Knives

Knife Buyers Guide

Our team here at Cooks Knives Shop would like you to know that you are always very welcome to ask us for help or advice on knives. Our in-house knife expert, Bill Brown, gave some advice on caring for knives in a recent Readers Digest issue. This article expands upon his practical and hopefully helpful advice. With such a great range of quality cooks knives available today, it can be bewildering when one comes to make a choice of what knives will suit one best. Please remember we are here to help!

Our team have in-depth knowledge gained by being approved dealers with all the top manufacturers of knives. In addition, many of our team have extensive catering experience as chefs and restaurant owners, so we can appreciate our customers needs from a variety of aspects and viewpoints.

Knives are quite a distinct personal choice, that is why there is such a wide range of choice available. There are two primary distinctions in the range of cooks knives: Traditional European types and Japanese and oriental style. There is a crossover of some types of knife within each type. For example cooks knives or chefs knives are to be found in both Japanese style and European style ranges. Whereas a sashimi or sushi knife is likely to be found only amongst a Japanese range of knives.

Every cook requires a minimum number of knives in their Batterie de Cuisine to enable them to tackle all the various tasks involved in preparing and cooking food. Usually one can make do with a selection of around five. This selection would include cooks knife – for general chopping, slicing and mincing, carving knife, paring or peeling knife, bread knife and perhaps a tomato knife – scalloped edge to prevent slipping off the skin. This would be a basic selection of knives for a cook. In addition to these one may require knives to enable one to perform more specialist tasks, such as Ham or smoked salmon slicing – best acheived with a long scalloped blade, boning meat joints or filleting fish – flexible narrow blades to make the task easier. It’s always worth remembering that there is always a correct knife for the task. Using the right tool for the job, if you like, makes the task easier, quicker and more enjoyable. It is always a real pleasure for a cook to appreciate the quality of high quality well-balanced knives.

All knives are available individually and many are also available in sets and selections – many complete with a knife block for convenient and safe storage. Often there are valuable savings to be made by buying a knife block set which will give one usually an assortment of five knives in a storage block. At Cooks knives Shop we do some very good value packages in this area.

TRADITIONAL EUROPEAN KNIVES

Many of our ranges of these knives are supplied from traditional manufacturers, some of which have been manufacturing cooks knives for hundreds of years. Many of these manufacturers are continental, such as Henckels, Wusthof and Sabatier. Each of these manufacturers offer a very wide range of knives to suit every cooks requirements, both professional or amateur. The best quality knives are made by a process called “Drop Forging”. In this process the knife is made from a single piece of steel and forged or hammered into the required shape, it is then tempered, hardened, ground and sharpened.
Our manufacturers have their own patented processes which combine a synthesis of traditional manufacturing craftsmanship with innovative cutting edge technology. Carbon steel was always the traditional choice of European knife manufacturers. It was sharp enough to take a keen edge yet still sufficiently soft to sharpen easily. Most knife ranges have now moved away from this rather rigid approach and now utilise steel that contains an optimum mix of alloys that provides a stainless finish whilst at the same time is still easily sharpened. This approach is taken by many manufacturers of both European as well as some Japanese cooking knives.

JAPANESE AND ORIENTAL STYLE KNIVES

Japanese and oriental style knives are becoming increasingly popular amongst cooks at all levels. Some are manufactured in similar ways to European knives, for example some are made from carbon steel. Others are made in ways quite distinct from that of the European tradition – for example Damascus style or the Damascene method. The Damascus method of manufacture originated in Damascus around 1500 years ago. It involves hammering or forging the steel into a flatter shape and then turning the steel on itself and then hammering or forging again. This is done many times, indeed up to 63 in some instances. This process imparts a great strength into the steel and imparts a high degree of sharpness retention to the knife. Examples of this type of knife are the Tojiro and Kasumi knives.

Laminated steel knives take another approach to optimising the two ideals in knife construction. Laminated knives have a number of layers of different grades or types of steel used in the manufacturing process. The aim of this “sandwich” type of construction is to provide an ultimate mix of properties in the knife which will include the twin virtues of sharp edge retention and ease of sharpening. I.O. Shen knives use this technology in their fine range of cooks knives.

Some knife shapes are different to those of European knives, reflecting the different culture of oriental cuisine. Such knife shapes include sashimi and sushi knives, and also a knife called a Santoku knife. In Japanese Santoku means “three good things”, in this context Santoku meaning mincing, chopping and slicing.

OTHER CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES

In addition to different steels and alloysl, a number of high-tech processes and new materials are now used to manufacture knives. One of these new materials is titanium, which can be harder wearing than steel as well as being more flexible. Kasumi knives offer a range of high-tech titanium knives.

Ceramic knives are another new innovation in cooks knives. These use zirconium oxide as their construction material. To illustrate the hardness of this material, on the Mohs scale of hardness, diamond is the hardest material at 10, hardened steel is 605 and zirconium oxide is 8.5. Ceramic cooks knives maintain their sharpness for months or even years in normal use. To sharpen them is a professional task, and knives are best returned to ourselves or the manufacturer to undergo a professional sharpening process. Kyocera and Kasumi produce ceramic knives.

KNIFE CARE AND SHARPENING

Although some manufacturers will say that their knives will be suitable for dishwasher use, we never recommend putting any cooks knife into a dishwasher. The reason for this is that physical damage may be caused to the blade edges if they come into contact with other objects inside the dishwasher. Also the harsh chemicals used at very high temperatures in dishwashers could adversely affect the appearance and stain resistance of some steels. The best way of cleaning knives is to wash them by hand in washing up liquid and hot water, and dry them off immediately with a dry soft cloth.

High quality cooks knives should be stored carefully. Firstly, of course they are very sharp so they should be kept out of the way of children or anyone who may accidentally injure themselves. The objective is also to keep each individual knife in its own space so that it cannot rub or clash against anything that could cause damage to the blade edge. Knife storage blocks are a simple way of achieving this. If worktop space is limited you may wish to consider a magnetic knife rack which fits on the wall yet holds knives securely out of harms way.

Sharpening knives may be undertaken in a number of ways. It is always necessary to take into consideration the type of knife one wants to sharpen when choosing a knife sharpener. Please take a look under individual makes and types of knife on the Cooks Knives Shop website when making a choice. The main options for knife sharpening are as follows:

Sharpening steels are the traditional method of sharpening. Used by butchers and chefs alike, they can be simple, quick and effective. A certain degree of skill and technique is required so they may not be for everyone. Although usually called “sharpening steels” they can also be made from diamond or ceramic material.

Pull-through sharpeners are simple to use and very quick and effective too. Make sure that you choose the correct one for the types of knives you wish to sharpen as they do differ greatly!

Whetsones give possibly the best of all results to most knives, but it is a time-consuming method that requires practice and experience to be carried out properly and effectively. Again, depending on what type of knife is to be sharpened your choice of whetstone and the technique employed in using it will vary. Whetstones may be made from stone, ceramic or diamond materials.

Electric knife sharpeners are available in a wide range of different types. They are very useful, being both effective, quick and labour saving. At Cooks knives shop we have models suitable for serious amateur cooks as well as for use in professional kitchens. Once again, the choice of model; depends upon which knives one wishes to sharpen.

Full information on all types of knife sharpeners may be found within the information relating to our different ranges of knives.

Link to BBC Cooks Knives Information