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If our main pick sells out, the is an excellent choice. Thanks to Tojiro’s extremely sharp edge, super-hard steel, quality construction, and affordable price, this model is one of the best values in Japanese-made knives. The flat belly curve makes this chef’s knife ideal if you use a push-pull cutting motion, and it’s excellent for fine cuts and paper-thin slices of vegetables and meat. The Tojiro DP F-808 is thinner and more brittle than our top pick, so its edge is more vulnerable to microscopic chips when you use it on dense vegetables like butternut squash.
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Although we think the Tojiro DP F-808 is a great knife, it needs a little more TLC than the Mac MTH-80. If you’re simply looking for something cheap, durable, and crazy sharp, we like the 8-inch. In precision, sharpness, and price, it’s the best-performing budget knife we tested. Just like our top pick and runner-up, the Pro 4862-7/20 has a stamped blade, but the slicing action isn’t as smooth. Its cushy handle is comfortable for both larger and smaller hands, but its bulkiness and position make getting a proper on the blade difficult. Even so, we think this affordable chef’s knife is your best bet if you’re on a budget.
Whether you cook seven nights a week or hardly at all, every kitchen should have a chef’s knife. Of all the pieces in a cutlery set, the chef’s knife is the most versatile and gets the most use.
Most people already have knives in their kitchen. But if you have an old knife set or a hodge-podge of hand-me-downs that aren’t cutting it anymore, it’s probably time for an upgrade. Likewise, if your once-nice knife has been used and abused and never sharpened, or sharpened improperly, it’s time for a new one. Dull kitchen knives aren’t only a bummer to use, they’re also more dangerous than a razor-sharp edge. A sharp knife is more precise, and you run less of a chance of the blade slipping off your food and into your finger. Of all the pieces in a cutlery set, the chef’s knife is the most versatile and gets the most use. Maybe you’re on a budget and outfitting your first kitchen.
Since an 8-inch chef’s knife can tackle 90 percent of cutting jobs, you can sidestep the sticker shock of an entire knife set by getting one good chef’s knife to use until you generate more funds to build out your cutlery collection. If you’ve only ever used a German-style stainless steel knife, you may want a model—like our main and runner-up picks—made in Japan from high-carbon steel that will stay sharp longer. Most chef’s knives you’ll find come in two styles: German and Western-style, double-edged Japanese (also called gyuto). What works for you comes down to a combination of personal preference, cutting style, and comfort. In 2017, we tested a total of 15 knives. Photo: Michael Hession In our four years of covering chef’s knives, we’ve racked up 120 hours researching and comparing 90 knives. For this update we looked at new releases since 2014, more knives from the producers of our top pick and runner-up pick, and the 8-inch chef’s knife from one of our.
Determining the “ideal” knife for any one person is both objective and subjective. We immediately ruled out any small-batch blade crafters, since forging a knife by hand is time consuming, costly, and usually a custom-order affair. You also won’t see santoku knives in this guide; santokus have shorter blades, generally 6 or 7 inches, that limit their ability to cut through large vegetables with one cut. And since a chef’s knife is an essential piece of kitchen equipment, we wanted to keep our picks accessible for most budgets, so knives with price tags above $200 didn’t make the cut. Determining the “ideal” knife for any one person is both objective and subjective. A chef’s knife is the main workhorse in your kitchen-cutlery arsenal, tackling 80 to 90 percent of cutting tasks. It’s an extension of your hand that can slice and dice most vegetables, chop a mound of herbs, and handle simple meat cuts like cubing beef or slicing chicken into strips.
So factors such as sharpness, edge retention, durability, versatility, and easy maintenance are key to the performance of any good chef’s knife. But things like comfort, weight, balance, and price are mostly personal preference. As New York Times food editor Sam Sifton told us during testing, “A good knife is the balance of utility and the thing that moves your heart.” What to look for in a chef’s knife. When holding a chef’s knife, you should have enough clearance between the handle and the cutting board to prevent your knuckles from hitting the board. Photo: Michael Hession What’s a tang and is it important? The tang is the piece of metal inside the handle.
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Many big knife makers claim that a full tang extending through the whole handle helps balance the knife. Brendan McDermott told us he agreed: “Having the full tang really helps balance the blade so the handle and the blade can remain at an even balance.” Chad Ward argues in An Edge in the Kitchen that a full tang is unnecessary since knife balance is largely personal preference. That said, most of the chef’s knives we tested had full tangs with riveted handles. We think this design is so common because the full tang has stood as a benchmark of quality among both knife makers and cooks. What about dimpled blades?
Some chef’s knives have oval dimples carved just above the edge. This granton edge, as it’s called, has long been a common feature on slicing and santoku knives. Knife makers claim the air pockets keep food from sticking to the blade. Even though our top pick has a granton edge, we don’t find dimples to be very effective at keeping food from clinging to a knife. But they certainly don’t hurt, either.
