Knife Brand Discussion

Knife List

Most people talk about buying a forged knife, full tang, triple riveted. My response is that modern manufacturing and materials creates a quality knife — one that does not need to have a full tang or a forged blade.

A western style knife (most knives are western) are generally thicker and more durable, Japanese knives are thinner and less durable.

Wusthof

All are made in Germany, and all are good. The pricey Classic Ikon is beautiful, the budget Gourmet line are fine knives.

Henckels

Henckels has a wide variety of knives, I advise to shop carefully, don’t assume that just because it says Henckels that it is what you want. A cheap Henckel is a cheap knife.

MAC

MAC are Japanese. All good, their low priced ‘Original Series' knives are a good value.

Shun

Shun are Japanese. Not a fan. I frequently see black impurities in the steel which causes what appears to be chips along the cutting edge of some models. The Damascus models are the most troublesome, the shiny ‘ball pean hammer marks’ much better.

Global

Japanese. Nice knives, these are all steel construction, including the handles.

Miyabi

Japanese. Beautiful nice knives. Made by Henckels.

Kramer by Zwilling

Japanese. Beautiful, boutique priced knives. Made by Henckels.

Misen

Good knives.

Victorinox

Swiss made. Excellent knives are excellent prices. Usually have black plastic handles, so they don’t look fancy.

CUTCO

Made in USA. All are very good. I will say I think they have too many serrated knives in their line up, I say only own maybe three serrated knives — bread and a tomato or utility, and steak.

KAI Pure Komachi

KAI has many brands of knives, the Pure Komachi line are nice knives at a nice price. These are steel knives, but painted different colors, often sold with a color plastic sheath.

This is a list off the top of my head, a list of mostly ‘mainstream’ knives. There are plenty of knives that made for a brand, not made by the brand. Cuisinart, Kitchenaid, Farberware are some. These can offer reasonable value, but it does make it hard to determine the quality of the knife. A really nice chef’s knife may be priced in the range of $200 or so — and you will appreciate using this quality knife every day, it will cut better, stay sharp far longer, and will last decades!

PS: The knives pictured with this posting are vegetable slicing knives, the ridge (and the holes on the one) causes the slice to fall away off the blade rather than sticking, which saves time and sanity.