# Best Chef's Knife? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 24, 2022, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650 "2022-03-24T19:51:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/81 "2022-03-30T01:07:09Z")
This is a wonderful chef’s knife for the money, and attractive to look at too. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/82 "2022-03-30T01:08:39Z")
Wustof! I have my 8" chef knife and a 7" hollow-edge santoku. Those two together do almost all of my work for me. But my favorite knife - the one I use a lot more than I thought I would - that is perfect when needed is my [4" paring knife](https://www.wusthof.com/products/wusthof-classic-4-paring-knife-1040100410?variant=Z2lkOi8vc2hvcGlmeS9Qcm9kdWN0VmFyaWFudC80MTI3NjcyMjI0OTg3OQ==&queryID=539409c4fe7a08d4beed3dc53a6beb69). It is so fun to use. For sharpening [I use this](https://www.wusthof.com/products/wusthof-sharpening-universal-hand-held-sharpener-2944-7?variant=Z2lkOi8vc2hvcGlmeS9Qcm9kdWN0VmFyaWFudC80MTI3NjY5OTA4MjkwMw==&queryID=e01587fdd83c6bf2d293ac6c9e5c8a39) because the standard side is for my chef’s knife and the Aisan side is for my santoku. But every so often I take my knives to the Farmer’s Market to the sharpener there for a new edge. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/83 "2022-03-30T01:16:47Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > For sharpening [I use this](https://www.wusthof.com/products/wusthof-sharpening-universal-hand-held-sharpener-2944-7?variant=Z2lkOi8vc2hvcGlmeS9Qcm9kdWN0VmFyaWFudC80MTI3NjY5OTA4MjkwMw==&queryID=e01587fdd83c6bf2d293ac6c9e5c8a39) … Wow, that’s almost identical to the Zwilling/Henckels I have on order. Similar price, too. Either Wusthof ripped off Zwilling, or vice versa! ---
**Author:** ![Oly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oly/32/8255_2.png) [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/84 "2022-03-30T01:19:25Z")
Little story about the Rada sharpener: I was first turned on to Rada knives when I saw someone selling them at one of the 12 or so stalls at a farmer’s market in Bandon, OR. As I chatted with the seller she assured me “These knives never need sharpening.” She then went on to tell me how she once lost a Rada paring knife out in her garden and found it two years later. “Still sharp as the day I bought it.” But then I noticed the sharpener, also for sale. “If these knives never need sharpening, why do they make a sharpener?” “Oh, well, er, that’s for when people don’t take care of their knives and they just toss ‘‘em in a drawer and they junk around with other knives. That’s when the blade gets dulled.” (That’s how I store my knives, BTW). I wasn’t in the market for a knife that day, but I was entertained by that nice lady and the knife was cheep enough that I went ahead and bought it anyway, sharpener to boot. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/85 "2022-03-30T01:23:31Z")
Technically Wustof are better, but the difference is so minor that effectively they are the same company and knives. If someone went Henckels instead, they are going to get a great knife. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/86 "2022-03-30T01:41:46Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > If someone went Henckels instead, they are going to get a great knife. Keeping in mind the distinction between Henckels International (denoted by a logo of the silhouette of one person) versus the original Henckels, now rebranded to Zwilling, denoted by the famous twin-figure logo. The latter are the quality products. There is a similar clusterfuck in Pyrex cookware abandoning borosilicate and going to cheaper soda-lime glass, with only a subtle change in the logo. ---
**Author:** ![MeanJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanjoe/32/5693_2.png) [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/87 "2022-03-30T12:53:11Z")
I took a couple of the “knife skills” classes at Sur La Tab. Not only fun but as noted, it really gave me an opportunity to try a variety of knives and ask questions before making a purchase. I learned I prefer the heavier German knives like Wustoff. I ended up buying a Wustoff Classic chef and then over time added more knives in that series. Case in point though, individual preferences rule here. My wife took one of the classes with me (fun date night!) and she went the exact opposite - Japanese steel. So there is a lone Japanese chef knife in our block. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/88 "2022-03-30T13:35:25Z")
My lone Japanese knife is this one [Kasumi 6" Petty Knife (Utility) – Chef’s Arsenal (chefsarsenal.com)](https://www.chefsarsenal.com/collections/kasumi-damascus/products/kasumi-6-petty-knife-utility-82015?variant=33148007546979) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/89 "2022-03-30T13:45:47Z")
FYI, these are cheap and very effective for drawer knife organizing (and keeping them away from your fingers!) [Amazon.com: Shenzhen Knives Large In-Drawer Knife Block: 11 Slot (Holds 10-15 Knives) Empty Wooden Knife Holder for Kitchen Drawers: Cutlery Accessories: Home & Kitchen](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GJ44VW4/ref=sspa_dk_detail_3?pd_rd_i=B00GJ44VW4&pd_rd_w=y7kZs&pf_rd_p=57cbdc41-b731-4e3d-aca7-49078b13a07b&pd_rd_wg=RhJbn&pf_rd_r=NJ5BDSV64STXGECWZQ3R&pd_rd_r=db8855bd-4b7c-4c36-838b-f99892d069fc&s=kitchen&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyOVlNU1ZUNTI3S0xQJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNTIwMjk2MUFQUktWNjNBQlhNVSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMjM2NzM4MTZHT09TQUdWR1BRSyZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2RldGFpbF90aGVtYXRpYyZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU&th=1) ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/90 "2022-03-30T14:17:38Z")
I ended up getting these > **[Amazon.com: Magnetic Knife Holder For Wall (15 Inch X Set Of 2) Magnetic Knife...](https://www.amazon.com/SUMPRI-Magnetic-Securely-Multipurpose-Organizer-Safe/dp/B07Q5XYMFV)** > > Buy Magnetic Knife Holder For Wall (15 Inch X Set Of 2) Magnetic Knife Strip -Strong Powerful Knife Rack Storage Display Home Organizer -Securely Hang Your Knives On a Multipurpose Kitchen Bar -SUMPRI: Hand Tools - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible... Magnetic knife holders. Now my knives are on the wall, rather than in woodblocks taking up valuable counter space, or in drawers getting dinged up or posing danger to searching fingers. I still have a woodblock that I keep some of my knives that I don’t use all that often, but I keep it in the basement, out of the way of my rather tiny kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/91 "2022-03-30T14:21:25Z")