We couldn’t test all of the possible contenders that fit our criteria, so we focused on popular, widely available knives. For our 2017 update, we brought in seven new knives, plus four past contenders, to test against our top picks. In total over the years, we have tested 21 knives that all had an 8-inch blade, carried a price tag of $200 or less, lacked a full bolster, and came with recommendations from experts and trusted editorial sources. How we tested. We invited six friends and colleagues of all culinary stripes to our test kitchen to participate in a chopping panel. We sliced, diced, julienned, peeled, and chiffonaded a pile of butternut squash, onions, carrots, apples, oranges, sweet potatoes, and fresh herbs to gauge the knives’ versatility on foods of varying textures.
We looked for sharpness, precision, maneuverability, and comfort. We then sent the top-performing knives to the kitchen at Le Coucou in New York City (the James Beard Foundation’s Best New Restaurant of 2017), where the cooks used them for prep and during service. Since chefs and cooks are very passionate about their knives, we wanted their unbridled opinions of our favorites. Our pick: Mac MTH-80.
The is our favorite knife because it’s crazy sharp and will stay that way longer than most other knives. It was the standout favorite for all our testers, regardless of their cutting style or the size of their hands. We found it had the best weight and balance; it felt more agile than the German models and more durable than the thin Japanese gyutos. The MTH-80’s blade shape strikes the perfect middle ground between German and Japanese chef’s knives, curved just enough for rocking but still straight enough for push-pull choppers. It’s the only knife we tested that I can safely recommend to most people without reservations.
Out of the box, this Mac model sliced straight through paper, which is something our previous pick, the, couldn’t manage. It also made straight cuts through the thick center of butternut squash, which, again, the Victorinox couldn’t do. The Mac’s dimpled blade. Photo: Michael Hession At 6.6 ounces, the Mac MTH-80 is lighter than a German drop-forged knife but heavier and sturdier-feeling than many gyutos. Part of that is due to the thickness of its spine: This Mac knife’s 0.0976-inch spine is relatively thicker than those of other gyutos we tested, which gives this knife some heft. In our tests, it didn’t feel as delicate when cutting through tough vegetables like butternut squash, but it still had the smooth slicing feel of a thin blade. By comparison, at their thickest parts, the Togiharu Molybdenum comes in at 0.0754 inch, the Tojiro DP F-808 at 0.0817 inch, and the Global G-2 at 0.0754 inch.
The Mac MTH-80 has dimples on both sides of the blade to reduce the chances of food sticking to the knife. We don’t think this feature is its biggest selling point. In our tests, the dimples were merely mildly effective, and we noticed the difference only when cutting butternut squash. Slices of squash stuck to the blades of every knife we tested, but removing them from the Mac’s blade was much easier.
Even though the tends to be on the pricier end of the knives we tested, we think its combination of performance and superior build will give you many years of happy use—much more than a budget knife. In that respect, $145 or so is a bargain. Rated the Mac MTH-80 as the top pick after an exhaustive test of chef’s knives. In Chad Ward writes that the MTH-80 is “a treat to use,” adding, “They are extremely popular among chefs and line cooks because they are comfortable, reasonably priced, high-quality knives that come with an aggressive edge and hold it for a very long time.” The Mac MTH-80 has been in regular rotation in our test kitchen for over two years. In that time, we’ve honed it on a steel but never sharpened it.
While it is due for a pass on a whetstone, the edge is still sharp enough to blast easily through vegetable prep, and it’s still our favorite knife in the kitchen. Flaws but not dealbreakers. Check a knife’s spine to make sure the blade is straight. Photo: Amadou Diallo Next, turn the knife over and examine the edge. If you see any light reflecting back at you, that indicates a roll spot in the factory edge. You can grind it out with sharpening, but you shouldn’t have to sharpen a brand-new knife. Don’t be shy about asking for many versions of the same knife to decide on the particular one you want to take home.
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At Korin, a knife store in New York City, the staff usually brings out two or three of the same knife so you can examine them and choose the one you like. How to use a chef’s knife. Basic care It’s easy to care for a knife—it just takes attention and two extra minutes. Simply hand wash and dry it thoroughly after each use.
Never put any sharp blade in the dishwasher, as it’s not good for the edge to bump up against other things, such as glassware and ceramic—materials that are harder than the steel. Don’t use anything abrasive on the blade, such as a Brillo pad or a scouring sponge, which can make little scratches in the metal. Never throw unprotected knives into a drawer, where they will dull quickly.
Wall-mounted magnetic strips, such as the we recommend in our guide to small-apartment gear, are better and safer. If you don’t want a magnetic strip mounted to your wall, buy a. That way you can store your knife in a drawer and keep the edge protected. Use your knife only on a wood, plastic, or rubber cutting board.
