Whether your a home cook or chef its important to have a great knife that fits in your hand
for comfort and to be able to control easily.
However, the most important thing about a knife being used often is its sharpness.
A dull knife can really be an accident waiting to happen.
A dull knife uses more effort and in that context its easier to cut yourself.
Which of course is never the intention in the kitchen.
I have a number of knives that I use but my favorite type of knife is a Santuku knife.
The ridges that it has along its blade make slicing, chopping and cutting that much more efficient in my professional opinion. I also appreciate the shorter handle and overall feel in my hand.
Here you can see how these knives differ. The Santoku knife's bottom in more flat against the cutting board where a more traditional chef's knife is more bowed (great for a rocking motion when chopping up herbs say)
A traditional chef knife can also be much more long and narrow. (as pictured below) A different feel in the hand.
So how should one keep these sharp
I use a sharpener that you slide the knife through a number of times to sharpen for my at home knives. Its easy to use and when I need the blade to be sharpened its in my kitchen to use
Of course taking a really great ,
expensive knife to a professional sharpening place will not only keep
that investment in tip top shape
but will of course prolong your knives life.
Happy chopping