Kitchen Knife Buyers Guide: How To Choose The Best Knife Set For You 

Yes he did a great job

He really knows what he's talking about

Um that Miyabi black was not a Miyabi black. It was most likley the cheap kaizen in VG-10. evidence: the red miyabi logo (black has gold logo), and the 60 designation on the blade designates metal hardness. A)Miyabi black has a 67 on it, B)Vg-10 sits around 60 hardness. My other thoughts. VG-10 is a low-mid tier stainless ubiquitous with both japanese knives and being brittle. SG2 is the superior choice until the japanese makers pick up CPM Magnacut which is venerable mythril stainless. The santoku should not be your main kitchen knife. Its called chefs knife for a reason. If 8" (210mm)is too much get a 7" or a 6"(180mm), once your comfortable get the next size up. Im getting ready for my 9.5" (240mm). A chefs knife can be made for rock chop or push chop and is one of its many nuances. Santoku's to me are a vegetable knife even though the name says otherwise. Another option would be the Nakiri (though i like a blade tip). My favorite veg knife might be the Nigara Homono kiritsuke nakiri. Its a nakiri with a little blade tip. I like to see my blade tip for dicing techniques. I even disagree on the pairing knife. Unless i was a professional chef that needed that dexterity a paring knife offers to do some artistic plating. I borrow one on occasion but dont own one. To me the perfect home kitchen side arm is my Miyabi 5.5inch prep knife. It can be found across the zwilling line. From 11-200 bucks! Other good options would be a petty knife or honosuki. A honosuki might be a bith thick? But its got the size and shape im talking about. Those are my 3 go to knives. The other thing every kitchen needs is some good shears in my opinion. I dont need a bread knife, i dont really use my slicer much, and i think boning knife might be up next, but i also would love a 9.5 inch chefs knife. For those looking for good knives. My Miyabi mizu feels like a great place to look. $150 for 8" forged chefs knife with an SG2 core @63 hardness. Made by Zwilling. What i would describe as a french inspired japanese chefs knife. Its a great place to start your knife journey and not even a bad place to end it if you chose to. I hear Tojiro are great blades that tend to not get stolen in a professional setting they run about 200 for an SG2 blade. And the blades im in love with the most are made by Nigara Homono. Both the tsuchime and anmon models in SG2 with the western handles look like a slice of perfection. But were talking 300-600 bucks. Its no wonder its called functional art, but isnt that the best art! It sure beats color splotches on a wall to talk about. I really do like SG2 if you couldnt tell. But I'll state i dont like it nearly as much as CPM magnacut. Its new and hasnt been discovered by the far east. But in a decade it will be the gold standard and wont leave much room on the battlefield for the need for any steel that can rust. The hardest carbon steels ive seen are like 67 hardness. Magnacut is a stainless that can hit 65 while standing toe to toe on durability with the best japanese steels period. The world finally has a stainless made for knives, its CPM Magnacut. One day this metal will meet the refinement needed to be a good chefs knife. Until then we have Meglio. What i would call a "beater knife" @ 2.7mm thick. Only they are charging $300 for this thing thats had 0-minimal forge time by Meglio. An american company with an italian name selling high priced garbage that will be beat as soon as its met on the battlefield by any real knifemaker picking up magnacut. I really love magnacut. But not enough to buy into some companies marketing hype.

@@brandonhoffman4712 thats great but i aint reading all that

I hold my own -DCA

Chef Martin Yan is a master with the cleaver!

I prefer a Macao cleaver style chef's knife. I can guide the blade against my forehead when chopping squash while watching TV and talking on the phone.

I've used one my entire life that my parents brought with them when they immigrated here in the 80s! Depending on what you have, you might not want to use it as an actual cleaver despite it looking like a cleaver. A cai dao is thinner and more maneuverable but that makes it a lot less hardy for chopping through bones

I got a nakiri a while ago, I think I am too used to being able to stab things with the tip of my knife because I found the no tip a deal breaker for me so mine sits in the knife block virtually untouched. That said because I hardly ever use it it is always razor sharp so when I do come across a task I know I wont use a point for I whip it out and smile as the weight of the knife almost lets it fall through cucumbers...

