Chef's Knives, Kitchen Cutlery

This page is about and is dedicated to chef's knives and cutlery, kitchen knives, cook's knives, professional food service knives, meal prep knives, tools, and accessories comprising of but not limited to cutting tools, knives, choppers, cleavers, used to and for slicking, chunk, julienne, butterfly, chopping spices, cubing, dicing, scoring, shredding, brunoise, preparing stir-fry, slicing bread, fining, grinding, carving, and separating foods, ingredients, and components.

The Custom Approach

Chef and meal prep knives and cutlery are the most common knives seen. Every household has these kind of knives, and they probably see the most duty of any knife. So why is it that they are usually the cheapest made knives from the poorest materials? Most people simply don't know what constitutes a fine knife. Sadly, most people have never even seen a fine knife. After all these years, when people are introduced to fine custom knives, I still hear the comment: "I had no idea that this kind of knife existed!" The comment is usually accompanied by childlike amazement and appreciation. Yes, you can prep a meal and outfit a kitchen with cheap knives. But with the value, serviceability, and joy of using a fine custom tool, why would you want to?

Another point is appearance. The one item that is usually left out on the kitchen counter for all to see is the knives. They are nowadays mostly sheathed in a block, with their handles protruding upward for all to notice and admire. Mostly, these handles are black plastic, and on more expensive factory knives, metal. How cold, impersonal, and sad is that? Imagine a fine artistic sculpted block, with exotic hardwood or gemstone handles accenting your fine kitchen. People are now starting to value the most often used kitchen tool, in the most often used room in the household, the kitchen.

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Featured: Vega

Vega Master Chef's Knife

Crocidolite Chef's Set

Chef's set, Crocidolite: 440C high chromium mirror polished hollow ground martensitic stainless tool steel blades, nickel silver dovetailed and polished bolsters, quartz/crocidolite gemstone handles. Block: maple, black walnut, with rock maple base and seed and nut block, spice block contoured to fit spice chopper. This fine set of chef's knives includes a bread knife with "theatre curtain" hand shaped serrations, Vega master chefs knife, French Chef sabatier, ultra-thin boning knife, La Cocina fruit and utility knife, small paring knife, and hemispherical-edged spice and nut chopper. The block is made of 32 pieces of black walnut, maple, and rock maple for durability. All the knives have matching handles, matching filework, and are hollow ground with fully tapered tangs.  

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The lineup:

and here they are!

What are chef's knives and why are they different?

Interest in fine chef's knives is on the rise. This is probably because as factory produced knives increase in cost, the investment to properly outfit and equip a chef approaches that of custom knifemakers. Most professional chefs are covetous of their knives and tools, indeed a fine custom knife set can personalize, identify, and set a chef apart. Ask a professional chef what he most values and he'll probably tell you his knives. But how professional is he if he's carrying around factory produced, inferior tools? Read about factories and their dirty little secrets on my "Blades" page here.

True chef's knives can be works of art. They're very different in geometry, style, and temper than other knives. here are some of the points:

