Are expensive chef knives really worth the extra price?

Question

Lilybelle · Answer

To an extent, yes, because you get what you pay for. A knife is more than just sharp steel with a handle attached to it. A great deal of skill goes into heat treating and shaping the knife, and potentially a lot of labor goes into this as well as quality control as well. If you’re not paying, you’re not getting that skill and labor. Simple.
Obviously, this depends on what you mean by “expensive.” If you think anything more than $25 is “expensive” since you’re used to supermarket knives there’s really not much to work with. If you’re me and you think knives above $300 start being “expensive,” that’s a different story.
However, other factors can increase a knife’s price. Brand, marketing, going through a middleman, etc. can all inflate price. So it ultimately boils down to you having to know what’s reasonable and what you’re looking for in a knife. If anything, I often urge people to go off the beaten path and examine the specs of less well-known brands, which often are where you can get great deals. Big brands tend to have higher price tags.
In my opinion, the sweetspot is from around $70 to $120 dollars. This is where you get the largest amounts of improvements over cheap supermarket knives for the price you pay. As you get higher, you get improvements, too, but they are subtle and more incremental. I believe you can max out knife performance and quality by the time you hit the $300 mark. Many offerings beyond this price point are for aesthetics and other stuff that doesn’t affect performance.

Jasmine · Answer

I trained as a chef for 5 years. This was many moons ago now but the lady that trained me had been in the business for over 40 years. Some of the guys that I worked with had very expensive knives that they took with them. She had a son that was also in the business. He cooked in Jackson Hole during the winter and Acapulco during the summer. He had his own. He told me one night that he bought his own only when he became a sous chef in a top restaurant. He said that until you’re actually making money doing this job, it’s not worth spending the money. He told me to go the local restaurant supply store and buy some knives there.
The most important thing is to keep them sharp. All the time. Get it sharpened once a month. Use the honing steel everytime before use.
I’m sure someone on here will disagree. That’s cool. This is just my opinion and some anecdotal eveidence.

Sadie · Answer

“Expensive” is a broad term. I’ve got a set of global knives.

Are expensive chef knives really worth the extra price?

(representative picture). I’ve got 5 similar ones bought 1 at a time. They’d cost £250 easily now. They’re 15 years old and look brand new…. I suspect they’ll be good knives long after I’m gone. The blades are rigid (very cheap knifes can bend) and take a razor edge which they retain well (blunt knives are lethal… they slip). You don’t need to spend this much on a knife but you DO get what you pay for…. really cheap blades will let you down.

Chicago Cutlery Belden 15 Piece Premium Kitchen Knife

Reply

Emery · Answer

Not usually. If you are a working chef, you need good knives, but you can find good knives that aren’t crazy expensive. Generally avoid the big name brands though. You’ll end up spending more and getting less.
One of my favorite knives was something like 75$. It’s a deba, which is a heavy single-bevel knife with a wide blade. It’s mostly designed for working with fish, but I love using it to debone chickens. I bought it at a little Japanese gardening and woodworking shop in Berkeley that also sells some kitchen stuff. I have a cheaper knife I bought there that I used as my main prep knife for a year at least. Point being, you can get a great knife for under 100$.
My most expensive knife was made by this guy up around Portland I think, that studied knife making in Japan. His name is Murray Carter . That knife was over 200$, and worth every penny. But it needs to be maintained properly, which is something that I probably didn’t learn how to do until I had been cooking professionally for several years.
So it really depends. Absolutely a high-end knife is worth the extra price if you know how to handle it. It can be a little difficult to identify high-end sometimes because quality doesn’t always correlate with price.
If you’re a beginning home cook, you’re probably best served by a 25$ dexter. I had to learn to drive on a 1973 Volkswagen beetle. It was ugly, loud, and temperamental. But learning how to make that thing move taught me a lot about cars. Plus, you probably don’t wanna put a student driver in a 911. Same with knives. If you can handle a dexter, maybe then you’re ready for something nicer. Even then, I knew a better cook than I who never used anything else.
I would also mention that it’s not advisable to have too many knives. There exists a knife for every job. However, with 3 knives, you can accomplish 99% of those jobs effectively. I’m kinda minimalist, but I’ve never used more than 3 knives actively, at the most. Right now I use my expensive knife, my deba, and a 7$ suncraft paring knife. About 300$ worth of knives, total, for a professional setup. I have a wet stone that really should be replaced, and I sharpen my knives every few days unless I get lazy. My kitchen work is light. If I was working a station, I would sharpen my knives every day.

