What brands were tested? 

Each of the chef's knives tested was selected for a reason. 

 

I started with Henckels and Wüsthof - the two most popular "high-end" chef's knives available in the United States. These are the manufacturers that have been pushed as quality cutlery at most home kitchen supply stores. (The knives tested were the Henckels Pro-S and the Wusthof Classic. Both companies produce lower quality, budget lines that are inferior to their high-end knives. Heckels manufacturers, under the premium branding of Zwilling J.A. Henckels, the Pro-S, Four Star, Five Star, and Twin collections. Wüsthof-Trident makes the Classic, Grand Prix series, Culinar, and Le Cordon Bleu lines as their premium knives.) 

 

I then added the R.H. Forshner / Victorinox chef's knife as a relatively low cost entry. This knife was the Cook's Illustrated Editor's Choice in their knife testing (actually, it's from the same family - I wasn't able to figure out exactly which knife was tested by Cook's Illustrated without a model number). 

 

The Global cook's knife was included because they are the most popular Japanese kitchen knives available to the average American consumer. In the last several years they have made a big impression with their stainless steel handles and imposing presence in stores like Sur La Table, Williams-Sonoma, and, most recently, Bed Bath & Beyond. 

 

The Kershaw Shun is another Japanese manufactured line that has practically leaped onto the stage. Described by Cook's Illustrated as the "Cadillac" of chef's knives and personally endorsed by Alton Brown, I had to include it in the roundup. The Shun was also a personal favorite of mine (as expressed in the Equipment & Gear: Kitchen Knives article). 

 

I then included one more well-known brand - Cutco. Cutco is not sold in stores but is instead marketed in the U.S. through a referral based direct marketing method (similar to the old party system). The Cutco claim is that they are the best selling high-end kitchen knife manufactured in the United States. 

 

The other knives I included are not as well-known, but are well respected: MAC, Tojiro, and Nenox. I attempted to contact several other knife manufacturers (including Kyocera for their ceramic chef's knife) but failed to receive a response (and I had reached my limit on knives I was willing to buy for this test). 

 

All of the knives were tested out-of-the-box because I made the assumption that most readers will not be hand sharpening their knives. (In addition, once a knife has been sharpened, it would be difficult to compare the performance of the knives because of the added factor of the sharpener's skill and equipment.) 

 

I started off with the desire to measure the physical dimensions of the knives: thickness of spine at bolster and at tip and angle of bevel at the cutting edge. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to measure the angle of bevel to any degree of accuracy (most of the knives taper to the edge and the actual bevel is over a very short distance of perhaps a millimeter). I did use calipers to measure the spine thickness at two points on each knife and determined that the thickness of the spine does not affect the cutting performance (it may play a role in other factors to be considered when selecting a knife, like weight). The knives were also weighed. 

 

The rest of the testing was focused on subjective cutting performance. I spent a month thinking about how I would set up an apparatus to make objective measurements, but couldn't come up with a feasible test that did not seem contrived and too abstract to compare to how a knife would actually be used in the kitchen. As such, I settled on making the subjective testing as "accurate" as possible, performing the same cuts over and over again with the knives. First all the knives were subjected to the particular cutting test and roughly ranked against each other. Then knives close together in the ranking order repeated the cutting test (often alternating cuts) until I could determine if one was noticeable superior to the other or they were pretty much equal in performance. Prior to each cutting test, the knives were steeled to realign their edges. 

 

Description: Unpeeled carrots were cut in two different ways. The first method started by positioning the carrot parallel to the counter and driving the heel of the knife into the carrot at a 30° (from horizontal) angle. The blade was driven in (like a wedge) for about 2 mm, enough for the knife to stay in place. The knife was then pulled from heel to tip along that groove. The motion was completed with no conscious downward pressure. The result was examined - a sharp knife would be able to slice cleanly through the carrot, a duller knife might slice through most of the way but end with the carrot snapping off, while a very dull knife would simply slide in the groove. The second test method involved cutting thin (1 mm or less) cross-sectional slices from the carrot. The slicing was accomplished by starting the tip (about an inch from the point) of the knife on the surface of the carrot and pushing the knife forward and down (usually traversing only a couple inches) to cut through. The effort required to cut through as well as the cleanliness of the cut were compared to rank the knives. 

 

Description: A potato was first cut in half along its major axis (long side). A potato half was then set down on the cutting board with its cut side down to keep the potato from rolling or moving during the test. Thin slices of potato were cut off by starting the tip on the surface of the potato and pushing the knife forward. This technique was used to perform the majority of the ranking based on effort needed to cut through, cleanliness of cut, and how straight the cut was. In cases where it was difficult to determine if one knife was superior to another with similar performance, a reverse stroke was used as well: the stroke started with the heel of the knife and the knife was pulled back without any additional downward effort. 

 

Description: This is a very popular demonstration (although I'm not sure why - I've only seen extremely dull knives perform badly with tomatoes). Because, in my experience, all knives cut tomatoes reasonably well, I focused on the feel of the knife during the cut. Specifically, I watched for any slipping while cutting and the level of ease with which the knife slid through the tomato. None of the tomatoes were crushed, were mangled, or lost excessive juice during the test. The tomato was first cut in half through its axis of symmetry (through the stem to the tip) and laid down to prevent rolling. The heel of the knife was placed on the skin and the knife was pulled back allowing the weight of the knife to help the blade slide through the tomato. 

