Quality Kitchen Knives - More Important Than You Think

Cutting, chopping, slicing, dicing and cleaving - a mere glimpse into the everyday responsibilities of the kitchen knife. Around the world, in all continents there is the same universal use for a kitchen knife, and the preparation of food is unlikely to go away any time soon.

The kitchen knife market is totally saturated, but that does not mean that this huge array of choice is a good thing. The likes of CostCo and Walmart in the US, and Tesco and ASDA in the UK produce or import kitchen knives that you can pick up at rock bottom prices; entire knife blocks with eighteen kitchen knives can cost you less that USD$20, and people gladly by them. Then, they buy another set two years later, and another and another.

This is because cheap kitchen knives are a false economy. In this example, a false economy means that people are attracted to buy poor quality knives because they are very affordable; however, this affordability is not real, because the poor quality knives have to be replaced fairly regularly. In their lives, consumers have the option of buying one set of high quality, expensive kitchen knives, or they have the option of buying a new inexpensive set every few years which ultimately turns out to be far more expensive.

Not only are cheap knives a false economy, but they can be a real danger to your fingers. Obviously a higher quality kitchen knife is going to be sharper and pointier, but they are very solidly built. The cheaper alternatives can have very week blades that are made out of a single piece of steel. This blade can easily flex when it is put under a small amount of cutting pressure, which means it could easily flex out of position and over a supporting finger - leading to a pretty unpleasant accident.

In extreme examples - and something that has been seen before - the blades can actually snap and leave an even sharper edge exposed; the knife then needs replacing and is a hassle to dispose of properly.

Although the upfront cost is somewhat greater to buy quality kitchen knives (such as Global, Shun, Zwilling/J. A. Henckels, Cutco, Wusthof, etc.), the peace of mind you get from knowing they are not going to break, and will serve you well for decades far outweighs the price difference. In some instances you will be paying more for the brand and label of a good knife forger, but with this comes many layers of tightly folded steel, properly engineered ergonomic handles and decades of experience in the business of forging kitchen knives.