I dont like squared blades at the tip. I prefer a tip for dicing techniques. It lets me know exactly where my cuts will go when doing the pre-cutting. I do like the flatness of a nakiri or heel of a santoku for chopping. But i much prefer something like the Nigara kiritsuke nikiri. Again specifically for the tip. I like having a knife point for all sorts of tricky steps. Whats your process for turning jalapenos into perfect canoes without seeds for jalapeno poppers? Cut the back of the chili and the cheese leaks out, you need to get the tip in the placenta and do a little slice before ripping it out. (Puns intended) Flatening garlic is for your beater knife. It can bend thin quality knives. Luckily a good forged knife can be bent back! (Wondered why my nice japanese knife was bent a little) no more garlic for him! HULK SMASH! Scooping food with a knife can be done with any proper knife. But scraping your blade along a cutting board is never recommended and one of the best ways to ruin the edge of your blade. In conjunction with the dishwasher its a travesty on a sharp knife. I would recomend setting the knife down and grabbing a bench scraper (3.99 3-pack amazon) theres also no danger to your fingers this way. If your knife can slice paper towel, you might want to watch your fingers. If your knife can slice a grape sideways no handed, you again, might want to watch your fingers. If your knife is a yanagiba, dont even think about it. You slice as easy as sushi!

​@@legallyfree2955you gotta check out the Nigara kiritsuke nikiri. You just might fall in love. Feel free to look around, but know that brand makes some of the best knives on this planet. The only blade shape of theirs i dont like is their petty knife. Its quite similar to their nikiri with no angle in the blade.

My perfect 3. Miyabi mizu SG2 stainless 63 hrc 8" chef 7" santoku 5.5" prep knife Where it needs help. Smashing garlig like Thor. Get a beater knife too! #thicc boy! I dont use my slicing knife enough. Dont need a boner because i use the butcher or grocery store to break down my meat Dont need a bread knife because I'm American and our bread is sliced for us by the powers that be Pairing knife. I have pocket knives. Plus im not carving tomatoes into flowers to set next to my steak and look @. But i respect those that choose to! If i was to make changes i might replace the santoku and go for a special nikiri with a tip. A kiritsuke nikiri like the one made by Nigara Homono. I think i would pick the big 9.5"/240mm chefs knife now that im more comfortable with the 8" version. I love that prep knife though. Its so good zwilling has that knife ranging from 11-200 or more. Its in almost every line they have.

My brother was a Cutco salesman as a young guy and part of his demonstration was to use the shears to cut a penny in half.

I have 2 Shun knives, both purchased about 15 years ago. I had a large western style chief knife by Shun that I hardly used that I gave to a good friend and fellow wood carver. I kept the small paring knife and a large santoku. These are the only knives I touch, except my wife's kitchen knives when I sharpen them for her. I use my knives and immediately hand wash and dry them when I'm done cutting, and the remain impeccably sharp. The D shaped handle works in my hand perfectly. The steel has great feel on a sharpening stone. With this sort of care, they really are generational tools.

The Miyabi Black wasnt from the miyabi black line either. It was the Miyabi kaizen or kaizen II. Not sure how you blatantly make that mistake because miyabi color codes their top knifes with gold logo's, not the regular red ones. He even read the number on it which was 60, meaning 60 hardness. Anyone who knows japanese knives knows 60 hardness is low end not high end. The black line has a 67 designation. This is my first video ive seen from this person and ive gotten better info from the comments, just sayin. I dont even own a pairing knife and couldnt imagine replacing my 5.5" prep knife with one. My 3 go to knives are 8" chef, 7"santoku, and 5.5"prep. Any other knife finds less use. The next one i use most is a shun classic 6" petty as a steak knife since i have none lol. My interests in replacements all come from nigara homono. I want a 240mm gyuto and a kiritsuke nakiri from the tsuchime line with the western handles. The nakiri would probably replace my santoku which i only grab for veggies. I love that their nakiri has a pointed tip. (And now the nakiri dices!)

