The Best Chef’s Knives for Dicing, Slicing and Chopping Nearly Anything - Buy Side from WSJ

Oct 25, 2024

No more blunt blades—our favorite knives start sharp and stay that way

Written By

Written by

Contributor, Buy Side from WSJ

Lauren Joseph is a contributor to Buy Side from WSJ.

Updated October 21, 2024, 9:01 PM EDT

$145

$110

$138

$440 $245

$56 $45

$116 $70

$85

$140

A chef’s knife might be the most important tool in your kitchen. Any old knife can get the job done, but a sharp blade will make your work speedier and more precise. Plus a dull knife requires a certain amount of brute force to get through sturdy produce, and kitchen accidents can happen when you put that kind of muscle behind a slipping blade.

Having a chef’s knife that is comfortable to grip will also make cooking easier on your hand, wrist and shoulder. There are times when a tiny paring knife or serrated bread knife might come in handy, but with a sharp chef’s knife, you can just as easily dice a shallot as you can joint a chicken.

The MAC Mighty MTH-80 is the knife we’d wholeheartedly recommend for most home cooks thanks to its incredibly sharp edge, its lightweight, agile design and, most importantly, its edge retention. If you prefer a strictly Japanese-style knife, we like Misono’s 440 Molybdenum Gyuto 8.2”, while Wüsthof’s Classic Ikon 8-Inch Chef’s Knife is our favorite Western-style chef’s knife. Miyabi’s Birchwood knife is an elegant piece that justifies its higher price, and if you’re a casual cook looking for a lower-price yet reliable blade, we recommend the Victorinox Swiss Classic Chef’s Knife.

Buy Side Top Pick

$145 at Amazon

With the sharpest and longest-lasting edge, a sleek, agile shape and a lightweight handle, this knife is the best choice for home cooks.

MAC’s 8-inch chef’s knife, the Mighty MTH-80, combines the best aspects of a Japanese knife and a Western knife. The most important, and most impressive, feature was how well it maintained a sharp edge. The blade arrived sharp, and with a few licks of a honing steel, this knife will retain a beautifully sharp edge for a week or two in a professional kitchen, which translates to months for most home cooks. The blade, made from a stamped steel with a hardness of 58 to 61 on the Rockwell scale, is also thin enough to avoid any splintering of produce whatsoever.

The MTH-80’s blade has a gentle curve, somewhere between the sharp line of a Gyuto, a Japanese all-purpose kitchen knife, and the belly of a traditional Western chef’s knife. We found that shape complemented a roll cut, but that it was possible to push cut as well. It’s fairly lightweight and well-balanced, which means it was comfortable in our hand even after an hour or two of cooking. After testing all the knives on this list, we wondered why more didn’t have dimples along the blade like the MAC. Those little divots, which together make up what is called a Granton edge, prevent whatever you’re slicing from suctioning to the knife. It might seem like a small thing, but if you have to stop and wipe zucchini slices from a flat blade every third cut, you’ll want a Granton edge.

The length of the knife is just right for most people and most tasks. Eight inches isn’t too long to sacrifice precision, but is lengthy enough to trim the edges off half a dozen spears of asparagus in one go. While the blade isn’t very tall, it’s just enough: At 1.88 inches high, it’s over the 1.5-inch height recommended by the experts we spoke with. (Any shorter, and you’ll find you don’t have enough knuckle clearance with your noncutting hand.)

$110 at Amazon

Misono’s knife is a beautifully made, lightweight Gyuto with an edge sharpness that cannot be beat for the price.

If you’re used to Japanese knives or prefer their long-lasting, razor-sharp edges, we recommend the Misono 440 Molybdenum Gyuto 8.2”. Out of the box, the knife is brilliantly sharp, and it mostly stayed that way through our litany of tests. Despite being a quarter-inch longer than most of the knives in our test, it actually felt more agile in our hand than all but our winning knife. At just 5.6 ounces (about an ounce lighter than the MAC) and with a precise tip and lightweight, water-resistant handle, this knife had us deftly slicing through tender herbs with ease.

Chefs love this knife, too. One sous-chef I spoke to had used his daily for six years, despite having a Gyuto from Misono’s UX10 line, which is a small jump up in blade quality. Given that this one is $85 less than a UX10 Gyuto, we were thrilled with this knife. The edge stayed quite sharp throughout testing, more so than any other knife at this price point. One note: The edge is asymmetrical, which means it requires a skilled sharpener, and it’s trickier to find a knife for lefties in stock.

$138 at Amazon

$200 at Sur La Table

This knife is a classic German workhorse with a reassuringly sturdy heft paired with a uniquely maneuverable blade and handle design.

