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Best chef's knives for 2024, tested and reviewed
We tested popular brands like Wüsthof, Mercer and Shun to see which knives are the best. The winner cuts through food like it's Marshmallow Fluff.
While you could cook with an average chef's knife, you can make meal prep and chopping a whole lot easier with a well-balanced, sharp kitchen knife that ensures these everyday tasks feel like less of a chore and more of a joy. Even (actually, especially) if you're a beginner home cook, you'll benefit from a chef's knife upgrade, as you're probably still working on your slicing-and-dicing technique, and using a dull knife or one that isn't easy to grip or maneuver can result in injury more often than you'd think.
Choosing a good chef's knife can be overwhelming, but I'm here to help. To come up with our list of the best chef's knives for 2024, I tested some of the most popular eight-inch options in both Western and Japanese styles (more on what that means below). These top-rated chef's knives come from well-known brands as well as less famous ones and range in price from $30 to more than $200.
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As a busy mom of two, I feel like I'm always in the kitchen getting some kind of meal ready, whether it's a quick breakfast before we run out the door or a sit-down family dinner. While I truly enjoy cooking — I'm a graduate of the French Culinary Institute and Yahoo's resident culinary products expert — the reality of it can feel like a grind and I'm always looking to make meal prep easier. I've found that an excellent eight-inch chef's knife makes quicker and more enjoyable work of whatever I'm prepping, whether I'm slicing a basic bunch of raw veggies for snacking on or cutting up a whole roast chicken to share with friends and family. A truly good chef's knife may even make you feel like a professional chef!
For this list, I evaluated each knife on how it felt in hand (whether it was balanced and heavy or light), how easy it was to grip and maneuver and how it performed on common tasks like dicing onions, slicing tomatoes, cutting through butternut squash and butterflying chicken breast. Determining which razor-sharp knife is right for you will ultimately come down to personal preference and budget, but I did have a couple of favorites. Keep scrolling for our list of the best chef's knives for 2024.
Best chef's knife overall
Material: Stainless steel | Weight: 5.5 oz | Style: Japanese
After slicing and dicing with nine worthy knives, I consider the Global Classic Chef's Knife to be the Goldilocks of this category — it's not too heavy and not too light, and it slices through almost everything as if your food is as soft as Marshmallow Fluff. The knife felt balanced in my hand, was easy to maneuver and the blade was remarkably sharp. It was a pleasure to use, and while not a traditional-looking knife, it has a modern steel design that I love.
As mentioned, there are two general types of chef's knives — Western and Japanese. This is a Japanese knife — which tends to be lighter than Western knives and has straight, thinner and sometimes sharper blades. Western knives tend to be heavier and feature a curved, slightly thicker blade.
What's truly unusual about Global knives is that they are crafted end to end from a single piece of stainless steel (it's called CROMOVA 18, which is a blend of chromium, molybdenum and vanadium metals). The handle features a perforated pattern that's quite comfortable to grip.
I didn't encounter the slightest bit of resistance when I diced onions, and the knife also cut through chicken breasts smoothly. While cutting through butternut squash was something of a challenge, this is a tough task for any knife, and this one was one of the best I tried to get this job done. Global recommends hand-washing and hand-drying their knives, which is fairly standard. I washed it with a regular sponge and warm, soapy water and dried it with a kitchen towel as opposed to letting it drip dry.
The retail price seems to vary depending on where you buy this knife, but I almost always see it on sale for $100 to $125.
- Easy to maneuver
- Comfortable grip
- Lightweight
- Lifetime warranty
- Price is on the higher side
- Can be challenging to sharpen
Another top chef's knife we recommend
Material: High-carbon stainless steel | Weight: 8.5 oz | Style: Western
When I started culinary school, I was issued a curated set of knives and tools we would need to work with through our 600 hours of training in order to graduate. This Mercer Culinary chef's knife was the one we received that day and what we would use for 90% of our daily tasks. That should give you an idea of what this knife is capable of — and of its durability.
The Genesis may not be a flashy knife, but it is a real workhorse in the kitchen. This Western-style knife is forged from a single piece of high-carbon German steel and features a handle made from Santoprene (a rubbery material) that ensures a firm grip even in damp hands.
It cuts through tomatoes and onions nicely but with some mild resistance on onions (this is where I noticed a difference in the thicker blade of Western-style knives) and butterflies chicken breasts smoothly. The blade feels slightly chunkier than those of Japanese knives — whether you like this is all a matter of personal preference, much like the weight of a knife. The price makes this one a winner. At roughly $40 (there is almost always a discount on this knife), it's affordable enough that you don't have to stress about someone putting this knife in the dishwasher when you're not looking.
- Price
- Durability
- Nonslip grip
- Easy to sharpen
- Limited lifetime warranty
- Midweight
What to look for when choosing a chef's knife
Japanese vs. Western style: You'll see many knives marked as one or the other, and there's no right answer when choosing which one to buy, just personal preference. Japanese-style knives are usually lighter and have straight blades that may have dimples that are supposed to keep food from sticking to the knife when slicing. Western- or German-style knives tend to be heavier and with a slightly curved blade and may seem more durable.
Material: Japanese-style knives tend to be crafted from harder steel that keeps its edge longer but is more challenging to sharpen. The softer steel of a German-style knife may dull faster but is easier to sharpen.
Comfort/balance: I can't overstate the importance of ergonomics when choosing a chef's knife. You don't want to tire yourself out with a heavy knife or lose your hold on a knife that seems flimsy. If the handle doesn't feel good, you have a hard time gripping it or the knife feels too heavy or too light, it's simply not the right knife for you. The best way to assess this is by trying different styles and weights to see how they feel.
