflow is king. Feeding more air into a bed of coals generates more heat, bottlenecking airflow creates a lower heat environment. FireBoard’s snap-on blower fits directly into most ventilation holes and turns airflow regulation from an art to a science.

ThermoWorks IR Gun

Utah-based ThermoWorks might be the most trusted name in temperature telling. Its infrared temperature-tracking gun is less popular than its industry-standard thermometers, but it’s nearly as essential. Fire it at the grates to track when you’re building enough heat to properly sear a steak.

Pizzacraft 7-Inch Square Mini Pizza Stones

Up your pizza-making game with pizza stones. This grill upgrade ensures even heating on pizza crusts and other baked goods. You’ll get perfectly crisp crusts on your homemade pies, leftover slices and frozen pizzas.

GrillGrates Upgraded Grates

Endorsed as the “best thing to happen to gas grills and pellet smokers since salt and pepper” by the grill testers at Amazing Ribs, these cast-aluminum grates are rust-resistant and distribute heat more evenly across whatever you’re grilling.

Video: Traeger Ironwood Grill Review

Watch more of This Week In Gear video reviews.

G&F Welder’s Gloves

Oven mitts are poor stand-ins for grill-safe gloves, and most grill-safe gloves suck. Instead, get welder’s gloves — they go further up your arm, are safer at higher heat levels and allow your fingers freer movement.

Auber Instruments Wi-Fi Controller

Designed for professional pitmasters to use on overnight smokes, Auber Instruments’ grill controller is only for the most serious of home smokers. Just plug a probe into your meat and another at fire level, set your desired internal temperature for the meat and the temperature you want to smoke at. The controller does the rest, automatically adjusting airflow and air speed at coal level and feeding all cook data into an app on your phone.

Sage Owl Brass Grill Scraper

Still using bristly wire brushes to clean your grates? You should stop, unless you like putting indigestible metal in your guest’s burger. Instead, get a simple, cheap, hard-wearing universal grill scraper from Sage Owl, which come in various brass and stainless steel finishes.

Looftlighter Fire Starter

The first step to getting coals lit more quickly is buying a chimney. The second: a Looflighter. What looks like an overcharged hair curler can set stone cold charcoal ablaze in 60 seconds or less. You’ll never need to use instant-light charcoal again.

Steven Raichlen Cast-Iron Plancha

Planchas are hotter and heavier than griddles and one of Francis Mallmann’s favored ways of grilling. Use one to grill foods that would otherwise fall between or stick to the grates — like vegetables, whole fish and shrimp.

Fogo Lump Coal

Some people believe pre-cut charcoal is better than coal because every piece will be the same size, lending to more even heat distribution over your fire. But thanks to a more dense make up and larger size, lump coal is capable of reaching higher temperatures and burning for longer than regular charcoal. Give it a try.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

8 Ways to Make Your Kitchen Knives Last Forever, According to an Expert

David Olkovetsky is the founder of Artisan Revere, a new knifemaking company creating blades out of hardwearing stainless steels.

Taking care of your kitchen knife isn’t as hard as it seems. And while it might be tempting to let your knife sit with the other dishes in the sink (don’t do it), or toss it haphazardly into the dishwasher (really, don’t do it), regular maintenance will make a world of difference. Maybe you like cooking, or maybe you cook purely to survive. When your knife maintains its incredibly sharp edge — and glides effortlessly through rib eyes and rock-hard squash alike — you’ll start to truly enjoy rolling up your sleeves and conquering the kitchen.

They say that a bit of prevention is better than a cure. Here’s what you need to know to keep your knives in mint condition.

Use the knife on food, food and only food.

Perhaps it’s obvious — but it needs to be said.

Think about the number of times you’ve used your kitchen knife to pry open a can, open boxes, break down a small animal and hammer through frozen foods. Any of these can and will dull, twist or chip your blade because your kitchen knife is designed to cut through (non-frozen) foods only. Using it for any other purpose can seriously damage your cutting edge. Specialty boning knives are meant exclusively for breaking down poultry, bone-in meats and fish — so don’t use your chef knife, santoku, or nakiri for hacking through bones.

Photo by Henry Phillips

Wash and dry every single use.

When you’re done with meal prep, wash your knife with dish soap and warm water. When washing your knife, make sure to use a non-scratch sponge. Some sponges use aluminum oxide on the abrasive side, which can leave scratch marks on your blade and dull your edge. After washing, dry your knife immediately. We recommend knife magnets for storage (more on that later). I’ve seen knives of all types fall victim to rust spots, discoloration and worse just from being left out on the counter, or with all the other dirty dishes in the sink. It can be reversed, but it’s best to avoid an expensive lesson and take just a few seconds to wash and dry your knife.

