Knives

Without any doubts the problem of choosing the best kitchen knife bothers a lot of people. At least judging from the input I get regarding the kitchen knives. Which brand is the best, and what is the best kitchen knife, and so on. Sorry to disappoint you, but there is no best kitchen knife ever made. Just like field knives :) There is no one do it all knife that will accomplish all cutting equally well. No magic steel, no magic design, no other miracles can achieve that goal. So, one has to live with it. On the other hand it ain't that bad, you have a reason and motive to get more than one knife. Isn't that wonderful? With only one knife life would be so boring. Anyhow, jokes aside, one knife won't cut, literally. You can get things done using single knife, but most likely that one won't last too long, will cost you time, nerves and may be few unintended cuts too.

What Brand?

 - One of the most popular questions, who makes the best kitchen knives. And the answer is I have no idea who is the best. For high end cutlery - Global, Wusthoff, Henckel, Sabatier, those are well known brands and produce quality knives. Which design will you like more and which one will fit your purposes and yourself better, depends on you, your skills, habits and preferences. My personal preference list in the order I have listed above. I liked Globals the best, then Wusthoff. But I might be wrong. In my experience Wusthoffs are better edge holders compared to Henckels, however friend of mine dislikes them exactly for bad edge holding and likes Henckels better. Go figure. For those two makers(Wusthoff and Henckel) the steel apparently is the same, and I doubt heat treatment will be much different either. Hence the difference in performance will be hardly noticeable for similar pieces. Unfortunately last batch of Global knives I've picked up in April 2008 had quite dull edges on them. This was both, unexpected and frustrating. Not because I mind sharpening, but because I expected better from that brand.
    What will be more important is handle ergonomics and blade geometry. The brands listed above are on the expensive side. I have not used mid-range or low end kitchen knives so I have no input here. It is possible to find some unknown brand costing less but performing better. If you are willing to take a chance. As long as you like the knife and are willing to take proper care of it the difference in performance won't be that dramatic.
    I've changed my mind about hi-end or may be it's rather ultra-hi-end kitchen knives. I've picked up several quite expensive kitchen knives from Tojiro, Hattori, Ikeda, Artisugu and played for short time with Mac Cutlery Yanagi. The thing is those knives are very hard, they go all the way up to 65-66HRC on Rockwell hardness scale. Compared to 52-55HRC on western kitchen knives and 56-58 HRC on Globals it's very significant. For a given steel 1HRC increase translates into approximately 20% wear resistance. So, now you do the math. Another benefit is that very hard steel can be sharpened (with more difficulties of course) to more acute angle increasing cuttng performance dramatically. However there's a catch too, steel at that hardness and edge so thin is much more prune to damage than 50° edge on other kitchen knives. In short they need a lot more care, but it's well worth it IMHO.
    There are other, more or less popular brands out there. Some more expensive that those I have listed, some less. Do your research, and try to find a knife that will work the best for you, not the one that is the most expensive or popular.

Stainless or Carbon steel?

 - To begin with, this is not a correct question, details below. Though the answer is easy, at least for most of the people out there - Stainless. Kitchen is real tough environment for any knife, stainless or not. Various types of food are acidic, knife is often wet, oily, temperatures are high. In short not too many friendlies for your knife in there. Stainless steel will resist elements better. Also, most of the folks don't bother to wash their knives right away after using it, one more reason to get the stainless blade.
    Like I said, the question above is incorrect. All steels are carbon steels. In other words they contain carbon, otherwise pure iron(Fe) is way too soft to be used in knife. Carbon, and some other elements plus heat treatment give steel its properties. It is the percentage of Chromium that defines whether the steel is stainless or not. For the record, the steel alloy must contain 14% or more of Chromium to be considered truly stainless. High amount of Chromium in simple alloys increases stain resistance, but adversely affects toughness and in the end edge holding. By the way no steel is truly stain-less. Any steel knife will rust if care is not taken.
    Another term becoming incorrect is high-carbon. Earlier that was the common term to refer to non stainless steel with Carbon content around 1%. Nowadays modern metallurgy has no problems producing stainless steels with Carbon content way above 1%. So, in general High-Carbon refers to quality steel, but not necessarily stainless anymore. Though often you'll hear the term High-Carbon Stainless.
    Overall, for most of the non exotic alloys, stainless steels are lesser performers compared to carbon counterparts, given similar composition. But if you have quality stainless steel, properly heat treated it is more than enough for the kitchen. Yes, high quality carbon steel will outperform it, but the applications are different, and in the kitchen you need stainlessness more than extra toughness or wear resistance. Mainly because thin edge will get dull because of rust at microscopic level. And carbon steel edge especially high performance edge (something like 10°-12° per side) will get damaged a lot faster. However, if you clean your knife promptly and maintain it properly then tht carbon steel will outperform GLobals and Henckel may to one. Although, that is not said to discourage folks from non stainless steels. If you take care of your knife then why not, go for it. It'll last you longer and perform better. Again, this is not a general rule, depends on the steel composition and heat treatment.
    Then ther's the realm of modern exotic alloys. Powdered steels, CPMs and such. Basically it allows very high carbon content along with high content of other elements. Under normal conditions those elements won't blend in those proprotions. Alloys like CowryX, SG2 are stainless and can be hardened to 64-67HRC andbe still usabel in the kitchen with edge thickness around 8°-15° per side. Not all powder steels are stainless, and there's differences in steel behavior based on composition, but more on that later when I update this section.
    Interestingly lots of folks who were asking about carbon steels read Thomas Harris' book - Hannibal. Sequel to famous Silence Of The Lambs and Red Dragon. That happened right after the movie Hanibal was released. Apparently it raised interest to the book, thus the surge of interest in carbon vs. stainless steel kitchen knives :)
    So, simply put because doctor Lecter said carbon knives were better(episode where Lecter goes to gun show and buys kitchen knives, there's rather lengthy dialogue with the knife seller about carbon knives, and how they don't leave the metallic taste) bunch of folks got interested, since Dr. Lecter was such a gourmet he'd know better :) Frankly, I do not know. Even though I am real picky about my food and tastes, apparently it takes Dr. Lecter's superhuman taste sensors to detect the difference in aftertaste left by stainless and non stainless knives in the food. And I suspect that must be raw food too ;) Though who knows, aftertaste might be getting stronger with boiling. I can believe there is a difference for some sensitive folks between salad leaves cut with ceramic and steel knives, but no idea about stainless steels affecting the taste worse than carbon steels. Because of my knife hobby I've used over a dozen steel and non steel alloys in my kitchen, 440C, 440A, VG-10, ATS-34/154-CM, BG-42, D2, CPM S90V, M2, 52100, INFI, 1094, Talonite, Ceramics and I can never tell the difference anyway. Even between the stainless steel and Talonite that has no iron in it, but mostly Cobalt... May be you will :) If you can sense that metallic taste, then your best bet is ceramics I guess.