• A good piece of professional chef's cutlery starts with a good blade. This doesn't mean an ornamental blade, though style, appearance, and artistic value can be well applied here. What I'm talking about is the steel. Fine quality martensitic high alloy stainless tool steels are the best. Get more details about these knife steels on the FAQ page here and the "Blades" page here.  Carbon steels and non-stainless damascus steels are not a good choice. Why? Because high carbon steels will flat-out rust if not meticulously cared for, and that doesn't often happen in the kitchen. Carbon steels will corrode, and the steel that corrodes goes somewhere... usually into the food. Also, because the overall blade corrodes, that means that the cutting edge corrodes, so they dull faster. Carbon steels sometimes have a greater following though, because they're easily sharpened. So the incorrect perception is that they are better, because they seem to be sharper, and sharpen easily. Stainless steel got a bad reputation in the 1960s and 1970s, due to the cheap 420 series and 440A stainless blades that were sold as bargain, universal, forever-sharp knives. They're still sold as such, but they're just thin, weak, stainless springs, and not tools.
• The blade must have a thin cutting edge. Very thin. Wafer thin. See-through. Most factory knives used in food prep work are too thick and heavy. This kind of work demands speedy movement, fairly light weight, and a razor keen edge. That's why my chef's knives are popular, I'm known for some of the thinnest hollow grinds in the business. The only exception to this rule is for cleavers or nut and spice choppers, which must be thick and heavy for strength. 
• The blade should be hollow ground, but it is not an absolute requirement, particularly on thin blades. Look at the different grind descriptions on my blades page here. You'll see that the thinnest, sharpest grind is the hollow grind, and it also has the greatest longevity. The last thing you need is a thick, dull blade to try to cut through meat or vegetables. See the discussion of hollow grind vs. flat grind below.  Most current and available knives for cooking are flat ground. Flat ground knives are okay, but after repeated sharpenings they can thicken at the edge, requiring a regrinding by machine. But flat ground knives are easy to make, and cheap, they don't use much steel, so they're popular. The best reason for me to make a flat ground knife is if the steel stock it 1/16" (.0625") or less, where a hollow grind is impossible. So flat and taper grinds do have their place.
• The knife must last. See the previous point. A hollow grind allows the easiest sharpening because it has the thinnest cross-sectional area, and remains thin over the longest time. Very thin knives are flat or taper ground. Since kitchen cutlery is the most used of any knife, it makes sense to have a long lasting blade.
• The blade must be tough. Tough means resistant to breakage. Yes, these knives will be used to lightly chop. They will contact bone, nut shells, and will get in a bind while cutting through tough meats, tissue, and  fibers. For all that will be asked of them, they must be tough enough for the task, and not brittle. That is up to the knife maker, his choice of steel, and how he hardens and tempers the blade.
• The blade must be hard. This is where factory knives fall on their face. Factories do not typically use steels that can be both hard and tough, so they settle for tough. Like a spring, they will flex, but not break. But they will dull quickly, and are usually left and used dull, because they are made with thin stock. A hard knife will hold an edge longer, and therefore last many, many years longer.
• The knife must be wear-resistant. Again, this is a failure of most plain carbon steels. Since they only have iron carbides, not chromium carbides, tungsten carbides, or vanadium carbides in their crystalline lattice, wear is quicker on carbon steel blades, and much slower on high alloy tool steels.
• The knife must be clean, and it has to be able to be cleaned. First, if your dealing with a carbon steel knife and not a stainless steel knife, you might ask yourself where small particles of high carbon steel end up... in your food? High carbon steel corrodes, so it rusts away, and the cutting edge corrodes away as it is being used. Though this "wear" is slight, it will flavor your food  with steel. Sure, not many can tell, but this free corrosion has another negative impact. Since the blade corrodes faster, the cutting edge corrodes faster, therefore, it dulls faster. Since the steel can corrode, it cant' really be cleaned as well as a mirror-polished stainless steel. Also, moisture (what food prep knife does not remain damp) will accumulate and remain beneath bolsters and handle, and eventually corrode away, causing the metal to fracture, or at the least, lead to leaching of condensation back onto your food. Yuk. Worst case scenario? The corrosion cuts through the tang underneath the handle at the ricasso, and the knife breaks.