Treat your knife with mineral oil.

An occasional drop or two of food-grade mineral oil throughout the handle and the blade can keep your blade from reacting to highly acidic foods like lemons and limes. It will also prevent acidic or salty solutions from stripping your blade of its free chromium layer, which is a fancy way of saying it will prevent patina and rust. Food-grade mineral oil isn’t just great for preventative knife care; it will also reverse patination on a stainless blade. Something like this mineral oil will do the trick — and also work wonders for your cutting board. If your knife is a high-carbon, “non-stainless” blade, you should apply a layer of food grade mineral oil after every single use, as this will prevent corrosion. If you’ve already got some corrosion, as evidenced by orange spots on your blade, we suggest attempting to remove it with mineral oil. If that doesn’t do the trick, purchase some Simichrome All Metal Polish.

Use the right cutting board.

There are only a few cutting boards that you should use to keep your knife sharp and maintain a sanitary kitchen: wood, plastic or synthetic rubber. Stick with wooden cutting boards, made with walnut, cherry or maple wood for fruits and vegetables. The janka hardness of walnut and cherry woods is just right for your knives, while maple is a bit harder and less expensive, but will require more frequent sharpening.

Plastic boards are inexpensive, and absolutely fine for fruits and vegetables, but these boards are best used for meats and fish because they can be sanitized in the dishwasher.

Additionally, synthetic rubber boards, like this one from Hasegawa, are superb for advanced knife users who primarily employ slicing motions — they’re grippy and also do less damage to your knives. Rock choppers should avoid these as the boards are a bit too soft.

Please, stop scraping food off your cutting board with the knife.

If you’ve been using your knife’s edge to transfer foods and organize your cutting board, you’re not alone — many top chefs we’ve worked with do this too. Here’s the bad news, this is the easiest way to roll your knife’s edge, especially on those thinner knives.
Avoid this practice before it becomes tough to break the habit. I suggest picking up an inexpensive bench scraper. When all else fails, use the spine of your blade to transfer food.

Never, ever the dishwasher.

Let’s put it this way: your dishwasher is a hurricane of scorching hot water and highly abrasive detergent. It’s a perfect storm that can chip, dull and corrode your knives. Not to mention the high likelihood of pitting corrosion — a particularly nasty, localized form of corrosion. Even if your blade miraculously comes out of the dishwasher intact, the high temperatures and wet conditions will rapidly eat away at the epoxy that holds your handle together — translation: you’ll ruin your gorgeous knife, guaranteed.

Keep your knife away from the dishwasher at all costs, and clean it by hand only. PSA: the dishwasher voids most knife warranties.

Knife blocks suck. Get a knife bar.

The best place to store your knives is on a magnet. Wood or bamboo covered magnets are best, as they’re not as harsh on your knives as steel magnets: steel on steel is never ideal. Large wooden blocks are sub-optimal for several reasons: they’re difficult to clean, dull your knife edge and take up unnecessary space.
Importantly, when placing your knife on or removing your knife off a magnet, remember to maintain spine contact. Place the knife on the magnet via the spine of the blade, and then slowly rotate the knife face onto the magnet. Reverse this when removing the knife. Your goal is to avoid any contact between the cutting edge and the magnet — this will keep your edge sharper for longer and you won’t cut into the magnet.

Know when to hone (and sharpen) your knife.

All knives will eventually dull as the steel abrades over time. We use a third-generation high alloy particle metallurgy tool steel (which is 30-times more expensive than generic knife steel) that will stay sharp much longer — but even our knives will eventually need a tune-up.

We suggest weekly ceramic rod honing for home cooks and daily for professional cooks. Cook’s Standard makes a quality, fairly priced ceramic rod. Remember to wipe your blade down after you’ve honed it.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

9 Mechanical Pencils for Your Everyday Carry

Somewhere in between the notes application on your phone and the box of Ticonderogas in the back-to-school section lies the mechanical pencil. If you carry a notebook, you’ll need a reliable, EDC-worthy writing utensil to go along with it. Pens are one option, but if you like the feeling of lead on paper and the freedom to erase without carrying Wite-Out, a mechanical pencil is your best option. Whether you plan on losing one every week, or you’re keeping it in a glass case on your solid oak desk, you have choices, but it’s easy to go wrong and wind up with something you’ll never use. These are our favorites.

