Types of Kitchen Knives – [Top 16 Reviews by Type For 2021]

If you are trying to fill a brand new apartment kitchen with supplies then you will most likely want to have the best types of kitchen knives high up on your list of priorities. Why? Because having the right type of knife on hand at all times if really important.

Have you ever tried to slice a loaf of bread with a butter knife or tried to debone a chicken with a kitchen ax? Now don’t get me wrong, both knives will get the job done, but a lot more effort will be required on your part to do so, as well as extra time, and as you will know from trying to cut uniform slices in a loaf of bread with a blunt knife, you don’t get the high-quality results you are after. 

So, why not just simply use the right knife for the right job? That sounds like a better idea, doesn’t it? But that may be easier said than done. Why? There are so many different types of knives available to purchase that one can seem to get completely lost just looking at them all.

Many knives are also very similar and only have very minute differences – variations that only matter to professional chefs and those aspiring to be, so the last thing you will want to do is spend a load of money on a drawer full of knives that all basically do the same job.

Kitchen Knife Types

Are you looking for your next chef, paring, slicing, bread or santoku knife to add to your kitchen cutlery drawer? Then have a look at the following knife reviews that will help you to find the very best knife on the market. Choose one or grab a couple to complete your set.

Chef Knives 

Are you looking for the very best multi-purpose chef knife that will lead the way when chopping, slicing and mincing your favorite meat, fish, fruits, and vegetables? Then look no further as the following review will help you to find the perfect chef knife that will help you to perform a whole host of tasks in the kitchen at record speed.

Sagler Chef Knife

Overview

Here is a great chef knife coming to you by one of the best chef knife brands – Sagler.

Features

• The 8-inch blade is perfect for slicing, dicing and chopping fruits, vegetables, poultry, meat, and fish.
• The blade is made of high carbon stainless steel, making it highly rust and stain-resistant, helping to keep it in like-new condition for longer.
• It comes presented in a classy black gift box with a red interior, making it the perfect present for a family member or a friend.

KAN Core Chef Knife

Overview

You can always rely on KAN to produce some good knives and this 8 inch chef knife is no exception.

Features

• The blade is made of 66 stainless layers for adding to the strength and powerful performance of the blade.
• The dark ebony wood handle has been ergonomically designed to fit gracefully in the palm of your hand, giving you a firmer grip on the knife and helping you to keep in control of the blade.
• The Damascus steel pattern and the mirror polished finish make this a great knife to display on a knife board in the kitchen.

CHEFECO Chef Knife

Overview

In Germany kitchen knives are renowned for being razor sharp and efficient and this German stainless steel, 8 inch knife by CHEFECO is no exception.

Features

• This 8-inch chef knife makes for the perfect present for anyone who loves cooking up a storm in the kitchen. It comes beautifully presented in a black and grey damask style gift box with a polishing cloth to help keep the blade extra shiny.
• The blade is made from high-quality German steel which is rock solid and will help you to deliver precise and consistent slices everytime you chop.
• The jet black handle has been designed to grip firmly in your hand, making the knife safer to use and reducing wrist fatigue.
• The engraving on the blade is not just aesthetically pleasing but also helps to create tiny pockets of air on the blade to prevent food from sticking to it when you slice.

DALSTRONG Chef Knife

Overview

Have a look at this Dalstrong chef’s knife, you will love what it has to offer.

Features

• The laminated pakkawood handle has been ergonomically designed to fit like a glove in the palm of your hand, driving additional precision and stability to every slice.
• The blade is made of high carbon German steel, making it stronger than other blades and also less likely to need frequent honing.
• The knife comes with a PerfectFit Dalstrong sheath and it is recommended that you keep the knife in the sheath so that it can remain as sharp as possible for as long as possible.

Paring Knives Reviews

Never underlook the importance of a paring knife! Paring knives are perfect for peeling and dicing small fruits and vegetables. Not only that, but they also work wonders at coring fruits and searing meat.

Paring knives are really Jacks of all trades that you will not want to be without in the kitchen. Find the best paring knife below.

J.A. Henckels

If you want to know what the Henckels knives review is all about, take a look at the following JA Henckels knife review.

Overview

Here is a great 4-inch paring knife. JA Henckel’s international reviews always accredit this knife with praise because of its simplistic yet fantastic design.

Features

• The triple-rivet design is curved for extra comfort when chopping, giving you a sturdier grip and more power to deliver to each movement.
• It is made from high-quality German steel, making the blade tough and resistant against corrosion.
• The knife is dishwasher safe for your convenience.

Mercer Culinary M22003

Overview

This 3.5 inch paring knife by Mercer Culinary comes with some great safety features, check them out.

