The best kitchen knives and chef's knives for 2023

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Finding the best kitchen knife is no simple matter. Chefs’ knives are used in different ways for dicing veg, slicing salad, carving meat and cleaving joints and come in different thicknesses, types of steel, lengths and styles. Should you go for a Japanese or German-style knife? Carbon steel or stainless steel? It’s a lot to take in.

Let’s start with the question of what your knife should be made of. “Some people will tell you carbon steel has the edge for hardness and durability – and back in the 70s and 80s, when stainless steel was generally industrial and some was quite bad, that might have been true,” says Laurie Timpson, a knifemaker at Savernake Knives. “But it’s not corrosion resistant. Good stainless steel today is definitely preferable.”

Knife-making is a trade off between hardness and brittleness. “If you try to sharpen a banana it won’t develop a very sharp edge, because it’s a soft material. At the other end of the scale, if you sharpen glass it will get very sharp indeed, but it’s very brittle,” says Timpson.

Decent chef’s knives can broadly be separated into two categories: Japanese and German (also known as Western-style, including brands such as Wüsthof and Henckels). Japanese-style knives tend to have a straighter blade and be made from harder (and so slightly more brittle) steel. German knives are heavier, tougher and have a rounded blade. 

“In the broadest terms, European chefs tend to rock the blade, which is why the knives have a pronounced curve, whereas Japanese chefs tend to slice more, so their blades are straighter,” says Timpson. “It’s a different cuisine and a different method.” We’ve reviewed both German and Japanese knives below, but if you’re in a hurry here’s a quick look at our top five:

Which is the best kitchen knife in 2023? At a glance:

You will also need a knife sharpener to keep your knives in good condition. (See below for our favourite one.)

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What should you look for in a kitchen knife?

“If anyone asks me what you should look for in a knife I’d say it’s the hardness, which should be as close to 60 as possible on the Rockwell hardness scale,” he continues. “But there’s a huge difference between the numbers, so if the knifemaker says their knives range between 55 and 58 Rockwell, that’s sort of like me telling a policeman I was driving somewhere between 10 and 80 miles an hour. 60 is really the top end. You might find some Japanese knives at 64, but that is just ridiculous.” 

That brings us nicely to the question: exactly why is everyone so obsessed with Japanese knives? “It began when Global came on the scene in the 90s. Traditional Western knives weren’t much to look at, and they were pretty heavy. So the Japanese came along with a different aesthetic. They were lighter, that was the key thing, and significantly harder,” says Timpson. “For chefs, it was a quantum leap. Since then, other makers have caught up, though.” 

How we tested the best kitchen knives

We tested a range of Western and Japanese-style kitchen knives in the £30-£300 range at home over a period of four weeks, using them for a variety of kitchen tasks like dicing an onion, finely slicing radishes, deseeding chillis, chopping parsley, slicing raw fish and carving steak and chicken. We were looking for sharpness, a durable blade and a good weight balance so that the knife is easy to use. We also quizzed experts on the best and most reliable brands.

You can watch a free knife skills workshop from chef Mark Hix for the Telegraph here.

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The best kitchen knives

1. ProCook Professional X50 Micarta chef’s knife

Currently £34, ProCook

Best kitchen knife overall, 9/10

We like: excellent value

We don’t like: there are sharper and harder options (but not at this price point)

• Length: 20cm
• Weight: 171g
• Rockwell hardness rating (HRC): 55
• Material: Stainless steel

Chef and Telegraph Magazine editor Lisa Markwell recommends ProCook as a decent mid-range option for chef’s knives. When I tested their Professional X50 Micarta knife I was impressed by how weighty and balanced it felt given its comparitively low price. It could win the top spot on this list on appearance and comfort alone – I loved the solid, incredibly smooth triple rivet handle and the fact that it’s balanced with both a front and rear bolster. The blade is similarly impressive. 

It’s made from durable German stainless steel with a Rockwell hardness rating (HRC) of 55 and slices vegetables and meat with impressive precision. The stainless steel is corrosion and stain-resistant and is easy to sharpen and maintain. It’s not the sharpest or hardest, but this knife is the best balance of performance and price. It’s also available in a 15cm version for £32.

It’s also worth taking a look a bit further up ProCook’s range. Their £79 Damascus 67 Santoku is a thing of absolute beauty and an affordable entrée to the world of high-end Japanese-style knives.