• Which leads us to knife construction. Plastic molded against a steel handle will eventually gap. Wood will gap, check, crack, shrink, and loosen, unless stabilized. I know of no major manufacturer who uses stabilized wood on their chef's knives. Stabilized wood is wood that's been impregnated with nearly 20,000 pounds per square inch of polymer or phenolic resin. It becomes a block of plastic, with wood fibers running through it. Yes, it is expensive, but it is virtually waterproof. Any dissimilar materials use in the knife construction must be mechanically and adhesively bonded, sealed, and secure. Phenolics are good, but with both woods and phenolics, high heat must be avoided. Gemstone is, of course, permanent, non-absorbing, hard and beautiful. Read more about gemstone handles here.
• All-metal handles are a bad choice. Unless you're working, wearing gloves, in an assembly line kitchen or packing plant where the knives will be tossed into the dishwasher/sterilizer, metal handles should be avoided. They are cold, lifeless, uncomfortable to grip, and pretty ugly. Softer metals like aluminum will wear off on your hand, tarnish, and corrode. Just rub a piece of aluminum and then smell your hand (I'll bet you're wondering about those aluminum pots and pans now).  Most metal handles used on expensive factory knives are welded to the tang of the knife for a forged appearance, but they're still a bad choice.
• The fine chef's knife must have a sheath or custom storage block, rack, device, or holder. If the knife will travel with the chef (executive chefs are typical traveling users of very fine custom made cutlery), then the knife needs protected, and the person transporting it needs protected. Knife edges will be damaged by stainless steel sinks and counters, pots and pans, utensils, ceramics, tiles, stone countertops, and other knives. A fine knife is a fine tool and must be treated as such. The most destructive thing for a knife edge to encounter is another knife blade. Blades can be dulled, dented, chipped, and worn by storage in a common drawer with other utensils.
• The knife must be balanced for its use. This is probably the number one offense of factory knives. They are designed by people who work at a computer terminal, not with their hands. The CNC (computer numerically controlled) mills and machines that cut these knives out by the millions are given instructions by a CAD/CAM (computer aided design/computer aided machining) program. That means that the knife is designed in flat profile for appearance, and handle shapes and weights may be an afterthought. This is quite different than a custom knife designed by a person who works with their hands, every day for their entire life, for a living. There is no easy formula for the weight, balance, and feel of a fine custom knife. It is a matter of touch, grace, feel, and practice matching the knife with the intended purpose. But what is balance, after all? Does it mean that a blade must have a balance point exactly on the center of the forefinger placement? How can this be possible if you have a large blade with a wide profile? Some reasoning must be applied here. Some knives are blade-heavy by design. Some are handle-heavy. Every knife is different, and every client is different. A knife handle designed for a woman's hand is different from one designed for a big burly male chef. Do you get any choices of handle sizes and shapes with a factory? No.
• The handles must be comfortable to use. The reality is that hands are different; hands are active and dynamic. From a guy that uses his hands and hand tools every day, I can tell you that a small butt and a large forefinger area on a kitchen knife is impractical, uncomfortable, and will lead to cramping.  But there is no universal handle here. Each can be different and custom. Also, each person holds a knife differently. Most texts suggest pinching a chef's knife at the blade, with the palm of the hand resting on the handle spine. Then, it doesn't really matter what size your handle is, you're going to tire of squeezing the blade. If you need a custom handle shape and size, be sure of the dimensions before you order your knife. Then let the factory know what shape and size.... uh-oh. Never mind.
• Glass cutting "boards" should be outlawed. Glass (silicon dioxide) is a 5 on the mohs scale. The mohs scale is a scale of hardness applied to rocks and minerals. Rocks are hard, abrasive, and can wear a steel edge down. A fine custom knife blade is usually a 6 on the same scale, but just because something is harder doesn't mean it won't wear. Glass cutting surfaces (ceramic tiles and stone countertops are worse) will wear and abrade away the cutting edge of a knife. You wouldn't use a rock as a cutting surface, so why use glass? Debates rage about the sterility  and hygienic properties of wood vs. plastic cutting surfaces. Some say the tannic acid in wood limits bacterial growth, and plastics can be bleached and sterilized. Apply your own logic and preferences here, but please, please NEVER use a glass or ceramic as a cutting surface, you will most surely dull your knife, shorten its life, and ruin your investment!