Delilah · Answer

Professional chef’s knives are meant for working chefs, or people doing a similar amount of cooking. For the average home cook, I would say they are overkill.
I only cook at home a couple of times a week, and I don’t do any extensive cutting, carving, or chopping less often than that. I have a nice Henkel’s carving knife, a couple of smaller paring knives from the same maker, and a nice Spyderco bread knife.
I do my own sharpening; I have a pro-quality steel for touch ups. Those few items serve me just fine.
The more you do, the better-quality tools you need.

Rylee · Answer

As a retired professional they're worth it to me. For the home cook, get the best quality you can afford (good advice for any product in my opinion), get them professionally sharpened and keep them that way. Note that knives when you first buy them aren't as sharp as they could be.

Savannah · Answer

You can cut with any knife, but sometimes you want more fun, ease of use, a better handle and in the end, you may even want the history behind the knife just to put a wider smile on your face 🙂
Knifemaking is a form of art, as is cooking. I personally am willing to pay for the story, the ancient fabrication techniques, and the sharp edge, as well as for the patina that will form naturally on the knife, making it unique. It’s a preference. Some people never have fun cutting on wooden boards. Others make vegetables look like art on a plate.
For high-end results, you need decent tools. For fun, you need tools that you can connect to in some way.

Maya · Answer

Yes.
If you want to replace crappy knives every month or so, go ahead and buy cheap crap, if you want to buy a knife or knives that will last years that you get used to, get better at using and master, then buy decent quality knives.
They don’t HAVE to be global, or wusthof, dreisak, gustav emil ern, sabatier or victorinox, but a decent knife is made from good steel and has a handle that fits your hand, and the cut of the knife matches your style of use.
I wont preach or show off and demand you use a particular type but knives are and have always been an art for me. I am proud of my knife skills, as all chefs and they are infinitely better with the better knife in my hand.
Knives themselves are an artform. Google Bob Kramer for example, that guy is a master knife smith.
Personally I have Mexeur et Cie sabatier, Kyocera ceramic and a collection of japanese and thai knives and cleavers depending on what I’m cooking.
Find knives you like, that you enjoy and that you will look after. That’s my advice. Don’t buy cheap.

Mary · Answer

You don’t have to get the most expensive set. What is important is to always keep your knives sharp so they don’t sleep.  Buy a cheaper set, see how it works for you.

Charlotte · Answer

Q: Are expensive chef knives really worth the extra price?
A: There are two context for the words “chef knives”.
One is shape and the other activity. Knives are also an art form.
The activity of a chef, like many professionals, depends on the tools and their quality. A home cook need not have the same tools that a professional needs. Good tools are commonly more expensive than run of the mill tools. Good tools are worth the extra price to a professional.
Knives as an art form can take prices to another level. Some are hand made and hand finished and quality art is never inexpensive. These examples of art may or may not function as well as a professional quality tool. Health standard certifications like NSF/ANSI can apply to the professional cooks tools and that adds some cost.
A professional expects to sharpen his knife often so the choice of steel may lean toward ease of sharpening in contrast to the home cook that wants to sharpen a kitchen knife once a year if that.
Steel … a professional uses tools each day and a carbon steel knife while it might rust if neglected is not neglected and will be kept clean and sharp. A home cook may demand stainless and dishwasher safe (so sad) but a professional would know better than to abuse the tools of the trade.
Blurring this professional vs. home cook line are some astounding steel manufacturing advances and also major improvements in sharpening equipment. Thermoplastics facilitates inexpensive handles too. A local sushi chief does not use a $900+ fancy knife. His commercial grade stainless knife with a green plastic handled model is kept sharp and slices very nicely (I cannot find it on the web today).
The modern layered steels are strong and can support very hard almost brittle steel tempering and choices. Strict metallurgical processing allows tight control of the steel grain structure as well as the presence or absence of carbide development and the carbide type and size distribution. The better home cook knives are often better than professional knives 100 years agos. If you are a cook at home or professional the choices are marvelous…
Shape, see: Chef’s knife – Wikipedia

Eden · Answer

Nope! Get a good sturdy knife that feels comfortable in your hand. Here are two answers I have written about knives:  What is the best all round knife?  Which chefs knives would you recommend?

Are expensive chef knives really worth the extra price?

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