Miyabi makes some of the sharpest factory knives you can buy, and I’d recommend the brand to any careful cook who wants a genuinely Japanese blade with a big company behind it. Miyabi belongs to ZWILLING J.A. Henckels, the German … Read more
ZWILLING and WÜSTHOF are neighbors in Solingen, both forge their best knives from German stainless steel, and both make a chef’s knife that will outlive most of the food you cut with it. That’s why most “which is better” answers … Read more
Shun is the Japanese knife brand I’d point most American home cooks to first. The knives are made in Seki, Japan, by Kai, a company that has been making blades there since 1908. They’re very sharp out of the box, … Read more
Shun or WÜSTHOF is really a question about you, not about the knives. Shun makes thin, hard Japanese blades that glide through an onion and punish carelessness; WÜSTHOF makes thicker, tougher German blades that shrug off bones and a crowded … Read more
Do you need a special knife for sushi at home? For rolls, not really: any sharp chef’s knife cuts maki if you wet the blade. Sashimi is different. Raw fish is soft and slippery, and the moment you saw at … Read more
Ask a butcher which knife is best for meat and you’ll probably get a question back: what are you cutting? Raw steaks off a roast, a cooked turkey, a rack of ribs and a steak on your plate each want … Read more
People often call the santoku a Japanese chef’s knife, as if the two were the same tool with a different accent. They aren’t. A chef’s knife has a curved edge and a sharp point made for rocking through herbs and … Read more
A nakiri and an usuba look almost the same from the side: a rectangular blade with a flat edge for vegetables. The difference is the bevel. A nakiri is sharpened on both sides and works like any Western knife; an … Read more
A kitchen knife is sharp enough when it bites into a tomato’s skin under its own weight and slices a sheet of paper from heel to tip without snagging. If it slides off the tomato or tears the paper, it … Read more
A strop is the reason some people’s knives fall through a tomato while yours, fresh off the same stone, still feels a little grabby. Sharpening leaves behind a burr, a wire of weakened steel clinging to the very edge, plus … Read more