German knives Wüsthof* and Zwilling* (the latter is the parent brand and their cheaper Henckels line of knives is not made in Germany but China and Spain).

@@brandonhoffman4712 knives*, logos* (plural, no apostrophe)

I bought the set about 2 months before that broke loose and still use every day. I want to up grade but I am not throwing these away ..... yet

a Henckels* chef knife.

If your a push cutter. Look into japanese gyuto's. Which is the japanese chefs knife. The japanese style is the push chop instead of rock chop. The gyuto can do both however while the santoku doesnt like to rock at all. This helps if you ever want to dice something. The fact he recomended a santoku as main knife i feel is wrong. The chefs knife is always the main knife, thats why chef is in the name. The way you use it dictates the profile you want on your chefs knife, but not whether or not its the 1st knife you grab. German and french knives are about the rock chop, while japan is grounded in the push chop. the santoku is really only functional up to about 7 inches, then things get weird when trying to use it. The chefs knife comes in any flavor to suit your need. From 6 to over 12 inches! I recomend the 210mm or 8" as a starting spot for men, females the 180mm might feel better. Once comfortable pro chefs recommend going as big as your comfortable with and as big as your board allows. Most settling on the 240mm 10" blade. I promise this info will make you happier in the long run. I tend to do a bit of both rocking and push chopping i find, with a tendancy towards the push chop. I have both the santoku and japanese chefs knife. The chefs knife is more diverse in its use and is often grabbed before the santoku for me. I know my mom likes the santoku, but she has told me the 8" chefs knife feels too big for her. Im wanting to get her a little smaller chefs knife and i know her opinion will change with use. My 3 go to blades are the chefs knife, santoku, and zwillings 5.5 prep knife. Love all 3, considering replacing the santoku for a nakiri with a pointy tip (nigara homono kiritsuke nakiri in SG2 with tsuchime finish) and swapping for a bigger chefs knife (nigara homono gyuto 240mm in SG2 with tsuchime finish) My first knife was victorinox, my first real knife was a buck lite!

So true. I see cooking videos of folks cutting on marble slabs and then sliding the food across it using the edge of the knife. I'm wincing the whole time.

I have always had smaller kitchens so I would buy a huge glass cutting board to go on top of the stove so I could put an actual plastic board down for cutting so I had more prep area.

Ikea stalwarts and a rada knife... Might i recommend Zwilling knives. They meet every price point including rada! Their steel is typically harder and better at the same price point. I cant recomend the Henkels statement line by by zwilling enough as an entry level option. Most of the steel is 56 hardness which is awesome for 25 dollars. To get to 57 you have to go all the way to zwillings pro line over 100. Its what im setting the family up with for christmas, they need my help! They also carry my 3 favorite blade shapes. 8" chef, 7" santoku, 5.5" prep knife, among others. If your going for something as pricey as zwilling pro. I would recomend trying to bargain shop a SG2 stainless blade. Provided yout take proper care of your blades SG2 will have superior edge retention. My miabi mizu line is currently on sale and possibly discontinued. Its been 2 years since its been sharpened and still slicing strawberries i can see through if i wish on a whim. Theres a new stainless in town too, its called CPM Magnacut. It wears the crown even though it hasnt been picked up by major cutlery manufacturers yet. In 10 years it will be the gold standard! Being delicate with japanese knifes will be a thing of the past with that metal.

