Choosing the perfect kitchen knife

CHOOSING YOUR PERFECT KITCHEN KNIFE

Whether you’re a professional chef, a home cook, or somewhere in between, your knives are the most important tools in your kitchen. When selecting a knife or a set of knives, you can certainly go to any retail store and purchase an inexpensive set of knives made with plastic handles and low-grade steel. But, when you want something of higher quality, specialised design, exclusive materials, or you just want something a bit more well “you”, a custom handmade kitchen knife offers something unique.

Chef’s knives are made of the different materials, and you could spend an eternity arguing over which is the best. The truth is that each blade material has different positive and negative qualities to it, and you should definitely consider carefully before committing.

Stainless Steel

An old standard, stainless steel kitchen knives are about the most common that you can find. Stainless steel is a relatively affordable metal with rust resistant qualities that have made it a classic for chefs and home cooks of all levels.

Blades made from this metal are certainly worth considering, they are standard for a reason. With that in mind, stainless steel is a softer metal than some of the alternatives. These knives might need to be sharpened more often and can be more prone to bending and losing their edge.

The quality of stainless steel used in Japanese cutlery has improved dramatically over the past few years, there are now many high-performance stainless steels available with marked improvements in their microstructures and ease of sharpening. The carbide-forming elements used in these steels can often greatly improve edge retention and the high chromium contents make them highly corrosion resistant.

Carbon Steel

Quickly becoming more common and revered by home cooks, carbon steel knives are another great option for quality kitchen knives, and professional cooks swear by them. By combining steel with carbon, the blade that comes out will be much stronger and maintain a sharper edge for longer.

The extra strength afforded by the added carbon does come with a slight downside, however, which is that the blade will be less protected against rust than a stainless steel knife. This can be avoided with conscientious care and maintenance, but it certainly is not a knife you can afford to leave in the sink.

Carbon steel due to its minimal alloying has a fine microstructure when properly heat-treated and should be capable of the highest levels of sharpness whilst maintaining good edge retention. The main trade-off is that carbon steel will oxidize, with some being more prone to discolouration than others.

Damascus

Damascus is a way for the craftsman to exercise his creativity producing blades of astonishing beauty; it’s best not to get hung up on layer counts as it’s not necessarily a performance-enhancing feature.These knives maintain their sharpness incredibly well and are still somewhat flexible and rust resistant. There is little in the way of downside for true Damascus blades, with the exception being that they tend to be on the far more expensive side. 

These knives maintain their sharpness incredibly well and are still somewhat flexible and rust resistant. There is little in downside for true Damascus blades, being that they tend to be on the far more expensive side.

What Shape Should I Start With?

Use

When embarking on your custom knife journey, the first thing to consider is what knives you actually use on a day-to-day basis. If probably own a drawer of production knives, but you probably have one or two that see any action. Those well-used knives are the ones you’re going to want to replace with customs. I found that my two most used knives were a 10″-8″ chef knife and a 6″-7″ petty chef knife.

 Gyuto/Santoku

The most important knife to start any set is a multi-purpose knife as it will be the knife you use the majority of the time, ideally between 165mm and 210mm to begin with. You can use these shapes to cut a huge variety of different ingredients making them extremely versatile.

• Santoku’s (Meaning Three Virtues) knives are favoured by home cooks as the blade is more compact making them easier to wield.

• The 210mm /10″ Gyuto is the best starting point for the professional or serious cook, the longer blade is better suited to cutting larger vegetables and efficiently portioning meat and fish.

Both make great starter knives due to their versatility in the kitchen.

Once you have a multi-purpose blade, a petty or paring knife should be next on your list. Petty knives/paring knives are perfect for tackling smaller ingredients and are indispensable for off-board work.

Petty Chef Knife – Full Tang Handle

• Petty knives between 120mm and 210mm are great for slicing and dicing small ingredients, filleting small fish and light butchery tasks. These blades are extremely versatile and are often used by chefs during service as the compact size takes up minimal space on the board.

• Paring knives around 80/90mm are also used for cutting small ingredients, they are particularly useful for off-board work when cleaning and shaping vegetables.

Once you have a multi-purpose knife and a petty you can start to expand your collection based on the ingredients you cut most frequently, by building up a set like this you will tailor it to your own demands and ensure your tools are practical.

Double Bevel Or Single Bevel?

Double bevel knives are the most common bevel you’ll find on Western knives and are extremely versatile and easy to master. Single bevel cutlery is specialised for individual cutting tasks in Japanese cuisine making them highly efficient for their intended purpose, however, they require a lot more practice for you to tune into them and demand a higher level of sharpening skill to maintain properly.

In Conclusion

Wanting a better knife or a custom knife is nothing to be ashamed of and expresses your individuality and creative flare. It’s a cutting tool used daily to provide sustenance for ourselves, family, and friends. For the professional chef, a better knife means more precise and faster cuts, and who doesn’t like that? 

This is not to say that you have to break the bank when you want to buy knives, just that a high-quality knife is an investment, and it is definitely worth it. Bear in mind that you do not need to buy a complete set of quality knives at once.

If you cannot afford to purchase a complete set, the best practice would be to buy only the particular knives you will need to get started. The best to have on hand would be a chef’s knife and paring knife to give you a solid way to work with most foods. As time goes on, your collection will grow, with the knives you have already bought actually living to see that day.

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created 29/1/2025