How we tested
I sliced and diced onions, which are sticky on the inside — so if a blade isn't sharp enough, it can be challenging to cut through to the bottom in even slices. I sliced tomatoes, whose tricky skin requires a very sharp edge (otherwise, you may find yourself smashing the delicate tomato flesh). I cut up butternut squash because of its dense, firm flesh and tough skin, then finally I used the knives on raw chicken breasts (which can also be sticky). All these tests helped me assess how sharp, balanced and comfortable each knife was. I noted how each felt in my hand, how heavy it was, how easy it was to maneuver and how simple it was to clean and maintain. I washed and dried all of them by hand and assessed if the water left marks on the blades.
Other chef's knives we tested
Mac Knife 8-Inch Chef's Knife with Dimples: This $175 Japanese knife is extremely sharp and feels comfortable in hand for almost any prep work in the kitchen. I liked its smooth cuts and nimble feel on all the tasks I performed. The dimples on the blade are meant to keep food from sticking, but I found that wasn't always the case. It's on the pricier end of the knives I tested, but would still be worth buying if you favor a Japanese-style knife that you know you'll use daily.
Shun Cutlery Classic 8-Inch Chef's Knife: I absolutely love the look and feel of the smooth wooden handle on this $213 knife. It was one of the heftier Japanese-style knives I tested, weighing just over 7 ounces but still feeling balanced. It's easy to maneuver — dicing onions and butterflying chicken breasts was easy, but cutting up butternut squash remained quite tough.
Wüsthof Classic Ikon 8-Inch Chef's Knife: With a heavier and more substantial feel than every other knife I tested, this $130 model was perhaps too much knife for me. I'm petite at five feet tall, and using the Wüsthof Ikon knife (a Western-style one) tired me out. Interestingly, I've had a Wüsthof Ikon paring knife for years and thoroughly enjoy its nimble size and sharp edge, so this was a disappointing outcome. I got through all the testing tasks mostly quite well, but it wasn't a match.
Tojiro Japan Professional Chef Knife VG10, 8.2 Inches: This $101 chef's knife from Tojiro was another top contender in the Japanese-style category. It felt slightly heavier than both the Mac and Global knives, but not too heavy. I was very impressed with how it glided through tomatoes like butter, but found there was some resistance when I used it to slice and dice onions and obviously even more when cutting up the winter squash.
Misen 8-Inch Chef's Knife: Misen calls this 8-inch chef's knife, which costs $94, a hybrid of Japanese and Western styles due to its blade shape that falls somewhere in between flat and curved. I'd also say it's a hybrid in look and feel. It's heavier than many Japanese knives at just over 8 ounces, making it a bit harder to maneuver than others. It was easy to grip, and that made the hard work of cutting up butternut squash a little easier, as well as chicken and onions. On the tomatoes, the blade felt thicker than I wanted it to.
Victorinox Swiss Classic 8-Inch Chef's Knife: With a chunky plastic handle and a very lightweight feel, this lower-cost (just $56) Western-style knife is a good choice for novice cooks or a second home. It can't compete on the look or performance of the Mercer or Wüsthof knives, but if you're looking for a Western knife that won't blow your budget, this one will get you through most prep work as long as it doesn't feel too light in your hand.
Kai Gyuto Knife, 8.3 Inches: At $45, this Kai knife is a Japanese entry-level choice. It's definitely lightweight and can feel a touch flimsy at times. On the plus side, it cut through onions and chicken almost as well as the more expensive Tojiro knife at a fraction of the price. It would not be my first choice when tackling tough stuff like butternut squash.
Chef's knives FAQs
What are the different types of knives?
If you're looking to streamline your kitchen and focus your budget on the essentials, a quality chef's knife (for most everyday cooking like chopping vegetables or slicing meat), a paring knife (its smaller scale and thin blade are perfect for more delicate tasks like peeling garlic or slicing smaller items) and a bread knife (a good serrated edge will cut through crusty loaves without smashing the insides of the bread) are all you need.
Once you've settled on those all-important knives, if you feel like expanding your cutlery collection, you can add items such as the ones mentioned below.
What type of knives do most professional chefs use?
Most professional chefs use the core three knives mentioned above — chef's knife, paring knife and bread knife — plus many other specialty knives that each chef has a personal preference for. These may include a boning knife (which has a long, skinny blade that is often a bit flexible), a nakiri knife (the blade is rectangular and a bit shorter than a classic chef's knife and is often used for chopping vegetables) and a cleaver (which resembles a hatchet and can be heavy to hold as it's used for cutting through bones and larger or tough cuts of meat). Stay tuned for more testing and reviews on cookware and knives favored by celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Guy Fieri.
How should you care for your knives?
Knives are not hard to care for, but they do require some attention. A dull knife will leave you susceptible to injury when it slips on whatever you're attempting to slice. Keeping blades sharp is as important as hand-washing and hand-drying them. Keep a honing steel on hand for quick fixes and a mechanical sharpener or wet stone for more in-depth sharpening. Always wash and dry your knives by hand, even if the manufacturer says the knife is dishwasher-safe. You will prolong the life of the knife and the sharpness of the blade by keeping it out of the dishwasher. As for storage, there are many safe ways to keep knives shipshape, whether it's mounting a magnetic knife strip on your kitchen wall, storing them in a countertop knife block, adding a knife organizer to a kitchen drawer, buying individual sheaths for each one or sliding them into a knife roll.
We received complimentary samples of some products and purchased others ourselves, but we reviewed all products using the same objective criteria.