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Cyele Chef's Knife

Featured: "Cyele" fine chef's, kitchen knife. Hollow ground and mirror finished 440C high chromium martensitic stainless tool steel blade, nickel silver bolsters and pins, ivory micarta (phenolic) handle. Slip sheath of kydex and nickel plated steel screws. The knife is smooth lined, with no filework and a slight drop down for pinch holding over a board. The dovetailed bolsters lock in the ivory micarta, the toughest phenolic made. The rear bolster has a through-tang lanyard for hanging. The slip sheath is all kydex, and protects the blade while transporting. This is a very fine knife.

What about flat grinds and hollow grinds in chef's knives?

There is endless discussion among knife people and chef's about knives: their construction, the materials, the design, shapes, and geometry. Everyone has their own opinion, and usually they are absolutely certain that they are right, and therefore, everyone else is wrong. Often, they set out on forums and discussion boards to prove their point, if for nothing else, to justify their own purchase, passion, and endorsement of a certain type of knife. The buyer loyalty of knives can be a powerful incentive, and no one wants to consider that there may be another option than one they've chosen.

The argument of flat grind vs. hollow grind invariably comes up. I go into those differences on my "Blades" page here. The truth is, the first main concern of a chef is the cutting edge. Is the edge razor sharp? After repeated sharpenings, will the blade geometry and the cross section be thin enough to allow another razor edge? After more and more sharpenings, and as the blade is used up (in a custom handmade knife, this should be decades), will the grind allow a thin enough steel to allow a low sharpening angle, and a razor edge? The truth is, flat ground blades thicken at a faster rate of use than a hollow grind, unless they are very thin (.0625" or less). This is clearly illustrated and described in detail on the "Blades page." That is why that the hollow-ground straight razor has the keenest, sharpest, most formidable cutting edge. Simply put, it is very thin at the edge, and therefore can be made very sharp. That is why ALL cutting edges are verbally compared to a "RAZOR," specifically, a hollow-ground straight razor.

This does not mean that flat grinds can not also be very thin and sharp: they can. Usually, a flat grind is used on a chef's knife that does not have substantial thickness in the spine, and is very thin anyway (1/16" or less). I use flat grinds, too, but not too often, and only on thin stock, as my clients greatly appreciate my ultra-thin hollow grinds. A flat grind often has a problem of foodstuffs stick to the flat side of the blade because of surface tension, and the hollow grind can allow air to come between the steel and the material being cut, allowing a cleaner release. Addition of milled holes, slots, and surface texture may help both knives.

Because the cutting edge and the cross-sectional blade geometry just behind the cutting edge must be very flat, flat  ground knives used by chefs are usually very thin and lightweight. This often is in opposition to hollow ground knives which are heavier and usually have more "beef." This is a design consideration, and if lightweight, thin, fillet type knives are desired the flat or taper grind may be the way to go.

The largest consideration here is usually overlooked by knife buyers, and that is one of manufacturing. It is far easier and cheaper to flat grind a knife with automated equipment than to hollow grind and mirror finish. A flat grind can be done completely by machines and jigs, but the hollow grind can not be, particularly when both types of grinds are finely finished. Any machine can do an initial rough grind, but not a finished grind, due to geometric changes in the circumferential size of the cut with changing abrasive grits. Without going into technical specifics, I'll say simply that machine finishes of flat grinds are simpler, and manufacturers know this, and extensively hype flat knives to keep their manufacturing costs low. Also, a very thin piece of steel is cheaper overall, so the investment in materials by the manufactures is lower. There are knife makers who continue this misperception, and my opinions are unlikely to change their mind. All you have to ask for, as a custom knife client, is to ask them to see their hollow ground, mirror finished blades, and watch them squirm.

Knife design, finish, and purchase is a matter of informed choices. I'm thankful that my clients have chosen me, and I'll continue to listen to their input, and make the kind of knives they ask for. That's what this is all about. And if clients request flat and taper ground blades, I make those too!

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Granite Chef's Set

Chef's set: Granite. This is a fine Chef's set with six knives, and a beautiful matching custom block. The knives are made of 440C high chromium martensitic stainless tool steel, hardened and tempered to various tempers depending on their shape and intended use. The knives are all hollow ground, mirror polished, and beautiful. The bolsters are 304 austentitic stainless steel, which is a high nickel, high chromium stainless steel, for zero care and extremely high corrosion resistance with toughness. The handles are all matching, a gorgeous orthoclase feldspar granite, which has a wonderful, nearly labradorescent play of light and color. The stand is made of very hard and tough native American Pecan, with spacers of American Black Walnut with a fine hard waxed and smooth finish. The graduated blades rest in a "stair step" display, which is very attractive from all angles. I tried to follow the stepped pattern with the artistic application of granite end blocks, all highly polished and finished. The block is stable, strong, and the custom sockets fit the knives in matching form.