2. Victorinox Fibrox chef’s knife

Currently £17.59, Nisbets

Best value chef’s knife, 7/10

We like: high Rockwell hardness rating for the price

We don’t like: it feels less sturdy than others

• Length: 15cm
• Weight: 90g
• HRC: 56
• Material: Stainless steel

Victorinox, who make the famous Swiss Army knives, come recommended by most experts as a good beginner’s option. Laurie Timpson says: “pound for pound, they’re probably the best value knives you’ll get.”

On testing, I can definitely tell the difference between this and a more expensive knife – it’s utilitarian in appearance and the “soft grip” plastic handle feels less sturdy than the models above (although it offers great grip, even when wet). It’s less well-balanced than competitors. But the blade is impressive and the fair price even more so. It’s incredibly sharp and excellent for fine slicing, dicing and mincing. At just 90g, it’s very lightweight and comfortable to hold. 

3. Wüsthof classic cook’s knife, 18cm

£86.99, Amazon

Best chef’s knife, 9/10

We like: a well-balanced German blade

We don’t like: it’s the heaviest on this list, so you have to make sure to hold it correctly for balance

• Length: 18cm
• Weight: 260g
• Rockwell hardness rating (HRC): 56
• Material: Stainless steel

The classic German-style cook’s knife, Wüsthof stands out for its sturdiness and balance. When held lightly at the bolster (the lump in the middle, between the blade and the handle), neither the blade nor the handle feel overly weighty, a sign of a well-balanced knife.

I like the very classic French-German look, with full tang (the rear half of the blade that forms the core of the handle) and three visible rivets. The blade curves up at the end, which makes certain tasks a little easier, particularly quickly mincing herbs. The handle, while not rounded, is incredibly smooth, so none of the edges dig into the palm. 

The blade, which has a Rockwell rating of 56, is broad enough to use on the flat to crush garlic cloves without fear of injury. All in all, a great knife for making the first step up into the world of serious cheffing.

4. Zwilling Pro 20cm chef’s knife

£109, Zwilling

Best universal kitchen knife, 9/10

We like: it will last you forever

We don’t like: more expensive than the very similar Wüsthof above

• Length:  20cm blade
• Weight: 258g
• Rockwell hardness rating: 55-58
• Material: stainless steel

Germany’s top three knife-makers are Wüsthof, Zwilling and Henckels - the latter two being part of the same company. Henckels is slightly more affordable, so the fight at the top end is between Wüsthof and Zwilling. Wüsthof’s blades, including our #3 pick above, are slightly harder but Zwilling’s are said to last longer before chipping.

This Pro chef’s knife is “Friodur ice hardened”, a type of tempering supposed to increase the steel’s flexibility and resistance to erosion. Whether that justifies the £20 premium over the Wüsthof is hard to gauge. The first thing you notice is its big, weighty feel. It’s much heavier than the Japanese knives below and leads you to adopt a pinch-grip where the handle meets the blade. 

This is intentional, and gives you more accuracy when using the tapered end of the blade for fiddly work like de-seeding chilli peppers. But the Zwilling also feels good as a rocking, veg-chopping knife and the tapered shape is particularly good for making long, effortless slices in meat and fish. One advantage of the (imperceptibly) softer steel is that it’s easier to resharpen. So, while this is not a cheap option, it’s a solid all-round workhorse that should last years.

Zwilling also do an entry-level Life 20cm chef’s knife for £41.95.

5. Global G-2 cook’s knife, 20cm

Currently £69.99, Lakeland

Best steel chef’s knife, 8/10

We like: the sword-like aesthetic

We don’t like: it requires fairly regular honing

• Length:  20cm blade
• Weight: 222g
• Rockwell hardness rating: 56-58
• Material: Cromova stainless steel (with chromium, molybdenum and vanadium)

As knifemaker Laurie says above, Global made a huge splash when they came on the scene, with a lot of talk about Samurai sword-making tradition that isn’t entirely called for (the factory made western-style tableware until 1983). They are very impressive knives though.

This G-20, their top seller, is a revelation if you’ve never tried a Global knife before. It’s markedly lighter than all the European knives, made from a single piece of steel with a hollow handle weighted with sand for perfect balance. It’s very comfortable to work with, giving you a sushi chef’s lightness of touch (in your own mind) even though it’s designed in the round-bellied European style, not straight-edged like a santoku. 

