How To Buy Right Kitchen Knife For Your Needs
Choosing a kitchen knife set is not hard but with so much choice available from the very cheap to the very expensive you need to start with setting yourself a budget. The question you should be asking initially is “What are the best kitchen knives for the money and the cooking that I do?”
If like most people you are a keen home cook you are going to want a knife requiring little maintenance that stays sharp for as long as possible, be easy to sharpen when needed and also resist rusting. (Yes some knives on sale will rust as not all are made from stainless steel.)
Maintenance tends to be higher on the better-performing knives, and the trick is to find the right balance between performance, cost, and maintenance.
Once you are settled on a budget, there are a few more things you’ll want to be wary of.
- Make sure that you know exactly what type of knives you want before you go out and buy a knife set. Certain blades and handles will allow you to hold them differently and use them in different ways, so don’t rush into a purchase because they’re shiny and new, think about exactly what you expect from the knife and plan your purchase accordingly.
- Before you buy the knife, hold each one of them in your hand individually. It may seem like common sense, but the urge to just buy a set of knives can be great if you aren’t looking to spend a whole lump of time looking at different sets but consider the fact that you’ll be using these knives on a regular basis. You want to make sure that they’re comfortable to use and you’ll be able to cut your meats, fresh vegetables or whatever else you’ll be using the knives for effectively to make your purchase worthwhile and a solid investment.
- Stamped blades are made in the same way samurai swords are made. Instead of the lump of metal simply being sharpened and then sold, several (hundred) incredibly thin sheets of metal are pressed together to form the blade itself. This creates an amazingly sharp blade which will require a very small amount of maintenance to keep it up, meaning that your kitchen knives will be as sharp as they were when you bought them new and continued to be great for cooking. Remember that with price usually comes quality, so don’t be afraid of spending a little bit more to get stamped blades, they’re worth it!
- Generally speaking the higher the carbon content of the knife the better quality it is. The downside to this is that if the knife has a carbon content that is too high without the element being diluted with other elements, the blade can quickly become brittle and completely useless. Be sure to scope out the carbon content for the knives you’re looking to buy to make sure that they won’t be splitting off into your salad as you chop the lettuce; nobody wants to keep a first aid kit handy when eating their five a day!
- Before you take a look at buying Japanese style blades, make sure that you’re aware of the specialist techniques needed to sharpen these blades effectively. Unlike western blades, Japanese models are crafted with extreme precision and sharpening them can be very tricky without the right tools. Research how you should be correctly sharpening your Japanese blades before you buy them to make sure you’ll be able to do so when the time comes. Don’t be fooled by a marketing ploy, Japanese knives are amazing quality but come with the cost of a very high maintenance time investment.
Where should you buy your knife or knife set from?
Amazon is a trusted and reliable online store selling hundreds of different types of knives and knife sets. They offer a rock-solid warranty and guarantee on everything they sell so you know you are in safe hands shopping with them.
Why Should You Buy Kitchen Knives from Amazon
Finding a good set of knives, or even just a quality replacement knife for an existing set can be difficult to do when you shop in most retail chain stores or even restaurant supply stores. They have a limited selection and many of them, especially the giant retail chain stores, may not have the knife quality you need for cooking.
Amazon Kitchen Knives
Buying from Amazon Broadens Your Selection
Rather than send fruitless hours searching for a great knife in your local retail outlets or kitchen supply stores, you can go online to shop for knives or knife sets. Amazon is a great site to use for online shopping for knives in all price ranges and of all qualities. Rather than offering just a handful of brands like most retail chain stores do, Amazon gives you the opportunity to shop through hundreds of different knife models.
They carry a wide variety of brand names, some of which you may be familiar with after shopping for knives in brick and mortar stores. There are also brands you may have never heard of because Amazon picks its products from around the world for you to be able to buy them online. They offer the best kitchen knives in the world, including:
Chicago Cutlery
- Ginsu
- Cuisinart
- Wusthof
- OXO
- A. Henckels
- Yoshihiro
The selection with Amazon is better because they are not limited by floor space like retail chain stores often are. They have vast warehouses that hold thousands of products, such as knives, which you can buy online. Most retail chain stores probably only sell three to four brands at most.
Better Pricing with Amazon
When you buy products from Amazon, you will save money because they can offer their chosen products at a lower price than most retail chain stores. With a larger selection of products and buying in huge lots, Amazon is going to be able to get better pricing from wholesalers than most retail outlets will. Since they do get better pricing for their products, they can pass the savings onto their customers.
You can find knives and knife sets in many price ranges on the Amazon site as well. They don’t only sell expensive sets as many other e-commerce sites do to make money, but they sell inexpensive sets for the budget minded consumer as well. The price ranges on Amazon for knife sets run from budget sets that may only cost around $60 to professional chef sets that can run $600 or more for ceramic sets or Japanese knife sets made from cobalt.
You can often you can get discounts on products you’re interested in because you are a regular Amazon shopper or when they have clearances on items in their warehouses. If you look under the tab “Today’s Deals” you may find what you want at an even better price.
