Whether you are just an avid home cook or a professional chef, having an excellent set of kitchen knives is a must in order to assist you in preparing top quality food. Choosing the right knives should not be looked upon lightly and you should not settle for just any brand.

With Wusthof kitchen knives, you definitely can’t go wrong. They are manufactured by a company based in Solingen, Germany and as you know, Germany is renowned for their superb engineering abilities – think of the automobiles that they have produced. Wusthof makes kitchen knives for all levels of users whether cooking is simply a hobby or a profession. Regardless, they primarily carry knives that are forged in a thorough manufacturing process involving robots and other computer guided equipment ensuring they are all of extremely high standard.

The kitchen knives available are organized into different collections, each with their own unique features. In this article, I’ll provide a brief overview of their more popular collections, giving you a better idea as to which one would be more appropriate for you.

These knives are considered to be Wusthof’s bestsellers. The blade of the knives in this range is forged from high carbon steel. The edge has been honed manually. The handle is triple-riveted and is full tang. This means that the blade extends all the way to the bottom end of the handle, making them more durable. These knives are a great choice to start off with for the home cooking enthusiast.

These knives are named after the famous chef Emeril Legassi who has used Wusthof knives throughout this cooking career as well as on his cooking show. The distinctive trait is the stain resistant steel alloy from which the blades have been made. Additionally, the handles have been shaped to be ergonomic, hence comfortable to use. The finish on the handles is slip resistant, which reduces the likelihood of accidents in the kitchen. You should take note the blade is constructed through the process of stamping as suppose to forging. The difference is that stamped blades turn out to be thinner, and hence are less durable and the edge does not hold as long. The upside of this is that Emerilware knives are cheaper than pretty much most of the other Wusthof collections.

Similar to the Wusthof Classic knives, the blade of a Wusthof Culinar knife is made from high carbon steel and has been honed by hand. These knives have the added feature of a stainless steel handle so there are rivets in this case (in similar fashion as Global knives). And or course, the handle is ergonomically designed to ensure comfort.

These knives are almost exactly the same as the Wusthof Classic collection except with a slight difference. The bolster was designed to be smaller and therefore lighter in order to provide better balance. This is feature can be useful in a situation where you have to engage in repetitive chopping duties for prolonged periods.

Amongst all of Wusthof’s collections available, Ikon knives are considered to be at the top end. The blade is manufactured at the same high quality as the other knives and extends fully through the handle and is secured in place with three rivets. The handle is made from a rare African wood called Mozambique Ebony, which is extremely strong and has a unique aesthetic appeal. There is also a Classic Ikon knives variation where the difference is in the handle – rather than using the special wood, it is made from the same polypropylene material as in the Classic line of knives and comes in either black of white crème color.

If you are just starting out and don’t have any knives in your kitchen or perhaps if you want to completely replace the ones you have, you can buy a set. A good starter set is the Wusthof Classic 5-Knives set which consists of an 8 inch cook’s knife, 9 inch carving knife, 8 inch bread knife, 5 inch boning knife, 4 inch paring knife and a sharpening steel.

I’ll now go through some of the common individual Wustof Classic knives.

If you or the people you are cooking for are meat eaters, then these knives would definitely come in handy. They are 4.5 inches long and the blade is extra sharp designed to not only easily cut through steak, but other types of meat as well.

These knives can be thought of as a smaller cousin of the chef’s knife. They range from 3 inches to 4 inches long making them ideal to be used in more confined spaces. Wusthof supplies blades with a straight, hollow and serrated edge. The paring knives are generally used for mincing, dicing and peeling.

These knives are designed for carving large cuts of meat after being cooked as well as vegetables and fruits. The length is between 8 inches to 9 inches and the blade can have either straight or hollow edge. The purpose of the hollow edge is to prevent the thin slices of meat from sticking to the blade.

For those that eat bread often, you must have bread knives in the kitchen. With the serrated edge, these knives can easily penetrate through the crunchy crust of the bread without squashing the bread as you progress through the soft portion.

There are three types of cheese knives in the Classic collection, each suited for different kinds of cheese. The first knife is designed for cutting soft cheese such as Brie which tend to stick to the blade of a knife. This is why the Wusthof cheese knife has holes in the blade. The second variation is for cutting hard cheese. They are come with a forked tip which provides convenience when serving the cheese. Finally there is the super short (2 ¾ inches) knife purposefully designed for cutting parmesan cheese.