When new, the G-2 is one of the sharpest chef’s knives I’ve ever used, ground to an extremely acute 15 degrees. That’s almost too much razorlike precision for chopping veg, although it is designed to be an all-rounder, and after a while it will certainly need honing (which is different from sharpening). I’ve been using a Global for ten years and they do deserve most of the hype.

6. Allday Santoku

£120, Allday Goods

Best Sheffield steel chef’s knife, 8/10

We like: it’s all made out of recycled materials

We don’t like: starchy veg doesn’t fall off the broad, flat blade so easily when sliced

• Length: 16cm blade
• Weight: 160g
• Rockwell hardness rating: 60
• Material: recycled SF-100 Sheffield stainless steel

Some chef’s knives are all sensuous curves and dainty balance. Here, it’s all about the blade – as you’d expect from Sheffield, where this is made by one of the five remaining knife-makers (there used to be 300). It’s high-carbon recycled stainless steel with a hardness rating of 60 and is razor sharp. 

It’s almost too sharp, in fact, when slicing starchy veg like potatoes and radishes: I found the slices sticking to the blade as if they didn’t realise they’d been cut yet, requiring a little flick of the wrist to finish the job. For meat, fish and other veg, this broad, sturdy, flat-topped blade is excellent.

It’s also eco-friendly. Creator Hugo Worsley is a chef who wanted to do something about waste in the food industry and makes the handles out of recycled plastics. Each knife is different, depending on what’s available – it might be plastic waste from beaches or broken milk crates. This one is sauce bottles. It’s a nice idea and makes for a different-feeling knife: high quality but no-nonsense and, dare I say it, a bit more macho than the others on test.

Allday Goods

7. TOG Santoku

£345, TOG Knives

Best Japanese-style chef’s knife, 10/10

We like: high Rockwell hardness rating and beautiful design

We don’t like: the price tag

• Length: 17cm blade
• Weight: 143g
• Rockwell hardness rating: 59
• Material: ACUTO 440 steel

If Global’s Samurai heritage is a bit oversold, TOG’s is easier to justify. They’re a British firm but their blades are made by hand in Seki, about 200 miles west of Tokyo, each passing through the hands of eight different craftsmen. They’re released in small batches and they cost an awful lot – but they feel qualitatively different to use. I used to be a motoring journalist and the feeling is similar to your first time driving a Ferrari. (You can see how people come over all unnecessary about Japanese knives.)

TOG’s range goes from a £195 three-inch paring knife to a £395 sujihiki slicing knife of the type sushi chefs use. This is a santoku, which translates as ‘three virtues’, meaning it’s equally useful for meat, fish and vegetables. Each uses 21 layers of high carbon Japanese steel with antimicrobial copper layers folded in, giving them their distinctive orange stripes. The full-tang handles are Kebony maple wood with a distinctive scooped form that makes them beautifully light and precise to handle. 

It’s a thing of beauty, as much an heirloom as it is a kitchen knife. In terms of quality, it should really be our number one pick, but the high price makes it hard to recommend to the average home cook. For professionals and connoisseurs, this is just about as good as a knife gets.

TOG Knives

8. Savernake Knives DNA GC14 Nakiri

£169, Savernake Knives

Best handcrafted knife, 10/10

We like: they’re razor sharp, durable and customisable

We don’t like: it’s so special I save it for special occasions

• Length: 18cm blade
• Weight: 225g
• Rockwell hardness rating: 60
• Material: SF100 British steel

At the very top end of the market are the luxury, hand-made chef’s knives from London’s Blenheim Forge and Wiltshire’s Savernake: not only are they razor-sharp and durable but you can get them engraved, customised and even built bespoke. 

The price is justified by the fact that it takes Savernake’s Laurie Timpson, interviewed at the top of this feature, and his team 50 hours to handcraft this Nakiri – which, despite its meat cleaver-like appearance, is actually for slicing vegetables.

I’ve been using it for a month now and the Nakiri’s incredibly thin blade slices through all vegetables like a whisper – as long as you use the Asian method, which is to slice, not chop or rock the blade. It also works on fish and to a degree on meat, but is definitely not designed for cutting through bones or joints. 

It’s light compared to European chef’s knives and, though you can’t balance it on your finger as some people like to do, is well balanced and comfy to use. The drawback, of course, is that to have a full set of Savernake knives you’re looking at over £1,000. I also find that I tend to ‘keep it for best’, to avoid wear and tear. This is probably not something a professional chef would do. 

