If there’s one thing no self-respecting cook can afford to be without, it’s a set of decent sharp knives to help prepare the food with. You don’t have to be a Five Star Chef to realise that this is one area where compromising on quality will have a direct effect on just how useful they are. This is something you will use every day in countless different ways and it’s worth spending a little more to find something you feel comfortable with.

There are lots of different shapes and size of kitchen knives out there, all designed for different jobs. Here is the basic collection you should be looking at:

Chef’s or Cook’s Knife

These are the workhorses of the kitchen, used for everything from chopping to slicing and carving meat. They come in a variety of sizes from 15.2cm (6in) up to about 25.4cm (10in) and are usually curved, allowing them to ’rock’ when chopping. They have a wide, flat blade with a strong heel (useful for jobs like crushing garlic) and the tip should be thin and flexible enough to work around bones. These are so useful you may want more than one size for different tasks or types of food.

Paring knife

These are small, around 9-10cm (3 1/2– 4in) and really useful for jobs like peeling fruit and vegetables.

Utility knife

These are general-purpose knives that you can use for all kinds of tasks and it’s worth having a selection in different sizes.

Not essential, but useful:

Bread knife

Usually have a scalloped edge to cut through crusts without tearing the bread.

Kitchen Scissors

Used for a hundred and one tasks from cutting open packaging to trimming meat or string ties.

Weight & Comfort

The best knives are forged from high-carbon steel. These tend to be heavier but have a keener, longer lasting edge and are easier to sharpen. Weight is important as it gives you extra cutting power, but it needs to be well balanced to make it feel comfortable to use. Handles vary in style and material but should be ergonomically shaped and provide a smooth, safe grip. Wooden handles are less popular these days as they can carry grease and bacteria and are harder to clean. Watch out for gaps between the blade and the handle as these can harbour germs.

Keeping your Edge

Keeping your knives sharp is vital if you want to get the best use out of them. Even with today’s hi-tech materials and manufacturing methods, knives don’t stay sharp on their own. The best thing to do is get into the habit of using a sharpening steel before each use to keep the edge keen, then have them professionally sharpened once a year.

Serrated blades (such as steak and fruit knives) never need sharpening but produce a much rougher cut. Generally used for cutting softer substances they take a lot longer to grow blunt.

Although most kitchen knives are dishwasher proof, contact with other implements can dull them over time.

How your store your knives is also important. Left loose in a drawer rattling around with other hard objects, they will soon get scratched, lose their edge and grow blunt. Knife blocks or magnetic racks that keep them separate from each other will keep them in tiptop condition.

Knowing your Tang from your Bolster

Knives have their own terminology. Here’s a quick guide to what it all means:

Tang:The metal that joins the handle to the blade

Bolster: A thick neck of metal that separates the handle from the blade, protecting fingers from edge and adding weight to balance knife

Edge-ground: A straight sided blade with the edge ground onto it

Taper-ground: A blade tapered from the back to the edge to allow finest edge and blade to glide through food

Hollow-ground: Straight sided blade with a ‘hollow grind’ close to the edge to create a finer edge

Forged: Blade bolster and tang made from solid steel, hardened, tempered then ground to an edge

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