Choose a knife that is fully forged – this means it has been made from a single piece of metal, providing superior strength and rigidity.
A good knife should feel balanced and comfortable in your hand. Cook’s knives vary in size from 15-35cm, but for women’s smaller hands, 20cm is usually a good size. Wash your knife by hand and towel dry DO NOT PUT THEM IN THE DISHWASHER and learn to use a steel to keep it sharp. Store in a knife block, on a magnetic strip, or covered by a knife sleeve.
There will come a time when a steel is not enough and you will need to bring the edge back, this can be done by either using a whetstone and doing it by hand or get onto a good Professional Knife Sharpener to do the job in a 1/4 of the time and give you the desired finish.
Once you have selected a knife, hold it, gripping it around its bolster (the knife’s balance point and finger guard) it should feel balanced and comfortable in your hand. Like choosing a pen, there will be personal preferences, some knives offer more contoured grips or weight.Top-of-the-range, fully-forged brands cost more, look for knives from Wüsthof-Trident (available in classic handled styles and brushed stainless steel handles) and Zwilling J.A. Henckles knives. Also fully forged but more moderately priced are Viking and Messermeister knives (with a thicker blade and bolsterless edge, which means the whole knife blade can be sharpened), and stylish Global knives (forged blades moulded on to dimpled handles). Some of the best quality and value stamped knives are from Victorinox.
Japanese knives are becoming more and more popular with their stylish design, firm gripping handles and hi carbon steel blades, the most popular Japanese knives are Shun, please be careful though as there are sharpeners out there who cannot sharpen these knives properley and they will do more harm than good,not ideal considering the price of these knives.