Savernake Knives

9. HexClad Essential Six-Piece Damascus Steel Knife Set

£359, HexClad

Best knife set, 9/10

We like: excellent steel, elegant handles

We don’t like: damascus steel has to be scrupulously dried to prevent rust

• Length: 9cm, 13cm, 18cm, 20cm and serrated 20cm
• Rockwell Hardness 60
• Material: AUS-10 Japanese damascus steel

Designed in California, made in China and endorsed by Gordon Ramsay, the HexClad brand is a fairly big deal in America. Their high-end knives have just launched here at prices that are high, but not crazy given the quality of the steel. 

From the 20cm chef’s knife to the 9cm paring knife, they’re all made from 67 layers of Japanese damascus steel, identified by that lovely ripple effect on the blade, and are as hard and sharp as you can get. Beautiful pukkawood handles make them light and easy to wield.

The big ones cost about £100 each, the smaller ones about £50, so although it’s a big outlay, this Essential Set, which includes five knives and a honing steel (which you definitely need for knives this sharp) is actually good value. Clearly aimed at the ‘About-time-I-got-some-decent-knives’ market, it comes in a posh gift box which you will be tempted to use as a show-offy knife drawer.

10. Stellar Poise 5-piece knife block set

£125, Stellar

Best knife block set, 8/10

We like: very good quality for the price

We don’t like: not quite as sharp as the specialist knives above

• Length: 9cm, 10cm, 15cm, 20cm and 20cm
• Rockwell Hardness 55±2
• Material: X50 CroMov15 Steel

Although we’ve specifically been reviewing chef’s knives in this article, the average kitchen will also need a variety of knives for different uses. It’s rare that the same knife will carve a turkey as well as it slices a carrot. That’s why most cooks have a knife block set.

TV chef James Martin is a friend of ours and has long used high-quality sabatier knives from UK kitchenware brand Stellar. Their new Poise range includes this very decent knife block holding a 15cm chef’s knife, 20cm carving knife, 10cm utility knife, 9cm paring knife and 20cm bread knife. 

The knives are good-looking, well-balanced and made of steel hardened with chromium, molybdenum and vanadium, similar to that used in the Global G-2. This makes them very sharp for a knife set (although none is individually as impressive as the knives we recommend above.)

Because the wooden block is easier to use than the one I use for all my other assorted knives, I find myself relying more and more on this set for breakfast, lunch and all but the most demanding dinners. 

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You will also be needing...

Horl 2

£159, Horl

Best knife sharpener, 9/10

We like: how intuitive it is to use

We don’t like: it’s far more expensive than a regular knife sharpener

Until now there were two types of knife sharpener: the pull-through variety that you can buy on any high street and the more advanced whetstone type, which is so complicated to use that we spent most of our recent article on the best knife sharpeners learning how do it. The tricky part is getting a consistent angle.

Here’s the answer: a whetstone that does all the angle stuff for you. Made in Germany’s Black Forest by a father and son team, the Horl 2 consists of a cylindrical grinder and a square block. One end of the block is angled at 15º from the vertical and the other end at 20º. (Usually, thick-spined European knives are sharpened to 20º and slender Japanese knives are sharpened to 15º.)

All you do is fix your knife, blade-up, to either the 15º or the 20º end of the block (it’s magnetic) and roll the grindstone back and forth against the blade, using first the diamond grinding disc and then the ceramic honing disc. It takes about ten minutes and works miraculously to bring tired, dull knives back to life – which you will definitely want to do if you’ve shelled out over £200 on one of the beauties above. Every home should have one of these.

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FAQ

What are the three most important knives in a kitchen?

The single most important knife in your kitchen is the all-purpose, roughly eight-inch chef’s knife of the type reviewed above. However, if you do want to branch out, the top three are simply “small, medium and large,” says knifemaker Laurie Timpson.

“The small one will be for the more fiddly tasks like peeling an apple or other things that you’re holding in your hand, and they’re usually called paring knives. 

“Your medium knife will probably be your main knife that you use for most things, and that’s usually what people mean when they say chef’s knife. The standard chef’s knife is about 28cm long with a curved blade. 

“Your larger knife could be a cleaver or a carving knife. There’s no hard rule.”