The first thing we loved about this Wüsthof knife was the smoothly curved polypropylene handle. It’s on the heavier side, which is to be expected for a classic German chef’s knife, but the ergonomic handle makes it feel manageable. While the knife felt weighted toward the handle, especially in comparison to the Japanese knives we tested, Josh Donald of Bernal Cutlery and author of “Sharp” tells us not to automatically consider that a bad thing. “A neutral balance is overrated,” he says.

Wüsthof knives are sharpened to 14 degrees, which is a steeper angle than the traditional German angle of 20 degrees. That might be why the knife sliced through vegetables like sweet potatoes and carrots without splintering them, even though the blade itself is thicker than those of the Japanese knives we tested. And it was while cutting sturdier produce that this knife really shone, as the added heft made it feel quite secure in our hands as we broke down sweet potatoes and melons.

The blade on this knife is rated 58 on the Rockwell scale, but we felt it dulled faster than the Japanese knives that boasted the same score, including the Misono. While there is something lost in sharpness with a German knife such as the Ikon, the ease of use helps. This knife doesn’t need to be oiled between uses, cannot form rust and comes with a lifetime warranty against normal wear and tear.

$245 at Amazon

$440 save $195

$300 at Sur La Table

$440 save $140

This Japanese-style knife is incredibly sharp, holds its edge and is a pleasure to look at and to hold.

Miyabi’s Birchwood 8” Chef’s Knife is an excellent upgrade pick or gift. The soft, lightweight birch handle, while maybe too precious-looking for daily use, was comfortably weighty in the hand without being unwieldy. The blade, which is made of microcarbide powder and steel, has an impressive rating of 63 on the Rockwell scale. In our test, the Miyabi was able to slice through the skins of very ripe cherries without any tugging, pulling or tearing. It comes at a higher price than the rest of our picks, and for that cost, many home cooks might prefer a lighter weight, more traditional Japanese knife. But the combination of steel hardness and beautiful handle justifies the cost.

$45 at Amazon

$56 save $11

$61 at Sur La Table

This is a dependable chef’s knife with the very best construction and sharpness for under $70.

The Victorinox Swiss Classic Chef’s Knife is a no-frills knife that gets the job done. It’s lightweight (only 6.4 ounces) with a tall blade and plastic handle. While the edge didn’t begin as razor sharp nearly as long as the other winners, nor remain as sharp nearly as long, we could still julienne herbs with relative ease by the end of testing. Plus, it comes at a nearly unbeatable price, and is quite durable.

$70 at Amazon

$116 save $46

$70 at Wayfair

$116 save $46

The Henckels Classic performed similarly to the Ikon in our first tests, and we liked how lightweight the handle was. However, the blade was a bit too soft to retain an edge. At 55 to 58 on the Rockwell scale, it didn’t compare to the Ikon’s standard 58 rating, and began to dull slightly by the time we reached the herb test. Still, for the difference in price, or for someone who wants a German-style knife with a lighter handle, that might be a negligible concession. The curved belly makes for a very rhythmic and speedy roll cut. If that is your cutting style, this is a good choice for you.

$85 at Material

The Material 8” Knife was our favorite of the direct-to-consumer knives we tested. The blade is made of high-carbon and stainless steel, and stayed quite sharp throughout testing. We liked the balanced weight distribution of the full-tang knife and how the slightly grippy handle felt extra secure in the palm of our hands. The handle comes in a selection of pretty, muted colors.

$140 at Amazon

The Tojiro DP 240mm Gyuto Knife almost beat out the Misono in our test, except that at 240 millimeters (about 9.5 inches), it was a bit too long to feel comfortable for more precise tasks. Still, it’s an excellent knife by a Japanese brand beloved by chefs for quality. If you prefer a longer blade and the slim, flatter-blade shape of a Gyuto, this is the one for you.

The 7” Classic Japanese Chef’s Knife from Global has a handy Granton edge, similar to the winning MAC, along the blade. The blade was quite sharp straight from the box, and it maintained that edge long enough to perform quite well in our tests. This knife is a bit shorter than most on this list, which might make it more comfortable for those with smaller hands, or anyone who wants a little extra precision with a fine dice or julienne. Ultimately, it didn’t earn a spot as one of our top picks because the grippy metal handle is too polarizing. Some find it reassuringly weighty, while others find it too firm to be comfortable during marathon cooking sessions. Plus, it could get slippery fairly easily.