Features

• It comes with a texture fingerprint point on the handle that helps to stop your finger from slipping, preventing accidents.
• It also has a protective finger guard that further prevents accidents.
• This knife should be honed periodically and washed by hand and dried before storing it.

Wusthof 4066-7/09

Overview

Paring knives are some of the best knives out there as they can be used to complete so many actions and you can’t really go wrong when purchasing one.

Features

• The triple riveted handle helps to counterbalance the blade, keeping you in full control of each slice and dice.
• It has a bolster and fingerguard that will help to avoid accidents when chopping.
• Thanks to Precision Edge technology and the high carbon stainless steel, you have before you a blade that is 20% sharper.

Slicing Knives Reviews

Are you looking for a great quality slicing knife that will cut the perfect slices of meat, fish or even cheese? Finding a great slicing knife used to be a bit of a pain, but not anymore as the following is a list of 3 of the very best slicing knife options available for you. Choose your winner below!

Rada Cutlery Slicing Knife

Overview

Rada Cutlery makes some of the best quality knives and here is an example of their excellent pairing knife. Take a look.

Features

• The large, 7 inch blade is perfect for slicing a roast or preparing large fruits and vegetables.
• The knife comes with a hassle-free lifetime guarantee when you purchase, helping you to do so with real peace of mind.
• The stainless steel blade is perfect for maintaining precision and durability when cutting.

MAIRICO

Overview

If you love slicing up turkey, chicken, gammon and other meats then you will love this ultra sharp carving knife by MAIRICO.

Features

• The ultra-sharp blade has been designed to slide effortlessly between cuts of meat, resulting in uniform slices.
• The blade is a generous 11 inches long, giving you ample space to slice through even the longest cuts of gammon, turkey, and chicken.
• The stainless steel blade is resistant against corrosion and staining, helping this knife to stay in pristine condition for longer.

DALSTRONG Slicing Carving Knife

Overview

If you know your knives, I am sure you will be aware that DALSTRONG makes some great ones. Check out the following DALSTRONG knives review to see their amazing 12 inch carving knife.

Features

• The 12-inch blade on this carving knife is the ideal solution to cutting precise slices of the longest cuts of gammon, chicken, turkey meat and more.
• The flexible blade will also help you to debone, fillet, butterfly, and skin your favorite meats and fish.
• The luxury black pakkawood handle is triple riveted for extra steady balance and precision.

Bread Knives Reviews

There is nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread in the mornings. If your bread knife is looking a little worse for wear or if you are simply looking for a brand new bread knife for your utility drawer, then check out the following bread knives. You will definitely find a knife to suit you amongst the list.

Mercer Culinary M23210 Bread Knife

Overview

Check out this bread knife by Mercer Culinary, I am sure you will love some of the features it has to offer. 

Features

• The long 10-inch blade is really generous and will make it easier for you to cut the longest loaves with precision.
• The knife comes with textured finger points and a finger guard to help prevent accidents while in operation.
• The serrated blade is perfect for sliding through chunky artisanal bread without squashing it. 

MAD SHARK Bread Cutter

Overview

Here is another fantastic bread knife but this time it is being brought to you by the team at MAD SHARK.

Features

• The 8-inch blade provides you with just the right amount of blade for you to slice through medium and larger sized loaves without compromising the steadiness of the blade.
• The jet black triple-riveted handle has been ergonomically designed to fit comfortably in the palm of your hand, reducing wrist fatigue.
• The knife comes presented in a jet black MAD SHARK box, making it the perfect present for a friend or family member.

Shun Classic Bread Knife

Overview

Do you need a bread knife that is capable of cutting through harder breads such as sourdough, rye and chunky artisanal bread? Then you have found it.

Features

• The ultra-sharp 9-inch blade will cut through even the toughest of bread and thickest of crusts without crushing the loaf.
• This knife is super sharp, but is also nice and light, weighing in at only 5.6 ounces, meaning it is easy on the wrist if you will be using it for extended periods of time.
• The ebony pakkawood handle is waterproof, keeping the knife in the best condition possible for longer.

Santoku Knives 

A santoku knife is a great everyday knife. A santoku knife is perfect for mincing, slicing and chopping your favorite meat, fish, fruits, and veggies. Have a look at the santoku knives below and pick the one that meets your specifications.

MAD SHARK Pro Kitchen Knives

Overview

Are you looking for a high-end kitchen knife that will be perfect at performing everyday tasks? Then check out this santoku knife by MAD SHARK.

Features

• The Cullens on the knife blade help food to simply fall off of the blade when chopping, even with the juiciest fruits and vegetables.
• The handle has been triple riveted and ergonomically designed to balance perfectly in the palm of the hand, giving you a steady grip and adding precision to every movement.
• The blade is made of premium high carbon German steel, making it tougher than other metals.

