WHAT ARE THE KITCHEN KNIVES I NEED?

A chef's knife or santoku, a petty knife, a paring knife, and maybe a bread knife.

10 MINUTE READ

BY: DAVID OLKOVETSKY & THE A/R KNIFE TEAM

There are dozens of different knife styles, and hundreds of minor differences in kitchen cutlery. In this article, we're going to cut through the noise and tell you what the most useful knives are and why they're useful. Before we dive into the knife styles, let's refresh on the 5 things ALL knives absolutely must have to be considered quality knives.

1. A knife should be extremely comfortable and never give you calluses,

2. A knife should cut well as a result of good edge geometry,

3. A knife should come with a razor sharp edge and be easily re-sharpened,

4. A knife's edge should stay sharp for an very long time, and,

5. A knife should be hard to chip if used correctly.

So, let's start talking about quality kitchen knives, and peaking under the hood to show what most makers get wrong, and only a few do right. Here's the TLDR:

Thin but strong edges, superior steel, better ergonomics, and refined fit & finish.

Contents

What Kitchen Knives Do I Need?

All good knives have a few things in common. They need to be sharp. They should have an edge that's as thin as practical for the application without getting chippy, i.e. tough. And, of extreme importance to us: all knives should be ridiculously comfortable. They should be a pleasure to use and you should never feel afraid of cutting yourself.

The Chef's Knife: King of the Kitchen

Chef’s Knife: This is your daily driver. Your workhorse. The Artisan Revere chef’s knife comes razor sharp and stays that way for a very very long time. It’s thin behind the edge (12.5 thousandths behind the edge thickness) and has superb geometry overall. This means you don’t need to be an olympic powerlifter or professional arm wrestler to get through your meal prep.

Side note: As I write this, I’m 36 years old. I’m a pretty fit former athlete, and I work with my hands a lot, obviously. They don’t get tired easily. But I recently used a friend's Cuisinart knives. You know, the ones colored red, green, etc., which I personally sharpened that same day. It should come as no surprise, but I was tired before I finished processing a single onion! I made a pretty big stew that day, and processing onions and sweet potatoes really got under my skin. We've all experienced this: maybe we're at a friends or staying at an AirBnB, and the tools are just maddeningly frustrating. Well, that's what the Artisan Revere chef knife is all about.

But with the Artisan Revere chef's knife, it's not just going to be dramatically easier to cut, the A-R chef knife is also incredibly comfortable in your hand. Like, bring a tear to your eyes, you’ve finally felt what a knife should feel like, comfortable. I can almost hear you saying, “that’s what everyone says, Dave”. Sure… making promises is easy. But we give you 100 days to fall in love or your money back, guaranteed, with no questions asked (except we'll want to know how we can do better). This is why we give you the real specifications of our knives. But first, we have a video of the chef's knife in action:

With Kitchen Knives, The Details Matter

Throughout our website, we have videos and imagery like the one above to show you what using our tools actually looks like. At Artisan Revere, we're NOT pretending to be a Japanese laser ground to a zero edge. We grind to 12.5 thousandths on our chef's knife.

👨‍🔬 Science Alert: We grind to 12.5 thousandths (thou), about 3-4 human hairs thick, because we found we can get 96%+ of the cutting ability of one of these Japanese lasers, while also having a TOUGH edge that we don't need to worry about. So, if you're looking to simply fall through a sweet potato like you would with an extremely easy to chip Japanese "laser" nakiri, this knife isn't for you. You will have to exert some force, but even my arthritic father has plenty of strength to do it. So, just think about this: the #2 money maker at most Japanese knife stores is fixing massively chipped edges in Japanese knives because a zero edge nakiri or gyuto or santoku has nothing supporting it. All but the most meticulous professional cooks chip zero edge blades. The reason is that cooks in kitchen work fast, and sometimes, don't have time to think "hey, I just processed 100 potatoes and now I have to process some squash. I better change to a beefier blade". When that happens, if you apply even the slightest bit of torque to that 0-edge Japanese gyuto/nakiri/santoku, you are nearly guaranteed a chip.

Details Matter: We talk about details at Artisan Revere often. Why? It's because we pay attention to the details and because our founder, Dave Olkovetsky has a perfection-style OCD.

Aside from just a 12.5 thou edge, we do a lot of other things to make sure our knives are the knives you reach for each and every time. Let's talk about them, but first, some definitions.

👨‍🏫 Definition Sidebar:

• A choil is part of the blade located below the handle and above the heel. It is part of the blade, not the handle.

• The spine is the top of the blade in front of the handle up to the tip.

• Handle scales are the materials used that make up the handle. They cover up the tang of the blade, which is the metal part of the blade covered by handle scales. Sometimes, scales are wood, other times they're made of various man-made materials. The possibilities are endless.

Handles, Spines & Choils: We soften the heck out of the choils and spines. We do that so you never ever get a callus from an Artisan Revere knife. We locate our handle scales far enough back on the tang so you can comfortably and easily choke up on your blade. Your hand feels like it can breathe. Scale location combined with choil design, determines how much power, precision, and comfort you'll experience. When properly designed, you can push forward and generate more power & more precision because you're further up on the blade. Beyond the handle location, we have an amazingly comfortable and simple handle that allows you to switch up your grip seamlessly.