Rotring 600

Best Overall: We can’t say enough about this pencil. Several of us in the office carry it everywhere. The complete metal construction gives the pencil weight and balance. Its hexagonal shape is comfortable and prevents it from rolling around on your desk. Everything about the 600 fits together smoothly and tightly. They actually have an 800 line that’s a little pricier, as well as the 800+ which has a built-in stylus — but we still prefer the 600’s simplicity.

Alvin Draft-Matic

Best Budget: If you like different colors and don’t mind different lead thicknesses, the Draft-Matic is great. The .3mm is a bright yellow and there’s also black, blue and maroon offerings at 0.5mm, 0.7mm and 0.9mm respectively. The rough metal grip is similar to the Rotring, though maybe a little sharper, and the body is made of a hard plastic. That being said, it’s a high-quality plastic that feels almost like smooth rubber to the touch and ages nicely.

Autopoint Twinpoint All-American

Most Versatile: Twist one end, black lead, twist the other, red. That’s what the Twinpoint does differently. We recommend the 9mm black/9mm red, but with almost every combination of lead colors and thicknesses available, you aren’t short on options with this pencil from Autopoint.

Lamy 2000

Most Elegant: The smooth body of this German-made pencil is its most remarkable feature. Unlike the Rotring, the Lamy is made from polycarbonate makrolon (read: high-end plastic) but it is brushed in such a way that it feels more like hardwood to the touch. As with other Lamy writing utensils, the pocket clip is spring loaded, which is a nice touch and a step above the traditional style.

3 Things to Consider

1. Material

Weight, balance and touch are the most important effects that a pencil’s material has on its use. Heavier pencils can reduce writing fatigue by allowing for a looser grip. They also tend to feel more balanced as you write, with a smoother motion, rather than the jerkiness that sometimes accompanies a lightweight utensil. Lastly, like the cold bottom of your MacBook, a metal pencil can be cool to the touch and will heat up more slowly than a rubber grip. On the other hand, metal pencils are more expensive and, frankly, heavier, which is not a feature everyone wants.

2. Advance

Real aficionados geek out over a pencil’s advance precision. For the layman, advance is how a pencil produces lead. A more precise advance means that lead comes out evenly and with a consistent click. Often, but not always, more expensive pencils have better precision. Different pencils also produce lead at different rates, meaning with each click, the pencil advances a specific length of lead. The Staedtler, for example, advances 0.7mm per click.

3. Lead

Lead width and hardness are really what we’re talking about here. Most mechanical pencils will take lead of any hardness, and many of the higher-end options have a rotating indicator so that you know which type of lead you have loaded. Width, however, is another matter. Each pencil has a specific lead width, and putting the wrong kind into the pencil can damage the advance mechanism or clog the barrel. When you’re buying a pencil, know that as the lead gets wider, the feel becomes softer and the line work becomes broader. For most people, this is a preference acquired quickly, but if you’re not sure, a 0.5mm or 0.7mm lead is a good place to start.

Staedtler 925 2.0mm

Best for Sketching: The Staedtler 925 series comes in a bunch of thicknesses, but the 2.0mm is definitely the most interesting. The thick-casing aluminum body adds weight and makes the pencil cold to the touch, but it’s the thick lead emerging from the pointed tip that really impresses. This thing could draw on a cave wall. Just make sure you get a lead pointer that fits the Staedtler tip, because not all do.

Pentel EnerGize

Best in Bulk: This is not a pencil that will stand out on your desk, nor is it one that your likely to want to show off to your buddies, but it writes damn well, especially for just over two bucks a pop. The silver edition with black accents actually looks pretty good for mass supplier Pentel, and the rubber grip is neither slippery nor limiting in terms of grip, which can’t be said for a lot of similar pencils. If you know you aren’t good at keeping track of things, but want a pencil that works better than the bright green one you had in middle school, a box of EnerGizes is probably the right choice.

Porsche Designs Tec Flex

The Modern Marvel: Okay, this one definitely will impress your buddies. Porsche Designs, founded by the grandson of the Porsche 911 designer, makes, among other high-end personal affects, luxury pencils. The Tec Flex in black is made of woven stainless steel that flexes with your grip and is about as bad-ass-looking as a pencil can be. Alternatively, you can get the silver with gold accents (that’s gold like the element, not just the color).

