Knives (handmade) 101 #3 What to Think About When Buying a Knife

Are you thinking of buying a knife for your kitchen? Here are a few thing you should think about.

When thinking about kitchen knives, for most people, some kind of a set pops into their minds. Knife sets are probably the most common way people buy knives for their home. Let me tell you why you probably shouldn't do that.

Knife sets are all shiny and smart, and they do look impressive.

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The thing about the sets is that the good ones are quite expensive, while cheap ones are basically kitchen ornament.

Sure you can get a knife set for $50 and you'll get some knives. The question of the year is: do you really need all that knives?

NO!

Now, I am a knifemaker so it would be good business for me to say to all of you - my potential clients - that you should buy 5-6 knives. But, if you've read my previous posts - most knifemakers don't do knifes for money, and I am no exception.

If you are not someone who buys meat at wholesales - meaning buying chickens, pigs or even cows whole and butchering them yourself, or if you're not a professional chef - you don't really need more than three knives.

But Doc, I need my carving knife and my boning knife, and my small knife to cut the veggies and my salami, and my cake k, and my...

Yeah, not really.
The rule of thumb is that you need three knives:

+1. A chef knife

This is a knife that you use on your wooden chopping board

This should be your main tool! If you feel that there are things you can't do with chef knife, I would guess you should probably brush up on your knife skills. Because, if you have a good chef knife and you are often reaching for other knives - it's probably you, not the knife that's lacking.

There are a hundred different styles of what is commonly referred to as the chef knife:
a classical French style knife, German style, Japanese Gyuto, Santoku, Nakiri and million of hybrids

My favourite not just for making but for using is this one

That's my take on a modern variation of Santoku. It's a relative short knife with a nice belly that can be used both for rocking and for chopping, and it's a nice slicer.

If you are mostly using veggies something like a Nakiri should probably be a good choice

What you should do is buy a knife based on what you use it for. The looks are important, but the function should always come first!

+2. A small carving knife

This is a knife that you use in your hand - so for delicate tasks that are not done on the board.

They can be curved, recurved, straight, with a sharp tip or with a round one - you can take your pick.
Something that you feel comfortable with.

+3. You need a "bread knife" - some kind of serrated blade that you can use for sawing motion based tasks.

Should this one also be high-end quality? Nah, this one you can buy for the looks. Go with what pleases your eye and don't spend more than $20 use it for a while and when you see another that you like better - buy that one.

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+4. Not a knife but everyone should have one or two or five of this crucial kitchen tool.
A peeler. They are a must! Just buy one for a dollar or two and when you lose it (and you will) buy another or two.

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Back to sets:

What about all the other knives in my fancy set? Come on, be honest how many of the knives in your set do you use daily? Actually, if you have a set of +6 knives, a safe bet is that you only touch 2 or 3 of them when you're doing a spring kitchen cleaning.

Just buy yourself a good chef knife and a decent carving/utility knife, bring some love and practice into your kitchen and everything else will fall in place.