Kitchen Knife Guide: Types of Kitchen Knives

At Chef's Outlet, we believe the minimum set of knives for the kitchen would include one 3 to 4" paring knife, one 8" chef's knife, and a serrated bread knife of 7 to 10" in length. The paring knife is used for peeling, coring, and slicing small objects. The serrated bread knife not only slices bread but can serve as a meat or large vegetable slicer. The chef's knifes (usually 6 to 12") do a little of everything from meat and vegetable slicing to chopping. The chef's knives are probably the most often used tools in the kitchen.

The chef's utility knives are like paring knives but larger, usually 5-6" in length. Some have narrow profiles which are handy for separating melon slices from the rind and similar tasks. They have slimmer blade profiles so there is less blade to which the food can stick. A utility or slicer would be a better choice for slicing cheese, as an example, than a chef knife. Other knives in this length include the boning knives designed for cutting meat from bones. They have narrow profiles and are usually somewhat thin and flexible.

The slicers are usually longer knives, typically 6-12" in length, and are used for slicing large objects such as turkey breasts, roasts, bread loaves etc. Butcher knives are heavy duty slicers good for meat cutting. Some slicers have serrated edges which are excellent for bread knives or granton edges which are excellent for raw meat and fish slicing.

Cleavers are larger knives used to cut through bone and to deal with other heavy duty meat cutting and chopping applications.

Fillet knives are from 6" to 12" and generally have narrow flexible blades designed to fillet a fish.

There are a number of specialty knives as well. Cheese knives, as an example are designed to reduce the tendency of cheese to stick to the side of the blade.

We'd suggest starting out with the basic three or buying one of the ready made block sets. You can then add other models as you go along. To view our complete selection of kitchen knives, visit the pages for each of the knife brands we sell for more detailed features and benefits

Sabatier Cutlery  Wusthof Cutlery  Kyocera Ceramic Cutlery Japanese Cutlery