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reswright
3850
Jun 17, 2019
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If you want to be relatively assured that you're getting a good kitchen knife for your money, but you don't have a head for alloys and carbides and grind angles and all that, and you just want one thing to look for right off the bat that will tell you whether you're in the right store, or the right part of the store?
Look for a phrase like "forged from a single blank of high carbon stainless steel".
That's it. There's more to it than that of course but if you want a good place to start, start there. The primary difference between cheapass knives and midlevel working knives is that cheapass kitchen knives are stamped and better kitchen knives are forged. If you see a knife with a bolster but you don't see that phrase, you're getting something that had a block of metal cosmetically welded to the frame to look like a bolster. And if you get a knife that talks quality quality quality but doesn't mention being forged, all that talk is pure BS.
Why do you care? Because the act of forging the steel blank into the shape of the knife makes it immensely stronger compared to just rolling out some sheet steel and stamping out some metal knives. It realigns the alloy matrix, it gives the knife more resilience and spring. Makes it less likely to catastrophically fail, i.e. crack. Your knife looks hard and stiff but every time you use it, that matrix has to flex a little, and if it doesn't, it starts to crack. Over time those cracks become larger even though you need a microscope to see them. Then one day you go to slice something and your knife literally splits into two pieces because the cracks got big enough to break wide open.
Look at the difference between these two listings:
http://www.wusthof.com/7-nakiri-hollow-edge-1914
This is from Wusthof's cheapest line of knives. They aren't forged, they're stamped. See how it doesn't have a bolster? See what the ad copy says and doesn't say? This knife will be a step up from a cheapo brand but if you never use a better knife, you'll never know what you're missing. And take the point: even companies like Wusthof are happy to make cheap knives and sell them to people who have never been trained to know any better.
http://www.wusthof.com/7-nakiri-hollow-edge-1913
This is from the Classic line, their main line of knives. See the different ad copy? See how they lead with the most important bullet - it's forged from a single piece of steel? See that bolster? That's what a better grade of chef knife looks like and that's what it has going for it.
My advice to you if you like cooking is that you owe it to yourself to buy a good knife, not just an expensive one. You will use it all over your kitchen, you may use it for 20 years or longer, and every time you use it you'll be getting more benefit from having paid for a good one with the best ergonomics and safest, most precise construction, so it's worth getting it right and going with a solid brand.
I'm biased toward Wusthof but the same holds true when you're looking at other premier brands like Henckels and Shun -- hold out for something forged. You'll be amazed at the difference it makes in your work.
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