I’ve been testing and reviewing knives for five years, but more importantly, I spend most of my time working as a line cook, with my chef’s knife more or less attached to my hand for the first half of each day. Currently, I’m a chef de partie at Dorian, a new restaurant in London’s Notting Hill neighborhood that landed a spot on the 2023 U.K. National Restaurant Awards 50 best list. I’m classically trained and have toted my knives to Alice Water’s Chez Panisse and The River Cafe in London, as well as to the kitchens of private clients from San Francisco to London. For the first few hours of every shift, I chop vegetables and portion meat and fish. Save for a few select tasks, my chef’s knife is the go-to for all of my morning prep jobs.

I also spoke with four experts, including a bladesmith, a former chef, a knife dealer and a knife sharpener, to better understand the scope of chef’s knives and what most home cooks are looking for: Jay Patel, the chief executive officer of London’s Japanese Knife Company, a multibranch specialized knife shop beloved by chefs and home cooks alike; Josh Donald, co-owner of Bernal Cutlery and author of “Sharp: The Definitive Guide to Knives, Knife Care, and Cutting Techniques, with Recipes from Great Chefs,” and a former chef as well; Eytan Zias, a bladesmith and co-founder of Knife House and Steelport Knife Co; and knife care expert Marc Lickfett, the CEO of mail-in sharpening service Knife Aid.

Decent-quality chef’s knives start at around $50 and can run into the many hundreds of dollars. While this isn’t an area to skimp on, as you’ll ideally have your knife for years if not decades, spending $80 to $160 is usually enough to get you a truly excellent blade. Blades of 7 to 9 inches hit the sweet spot for most cooks, as that length is the most versatile for the widest assortment of kitchen tasks.

Choose a knife with a hardness of at least 58 on the Rockwell scale, and consider your chopping technique when buying a knife, as a roll cut where you rock the blade back and forth while you cut only works well with a curved blade, and an up-and-down motion is better suited to flatter blades. The blade height — the measure of the metal where it meets the handle — should be at least 1.5 inches to allow for knuckle clearance of your supporting claw-gripped hand.

We tested 15 knives, with lengths between 7 and 10 inches and prices ranging from $25 to $300. We tested them over the course of several months, putting each knife through enough chopping, slicing and dicing to potentially dull the fresh-out-of-the-box sharpness. Here’s what we were looking for:

We tested each knife with a series of real-world kitchen experiences. First we diced half a dozen shallots. This helped us judge how sharp the factory edge was, and how dexterous we felt with the knife in our hand, as dicing shallots requires not just a sharp blade but precise, finicky little cuts. We found this test was the best one to get a sense of the knife’s balance, hand feel and overall shape.

Then we roughly chopped sweet potatoes, carrots or turnips with each knife, judging not only how easily the blade slipped through each vegetable, but also whether it caused any splintering, which happens when a blade cracks or jaggedly splits a sturdy vegetable (the way an ax would splinter a log) instead of cleanly slicing it. This helped us get a sense of the blade thickness, as well as the overall heft of the knife and how long it maintained that factory edge. Next, we julienned basil. Since basil is prone to bruising easily, this test helped us see which knives might have dulled since Test One. Produce with waxy skins is the enemy of a sharp blade. Because of that, we tried to slice a cherry, pepper or tomato with the knife as our final test. If the knife snagged on the skin, we took note.

Knives generally come in either Japanese or Western styles. The two categories aren’t quite so clearly delineated because there is plenty of crossover between them, but having a basic understanding of each category will help you choose the right knife for you.

While not all Western-style knives are German, many of the top brands for home cooks are. “German-style knives are for people who just want durability, and are willing to sacrifice cutting performance and sharpness,” says Zias. Japanese knives, meanwhile, are “all about precision and sharpness,” he says. German-style chef’s knives, like those we tested from Wüsthoff, tend to have heavier blades with a belly that facilitates the rolling cutting motion taught alongside Western cooking.

In contrast, Japanese knives, such as a Santoku or a Gyuto, the two styles you’ll come across most often as alternatives to a Western chef’s knife, have flat edges, which are better for the up-and-down push cut. Many Japanese knives also have a single-bevel edge, where one side of the knife is sharpened at a steeper angle than the other.

The steel used for the blades of German-style knives is softer than that of Japanese knives, so it doesn’t hold an edge as well, but it’s also easier to sharpen and less likely to chip. Japanese knives are made from harder steel, often containing more carbon. The hardness of knives is measured on the Rockwell hardness scale, with most knives measuring in the high 50s to low 60s. Whichever style you choose, the experts I spoke with suggested you choose a blade with a score of at least 58 on the Rockwell scale. Specialized Japanese knives can go up to around 68, but that level of hardness is not necessary or beneficial for most home uses—as are the higher costs and more intensive care needs that come with these blades.

Lauren Joseph is a contributor to Buy Side from WSJ.

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