What about alternatives to steel?

 - There are some alternatives to steel in kitchen cutlery. Certain alloys out there, real stainless stuff, such as Titanium alloys, Talonite. Those are not steels, but are used in cutlery. Though their edge holding abilities are not close to that of quality steel, and they are real expensive too. I've been using custom Talonite knife in my kitchen for a while, but then gave up. I didn't really care for its stainlessness, and it was rather soft for serious cutting, while being too thick for delicate cutting, although held the edge well on soft materials. As far as I know Boker has produced titanium kitchen knife. I haven't had it, but generally Ti is to soft to make a quality knife. yes, there are Ti knives out there, but those are very specialized knives, used in environments requiring non magnetic tools, or highly corrosive. I suspect your kitchen isn't quite that demanding, and the compromise in cutting performance and edge holding is pointless then.
    Ceramics is another alternative. Non metallic, holds edge very long time. If used carefully it is almost an ideal knife for food preparation, as most of the food is soft stuff, where knife wear resistance matters the most. However for now ceramics are too brittle for many kitchen cutting jobs. No prying, no chopping, no dropping either, or you may have to say bye-bye to your precious, literally :) Ceramic knives cost quite a bit, comparable or higher than high-end steel knives. However, no metallic taste if you care :)

Best Kitchen Knife?

 - As far as I understood from numerous email conversations regarding this subject, the best kitchen knife is the one that won't dull for a long time, cut like crazy(definition of crazy that varies from person to person), won't rust, won't require maintenance, cut everything(?), won't break etc... Mainly people want to find a knife that won't dull for long time, preferably forever. Well, I am looking for that kind of knife myself. For the collection ;) Haven't found it yet. Once I find I'll post the link on my website, before that, we all have to sharpen and maintain our knives, no other way. Well, alternatively you can continue using a dull knife, or throw that one away and buy the new, sharp one.
    Like I said above, there's no one knife to rule them all. Make sure you understand what is that you want to use your knife for, and then based on that choose the one that suits you and your budget the best. I know this sounds rather vague, but it's not exactly possible to give a recommendation not knowing what is the knife going to be used for. if you use the same knife to cut vegetables and chop chicken bones then I can't recommend anythign but thicker edged Chef's knife. If you take care of your knives then choices are huge. If you need vegetable knife, then I think Fallkniven Santoku is a very good choice, but requires some care. Alternatively you might prefer Henckel's Granton Edge Santoku, has it's pros. Althogh you can ditch santoku alltogether and use Chef's knife as your main blade. Plus small paring knife and a bread knife will do for starters. In the end, pick a brand or two you trust and then narrow down your selection based on intended use, price and personal preferences. If someone has already reviewed your knife of choice read it, but bear in mind it was still someone else, not you. Whatever he/she liked or disliked might not work or vice versa for you :)
    By the way it matters a lot how much do you maintain your knife. With simple steeling which takes less than a minute after every or every other use I can keep my knife real sharp few times longer than the same or more expensive knife without steeling. So, in the end it may worth it to buy 20$ knife and steel it, vs. buying 100$ knife and not dong it. Chances are very good that 20$ maintained blade will outcut 100$ neglected one, and initial performance difference less likely to be one to five anyways. Except if you sharpen them yourself and know how to do that properly then the difference will be 10 to 1 or 20 to 1, trust me on that one ;)

Last updated - 06/29/08