An argument can be made on what are the best kitchen knives to have.  Some would argue that the only necessary knives would be the chef’s knife, a paring knife, and a bread knife.  I would agree that those are essential knives to have in your collection but hardly a complete list.  A well balanced collection should also include a boning knife, a slicing knife, a santoku knife and a sharpening steel.

There are two classifications of kitchen knives which both have plusses and minuses to having them.  They are either forged knives or stamped knives.  The difference in the two is mainly in the balance of the blade in your hands and the cost.  Forged knives are generally more expensive than the stamped blades.  Stamped blades are stamped from a sheet of quality stainless steel and forged knives go through a much more complicated mold process. 

One thing a consumer should do when purchasing a good quality knife or knife set is avoid the hype that some celebrity chefs are pushing.  A consumer reports study showed that the celebrity knives do not rate with the top quality kitchen knives.  That’s not to say the celebrity brands are bad, they just do not hold up to the quality standards that top chefs look for in knives.

Below, you will find descriptions of the types of knives that most chefs would agree are essential for a good quality and functional kitchen knife collection.

The chef’s knife is arguably the most essential knife to have in your assortment of knives.  It is the workhorse and the main utility knife.  Primarily designed to disjoint large cuts of meat, it is also the preferred blade for mincing, slicing and chopping vegetables. 

The chef’s knife is a modernization of the old butcher knife to make it more of a utility knife.  The blade ranges in size from 6 inches to 12 inches.  Somewhere in the middle is the most desired blade length.  It is identified by having a wide heel and a sharp cutting edge that curves upward to the tip.  Chef’s knives do not have a serrated cutting edge.

The santoku knife is also a general purpose utility knife much like the chef’s knife . In fact, the knife was designed to mimic the qualities of the chef’s knife but then add the qualities desired to prepare Japanese cuisine. It is also a good blade for mincing, dicing, and slicing, but a distinguishable difference from the chef’s knife is the size of the santoku knife and the serrated cutting edge.

The santoku knife is generally around 6 inches in length and made of a harder tempered steel. The smaller, lighter and better balanced blade makes it ideal for cutting fish, vegetables and smaller cuts of meat that may or may not contain bones. Traditional Japanese santoku blades do not have a scalloped cutting edge but the non-Japanese varieties normally do. Non-Japanese blades usually have a thicker cutting edge too because of the manufacturing process.

The bread knife is normally identified as having a long thin blade between 6 inches and 10 inches in length, a more rounded tip and having a serrated cutting edge. The serrated cutting edge makes it ideal for cutting foods that may have a hard exterior and a soft interior such as loaves of bread or vegetables like tomatoes.

The reason you want to use a bread knife on foods with those qualities is because you want to the blade to do the work instead of you pushing through the food. Pushing through the food is unsafe because there is no control of the blade.

A boning knife is similar to a bread knife in size only.  Normally around 10 inches in length, the boning knife has no serrated cutting edge and the cutting edge curves up to the tip.  The blade is long, narrow and flexible which makes it ideal for deboning meats such as chicken and fish, although a stiffer blade makes it ideal for deboning beef and pork. 

The boning knife is essential for inclusion in your knife collection because it makes the job of separating meat from the bone a very easy job.  This is meat that would otherwise be discarded when there can be good uses for it later.

The slicing knife is a long blade, normally 10 inches in length with no serrated cutting edge.  The cutting edge curves up to the tip.  It is similar to the chef’s knife but with a much narrower blade.  The blade is designed to make long straight cuts through meats such as roasts and turkey’s. 

The paring knife is also much like the chef’s knife in use as a multi-purpose utility knife.  The major difference is size.  The paring knife’s blade is normally around 3 to 4 inches in length which makes it ideal for peeling and coring vegetables.  It is also useful for deveining shrimp and making smaller more delicate cuts.

The sharpening steel, also called a chef’s steel is a must have with any quality knife set.  It can be identified as a long rod, normally around 12 inches in length, with ridges along the body of the rod.  It’s not a sharpening tool as the name suggests, rather it is a tool used to hone the blade. 

As explained in the video above, the blade consists of microscopic serrations that bend or become misaligned during the cutting process.  The sharpening steel is used to return those serrations to their optimal position and should be used before each use of your major blades.

As mentioned earlier, when looking for a new knife set it is probably a good idea to avoid the celebrity branded items.  Though they may be good for occasional use, they certainly would not pass the standards which most chefs place on quality and usefulness. 

When purchasing your kitchen knives set, it would be advisable for it to contain all the knives described above.  Most kitchen blocks will have these and offer a few more less essentials or variety of size of like knives and other utilities, plus an organizer such as a Bamboo knife holder.

The Shun brand and the Calphalon Katana brands are graded as professional kitchen knives and their prices set them apart from the rest.  The Wusthof, Chicago Cutlery, J.A. Henckles, and Victorinox brands are excellent consumer grade knife sets which have been highly rated by Consumer Reporst for their usefulness, quality of design and functionality compared to their cost.  You will find little argument, if any, to the quality of these knife sets.