The Paring knife is just the right size for the hand and comfortable to hold. The La Cocina has the thickest, hardest blade, for very durable cutting, fruits, nuts, and utility uses. The Boning knife is very thin and tapered and will also work well for filleting. The French Chef's Sabatier is a classic style of knife, with a very sharp usable point. The Vega master chef's knife is a new classic large and thin knife that is perfect for vegetables and meats. The Bread knife has my custom hand-cut razor sharp serrations that sail through hard, crusty breads with no tearing. This is a serious, well made custom set.

Why do you have those crazy serrations on your bread knives?

If you look long enough at this page, you'll be able to spot my bread knives by the serrations on the blade. This type of serration has evolved in my own work and from use and customer feedback over the decades. The shape of the blade is specifically suited to penetrate hard crusted loaves, yet cut through soft bread with a minimum of tearing. Bread is especially difficult to slice, because of the differing hardness of in the loaf. If a knife edge were super-thin and smooth, it would be perfect for cutting thin slices of the softer parts (like a scalpel), but would merely glide over the hard and sometimes tough crust. Add nuts or other hard or tough material to the loaf, and the task becomes even more difficult. The shape of these arcing "theatre curtain" serrations creates enough localized pressure to penetrate the crusts, and offer enough angled edges to slice inside the softer parts. The edge may look highly inconsistent, but it is extremely thin, sharp and keen all along the serration curves. The feedback from these knives has been great. You won't see this much on factory knives, as the blade shape and grind can only usually be hand-made, and must be hand-sharpened. Factories are only interested in serrations that can be milled on automated machinery, thus the frequent appearance of fine, machine-cut continual teeth to create a more abrasive cutting edge. Factory serrations created this way will tear through most breads creating plenty of crumbs. Great for the knife manufacturer, not so great for performance.

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What about gemstone on chef's knives?

Just like most of my other gemstone handled knives, I receive a lot of questions about the use of gemstone for custom knife handles. People have concerns. Are they slippery, are they durable, are they expensive? Why would one use gemstones, when no one else does? I'll try to answer all those concerns in this section.

Reasons: Probably the main reasons for using gemstone in the construction of a chef's knife handle are beauty, originality, and value. Because the materials, effort, and skill required to mount and finish gemstone on a knife tang are rare and difficult, gemstone is seldom used in any knife handle. Therein also lies the value. Nothing manmade has the appearance and beauty of gemstone, and each piece is unique. The investment value of a gemstone handled knife always increases at a greater rate than knives handled with more common materials. So, beauty, originality, and long term value are the major reasons I use gemstone on my finer knives, including chef's knives.

Economy is not a reason to use gemstone on the handmade or custom knife. It is not cheap to acquire, work, construct, and finish gemstone, and this is the reason you don't see more of it used. Specialized equipment and practiced skill are required to properly fit and finish gem, and few artists and craftsmen have the background or practice. If you're looking for an economical or cheap chef's knife, you're in the wrong place at any custom knife maker's web site. I am committed only to making the finest pieces, not the cheapest. Gemstone handled knives may bring the price up for each knife from $100 to $300, depending on the gemstone used. Some gemstone (like fine lapis lazulii) may add thousands of dollars to the cost of one knife.

Mounting: Though you may see pins used to mount many knife handles, you'll seldom see them used in gemstone handled knives. Pins are necessary to stabilize and support wood, horn, bone, and ivory handles, as they have a large propensity to move, expand and contract, absorb moisture and dry, shrink and swell, work loose from the knife tang, and crack. This may allow moisture to accumulate and remain between the handle material and the tang, further accelerating corrosion, perhaps even allowing the entire tang to crack, snap, and fail. Gemstones are mounted in a different fashion; they use hidden pins or mounts, and are bedded to the handle somewhat like a fine gun action is fitted and mounted to a stock. In an effort to display the gemstone faces completely, pins seldom are brought completely through to the surface of the stone. The bedding allows a sealed joint between the tang, bolsters, and the gem material, and since the gemstone does not expand and contract or react to moisture or contaminants, security and longevity is assured. In the several thousand gemstone handled knives I've made, I've never had one of my standard gem mounts fail. Many of these knives have been in daily use for decades.

