Affordable Knife Set Buying Guide

The three knives that do everything

Chef's knife, 8 inches. This does roughly 80% of kitchen work: chopping, slicing, dicing, mincing, breaking down a chicken. If you buy one knife, buy this one and buy it well.

Paring knife, 3-4 inches. For small tasks done in the hand rather than on a board: hulling strawberries, peeling apples, deveining shrimp, trimming fat. A chef's knife is clumsy at all of these.

Serrated bread knife, 8-10 inches. Serrations saw through crust without crushing the crumb, and they also handle tomatoes and citrus better than a straight edge. A dull serrated knife is still usable, which is why this one is last to need replacing.

That is the complete list. A santoku is an alternative to a chef's knife, not an addition. A boning knife, a cleaver and a carving knife are specializations for specific cooking you may never do.

How piece counts are padded

A typical fifteen-piece block at $100 contains: four or five actual kitchen knives, six serrated steak knives, a pair of kitchen shears, a honing rod and a wooden block. Nine of the fifteen pieces are not kitchen knives.

That matters because the $100 is spread across all of it. A three-piece set at the same price has put the entire budget into three knives, which are correspondingly better.

Two further points about the padding. The steak knives are almost always serrated and cannot be sharpened, so they are consumables. The honing rod is routinely labeled a sharpening steel and does not sharpen - it realigns a rolled edge, which is a different and also useful thing.

The block is the least discussed problem: storing knives edge-down in a wooden slot dulls them against the wood every time you withdraw one. A magnetic strip or an in-drawer tray is better and cheaper.

Stamped versus forged, and which steel

Stamped blades are cut from a sheet; forged blades are shaped from a billet under heat and pressure. Forged knives are heavier, usually have a bolster where blade meets handle, and cost more to produce.

Neither cuts better. Professional kitchens overwhelmingly use stamped knives because they are lighter over a long shift and cheaper to replace. Under $100, stamped is where the value is, and a good stamped knife beats a cheap forged one comfortably.

German stainless (around 56-58 HRC hardness) dulls faster and sharpens in under a minute on a basic stone. Japanese stainless (around 60-62 HRC) holds an edge several times longer and will chip if you twist it, hit bone or cut frozen food.

For a first set, German-style steel is more forgiving, and crucially it is easy enough to sharpen that it actually gets sharpened - which matters more than edge retention.

What to spend where

If you have $100 for knives, we would spend it like this: $45 on a chef's knife, $12 on a paring knife, $18 on a serrated bread knife, and $25 on a sharpener.

That last line is the one people skip and it is the most important. A $45 knife sharpened every two months outperforms a $150 knife sharpened annually, and the dull expensive knife is more dangerous because it slips off food rather than biting into it.

If you have $50, buy one good chef's knife and a $25 sharpener. Add the paring and bread knives later. One excellent knife and the ability to keep it sharp beats three mediocre ones.

Caring for them

Never put knives in the dishwasher. Detergent is abrasive, heat loosens handle adhesives, and knives knock against other items and chip. Hand-wash and dry immediately - twenty seconds.

Use a wooden or plastic board. Glass, stone and ceramic boards destroy edges faster than anything else in a kitchen. Bamboo is harder than wood and sits in between.

Hone every few uses with a steel rod. Sharpen every two to three months with normal home cooking.

Store them somewhere they do not touch other metal. A magnetic strip, an in-drawer tray or blade guards all work. A drawer full of loose knives is how edges get chipped.