How do I know which Japanese knives are the good ones (besides just trying to sharpen and use them)? E.g. I have one that says something like “宗行作” on it. Carbon steel. Useful or crap? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/92 "2022-03-30T14:24:18Z")
We actually used to have those magnetic ones before we had kids. We stashed the knives away in a childproofed drawer at that point, and used those flat knife organizers. Both work very well for avoiding knife clutter/dulling/inadvertent cuts. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/93 "2022-03-30T14:27:57Z")
I think those are great. I even see van/RV dwellers use them. No matter how horrible the trail they drive, the knives never seem to fly off. Pretty cool. I, OTOH, would miss the nagging sensation that my old-school Wusthof wooden **[knife block was a veritable petri dish](https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/why-you-should-clean-knife-block/)**. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/94 "2022-03-30T15:01:13Z")
> [@MeanJoe](#): > > I took a couple of the “knife skills” classes at Sur La Tab. Tangential to this topic: I’ve taken a number of cooking classes, but without doubt, the knife skills class made the biggest difference in my cooking abilities. Being able to prep things in half the time does a lot to make cooking easier and more enjoyable. I highly recommend one. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/95 "2022-03-30T15:18:36Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > Being able to prep things in half the time does a lot to make cooking easier and more enjoyable. I highly recommend one. I spent years in restaurants before I went to culinary school. I’ve chopped literal tons of onions. And yet, I never learned to dice an onion properly until my knife skills class. I was blown away by such a simple, and yet incredibly useful, technique. My knife skills kinda suck, specifically because I don’t really care. If I’m making a salsa, then why do the tomatoes need to be in perfect 1/4" cubes? I’m generally happy if it’s somewhere between 1/8" and 1/2". And honestly, that’s what I thought we would be learning in knife skills class, how to cut things into perfect little shapes and sizes. And there was that, a lot of it, in fact. But there were also quite a bit of fundamentals that are useful no matter what kind of product you are looking to end up with. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/96 "2022-03-30T15:31:36Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I thought I read, here or elsewhere, that many restaurants use the cheap, plastic-handled knives from a restaurant supply warehouse, perhaps with a contract for an outside company to swap them out regularly for newly sharpened ones. In short, that many restaurant pros don’t bring expensive personal knives to work, partly because they might get stolen by someone else. This was the situation when I worked at a restaurant/caterer in my teens. They had wall knife holders full of white-handled chef knives, serrated knives and paring knives that got taken away and sharpened by a service every so often, and swapped out with sharpened ones. I was the low-level prep cook that did a ton of cutting stuff and I never owned a knife. That being said, I do recall that some or all of our head chefs did have their own knife bags, which they probably started building in college. I don’t know how much they used them, though, as I said I was the one doing most of the cutting of stuff. From what I gathered at my time in the restaurant industry, a chef’s most important tool is their shoes, then their chef pants and coat (if not provided by the employer) and a good meat thermometer. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/97 "2022-03-30T16:15:46Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > I, OTOH, would miss the nagging sensation that my old-school Wusthof wooden **[knife block was a veritable petri dish](https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/why-you-should-clean-knife-block/)**. Dubious. My knives never ever go into the block unless they are clean and dry. It would be gross to shove a dirty knife in there Could some crumbs have fallen in when i picked up the bread board? Maybe? I’d think I’d have noticed, honestly. Based on where the knife blocks live, it would be well nigh impossible for the interior to get wet. And not that much grows in the absence of water. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/98 "2022-03-30T19:46:07Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > I spent years in restaurants before I went to culinary school. I’ve chopped literal tons of onions. And yet, I never learned to dice an onion properly until my knife skills class. I was blown away by such a simple, and yet incredibly useful, technique. My wife and I have taken a small handful of cooking courses at Sur La Table and HEB Central Market, and every time there’s some kind of knife work involved, we always finish way faster than most of our classmates, who by the looks of it, don’t even know how to hold a knife properly, much less dice an onion. The funny thing is that you don’t really need a course in it; you can get a lot of it by watching the “Good Eats” episode on knife skills, and reading up on it, then practicing. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/99 "2022-03-30T19:49:07Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Both work very well for avoiding knife clutter/dulling/inadvertent cuts. Wood blocks won’t dull your knives if you store them upside down. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650/100 "2022-03-30T19:54:08Z")
Fucking peer pressure… OK, so my Rada sharpener arrived this morning. Looked at it, cursed the reccomendor soundly, then decided to give it a try anyway. Gave my cheapest paring knife a couple of swipes through, then sliced a lime for margaritas later (For Science!). Son of a bitch. It works. It works very well. I’ve done the 4 paring knives. Now on to the santuko. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-chefs-knife/961650.md?page=6)