Yep SG2 is nice! Im 2 years deep without a sharpening and still cutting see through strawberry slices with my Miyabi. The ways of the japanese are not lost upon me, but i just gotta say it. CPM Magnacut, it is the future. 1 point harder than SG2, but rivaling all japanese steel on toughness including those blue and white carbon steels. Its around 2x the durability of force tests compared to SG2. Its almost as if it were forged in the heart of a dying star or something! From what i keep hearing the metal industry moves slow and in 10 years well have japanese knives made with this stuff. A company called meglio makes some, but their trash. Unless you want a 300 dollar blade tailored like a mercer and its nearly 3mm spine. Clearly standing in beater territory. You would think with a name like meglio they would do better but... they even hit the balance nice, but lol its a beater! I can invest that extra savings into a TSPROF sharpener. The only russian thing i want even though their @ war...😅

I have some knives with granton, some without, I cannot tell the difference at all but that could be just me not being observant enough.

I actually really like using the shorter knives too, though I do still own the big ones for when I need them (large pumpkins, certain loaves of bread, cutting long potato chips with big potatoes). My current go to for medium to light tasks though is a 6.5" Shun Premier utility knife.

I have a 12" serrated and it's pretty much exclusively used on watermelons. It's great being able to cut right through it.

Which one? He features multiple in this video.

Miracle blade... Honest... Ill go watch the comercial. But im just going to say i have yet to see any blade perform a miracle. Im already expecting to slice tomatoes after cutting bolts! Ill report my findings...

I've always liked Globals, but the handle circumference is too small. Wish they had an option for larger hands that would expand their market quite a bit in my opinion.

What's odd is that I find the right-handed (slightly D shaped) handles actually fit my left better than my right! Having said that, I still prefer the Henckels Pro with angled bolster the most comfortable knives I own, esp the 8" chef.

The vast majority of industrially made Japanese knives are western-style, hence double-beveled, same as Victorinox* and Wüsthof* (why TF can nobody on YT spell this correctly?!). Traditional Japanese knives like Deba and Yanagiba are usually single-bevel but also used for particular tasks that require a certain amount of skill and are therfore unsuitable for most home cooks.

You should go to san francisco. They have a legendary knife shop. Though i will say. About the most disrespectful thing a person can do to modern business. Is use them to try the feel of something until you find what you love. Then turn around and price hunt the item. Eventually buying it from somewhere with a cheaper price and no customer service. I think once a relationship is formed in which the salesman/woman is finding you the right fit and finish, they have earned that sale from you. That being said i pulled the trigger on my knives out of the ether. Here was my criteria 1)traditional blade shapes that have been trusted by many humans 2)hard stainless steel 3)a knife with a bolster for balance towards the front of the handle 4)a grip that could work for different sized hands I chose the Miyabi Mizu. 1) traditional french blade shape packed inside a japanese knife 2) japanese knives are made from harder steel. Mine are 63 hardness SG2 stainless @ the core. 3) the knife has a bolster and pomel with a hidden tang (long lasting, handle biased weight) 4) spartan grip with a comfortable asymetrical shape that is literally made to fit any hand comfortably without slipping. Even allowing the user to work their hand up or down the blade at their discretion while maintaining a comfortable grip with only 2 fingers left on the handle. I dont ever see a need to grip like that, but it works. All backed by one of the largest names in the cutlery business! That being said i really want to get my hand on nigara homono tsuchime SG2 gyuto 240mm with the western grip.

Zwilling Pro. You sure you have those knives? It says the name on the blade! No but seriously, thats a beautiful shape! For me though, i like it hard and stainless. Im a SG2 fanboy and enjoy my Miyabi Mizu blades. They are a similar price to the Zwilling Pro right now too. 150 for the 8" on the Zon. I would love to see that angled bolster become more prevalent. Chefs kiss!

Why TF can nobody spell Wüsthof* correctly?! Your keyboard might not have an umlaut key but the excessive number of Fs all over the place is just dead wrong.

@@einundsiebenziger5488 My apologies dear boy, I tend towards accuracy but in this instance, as brandonhoffman so delicately pointed out, I apparently fell far from the goal.

Knife drawer?!?!?! Get a block man.