Weight: And the blade is light! Coming in at just ~175 grams, or 6.2 oz. My dad, Michael, who I already mentioned has arthritis, randomly calls me just to tell me he loves how light and easy it is to cut with his knife. Numerous other arthritic customers say the same. It’s powerful, it’s fast, it’s solid as hell, and it just feels right. Get this knife if you want to cook more, take back your health, and feel better every single day.

Below, there's a quick peak at the specs of our Chef's Knife. The specifications are all listed out on our Chef's Knife page in more detail. Simply hover over the red dots in the image you see below on the Chef's Knife page.

Who Is A Small Petty Knife For?

The small petty knife is one of those rare knives that's great for in-hand work and on-board work. Most are essentially designed as miniature gyuto's. And, like with most gyutos, small petty knives are rarely designed to feel safe in hand. We find that the choil area on petty knives either follows a circular curve and then drops down at ~90 degrees to the heel or has a partially circular curve and meets the heel at around 45 degrees. Both are not correct from an ergonomics perspective. It is truly shocking to us how poorly designed most knives are, but petty knives really take the cake. In order not to cut yourself, there should be a bit of forward recurve to make sure you don't cut yourself. To any knife makers reading this, please start doing a forward recurve.

The Paring Knife: Who Needs It And What Is It For?

The paring knife is an in-hand knife. This knife is made for delicate and fine work. The standard, and most useful design is somewhere between a drop point and spear point design, like the Artisan Revere knife. One thing that nearly 100%, if not 100% of all other knife companies do wrong, is make their heel/choil too short, and therefore dangerous. I remember the first time I picked up a very popular high-end Japanese knife from a national retailer here in the states. Almost immediately, I cut myself on the heel. Horrible design. The German style is only marginally better, because you can't get up on the blade. The Artisan Revere knife is designed so you can easily choke up all the way on the blade, with your middle finger under the choil, index finger guiding the food item, and thumb right by the tip.

Other Popular Kitchen Knife Styles That Are Worth Looking At

Other knives you may want: There are obviously many additional styles of knives. The ones we think have the highest utility AFTER the big three (aka chef's knife, small petty knife, and paring knife), are the santoku, nakiri, bread knife, large petty knife, boning/fillet knife. We'll touch on each one here.

Santoku: This knife is essentially a replacement for a chef's knife or gyuto. If you've done any reading about santokus, you've come across the meaning of the word: "three virtues". Some say those virtues are it's ability to cut meat, fish and vegetables. Others will say it's good for slicing, dicing, and mincing. No matter where you come out on that question, they are great knives. A quality santoku will be about 2-2.25" tall and 6.5-7.5" in length. The edge profile has a bit of upsweep at the tip, but is fairly close to flat through most of the belly. As a taller knife, it can generate lots of power and excels at push cuts. It also works nicely for pull cuts at the tip. Santokus make great intro knives for those less confident with their knife skills because the cutting styles are more limited, and... also because they look less scary and pointy. These knives are not meant for rock chopping. They are not meant for fine tip work.

Nakiri: Nakiri are great knives for one purpose and one purpose only. Vegetables. And Nakiri are truly wonderful for cutting vegetables. Where some other knife styles, especially if they aren't thin behind the edge or not super sharp, will create "accordion vegetables" aka vegetables that you need to pull apart after cutting because the blade didn't make it all the way through, this is not the case with a well made nakiri. Nakiri are typically extremely thin behind the edge (b-t-e) or come to zero edge. They tend to be quite brittle so do not use these on anything that could damage the edge. They are a pleasure to use with starchy foods like potatoes and sweet potatoes, and also wonderful for carrots, celery, peppers, and leafy vegetables. They have an almost totally flat belly and a fairly aggressive upsweep near the tip. Actually, calling the front of a nakiri a tip isn't very accurate: there is no tip. A nakiri is completely un-usable for tip work. I would not be using a nakiri for onions or for scoring foods. A nakiri is also not meant for rock chopping since the belly is so flat. The knife excels at sliding forward push cuts and it can also be used with a backwards slide cut, though this can feel a bit odd for some users.

Bread Knife: It's all in the name. This is a saw that cuts your bread, specifically hard crusts like a beautiful sourdough or for cakes, etc. Yes, there are different types of serrations, and there are different handle styles, but they all effectively do the same thing: shred or tear a the outer layer of the bread. As of this writing, Artisan Revere does not make a bread knife, but we have been experimenting extensively, so look out for one from us in the near future.

Large Petty Knife: Another highly useful blade that sits somewhere between a santoku and a small petty knife. Like both of these knives, it's highly versatile and extremely useful. In fact, the other name for a petty knife is "utility" knife, i.e. a knife made to be useful. They're great for smaller meals and smaller spaces. Most large petty knives, in our view, are not designed correctly because they aren't tall enough.

Boning/Fillet Knife: Boning knives and fillet knives have a wide variety of designs that we won't get too into the weeds on here. Some are stiff, while others are flexible so you can work around a bone. Suffice to say, these knives have tough edges, since bones are extremely hard. Depending on the style, some boning/fillet knives will have finger guards. Most western style knives have these, along with the honesuki, a Japanese version of a boning knife. Others, like the hankotsu, used to butcher hanging meat are held backwards and have no heel/choil area whatsoever.

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