Hollow Ground Santoku Knife

Overview

Here is another fantastic santoku knife, but this time by Hollow Ground.

Features

• The blade is made from German high carbon stainless steel, meaning it will not corrode or stain easily and it will be tougher than regular stainless steel blades, so this blade will not need as much honing and maintenance.
• The knife comes in a presentable JY WINA box, making it the perfect gift for those who simply love to spend time in the kitchen.

Wusthof WU4182

Overview

Are you searching the internet to find the best knife brand to purchase your next santoku knife with confidence? Then give Wusthof a shot!

Features

• This santoku knife comes with some excellent safety features – a finger guard and a bolster, to help prevent accidents in the kitchen.
• The blade of the knife has various Cullens, that stop food from sticking to the side of the blades.

What’s coming up…

In this article I have provided a complete essential knife guide, that will tell you the function and what foods a particular knife should be used with. The essential knife guide will go on to explain chef, paring, slicing, bread and santoku knives – all of the most important knives for you to have in your kitchen. But that’s not all, I will also explain what makes the very best knife and how to keep yours in tip-top condition. 

If you have already done some research on kitchen knives then you may have been bombarded with a load of jargon about the best blade materials to go for and which ones are inferior. In order to get a clearer idea of which materials are best, I will also go on to explain everything you need to know about high carbon steel and what the difference is between it and other blade materials.

Last but not least, I will review some of the very best chef, paring, slicing, bread and santoku knives on the market right now so that you can choose the best of the knives to complete your cutlery drawer. So, let’s get started!

Essential Knife Guide

There are so many different kinds of knives on the market and when you read up more about each one, they all profess to be ‘absolute must-haves’ making it tricky to know which ones you need and which ones you really don’t.

That is why I have created the following essential knife guide that will help you to determine which knives you will need in the kitchen and which ones you will not, based on the kinds of foods you cook and the frequency with which you cook them. Take a look at the following guide that will really help you out:

Chef’s knife

A great multipurpose knife that is perfect for chopping, slicing and mincing fruit, vegetables, meat, and fish. 

The blade is usually between 6 and 14 inches long and about 1 ½ inches wide. 

The knife usually has a bolster that acts as a fingerguard and also helps to counterbalance the blade.

Because of the chunky blade and heavier weight of the chef knife in comparison with other knives, it is not effective at peeling or deboning fish or meat nor at completing other intricate activities. The flat blade also makes it inefficient at slicing bread.

Paring knife

A small yet very useful knife that is great for peeling and chopping fruits and vegetables, deveining shrimp, coring tomatoes and deskinning sausage.

The blade on a paring knife is usually between 2 ½ and 4 inches long.

It is light and easy on the wrist and is a great go-to knife when the chef’s knife is too big as it is perfect at performing more intricate tasks.

Most paring knives also come with a bolster to help prevent accidents.

Because of their smaller size, paring knives are not ideal for cutting bigger and harder vegetables such as pumpkins, butternut squash or suede.

Slicing knife

A long and thin knife that is great for slicing fine cuts of meat and fish, preparing fruits or salads.

The blade on a slicing knife is usually between 8 to 14 inches long.

The round or pointed tip makes them a more flexible knife than a carving knife, giving you more freedom of movement.

Since this is a long knife with a thin blade, it is not ideal for small tasks that require precision such as peeling and coring. The flat blade also renders this knife unsuitable for slicing bread.

Bread knife

A long knife with a serrated blade that is perfect for cutting uniform slices of bread.

Bread knives vary in length but usually measure between 6 and 14 inches long.

The serrated blade helps to cut through the bread’s crust without crushing or compressing the soft interior.

A bread knife is a rather specific knife and therefore proves inefficient when performing other tasks.

Santoku knife

A santoku knife is similar to a chef’s knife in that it is perfect for chopping, slicing and mincing meat, fish, fruits, and vegetables.

The blade usually measures between 5 and 7.9 inches.

The blade on a santoku knife usually has dimples or cullens, helping food to fall away from the blade when slicing.

The blade is thin and allows for more refined slicing.

Santoku knives are large, so they are ineffective at peeling, coring, deboning and other intricate tasks.

What Makes the Best Knife?

Typing in ‘where to find the best knives’ or ‘what are the best cutlery brands’ into an internet search page will probably land you with an infinite amount of results, all professing to be the best thing since sliced bread (pun intended). That is why it is important you have a clear idea in your mind of what makes the best knife and what good quality knife brands are available to look out for. 

The best cutlery brands will produce high quality knives and knowing the key factors of a great knife will help you to find your way to the very best kitchen companion. 

Maybe you are kitting out a brand new apartment and are not too sure about what winning factors to look for in a knife, or perhaps you haven’t had much success with kitchen knives in the past and are on a quest to find something that will really work.