Do not, by any means, let your edge hit glass, granite, marble, or ceramics—not even a quick slice on a dinner plate. Mastersmith Murray Carter explained, “Anything that has any degree of hardness that approaches metal, especially ceramic that’s 10 times harder than metal as soon as it makes contact with the edge, it dulls it.” Honing and sharpening Keep a sharp cutting edge longer with a honing rod. Using this tool doesn’t actually sharpen the blade—its sole purpose is to realign the microscopic teeth on the edge that bend and get knocked out of alignment during the course of use.
Although steel is a classic choice for honing rods, sometimes the material is softer than your knife, rendering it useless. A is better because it’s harder than the hardest steel but has a smooth grit so it won’t chew up the edge of your knife while it realigns the edge. Hone your knife before each use, and you’ll be golden. As you watch a chef whipping a knife down the rod toward their hand at lightning speed, it’s easy to see yourself taking a thumb off. But the task is not as difficult as it looks.
You have two ways to effectively hone a knife. Video: Amadou Diallo The way most pros do it is to point the tip of the rod up and and pull the knife down toward the handle. Eventually your knife will need sharpening.
Depending on your use, that could mean every six months to a year. You’ll know it’s time when you have to work to get through skins of tomatoes or cucumbers. If you want to send your knives out for sharpening, it’s important that you look for a professional who knows what they’re doing.
Unfortunately, that’s really hard to find. We suggest asking a local chef where they would send their own personal knives (not the cheap kitchen prep knives). Generally, chefs sharpen their own knives, but they usually know of a reputable knife person. If you learn how to sharpen your own knives, you will have tools that are truly yours. If you learn how to sharpen your own knives, you will have tools that are truly yours. Murray Carter told us he highly recommended it.
He said, “It’s a mentality perspective. Who in Western society ever thinks about sharpening their own knives?” Carter continued, “Once they have a new sharpening skill, it empowers them to have mastery over the cutlery they own.” We like these and have used them for years. For online tutorials, check out these videos from and that show you how to use whetstones. After some education and a lot of practice, you’ll be able to sharpen any old knife to a pro-style edge. In a previous version of this guide, we warned against knife sharpeners, but after doing research on sharpening and trying many such devices ourselves, we’ve found that not all knife sharpeners are created equal. If you’re investing in a quality, expensive knife like our main pick, we still believe that a whetstone used properly will provide the sharpest, smoothest edge. But if you want to sharpen our budget pick, a German steel blade, or an inexpensive stamped blade, go ahead and try one of.
In our tests we found that well-designed ones worked nicely, causing minimal wear to knives while creating a fine edge. And their convenience encourages people to use them regularly, which makes for safer chopping and a happier kitchen experience. However, make sure to avoid the cheapest knife sharpeners, which will quickly eat away too much of the blade’s metal. About blade steel.
Steel hardness is measured on the. Decent high-carbon steel knives should register anywhere between 55 HRC and 64 HRC.
Steel at the lower end of the scale is softer and more durable. Higher HRC ratings mean the steel is harder and more brittle.
Steel alloys for knives are formulated to increase stain resistance, machinability, and hardness; to improve grain structure; and to increase shock resistance. The composition of most German knives is X50CrMoV15, which roughly translates to 80 percent iron, 0.5 percent carbon, and 15 percent a combination of chromium, molybdenum, and vanadium. Chromium protects against corrosion and is what makes the knife stainless, while molybdenum and vanadium increase machinability and wear resistance, and refine the grain. This stainless steel is usually hardened to 56 HRC, softer than Japanese knives but capable of taking a beating well and withstanding up to a certain level of mistreatment. Japanese steel generally has higher carbon content and, in addition to the ingredients in German steel, contains tungsten and cobalt, which improve hardness. VG-10, made by the Hitachi Corporation, is the most popular alloy and is what people think of when they think of Japanese steel.
It creates hard blades that take and hold an edge very well but are also pretty brittle. This is why many gyutos are laminated with softer stainless steel to protect against shock and staining. You will see knives made from American steel, and while some of it is fine for knives, a couple of formulas don’t perform as well. In An Edge in the Kitchen, Chad Ward writes, “I wouldn’t make garbage can lids out of 420J or 440A, but some manufacturers do use them for kitchen knives.” These types of steel are low carbon and highly corrosion resistant. They stay pretty but don’t hold much of an edge.
Quality stamped knives and drop-forged knives go through a heat-treating process, which gets the steel to the desired hardness. This process includes, but isn’t limited to,.
In short, annealing relieves the steel of inner stress and prepares it for shaping and grain refinement. Quenching hardens the steel, and tempering relieves some of that hardness to make it more durable.
The competition.