Australia’s equivalent of Which? put these knives through their paces, testing handling and checking cutting performance while a specialist laboratory assessed how sharp they were. Who came out top?
The Contenders
The workhorse knife of any kitchen knives range is the cooks knife or chefs knife as it is sometimes called. The chefs knife of each of these ranges was chosen so that the comparison was as accurate as it could be.
Henckels Knives (Zwilling J.A. Henckels) Review For the most part these are excellent German-made knives. The most popular and best of the Henckels ranges are Professional S and Four Star. You’ll see Jamie Oliver using Henckels knives in particular the Professional-S line. Read the full review…
Wusthof Knives Review Like Henckels Wusthof are another top-quality German knife company. If you buy any Wusthof knife, you are sure to have bought a great knife. There are no “cheap” Wusthof knives. Read the full review…
Global Knives Review All stainless Japanese kitchen knives with hollow handles which makes them comparatively light. Global makes great knives which are, mostly, not forged but are laser cut and then welded to a handle. They are relatively easy to sharpen and very durable. Read the full review…
Victorinox Knives Review Victorinox are made in Swtizerland and are typically not forged – they are stamped out of stainless steel and then fixed to a variety of handle styles. Because they are not a forged knife, the steel is relatively soft which means they do not hold an edge for as long. On the positive side though they are very easy to sharpen and are very durable and very inexpensive. Read the full review…
The Head-to-Head Test
PERFORMANCE: The home economist put one set of the cooks knives through their paces, slicing and dicing various foods:
sliced carrots to assess the knives’ ability to slice hard food evenly without slipping and without resistance
sliced cucumber to check how each knife could perform delicate work: slicing as thinly as possible without slipping or resistance that would result in uneven slices
used the knives to chop parsley rapidly, to see if they could chop finely without bruising, crushing or mashing
cut and cubed steak to see how well the knives cut through fat and sinew without much effort and without slipping
a male assessor and a left hander also checked each model for comfort
SHARPNESS: A second set of knives was sent to a specialist laboratory to assess how sharp they were:
immediately after purchase
after 50 slicing strokes into a specially calibrated aluminium rod, which is known to blunt the cutting edge