Whatever the case, before you splash the cash on a brand new knife, have a look at the following knife guide that will help you to identify the factors that make for the very best knife.

Choosing The Best Knife

The right size blade. 

Professional chefs use blades up to 12 inches long when cooking, but for your everyday cook that is just far too long. Longer blades are only ever useful when you know you will constantly be cutting really large pieces of food. Having a long blade on some knives such as a bread knife can also be counterproductive as the longer blades tend to wobble, creating skew-whiff cuts of food rather than uniform slices. An 8 inch blade is more than sufficient for the average home chef.

Stainless steel.

Now don’t get me wrong, ceramic blades are great as they are often sharper than stainless steel, but ceramic does tend to be more brittle, meaning the blade of your knife will bend and pit more easily.

Test the weight.

The weight of your knife is really down to personal preference. If you will only be using your knife for the occasional slice and dice here and there then a lighter knife will work fine for you. On the other hand,  if you will be using your knives for heavy duty slicing chicken and mincing meat then a heavier knife will be better to help you combat the strain.

Extra features

Extra features such as a bolster and a fingerguard are great for your safety. A bolster will help to counterbalance the blade of the knife and helps to keep the blade firmer so that you can deliver power to each slice. A fingerguard will help to prevent any accidents while using the knife.

High Carbon Steel, Whats the Difference?

In order to fill your kitchen drawers with some of the very best cooking knives, you will also need to know a little bit about the different materials the blades are made from and which ones to look out for. Perhaps you have been keeping your eyes peeled for a little while now for a good kitchen knives set, but keep getting caught up in all of the jargon and let’s face it, there is a lot of jargon when it comes to kitchen knife materials.

When searching for a new kitchen knife, many pages offer blade materials that you may have never heard of before, some coming from France, Germany, Japan, and other countries. You will quite often see knife blade materials followed by numbers and letters and not have the foggiest clue (like I didn’t), as to what that all means. 

Who knows why they had to make something so simple so complicated, but I have come to shed a little light on the matter as the following is a knife material guide that will help you to see what materials to look out for when you come to purchase your next kitchen knife.

Kitchen knife material guide

Carbon steel

Carbon steel is a great, sturdy material that makes for a razor-sharp knife. But although it is super strong, it is the lack of chromium in carbon steel that lets this material down. Because of the low levels of chromium in this metal, carbon steel knives tend to start to rust quickly, especially when they are frequently left to soak or stored while still damp.

If you decide to purchase a knife made out of this material, make sure you store it well and keep it dry. It is also advisable to purchase a carbon steel knife that has a rust combating coating.

Alloy steel

This is another famous steel that is often found in food preparation knives. It is made up of 56-64% carbon and is known for its toughness. The added chromium in this metal makes the blade even stronger.

So there’s a little information on a few blade materials that you may stumble across on your journey to finding the very best kitchen knife.

But here comes the million dollar question: what is high carbon stainless steel, and what is the difference between high carbon stainless steel, high carbon steel, and ordinary stainless steel? I have saved the best for last as the following mini knife material guide will explain the differences between the two materials and will help you to decide which one to go for.

Stainless steel

Stainless steel blades do not rust or stain easily. Stainless steel blades are at least 12% chromium and the chromium makes them more rust resistant than high carbon steel.

Stainless steel blades are generally softer than high carbon steel blades, making them easier to hone. 

Because stainless steel blades are softer, it also means they pit and become blunter faster than the blades on their counterparts.

High carbon steel

High carbon steel blades are made up of higher percentages of carbon. Carbon is the hardest element so blades that are made of a higher percentage of carbon will be tougher.

Since the blades are tougher they will not pit as easily and will remain sharper for longer. The only downside with high carbon steel is that when a high carbon stainless steel blade does become blunt it will take a lot more honing and effort to get it back up to like-new condition.

High carbon steel blades are sharper than stainless steel blades, allowing you to cut finer and more precise slices without wobbling, helping you to stay in control of the blade.

Another let down that comes with high carbon steel is its durability. Because of the lack of chromium in high carbon steel, the blades simply do not last as long as either stainless steel or high carbon stainless steel.

High carbon stainless steel

High carbon stainless steel knives are made up of both chromium and carbon – chromium helps to keep the knife rust free and the high levels of carbon make the blade tough and less likely to bend and become blunt like a stainless steel knife.

High carbon stainless steel knife blades are sharp, so you will probably only find that you need to sharpen them twice a year, whereas stainless steel blades will need to be sharpened on a more regular basis.

FAQ

Conclusion

So there you have it, a full review of some quality kitchen knives that will be a great addition to your kitchen cookware. This review included some of the best types of kitchen knives brand out there so that you can choose your next knife from top quality knife manufacturers, allowing you to purchase with confidence.