Faber-Castell Grip 2011

Best for Making Mistakes: The inventive grip system on the appropriately named Grip 2011 is made up of a series of small rubber bumps that stretch from one end of the pencil to the other, not limiting the user to holding the pencil by a more common solid rubber grip near the tip. Additionally, the pencil comes with an extendable eraser. While the lead clicks out of one end, the replaceable eraser advances out of the other with a twist.

Yard-O-Led Victorian Diplomat

Most Case-Worthy : Yard-O-Led sounds like it would be the Party City of mechanical pencils; it is anything but. The small company is based in Birmingham, England, and has been making sterling silver pens and pencils since 1934. Of the eight employees who hand craft all of the company’s products, three have worked with Yard-O-Led for over 40 years. The Victorian Diplomat is intricately decorated and, like all of their products, is individually numbered, so you’ll know you’re writing with one of a select number of hand-hammered beauties.

Can’t Afford an Eames Lounge Chair? Here are 5 Worthy Alternatives

The Eames Lounge Chair is the Holy Grail of indoor furniture. But buying one doesn’t necessarily mean you know anything about design or furniture — you might just have $5,000 to spare. For the budget-minded, design-conscious shopper, thankfully, there are options between Ikea-tier and reliable-used-car-tier pricing. Whether you’re shopping on a budget or want to avoid joining the Eames cult, here are five great lounge chair options worthy of your living room — no knock-offs, no replicas; just well-designed alternatives.

Odd Knutsen Luna Low Back Chair

Norwegian designer Odd Knutsen unveiled the Luna chair in 1970, 14 years after the Eames Lounge Chair made its debut. Like the Herman Miller classic, Luna’s seat resembles a baseball mitt, perfect for cradling your body. A crossbar frame suspends the seat, creating a weightless, floating sensation for the sitter.

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Inside Weather Edgar Lounge Chair

On the other end of the provenance spectrum, Inside Weather, a direct-to-consumer customizable furniture brand, partnered with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation on the Usonia collection, a line of furniture inspired by some of the architect’s most famous works. The Edgar chair, inspired by Wright’s Fallingwater, and the West ottoman, inspired by Taliesin West, pair perfectly for an enviable lounge setup. With no inventory, Inside Weather cuts production costs by making pieces to order, and the savings are reflected in the price you pay. Plus, you can put it together in around five minutes.

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Austin Swivel Armchair

This armchair from West Elm is a winner with its beautiful supple leather and elegant polished nickel base. The piece has 360-degree swivel motion like the Eames Lounge Chair, minus the wood frame. West Elm regularly holds sales, so keep your eyes peeled for discounts.

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San Rafael Safari Chair

San Rafael Workshop, a 20-person team based out of Mexico City, made its safari chair with a haya wood frame and caramel-colored leather. The chair and ottoman are designed with clean, straight lines and a slingback seat. Design-wise, the pair is a far cry from the Eames Lounge Chair, but we think you’ll appreciate the simplistic beauty of the San Rafael set, and it shows off how leather and wood can come together in completely different ways.

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Crate and Barrel Greer Leather Wood Arm Recliner

Forego the ottoman, and buy the Greer recliner from Crate and Barrel. The chair reimagines those old clunky recliners for something a more streamlined seating option made with an American-grown walnut frame and plush leather cushioning.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

You’re Not as Tall as You Think. These 8 Stepladders Will Help You Reach Greater Heights

If you can touch you’re ceiling, your home is either too small or you’re too tall — perhaps both. At 5-foot 9-inches, I’m about average height and there are still cabinets in my home that are beyond my reach, even when I’m on my tippy-toes. To reach the top shelf, I need help. A chair, perhaps? No. Worker’s Comp organizations make posters that say “Don’t you dare stand on a chair” on them. You can even read 162 falling-from-chair horror stories on the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Health & Safety accident catalog. Climbing on the counter is similarly daunting. The solution is a nice-looking stepladder, which you might (wrongly) believe to be an oxymoron. Usually relegated to the garage, the unsightly contraptions hide in darkness, gathering cobwebs and dust, until there’s a top-shelf conundrum. How about we skip the garage bit? These 8 stepladders will help you move up in the world and don’t look terrible doing it.

Ikea Vilto

It’s not a ladder, but Ikea’s Vilto will give you a 10-inch vertical boost at $2 an inch

Xtend & Climb SL2HLight Slimline 2 Step Ladder

Xtend & Climb’s home series of stepladders is made of industrial-grade aluminum that’s lightweight and sleek. The stepladder has a slim profile so it can be stowed away in tight places.

Frontgate Ultralight Slimline 2-Step Ladder

Frontgate ladders come in a variety of bold colors so they’re a standout piece as much as they are functional. The 7-pound ladder has nonslip steps and rubber feet for extra safety.