@@thefrogking481 The block is where the knives my wife uses. Since my kitchen cutlery all have sheaths/scabbords, I keep them in a drawer to prevent them from falling into unqualified hands.

Mine are drawered too! Out of sight out of mind. I keep a sacrificial beater knife in the communal block... If your looking for a good knife. Nigara homono knives look astounding. These are wall hanger territory though, might have to negotiate with the wife. The tsuchime line is more budget friendly while not at all being a budget item. The damascus models though are correctly described as functional art. Range is 300-700 or so. I would only buy a western handle version, but thats my jam. East meets west!

@brandonhoffman4712 yup! Keeps the commoners away from them. I've recently started filling the drawer with customs tho and OMG the slicing geometry is otherworldly

I grind my own bolsters back, no problem there,just a touch every year is enough, though that Lamson has more than enough bolster ! I have mostly Sabatier “Elephant” brand knives, in a mixture of stainless and carbon steel, but all have bolsters. A knife that is used a lot lasts me about thirty years in home use.

Try looking for a Gun Smith shop a lot of times they can professionally sharpen or grind down bolsters.

I will never recommend a full bolster to anyone. It literally destroys a perfect working section of a knife to apply what i can only consider training wheels. Every good knife has 2 blade points that are fully usable, a tip and a heel. Every knife with a full bolster has blade 1 blade tip removed to protect the user. Ive never used one on my personal knives since looking into the matter and i have never had an issue. Nor am i by any means a pro in the kitchen, but i do heed their words and agree. Which leads me to wonder. Do all Wusthof's use a full bolster. Because i hear people proclaiming wusthof over zwilling. I certainly hope they arent proclaiming full bolster knives because thats borderline taliban level stuff if so! Im pretty sure the entire nation of japan has done away with the option along with the surounding regions that tend to use japanese knives. While i havent heard of full bolsters being ground, i would think a gun smith would have you covered. The bolster wont stop you from sharpening your knives if thats the concern. You can still have them sharpened or do it yourself. The quality will be better if you buy a sharpener that works similar to any TSPROF sharpener. I dont want to tell you which company to buy into, only that i have decided TSPROF is what i want even though its 500 bucks or so. That being said there are much cheaper models that use the same techniques and can hold the same type of stone. They are 6"x1" stones. With these machines you start @ your bolster and sharpen towards the tip. You should be able to get sharp right up to your bolster. To the whole group. When buying your next knife check and see if there is a CPM magnacut option. This is the future gold standard stainless for knives. Its coming around but hasnt been picked up into the majors yet. In all testing for stainless in knives it reigns supreme though. It even rivals carbon steels giving the japanese a run for their money across the board. Picture a stainless in 64 hardness that stays sharp for 2 years @ home, yet can be treated like 58 hardness german stainless like wusthof or zwilling makes.

Also my concern on grinding the bolster would be the metal hardening. Its technically called surface hardening. Grinding the bolster into blade section would reduce the metals hardness closer to stock material. You might want to look into the specific metal and how hard it is before hardening. All i can say for certain is that area will be weaker, the question is how much.

My main knife is a 10" carbon K Sabatier. Bolster reduction is a very rare thing, but might be more common if using diamond stones. Since it would involve taking off maybe an 1/8" my thinking is to put in a vice and use a file. Full bolster is mainly for comfort, as the middle finger generally rests against it when using a pinch grip.

knives*. And no, they're not. Mercers are decent, but Victorinox is just a slab of mediocre steel with a fat plastic handle, and there are plenty of knives like this for much less than the 50 bucks they usually charge for it.

Their quality is* excellent

Patina is ugly. Why create a false one and why waste food for it?

