Maybe you’re new to cooking, or perhaps you want to step up your game — either way, knives are at the center of it.
What should you buy? How much should you spend? How many do you need?
Patience, young grasshopper. I’ll try my best to answer all your questions, and more.
First of all, please, PLEASE, do NOT buy a set. While they’re tempting because you get 12 knives for a low price, they’re generally a waste. Not necessarily because they’re lower quality (though they may be), but because in reality, you only need 2-3 knives to do most of the job.
Yes, that’s right — only 2 knives! My advice: instead of spending $200-300 on a kit, spend that money on a chef’s/gyuto knife and a paring knife. That’s all you really need day to day.
A gyuto is a Japanese chef’s knife with a much thinner blade profile. The Western chef’s knife is more robust, and you could even use it to cut through bones. I would never dare do that with a gyuto — the blade would likely chip or break.
The profile of the knife is also different. Western knives are better suited for those who prefer to slice, while a gyuto is more suited to rocking and chopping motions. That doesn’t mean you can’t use either technique with either knife — those motions are just more natural to each design.
Paring knife: you don’t want to spend a lot of money on this — maybe $20 or so. A paring knife is useful for peeling or more precise cutting. These typically have a blade about 3 inches long.
Chef’s/gyuto knife: you can get something decent for around $45. A good example is this Victorinox knife for $47. Is this the most beautiful knife ever? Hell no. But it has a very decent blade — sharp out of the box and easy to sharpen — outstanding value for what you pay. It’s a stainless steel blade (X50CrMoV15, the same formula most commonly used in German knives), so it’s low maintenance. I recommend buying a 7- or 8-inch blade. If you’re planning to do large batches of food prep — cutting 15 pounds of celery every day, for example — a 10-inch blade definitely makes sense.
Extra knife
Beyond those two knives, adding a bread knife is a great addition. With its serrated edge, it can cut through bread cleanly without tearing it apart.
Knife Price
This is a fairly complex topic, and I don’t want to dig too deep, but here are a few pointers.
1. Handle
A knife is basically a piece of steel with a handle. Steel type and design are the main drivers of price, but the handle can push the price tag up significantly.
Most knives you’ll see have black plastic handles, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s low maintenance and, from a manufacturing standpoint, much cheaper to produce. When you upgrade to a wood handle, there’s a lot more craftsmanship involved, and the type of wood can drive the price up further. Personally, I much prefer a wood handle — not only can it be carved in different shapes, but the grip just feels better. Again, that’s personal preference.
You can also spend even more and get a handle carved from mammoth ivory or some other exotic material.
Ultimately, you cut with the blade, not the handle. So it’s mostly about grip feel, looks, and bragging rights.
2. Steel composition
Most knives today are made from either stainless or carbon steel. Without going into too much detail: if you tend to leave your knife in the sink or sitting dirty on the countertop, don’t even think twice — buy stainless.
- Carbon: holds a sharper edge for longer, but if not cared for meticulously, it will rust or stain, and it’s more brittle.
- Stainless: easier to maintain and not prone to rust or staining, but loses its edge more rapidly.
While there are two broad categories, each contains multiple steel “formulas” with different metal blends that affect how the blade performs. Hardness, edge retention, and resistance will all vary depending on the composition. This website lists a range of steel compositions — you can look up your blade type (for instance, VG-10 is a very popular stainless steel) and see its attributes. There’s no universally “good” or “bad” steel; each has its own pros and cons.
There are also Damascus blades, and while they look distinctive, the name doesn’t refer to the blade’s composition but to how it’s made. They usually consist of a carbon core plus several layers of laminated steel (usually stainless). This produces a beautiful blade, but be careful — there are cheap imitations that are simply acid-etched to look the part.
Blade hardness
The hardness of a blade is rated on the Rockwell scale. The harder a blade is, the finer an edge it can hold, and the sharper it can get. On the downside, it also takes more effort to sharpen and is more brittle. Most German knives (Zwilling and Wüsthof, to name two) sit around 56-58 HRC, which is the sweet spot for balancing edge retention and sharpness against ease of maintenance.
Cutting board
If you’re going to invest money in a good knife, please also invest in a wood cutting board. Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Wood: gentle on the blade’s edge, but requires more maintenance (it needs to be oiled). If you go this route, I’d recommend not using it to cut meat — use a plastic board for that instead, since wood grooves can harbor bacteria and are harder to sanitize. There are many types of wood used for boards, each with its own pros and cons, so it’s worth a few minutes of research before buying.
- Plastic: cheap and convenient. Cutting on a plastic surface creates tiny grooves in the board over time, and bacteria can grow in them.
- Glass: really? This is the worst possible option — it will destroy your knife’s edge.
Sharpening
I won’t attempt to teach you how to sharpen a knife here, but I do want to cover the basics. I wouldn’t recommend buying any of the sharpening gadgets sold out there — they can groove your blade, and personally, I don’t think they make much of a difference.
You can take your knives to a shop to get sharpened once or twice a year for a few dollars each (a pro sharpener might charge $50+ per knife). They usually do a good job — though in my case, a shop ended up ruining two of my knives, which is what pushed me to start sharpening them myself.
To sharpen your own blade, you’ll need a whetstone (or a set of them). In short, you use the stone like sandpaper for your blade. Just like sandpaper, whetstones come in different grits — the lower the number, the more abrasive, while higher grits are used for polishing. As a starting point, this video does a great job explaining the basics.
Conclusion
Buy the right knife for your needs. Set a budget, go to a store, and actually handle the knife. Some stores will even let you try one out on a few carrots so you get a real feel for it. An expensive knife will not make you a better cook.