Sorfey Aluminum/Bamboo Folding 3 Step Ladder

A similar shape to the Frontgate, Sorfey’s stepladder is about the same price with an extra step. The black frame and wood-like platforms are a nice design touch.

Metaphys Lucano Stepstool 3-Step

The Metaphys Lucano Stepstool is a collaboration between Metaphys, an award-winning design lab, and the Hasegawa Kogyo Company, which has been making ladders and scaffolding in Japan for over 60 years. The stepladder is made of hand-assembled aluminum and steel with a satin powdercoat finish in a color of your choice.

Hasegawa Ladders Tuscania Step Ladder

The Tuscania is a piece of well-crafted furniture in and of itself. It’s made of 90 percent beechwood and 10 percent plastic, and reviewers say they’ve never felt safer on a ladder.

Kartell Upper Stepladder

Kartell’s Upper stepladder, designed by Alberto Meda and Paolo Rizzatto, is a combination of transparent polycarbonate and chromed steel. Although it’s foldable, you might want to keep it open and have it as a stand for plants and other small pieces of home decor.

Design House Stockholm Step

Truly a vanity piece, this $525 stepladder won accolades from Wallpaper and Sweden’s Elle Decoration. It’s made of solid oak and comes with a hook so you can hang it on the wall.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

7 Ways You’re Ruining Your Pour-Over Coffee

Pour-over coffee is more prone to human error than any other coffee brewing method. Whether you’re using a Kalita, Hario, Chemex or other brewer, there are myriad ways you could be compromising your cup of joe. Here, we outline seven to keep in mind. If you’re going to put in the effort to make a pour-over, make sure you aren’t self-sabotaging by making one of these mistakes.

Using water that’s too hot

We all love our hot coffee, but if you’re using water that’s too hot, then you’re burning your coffee grounds. We tend to associate burnt flavors with bad coffee, so save yourself the disservice of drinking crap coffee by using water heated between 195°F and 205°F, per the Specialty Coffee Association’s recommended pour-over protocols.

Grinding beans to the wrong size

Coffee grind size is not one size fits all. Pour-over coffee calls for a medium-coarse grind to ensure proper extraction. Grounds that are too fine will result in over-extracted, bitter coffee; grounds that are too coarse result in under-extracted, sour coffee. A medium-coarse grind will look like rough sand, and different beans might require some fine-tuning to get a coffee that achieves your desired taste.

Not rinsing your filter

You aren’t imagining that papery taste in your coffee. Chemexes, Hario V60s and other drippers that use paper filters can impart an unpleasant flavor if they aren’t rinsed first. You might not notice the papery flavor if you’re brewing a dark roast bean, but the unsavory flavor will be prominent in light roast brews. Before you pour water to bean, place your filter in the dripper, pour over hot water and dump out the water that falls through. Plus, removing the papery taste with hot water is sort of a two-bird-one-stone situation, because…

Brewing into a cold container

Brewing hot coffee into a cold container will result in lukewarm coffee once you’re ready to serve. Bringing your carafe (and mug, if you’re slightly crazy) up to temperature will make your coffee stay hotter for longer.

Forgetting to “bloom” your grounds

We’re all trying to get our cup of coffee as fast as possible, but you have to “bloom” your coffee grounds before going all in. Blooming requires pouring double the volume of water to coffee grounds to let the gases in the coffee release. Otherwise, if you just start drowning the beans, the carbon dioxide bubbles coming out of the coffee will prevent water from getting to the grounds to extract properly, which can throw off flavors dramatically.

Missing the bed of coffee while pouring

When you’re pouring water over the grounds, make sure you’re actually hitting the coffee bed. As the water level drops and coffee grounds stick to the sides of the filter, you may be tempted to aim your water kettle at those orphaned grounds on the edges of the filter. Don’t do that. Any water that hits the side of the filter — or brewer — may slide straight down the side of the brewer into the brewed coffee below, making for a severely watered down pot of joe.

Grinding beans too far in advance

Oxygen is coffee’s greatest enemy. Grind your beans right before you’re about to start brewing. It may be more convenient to grind your beans the night before, but in doing so you’re exposing the grinds to aggressive oxidation and off-gasing, which will — even in one evening — warp the flavor of the brewed coffee. Also, be sure to keep your whole beans in airtight containers — either the bag they came in, or capsules like these from Fellow.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

This Leather Camp Chair Is Way Too Nice to Use at Camp

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