ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Wusthof's 8-inch classic chef's knife is a workhorse in the kitchen. It didn’t feel quite as sharp and precise as MAC and others. This Japanese-style chef's knife lies at the higher end of the spectrum when it comes to price, but it rests at the top of most best lists online for a reason: it's a fantastic product. If you cook big cuts of meat often, one of these is probably the best for you. A note on keeping your knives sharp: You can buy the best knife there is, but eventually you will need to sharpen it or it will be useless. If you’re most comfortable with a very lightweight knife and want one that’s easy to care for, this is the knife for you. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. (Weight: 9.2 ounces. I've used the knife daily for a few weeks, along with subjecting it to the same tests as the other knives on this list, and the blade, though certainly dulling over time, has maintained its edge more effectively than other blades. I also more recently tested the $445 Chef's Knife from American company Artisan Revere. Our procedures blended five tests -- slicing tomatoes, dicing onions, mincing leafy herbs, chopping carrots and breaking down chickens -- each with a 1-to-10 rating, with more general use and observation. In fact, you'll likely want to invest in a knife sharpener to get a sharp edge once you buy a chef's knife. It feels almost alive in your hand, super light, and extremely agile. That said, the Artisan Revere will likely need sharpening fairly often, just like any other knife, if you want it to keep its edge. (Weight: 6.46 ounces. I often found myself reaching for it when I wasn’t working—it rivaled (but didn’t surpass) the MAC and Misono for razor sharpness and spring. In fact, it was my top pick for a few months before being unseated by Global's knife. (Weight: 8.92 ounces), Miyabi Evolution 8-Inch (available at zwilling.com), This is a really good knife, a Japanese-German hybrid, with a flat-sided wooden handle and a very sharp, very hard blade with a relatively wide, curved belly. And a very hard, very sharp edge can also be more delicate and brittle than a softer one, making cutting up a heavy squash, say, a little risky to the blade. Hayward calls it “a living hell” to keep it sharpened correctly. I wrote about knife sharpeners in a separate story. You shouldn’t need to sharpen a knife every two weeks. It was one of the best of all the knives at cutting up chicken—giving Wüsthof a run for its money—but was also surprisingly adept at slicing tomatoes, supreming oranges, and dicing onion. We’ve assembled a list of 50 of the world’s most reliable, inexpensive wines – bottles that offer amazing quality for their price year in and year out. Credit: It’s intensely personal. Missed an installment? Even a stove can be optional—you can do without it to make a salad, say, or tartare, but a good chef’s knife is indispensable. For $50, J.A. It’s light and feels balanced, with a shape that’s natural and easy to control. Hands-down, the biggest surprise of my testing was the performance of Mercer's $16 Culinary Millennia 8-inch chef's knife. It's well-balanced and honestly felt the most like an extension of my arm as I prepped various veggies, fruits and meats in my tests. It also requires professional sharpening: One of the secrets to this knife’s amazingness is the fact that it is honed to an asymmetrical edge—one side is 70 degrees and one is 30 degrees, so you have to buy a left-handed or a right-handed model. The high carbon stainless steel makes it quite hard, but also has a dose of molybdenum, which lessens brittleness and makes the metal more flexible, less likely to chip. This knife is a joy. The Wusthof was my original favorite knife until I got my hands on the Mac and Global Japanese-style knives, and it still stands up as a top-of-the-line option. It’s a long, thin grip that’s completely smooth, without any contour at all, and though it looks beautiful, it felt slippery and small in my hand. When I used the Wusthof to break down a bird, it felt as though I'd been using the knife for years. There's nothing worse than a dull knife when cutting, chopping and slicing, so edge retention should be a priority. That said, the Wusthof classic is perfectly balanced between the handle and blade, and it has a heel to protect your fingers, which makes it feel all the safer to wield. Global's 8-inch option is well-balanced and meets all your usual mise en place needs. It was the second-lightest knife I tested, only slightly heavier than the Misono, but it doesn’t require special knowledge to sharpen. I wanted to approach the procedures as the average home cook would, focusing on general use and experience. (However, a knifemaker can mitigate that brittleness by adding another element to the mix: Molybdenum, for instance, is often used to give a very hard steel more flexibility.) I also avoided overemphasizing sharpness, as factory sharpness doesn't really tell you much about a blade beyond its first few weeks or months of use. Artisan Revere's main problem? So before hitting "buy" on Amazon or tossing the cheapest knife in the cart on your next outing, it's important to ask yourself two questions: What does a chef's knife offer, and what do you need it for in the kitchen? Hayward says that he likes to relax at night with a glass of wine and a whetstone and painstakingly sharpen his hundreds of knives. Henckels (available at amazon.com), Bob Kramer is one of the most important knife-makers in the United States—his handmade knives cost thousands and thousands of dollars and have long waitlists. (Weight: 8 ounces. Bring a bag of overripe tomatoes with you to the knife store. It supremes an orange quickly and precisely. You could keep buying those generic $10 knives from the store every time your knife gets dull, but if you're really serious about upping your kitchen game, a high-quality chef's knife is one of the best investments you can make. We've also written about how to sharpen a knife correctly. (Though I used kitchen shears to cut through the chicken ribs to separate the breast from the back, as no chef’s knife is really meant to cut through bone, only through joints and cartilage.) Both are made of a slightly softer steel than the best Japanese knives, and therefore they feel a little less sharp. I took into account the type of steel used in the knife's construction (most are high-carbon steel), the method (whether it was forged or stamped) and the general design (full-tang knives, for instance, last longer than blades attached to a distinct handle). I also didn’t love the feel of the textured plastic grip. )>, Wüsthof Classic 8-inch Cook’s Knife (available at amazon.com), J.A. The combination of the razor-like blade and the familiar, comfortable blade shape and handle were, for me, what made it the very best choice overall. Those tasks tell you almost everything you need to know about whether a knife is nimble and sharp, sturdy and powerful, and above all, comfortable and secure-feeling. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission. A knife is probably the only kitchen tool you must use every single time you prepare food. If you are in the market for a heavy German knife, it may make sense to try them both. But it can be easier to re-sharpen, and better for heavier-duty jobs, like splitting bone-in chicken breasts, without worry that you’re going to damage the blade. They are just different, especially in terms of the way they feel and move in your hand. Food & Wine is part of the Meredith Corporation Allrecipes Food Group. Humans’ reliance on knives goes way, way back—some scientists say that what really made us human was the moment when, about two and a half million years ago, some pre-human ancestor used a crude stone blade to cut up a carcass. ), This was my first knife—I saved for it for months when I was in my early 20s, so I have a soft spot for it. ), Shun Sora 8-inch Chef’s Knife (available at amazon.com), This is a scalpel-sharp knife with a very thin, nimble, extremely hard blade (about 61 on the Rockwell Hardness Scale) with a long, tapered tip.