How to buy a kitchen knife

There are many things to think about when choosing a kitchen knife. Here are a few of the most commonly questions.

Question 1 - What type of kitchen knife should I buy first?

If you're starting from scratch and want to build a shiny new set of knives we recommend starting with some basics. First off the block should be a chefs knife between 18cm to 21cm OR a santoku knife. Both will do a variety of tasks very well but each has its strengths and weaknesses. If the budget allows buy both!

Secondly a small utility knife is great for those little things such as cutting an apple or segmenting an orange. Don't fall into the trap of buying an inferior quality utility knife. A utility knife should be just as sharp and hold an excellent edge the same as your chefs knife.

Thirdly look for a good bread knife / serrated knife. This will save your other kitchen knives from serious damage from those crusty bread loaves and make life a lot easier on Sunday mornings.

After these kitchen cutlery basics the sky is the limit. There are many task specific knives that perform their duty far superior manner to the standard knives above. If you are keen on sashimi - buy a yanagiba. If would like to learn a new way to fillet fish - try a deba.

See below for a quick reference list to help make you're choice a lot easier: 

 

Kitchen knife type	Knife task
Paring knife	A short blade used for peeling, garnishes and detailed work
Petty / Utility knife	Slightly longer than a paring knife used for small tasks such as cutting fruit and slicing tomatoes
Santoku knife	A short knife (about 18cm) with a broad blade used for slicing, dicing and mincing
Chef knife	A general purpose cooks knife that any chef would never be without
Gyuto	A "cow sword" used for slicing meat but can be used in a similar way to a chefs knife
Boning knife	A special knife used for removing meat from bone
Slicer	A specialised knife used for carving meats
Yanagiba	A sashimi knife is used for slicing raw fish and used in the sushi bar and Japanese home kitchen for a variety of tasks
Deba	A single bevel knife with a thick blade used for filleting fish
Nakiri	A double bevel knife used for general vegetable prep and garnishes
Usuba	A single bevel knife used for general vegetable prep and garnishes
Bread knife	Serrated knife for slicing bread.
Vegetable knife	Sometimes the name given to a Nakiri

 

 

Question 2 - How do I choose between knife brands?

Brands differ in their design, aesthetics and qualities of steel. Click here to view our Chef's Armoury brand comparison chart.

 

Question 3 - I want to buy a knife set, what do you recommend?

There are many cheap knife sets that you can buy for less than $300, but what you will receive is a bunch of knives of poor fit and finish, poor balance, durability and undoubtedly made of cheap steel that will never be very sharp and become blunt very quickly. If you buy the cheap sets you can buy and throw them out every couple of years or you can invest in a few good quality blades that will last over 10 years. Most chefs only use 3 knives to do 90% of cutting tasks, so investing in a few good quality kitchen knives is our recommendation.

Even if you spend your whole budget on one or two good knives you will have far more satisfaction than having a whole set of disappointing knives.

Mix and match, different knifemakers make some styles of knives better than others. Just like your shoes are rarely the same brand as your trousers, it's not so important that your Yanagiba is the same brand as your Gyuto.

 

Question 4 - German or Japanese knives - what's the best option?

As you may have guessed Chef's Armoury is quite dedicated to Japanese knives. There is still definately a place in the knife drawer for a high quality German knife. Click here to read more about Japanese knives V German knives.

 

Question 5 - Damascus or plain blade?

Modern damascus steel is a fusion of many layers generally with a hard core for the cutting edge. The quality of the edge is dependent on the type of steel used in the core. In many case it is either VG10 or powdered steel which is about as good as it gets. The many layers of softer steel around the core is said to offer flexible strength to the core material that a blade of pure hagane (hard steel) does not have. Basically the damascus layers don't offer an advantage of sharpness or edge retention of a knife made from the same core but they do make it more resistant to snapping under sideways pressure.

 

Question 6 - Carbon or stain resistant steel?

Carbon steel is prone to rust or tarnish so if you are lazy or not into looking after your knives buy one made from stain resistant steel.

However high quality carbon steel will reward enthusiasts with a superior edge that will last the distance. Luckily there have been many advances in stain resistant steel in the last decade so the performance gap between carbon and stain resistant steel is narrowing over time.