Whenever I was allowed to sleep in on the Saturday mornings of my youth, I'd listen for the peddler with the sharpening stone.

"Knives and scissors," he'd sing-song his way through the alley behind our Logan rowhouse. "Bring out your knives and scissors."

Unfortunately, my mother was deaf to his calls. She welcomed the Fuller Brush man. In her mind, cheap knives were good enough. And to my knowledge, she never had hers sharpened.

Thus, I came to cooking inadequately armed, an easy mark for specialty gadgets I hoped would make up for my kitchen ignorance.

In Mastering Knife Skills ($35, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, May 2008), Norman Weinstein of New York's Institute of Culinary Education traces knife lore from the Stone Age (fascinating) and wisely quotes the irascible Anthony Bourdain:

"I wish I could go through the kitchens of amateur cooks everywhere just throwing knives out from their drawers," Bourdain wrote in his 2000 memoir, Kitchen Confidential. "All those medium-size utility knives, those useless serrated things . . . those ineptly designed slicers - not one of the damn things could cut a tomato."

Weinstein's book also comes with a nifty DVD, but there's nothing like hands-on learning. So I signed on for a two-hour, $39 Knife Skills class at Foster's Homeware. Similar classes are offered at the Marketplace at East Falls, Sur La Table, Williams-Sonoma, La Cucina in the Reading Terminal Market, and a long list of area cooking schools such as Charlotte Albertson's. You want a hands-on class, not a demonstration.

At Foster's, I don an apron along with seven like-minded amateurs. We assemble at an island where places are set with a cutting board, a forged stainless steel chef's knife, and a hand towel for each of us.

Among my classmates is Jeri Behrman, 33, an attorney who admits to cooking precious little at home.

"If I make brownies, that's a big deal," she says. Still, she says, everybody needs to know proper knife skills and this is her moment.

Another lawyer, Leanne Litwin, 49, from Society Hill, confesses her love of cooking.

"I've always had it in my head that in my next career I'd be a pastry chef," she says, adding that she hopes that opportunity arises sooner rather than later.

Instructor Betty Kaplan notes that professional training centers such as the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College might devote weeks or months to knife skills. Still, we can and will learn much in these two hours.

She starts with equipment and its care.

Compared with hair care (the highlights and styling gels; all those touchups; the frequent, pricey cuts), proper knife care is simple and pretty much indisputable:

First, buy the best 8-to-10-inch forged (not stamped) stainless steel chef's knife you can afford. Expect to spend $80 to $120. Shop in a store, not online, so you can feel the knife's heft. Do not buy knives in a set.

Buy a steel because you must hone your knife every time you use it (see the glossary below). Take your knife to a professional for sharpening once or twice a year.

Cut on a clean, stable cutting board. A large wooden board is best; rinse it after every use and keep it supple with mineral oil.

Rinse your knife after each use in warm water and dry it immediately. Store it flat in a proper sleeve, or in a freestanding wooden block that is not accessible to children.

"The knife becomes an extension of the cook," Kaplan says. "A cook and her knife become as one."

Follow the instructions above and you and your beloved knife will be as one for a good 20 years.

As she imparts this wisdom, we're working with celery, carrots, garlic, potatoes, onions, parsley, and green chard. We cut with our fingers closed, bunched, and palms-on-top style. We hold our knives perpendicular, parallel, and at an angle.

We learn all the classic French cuts: julienne, batonnet, brunoise and chiffonade. We chop, mince, dice, slice, and shred. We make rings, strips, quarters, and chunks.

We create a French mirepoix of chopped onion, carrot and celery; and a gremolata of garlic, parsley, and lemon zest.

All this and barely a drop of blood spilled, save for the moment Kaplan herself stands too near one of her armed novices.

Frankly, I hesitated to take this class, in part because I feared I'd be talked into buying something.

(Remember my mother's fondness for the Fuller Brush man? I'm a sucker at department-store cosmetics counters. Those "free" makeovers leave a dent in my credit score.)

But Kaplan's approach is honest, her suggestions inexpensive. Along with one good knife and a stable cutting board, Kaplan's list of kitchen cutlery essentials includes three affordable tools for use with citrus fruits: a microplaner to create thin strips of peel leaving the bitter pith behind; a peeler for creating wider strips of zest; and a reamer for juicing. (See sidebar.)

She's not a fan of food processors because they give watery results. "Besides, using a fine tool is infinitely more satisfying than pushing a button."

Kaplan says her mother thought that the smaller the item you were cutting, the smaller the knife you'd need.

Mother was wrong. Instead, heed these Kaplanisms:

A dull blade leads to more accidents than a sharp one.

Like wearing lovely but inappropriate shoes, holding and using even the best knife incorrectly will leave you exhausted and blistered.

She tells us to sprinkle kosher salt on garlic just before chopping because that pulls out the moisture and acts as an abrasive. We nod our heads gravely as if taking solemn vows.

From this day forward, I will not be limited to cutting carrots in coin shapes like the ones I remember from Horn & Hardart.

Now I too can cut oblongs.

Knife Know-How

Honing and sharpening: Think of honing and sharpening as the oil change and tuneup for your knives. Honing perfects the knife blade using a steel, which is a long, grooved rod with a handle. Sharpening further perfects the bevel of a knife blade using a stone. Best done professionally.

Chef’s knife: This is the most basic cutting tool. Look for a forged (not stamped) blade that is 8 or 10 inches long. The forged knife is more expensive, but stronger and made to last. It slices, strips, dices, and minces.

Paring knife: If you want to buy a second knife, make it a paring knife that is 3 to 4 inches long, for use in paring vegetables and fruit.

Serrated or scalloped-edge knife: This is basically a bread knife, and best used only for cutting bread.

Granton-edge knives were developed in 1928 as a knife with grooves on each side of the blade to help in cutting roast beef. Often seen now on Santoku knives, which are lightweight with thin blades. Touted as all-purpose.

Ceramic knives: These knives are hard as diamonds and almost as expensive; they don’t have to be sharpened, but if you break the tip (which can happen easily in use) you can only replace the knife, not fix it.

Of course, there are a host of other specialty knives, of all shapes and sizes, designed for all kinds of uses, but these are not essential for beginners.

Classic French Cuts

These are the chopping and cutting techniques used in classic French cooking.

Batonnet: This is used with harder vegetables, such as potatoes. The cut is traditionally 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch by 3 or 4 inches. Start by cutting the vegetable into 1/4-inch planks and then cut the planks into 1/4-inch strips. Use for french fries.

Brunoise: This is the smallest cut. Cut a 1/4-inch plank to 1/8-inch slices, as for julienne. Then cut the planks into 1/8-inch cubes. Used in garnish or as a final addition to soups.

Chiffonade: This is used when working with leaves such as basil, Swiss chard, cabbage, or spinach. Put a short stack of leaves in a pile, roll, and then slice finely into long strips. Use as garnish or saute.

Julienne: This is related to brunoise. Cut a vegetable into 1/4-inch planks, then into 1/8-inch strips that are 2 to 3 inches long. These fine shards are used in salads and garnish.

Aromatics. The aromatic chopped vegetable and herb combinations used in cooking to enhance flavors.

Gremolata: A paste of finely chopped parsley, garlic, and lemon or orange zest. To be added to a dish, usually a sauce, immediately after you finish cooking and just before serving.

Mirepoix: A mixture of diced carrots, onions, celery, and herbs, sauted in butter and used in sauces, soups, and stews, or as a bed on which to braise meats or fish.

Reach staff writer Dianna Marder at 215-854-4211 or dmarder@phillynews.com. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/diannamarder.