Chef's Path Professional Chef Knife Set - 8" Ultra Sharp Japanese Santoku Kitchen Knife - German High Carbon Stainless Steel Chefs Knife with Sheath & Premium Packaging - Best Value Cooking Knife

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Depending on the composition of your knife’s steel and how often you use it, that could mean every six months to a year. 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. For professionals and hobbyists interested in going deeper into edge geometry and whetstone sharpening, a Japanese knife can be a very compelling purchase. For each update, we look at new releases, up-and-coming brands, and more knives from the producers of our picks.

She’s an experienced product tester and recipe creator, trained in classic culinary arts and culinary nutrition. We like to use a ceramic rod 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. Once again, it's something more personal than that—when you hold the knife, does the weight fall comfortably in your hand? It's balance point is ideal for a pinch grip, laying between the start of the logo and the start of the handle. Although some tasks may be easier with specialty knives (slicing tomatoes with a serrated knife or segmenting citrus with a paring knife, for two examples), your chef’s knife should be nimble enough to handle it all.Because of its importance in the kitchen, a chef's knife is one of the knives that most warrant a splurge. To make sure this review took into account another opinion, I asked Sohla El-Waylly to use all the knives also; she's shorter than me and has smaller hands, plus she's right-handed. This knife weighed in at 264 grams, making it one of the heavier ones in my tests, but, unlike some of the other clunkers in the group, the Wüsthof's blade didn't feel overly leaden or clumsy. German knives generally weigh more and have thicker blades than their Japanese counterparts; this makes them fit for tough jobs like breaking lobsters and splitting bone-in chicken breasts.

In our tests we found that well-designed models worked nicely, causing minimal wear to knives while creating a fine edge. To make sure we considered that situation, we sliced our way through a case of pineapples, trimming the skins and tops, carving away the pineapple's tough eyes, and then cutting the fruit into smaller pieces. A Western-style chef’s knife, with its upward slope, is ideal for the rock-chop motion favored by some cooks.In this motion (shown above), the tip of the knife mostly keeps contact with the cutting board, and you raise and lower the heel while your guiding hand pushes food underneath the blade.