Grip security may be an issue on chef's knives, as hands may often be wet. Gemstones are usually smoothly polished, so it would seem that the handle might be slippery when wet. Of course, most other finished handles are also finely and smoothly finished, including plastics, hardwoods, and metals. Though there are some materials that get tacky when moist, they are few. So if the issue of grip security is so large, why is it that the industrial standard for knife handles is a smooth finish? With a rough surface, you face the possibility of skin irritation and abrasion on any type of handle material. If you use a knife for twenty minutes a day (a very long time for the home chef), you probably wouldn't notice the roughly finished handle irritating your skin. But if you are a professional chef who may work with a knife in his hand for several hours a day, you will suffer the consequences and pain of a poor finish and a rough surface texture. I discuss in depth on my Military Combat and Tactical Knife page here about surface texture verses handle shape, and illuminate why the shape of the handle is more important to grip security than the surface texture. 

You can read more details and see many examples of gemstone handled knives on my Gemstone Knife Handles Page here. There are more details about Knife Handles, Fittings, Bolsters, and Guards in general on this page.

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Scapolite Chef's Set

Featured above and below:

Chef's Knife Set, Scapolite: Hand-Engraved 440C high chromium martensitic stainless tool steel, engraved 304 stainless steel bolsters, scapolite gemstone handles. Display block: rock hard maple, paduk exotic hardwood, inlays of scapolite gemstone cabochons. Knives from top to bottom: French Chef's knife, Boning, La Cocina, and Paring (From the patterns page here).  An interesting fact about these knives is that the gemstone is actually florescent, that is, it glows with bright yellow spots under a high ultraviolet  lamp (or black light). The owner has them displayed under a uv lamp for effect.

Some Insight About Factory Chef's Knives

A client sent me an article clipped from the New York times about knife sharpening and the "legendary" skills of the Japanese in making blades and having a better cutting edge. It was the usual knife hype from a mass-market industry, and I evaluated and wrote:

"Hi, B. Thanks for the article clipping. It's interesting how little people actually know about the cutting edge. There is no mystique, no legendary knife style or unique quality necessary for a very sharp, very long lasting cutting edge. It's simple, really: the blade behind the cutting edge must be as thin as possible, and the sharpening angle as low as possible. There are other considerations, of course, being the type of steel, and the geometry of the grind, and the intended use of the knife. Chef's cutlery is ground as thin as is reasonably possible. In some ways, the chef's knife is one of the toughest to make by hand, and I grind them incredibly thin. I also use a hollow grind, something you will seldom, if ever, see in a factory chef or kitchen knife. Factories flat grind the thin blades on automated machines, and though the flat grind is initially sharp, it will get much thicker with the first and successive sharpenings. I detail this on my Blades page here.

When I got into knives, I looked for the ultimate resource on the cutting edge. What I found was a man who had made a living for over 35 years as a sharpening consultant to the textile and meat packing industry. Now in industry, these guys don't screw around. They don't have time for confusing and mystical gimmicks or hyperbole. They must have the sharpest cutting edges, for the longest time, with a technique that is clear, maintainable, and very sharp. If you've ever seen the "line" at a packing plant, it is an amazing thing- the people are whipping meat off the bone at an incredible pace! The knives are super-razor keen, and they wear special Kevlar or stainless steel cut-resistant gloves for protection from the blades. In textile plants, razor sharp wheels, shears, and blades cut through thousands of miles of materials, without snagging or tearing. This guy advised them on how to maintain their cutting edges. His name was John Juranich, and he wrote a good, short, concise book on what he knew. It's called "Razor Edge Sharpening" and it's available on his website (run by his family, I think) They also sell gadgets on their site that help you maintain that sharpening angle, but I don't recommend them on a custom knife, because they clamp on to the spine of the knife and can mar the finish. But the resource and technique is worth it, and that's why I recommend Juranich's book on every knife care sheet I supply with every knife. I can't live long enough to have the experience this man has had sharpening blades, so I use what he learned.

