Cutlery Buying Guide

Cutlery buying tips

You can spend a few dollars for cheap knives at a discount kitchenware store or hundreds of dollars at a professional kitchen store for basically the same kitchen tools. What's the difference? Number of pieces in the knife set, quality of the steel, material in the handles, full-tang construction, custom knife block, steak knife sets or other extras. These seem like small matters, but they are important if your cutlery is going to last a lifetime.

Cutlery components

Basic cutlery sets contain 6 to 10 knives and may include:

• Boning knife: a narrow, stiff blade for removing meat from bones.
• Bread knife: a long, serrated edge designed to cut bread without flattening it or producing huge amounts of crumbs.
• Butcher knife: long blade, sometimes curved and used for heavy work.
• Carving fork: a long, two-pronged fork used to hold meat steady while being carved.
• Carving knife: a large knife, 8 to 15 inches, thinner than a chef's knife, used to slice thin cuts of meat.
• Chef's knife/cook's knife: also known as French knife (although there are two styles, a French knife and a German knife), it is a long general-use kitchen tool.
• Cleaver: a rectangular blade used for chopping meat.
• Fillet knife: similar to a very flexible boning knife, used to fillet and skin fish.
• Fruit knife/Tourne: also called a peeling knife or bird's beak; a short, curved blade used to peel fruits and vegetables.
• Paring knife: a small plain bladed all-purpose knife for peeling and working on small items such as garnishes.
• Utility knife: a mid-sized blade, 4 to 7 inches long, may be plain or serrated.

Knife sets may also contain a variety of accessories. A large knife set may include 30 pieces or more, such as:

• Cheese cutter: resembles a vegetable peeler more than it does a knife; used to cut thin strips of cheese.
• Pizza cutter: bladed wheel that makes slicing a pizza easy.
• Sharpener: stone- or diamond-impregnated steel; a special type is needed to properly sharpen serrated blades.
• Shears/kitchen scissors: are helpful for opening packaged foods and can be used for many of the same things as knives. Be careful using them on meat if the shears cannot separate; the joint can harbor bacteria.
• Steak knives: most common steak knife sets include 6 or 8 knives, although there are sets with 12 steak knives.
• Storage block: wood is the most common, although plastic and metal are fashionable; magnetized strips are popular among chefs and those with available wall space; fancy attache-like cases are popular for the really high-end knife sets.
• Vegetable peeler: Specifically designed to remove thin skins.
• Zester: Designed to peel small strips of citrus zest (the colored part of the peel) to be used as a garnish or flavoring.

Other cutlery sets are:

• Cake knife set: long, thin blade (much like a bread knife) to slice plus a wide, triangular server. One side of the server is often serrated.
• Carving set: carving sets include a carving knife, carving fork and case.
• Cheese knives: usually includes a spreader, Parmesan cheese knife, hard cheese knife, soft cheese knife, fork and storage block.

A few examples of specialty knives, sold in sets or as individual knives:

• Clam knife: short, round-tipped knife used--with a safety glove--to pry open clamshells.
• Grapefruit knife: a small curve at the rounded point helps remove sections from the fruit.
• Mezzaluna: the "half-moon" (named for its shape) or "moon knife" is a mincing knife; it is similar to the ulu, most (but not all) have two handles and is often sold with a concave cutting board. This knife is a staple of Italian households and is great for slicing pizza.
• Santuko: a Japanese chef's knife; lighter and thinner than a western chef's knife, it is now included in some cutlery sets.
• Ulu: an Alaskan Native knife with a curved blade, resembling an axe, the handle set directly over the center of the blade. An ulu is great for chopping and slicing as well as skinning and preparing fish, seal or, if it's going to be a really big party, whale.

Cutlery terminology

Bolster: the thickened portion of the blade, separating the blade from the handle. These may be integrated into the blade, like the tang, and they can form part of the handle or be a separate piece.

Ceramic: ceramic blades, often zirconium dioxide (the same material in a CZ imitation diamond), will stay sharp longer than steel knives. Take care not to use on other ceramic or glass surfaces as they can chip or break.

Flatware: cutlery refers to knives, while flatware is a general term for serving and dining utensils. For more information, read the Overstock.com flatware buying guide.

Serrated: refers to knives with a tight wave producing a multi-tooth edge, available in the deep "scallop" or shallow "piranha" design. Only one side of the blade is edged, producing a narrow, clean cut. This is particularly useful for items which are hard on the outside and soft on the inside (bread and cake knives are almost always serrated, fruit and vegetable knives are frequently serrated).

Steel: Most modern blades are steel, a generic name for several hundred iron-carbon alloys. Knives expecting heavier use need better steels for long life. Some terms to know:

• Carbon: The basic ingredient that turns iron to steel; mild-carbon steel has less than 0.25 percent carbon; high-carbon steel has over 0.45 percent. Doesn't sound like much, but that tiny addition makes a huge improvement in blade strength.
• Stainless: Contains chromium to prevent rust; may contain other elements added to make the steel lighter, stronger, easier to machine and so on.
• Hardened: Heated steel is cooled quickly, traditionally by plunging the blade into cold water (or ice); this alters (hardens) the crystal structure to increase strength and edge retention. It also makes the steel more brittle, so this process is usually followed by tempering.
• Tempered: A multi-step process; once hardened, steel is again heated and cooled, more slowly this time, making the blade less likely to snap under pressure.
• Hardness: Since the hardening process can vary, the "Rockwell scale" (about 20 to 100) was developed to measure alloys' resistance to denting. Again, harder steels holding their edge longer. Good cutlery steels range between Rockwell 50 and Rockwell 70.
• 440C: A high-carbon/chromium alloy, the hardest (Rockwell 60) and most durable stainless now available. Its resistance to corrosion and staining from fruit or food acids make it the most common steel now used in cutlery.

Cutlery care

Really harsh chemicals or metal scouring pads can strip stainless steel of the thin oxide coating that protects it from rusting, so scrub with a nylon pad and a kitchen cleanser made for use with stainless steel. Wash your cutlery by hand to retain the sharpest edge.

If you have a wooden knife block set, hand wash the block with soap and water when necessary. Finish with oil, wood preservative or nothing, according to the manufacturer's recommendation. Plastic or metal knife blocks can be cleaned with a mild dish soap and water.

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