@@einundsiebenziger5488 patina is functional in that it protects the blade from additional oxidation. The other comment you made relates to personal preference

Great advice! Its something that began to worry me after realizing both that crushing garlic can bend your knife and that my knife was bent. Probably from crushing garlic. I was able to bend mine back, but it has me concerned for these types of holders. I want to get my mom one, but now i kind of want to buy a couple and check the magnet strength. Mind if i ask what brand your holder is? Im thinking different brands would use different magnets and different thicknesses of wood between knife and magnet, but who knows? For reference on the garlic. My blade is a Miyabi Mizu with a SG2 core @62 hardness. Its about 1.8mm thick and bent near the handle. It was slight, and only really noticable after i got an in drawer holder and it was lined up next to others. I also found the issue in my 5.5" prep knife, which i know ive murdered garlic with too. Fixed both and moving forward! I need to find a new beater knife. I have the $25 mercer blade. But it dulls so fast. I looked it up, its 50 hardness. I need it out of my kitchen! Im targeting 56-58 for my next beater knife. My Miyabi knives have been going almost 2 years and still cutting like a champ, though i can tell they need a haircut soonish. I can still see through my strawberry slices if i wish. Theres a knife made by meglio that i would describe as Thors beater knife. Its made from the new strongest stainless CPM Magnacut, which is truly crazy metal. But the company isnt known for "chefs tools" they mainly make survival knifes. So the blade is a beastly 2.7mm thicc of pure 64 hardness stainless that youtubers often hammer through nails to prove a point! Unfortunatley its also $300. So the only people i see buying it are those that dont fully understand their kitchen tools, or those with knife collections that warrant a $300 dollar beater knife... that being said magnacut is king, tell everybody. It even compares to japanese white and blue carbon steels which is previously unheard of. This stuff might as well be mythril!

... if you're* not careful / was really affected*

Henckels*. Zyliss makes cook wear and the knives are just a line extension that's produced by another company. And right, you could get an authentic Japanese-made knife like the "Japan-style" spyderco for less than half Spyderco's outrageous asking prize.

Is "enthusiast" a euphemism for someone who has ever used a good knife? I'd MUCH rather have 3-4 decent knives than 15+ $h¡Ty knives.

Haven't tried them -DCA

... keeping* it / abrasive* . And these thing are far less practical than conventional whetstones - more expensive, less easy to store, dangerous to use (edge facing up while sharpening).

VG10 is a good middle ground. LC200N would be dope but H1 is just such a niche steel that it really doesn’t make much sense to make kitchen knives out of it. Not with how soft and lacking in edge retention it is

I keep hearing VG-10 is a ubiquitous low-mid tier stainless that tends to be brittle. I do see it in about every japanese knife makers lower end knives. SG2 is a much better stainless and what i chose. Not only harder, but more durable as well. CPM Magnacut is venerable mythril. But its so new i havent seen any good knives intended for kitchen use made yet. Ive seen a company called meglio has one. But its quality beyond the steel is akin to the 25 dollar mercer beater knife i have. Its aproaching 3mm thick @ the spine. Which tells me its ready to hammer through cow bones... no wonder meglio mostly makes survival knives, this things a battle axe. As far as i know meglio is pur rip off. Im not even certain they do anything more than shape metal and apply a heat treat which is only 1/2 of knife making in my book. This 300 dollar blade is made using stock processes of a 30 dollar knife. Its also an american company that decided on an italian name that means best. Trying to leverage the comonality of high prices and italian heritage while saying im the best. Well Meglio is what i find to be mostly fluff. When i hear kitchen pros talk about meglio, the consensus is. "I dont want to pay that money to then have to profile the knife myself which happens to be made from some of the hardest stainless on the planet." I love CPM Magnacut, ill consider a knife made from it when its available and makes sense. Im okay with 300 if its a slice of perfection. But that meglio gyuto isnt even a gyuto by my definition. If it is its the thiccest, i consider it a boningyuto.

How about 14c28n? Stainless steel in 60hrc. Someone a couple posts up said a company called twosun makes blades using the metal for 50 bucks and that they are of superior quality refinement. I havent looked into them or even seen one, just conveying information.

Search their back catalogue of videos -- Dave's done several episodes and FAQs on sharpening.

... there* are hundreds of videos.