About the companies selling kitchen knives: these types of knives are a big volume business. They rely upon continuous sales in a pretty low end market. There is a heap of competition in what they do, so the only way they can be successful is by selling more units at a higher price than the competition. So, the industry relies upon an immense and embarrassing amount of hype. There are no 'legendary' kitchen knives, anywhere in history, no matter what they say. Here's a comparison: In the days of old, the musicians, jesters, actors, and entertainers were some of the lowest class, lowest paid, taking bones thrown from the King's court as payment for their services. Today, they are hyped by our culture and media's hunger for dollars to a point of absurd payment for their services, some have become "idols." Is their talent really that precious? Or is it a twisted part of capitalism that has somehow skewed our values? The same can be said of kitchen knives. Kitchen knives are common, mostly cheap and every household has them, but somehow these companies try to hype the quality of their cheap knives for a greater return.

Here's a prime example from the article: the difference of having a relief angle and edge on one side of the blade is not some great advantage to the end user of the knife, its one of savings in manufacturing! It's cheaper and simpler to take a thin blade blank, put a relief angle only on one side, cut your machining expenses in half, and then hype it up as some great benefit. It makes no difference whether the compound angles come from one side or two, a low angle is possible with both methods, and thus, there is no sharper knife. What it says to me is that these Asian cutlery firms are competing with the dominant German firms for moderately priced kitchen cutlery, in a world where people are starting to realize that they don't want a "Ginsu" kitchen knife sitting on the counter of their very expensive and important kitchen. That's where fine custom knives come in. Factories can't even come close... "

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Why do the knives you classify as Chefs knives have sheaths?

You will notice a lot of sheaths with the knives on this page. Conventional wisdom is that a sheath knife is for the "field." The truth is, a sheath protects the knife and the owner. If you're going to store your knife in a drawer banging into other knives and kitchen tools, your expensive custom knife is going to get dinged, have the edge dulled, and get torn up. The sheath will offer protection. The worst enemy of a knife is another knife and other metal kitchen tools. Also, many of the knives shown are dual purpose, that is both utility knives and chef's knives. Some are well suited to boning, dressing, and carving. Some have more elegant displays. There is no "rule" about knives, and some of my clients insist on taking a fine sheath knife to even the best restaurants, where all they have to offer to carve a thick steak is a worn-out thin stainless steel spring saw the restaurant calls a steak knife. When the knife owner pulls out his fine custom knife, people at the table (and sometimes other tables) beg him to use it when they see it glide through the meat. Yes, some of the knives have blocks or stands, some have sheaths. Some sheaths are kydex, some are leather. Protection for the owner and the knife is important, and sometimes a big bulky counter block takes up just too much precious counter space.

       ←Read more about these fine fillet, boning, and carving knives here and here.

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Chef's knives and kitchen cutlery patterns, styles, applications, and photographs

While many different knife shapes can be used in the kitchen and the type of knife varies from chef to chef, there are some standards that have proven track records in the art of cooking and meal prep. These are usually recognizable knife shapes, but not always. There are no rigid rules about what knife to use for each task, so the variety can become bewildering. In my 340+ knife patterns, certain knives have been specifically used by chefs, many other blade and handle designs are used by cooks, but span type styles for other uses.

Boning	Bosque	Bosque
Chef's	China Grove	Cygnus
Fishers Filet	Ruidoso	La Cocina
La Cocina	La Cocina	La Cocina
Little Tusas	Marfak	Mirach
Mirach		Sanchez Boning
Santa Fe	Santa Fe	Silverton
Talitha	Willows	Vega
Cyele	Tharsis	Sasserides
Saussure	Santa Fe, Orbicular Jasper	Pherkad

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