Choosing the right size
Most chef’s knives have an 8-inch blade and that’s a pretty safe bet if you’re not sure what size to get. Depending on your skill level and the size of your hand, you might want a slightly longer or shorter blade for a good knife. There are chef’s knives as short as 6-inches but you likely don’t want to go shorter than 7-inches. You can also find blades as long as 9- or 10-inches, but those will be a bit more difficult to control and are not generally recommended for a beginner home cook.
The most common size for a chef’s knife blade is 8 inches but there are plenty of larger and smaller knives available, too.
Consider the blade and handle materials
You can find chef’s knife blades in alternative materials, including ceramic, but some composition of steel, often high carbon stainless steel, is the preferred material of 99.9% of knife makers the world over. For this list, we’re only testing steel blades, of which there are a lot of different grades. In general, a softer steel blade will be easier to sharpen but may not last quite as long. For an amateur home cook, the difference in durability is negligible and the ability to sharpen it should take priority for a quality knife.
Blade hardness is measured using the Rockwell scale, a method for determining the hardness of materials, particularly metals, by measuring the depth of indentation caused by a controlled load on a specific indenter. While we didn’t perform the Rockwell test on any of the blades, we’ve listed the Rockwell hardness of each and take them into account when making our selections.
The makeup of your knife handle is perhaps the more critical decision. Chef’s knife handles are made from a wide range of materials, including wood, bone, carbon fiber and steel. Wood and certain poly blends may be a little softer to the touch. There are also handles with contoured and ergonomic shapes, while some — namely Japanese knives — feature a more linear design. Hence, an ergonomic handle will depend on your personal choice.
A good, sharp chef’s knife should slice through tomatoes with ease.
How heavy should a chef’s knife be?
This really depends on personal preference, experience level and what you intend to do with the knife. In general, Japanese-style knives are lighter and thus better suited for very precise chopping, mincing, dicing and the occasional chiffonade. German-style chef’s knives are often thicker and heavier and might be a better choice if you’re doing more basic chopping and dicing or breaking down bone-in chickens and such.
Knives range from around 5 ounces to more than 12. If your wrist tends to tire easily when cooking, choose a lighter chef’s knife under 7 ounces, whether it’s Western, Japanese or hybrid.