 

Description: The greens of fresh scallions were thinly sliced into circles using both a mincing motion (keeping the point anchored on the cutting board and pushing the heel of the blade down) and a short slicing motion (placing the point on the board and the scallions under the middle of the knife and sliding the knife forward about an inch). Both actions were repeated for several seconds as scallions were fed under the knife with the left hand. Both the feel of the knife and the cleanliness of the chopped scallions (clean cuts or signs of crushing, bruising, or tearing) were taken into account in this test. 

 

Cutco 9-1/4" French Chef 

Most common price: $104 (available through a Cutco representative) 

Weight: 8.30 oz. (236 g) 

Spine thickness: 12/128 in. (2.4 mm) @ bolster; 5/128 in. (1.0 mm) @ tip 

 

Henckels 31021-200 Pro-S 8-in. Chef's Knife 

Most common price: $90 (amazon.com) 

Weight: 9.30 oz. (264 g) 

Spine thickness: 8/128 in. (1.6 mm) @ bolster; 5/128 in. (1.0 mm) @ tip 

 

Global G-2 20cm Cook's Knife 

Most common price: $86 (amazon.com); $86 (MetroKitchen) 

Weight: 5.85 oz. (165 g) 

Spine thickness: Not yet measured 

 

MAC MBK-85 MAC Mighty Chef 8.5" 

Most common price: $120 (amazon.com); $120 (MAC Knife) 

Weight: 7.25 oz. (206 g) 

Spine thickness: 13/128 in. (2.6 mm) @ bolster; 4/128 in. (0.8 mm) @ tip 

 

MAC MTH-80 MAC Mighty Chef 8" with dimples 

Most common price: $100 (Cutlery and More); $110 (amazon.com) 

Weight: 6.45 oz. (183 g) 

Spine thickness: 12/128 in. (2.4 mm) @ bolster; 8/128 in. (1.6 mm ) @ tip 

 

Nenox S1 210mm Gyuto 

Most common price: $261 (JapaneseChefsKnife.com); $270 (Nenohi) 

Weight: 6.30 oz. (178 g) 

Spine thickness: Not yet measured 

 

RH Forschner Victorinox 40521 Fibrox 10-in. Chef's Knife 

Most common price: $29 (amazon.com) 

Weight: 7.85 oz. (223 g) 

Spine thickness: 12/128 in. (2.4 mm) @ bolster; 5/128 in. (1.0 mm) @ tip 

 

Shun Classic DMO706 8 in. Chef's Knife 

Most common price: $120 (MetroKitchen); $124 (amazon.com) 

Weight: 7.50 oz. (212 g) 

Spine thickness: 12/128 in. (2.4 mm) @ bolster; 6/128 in. (1.2 mm) @ tip 

 

Tojiro DP F-808 21cm Gyoto Chef's Knife (60 Rockwell) 

Most common price: $50 (JapaneseChefsKnife.com), $59 (Korin), $97 (Jorgensen International); $100 (various shops in Japantown, San Francisco, CA) 

Weight: 6.30 oz. (179 g) 

Spine thickness: 8/128 in. (1.6 mm) @ bolster; 6/128 in. (1.2 mm) @ tip 

 

Tojiro Powdered High Speed F520 21cm Gyoto Pro Chef's Knife (62 Rockwell) 

Most common price: $130 (JapaneseChefsKnife.com); $250 (Jorgensen International) 

Weight: 6.65 oz. (189 g) 

Spine thickness: 8/128 in. (1.6 mm) @ bolster; 5/128 in. (1.0 mm) @ tip 

 

Wusthof 4582 Classic 20 cm. Cook's Knife 

Most common price: $95 (amazon.com) 

Weight: 8.80 oz. (249 g) 

Spine thickness: 17/128 in. (3.4 mm) @ bolster; 5/128 in. (1.0 mm) @ tip 

 

Knife Performance Rankings 

I've numerically ranked each knife starting with "1" as the best performing knife. Knives with the same ranking are so close in performance that I was not able to differentiate between the knives. Please note that these numbers are for ranking only and are not a relative performance level (for example the difference between a 1 & 2 ranking may be much smaller than the performance difference between a 5 & 6). Knives of the same ranking are listed in alphabetic order. 

 

In addition to relative ranks, a rating is assigned to each knife: U - Unacceptable; S - Serviceable; E - Excellent; O - Outstanding. 

 

Unacceptable knives do not cut as expected. Either the cuts were not clean (requiring excessive force or multiple strokes) or the blade bruised or crushed the ingredient to an unacceptable degree. Serviceable knives performed their cutting action as expected. There is nothing exceptional about the knife - it simply performs as you'd expect an average knife to perform. More force is needed when using a serviceable knife than an excellent or outstanding one. Excellent knives slice with ease. The knives are properly balanced and sharp enough to feel as if the user is simply guiding the knife and the knife is performing the cutting. Outstanding knives simply perform beyond all expectations. The knife's cutting ability is noticeably better than that of an excellent knife. 

 

These rankings do not take in account other factors such as cost, handle shape, and weight. They simply portray the cutting performance of the knife.