Equipment Review: Best Carbon-Steel Chef's Knives & Our Testing Winner
Best carbon-steel knife: https://bit.ly/3QAf1IW
Best stainless-steel knife: https://bit.ly/3WySU9E
Full review and results chart: http://bit.ly/1rJ0KXN
Carbon-steel enthusiasts have long considered these knives sharper and more durable than stainless. But do they really perform better—and are they worth the upkeep?
We tested 8 carbon-steel knives to find the best one:
Bob Kramer 8″ Carbon Steel Chef’s Knife by Zwilling J.A. Henckels
Tsukiji Masamoto Gyuto, 8 1/4″
Togiharu Virgin Carbon Steel Gyutou, 8.2″
Misono Swedish Carbon Steel Gyutou, 8.2″
Masamoto Sohonten Virgin Carbon Steel Gyutou, 8.2″
Messermeister Park Plaza Carbon 8 Inch Chef’s Knife
R. Murphy Chef’s Select 8 Inch Carbon Steel Chef’s Knife
Sabatier Mexeur et Cie 8″ Chef
ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America’s Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
Each week, the cast of America’s Test Kitchen brings the recipes, testings, and tastings from Cook’s Illustrated magazine to life on our public television series. With more than 2 million viewers per episode, we are the most-watched cooking show on public television.
http://www.americastestkitchen.com
More than 1.3 million home cooks rely on Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country magazines to provide trusted recipes that work, honest ratings of equipment and supermarket ingredients, and kitchen tips.
http://www.cooksillustrated.com
http://www.cookscountry.com
If you like us, follow us:
http://facebook.com/americastestkitchen
Tweets by TestKitchen
http://instagram.com/testkitchen
http://pinterest.com/testkitchen
What an excellent video!
1. Thank you for no background music – what joy!
2. Thank you for the succinct, concise delivery of content with no fluff and waste of time. Precise, and short.
3. The content is very rich. So many knives tested with such thoroughness, contributed to the sum total of human knowledge, bravo!!! You took a scientific approach all the way and delivered facts.
4. I really appreciate the no nonsense, practical approach in selecting the Victorinox knife for the kitchen. In the end, value matters too. It is a no fuss blade and saves a lot of time in maintenance. For specialty work like sushi, a knife can be higher maintenance but not everyday high volume cooking.
5. Most of all, thank you for the adherence to a rigorous, high quality review and testing. It’s nice to renew my faith in proper testing and reviews. Bravo!
$80 to $300? Why didn’t you include super inexpensive butcher knives like the ones made by Ontario? That’s the kind of knife butchers have been using for over a century. It does the job well and will keep working for a lifetime.
"Strong"
When sharpening the Victorinox, you can fell the smoothness of the steel, it becomes quiet once sharp and glides across the whetstone with constant drag. It seems to last longer than other knives. An even cheaper alternative would be the Ikea 365 knives, all stainless ones. I use them for tougher jobs where the thin edge of the Victorinox would bend. Some say the Victorinox is hard to beat up to $100, and even then you get minimal benefits.
I use a hodgepodge of blades. Sabatier k/Sabatier Jeune, Latham & Owen, Dexter, Clyde cutlery, Cattaragus and Lamson…….any and all of whom make first rate chefs knives.
Interesting video.
8yrs later, knife (more importantly steel) technology has drastically changed with the introduction of "super steels". Super stainless has some very competitive knife offerings far surpassing even the very best heat treated custom carbon steel blades. If you are willing to spend the cash to get one, the performance can’t be matched by any carbon steel offering, anywhere. The question becomes how much are you willing to pay, and how much performance are you willing to sacrifice. Also, how skilled are you at knife sharpening and how often are you willing to sharpen your knife?
such i wonderful review i watched it already 5 times in the last 6 months or so!
Swiss still 40 bucks!!!
2:00 is this a Misono Swedish Carbon Gyuto 210 mm?
And that’s a fantastic review – well done, and thanks!
Why are they show a Masamoto knife and calling it a Togiharu lol
The only practical advantage carbon steel has over stainless is its toughness. But kitchen knives aren’t really meant for hard use to begin with. Sure, some people enjoy the vibe of a traditional carbon chefs knife that develops a patina over time, but that’s an esthetic benefit not a practical benefit. If I was a professional chef, I wouldn’t want to waste my time wiping the blade after each cut and I certainly wouldn’t want to risk a health inspector noticing a spot of rust on my knife. That’s why I’d invest in Vanax Super Clean, which is completely rust proof and holds an edge far longer than most steels. If I wanted a more robust knife that had a thinner edge but could still cut squash and pineapples without chipping, I would go with Magnacut, which has high edge retention and extreme corrosion resistance, while maintaining the toughness of a carbon steel.
Id say masimoto makes best carbon steel chefs knife they are not cheap though about 400 dollars
Weird that you exclude Wursthof. Not only is it the biggest name in kitchen knives, their steel combines pretty much the best of all worlds – their Chromoly steel is stainless and is also hardened to a level which is within acceptable ranges for high carbon steel. Also a very aggressive angle at 14 degrees, which is pretty much on par with Japanese knives.
Great video, great tests. Everything felt objective and to the point in the manner all test videos should be.
I bought a Victorinox a year or so ago and I will never buy anything else. The handle/grip is excellent and the blade is great.
I would love to see another video like this but with a wider variety on Japanese carbon steel knives.
As far as I can tell, the ones used here are cheaper with Western handles, and there’s no information on what kind of carbon steel was used, which is very important along with the heat treat, grind, and bevel.
I bet you higher quality knives using top tier steels like Aogami Super and VG1 would have performed better here.
You remind me of Leslie Winkle
but what hardness is the vic?
Get a Bess tester.
You can but 6 Victorinox knives to 1 of those carbon steel knives- it’s a no brainer
For me, quality is the first priority, price doesn’t matter.
Very nice looking Chef Knife with obvious quality which is what I expected. Bought it as a gift and felt it is a bit high in price but is well known for quality—great buying from Almazan Knife.
Excellent review, but there’s a crucial aspect that wasn’t addressed: the ease of sharpening the knife. Generally, the harder the knife, the longer its edge maintains sharpness. However, this also means it requires more effort to sharpen. I have experience with both the Bob Kramer and Victorinox models. Despite their quality, I find they demand significant time and effort to sharpen. These knives are ideal if you don’t mind investing an hour in sharpening or if you plan to regularly use professional sharpening services—perfect for professional chefs who need consistently sharp blades. For those seeking a more user-friendly balance, I’d personally recommend knives made with Aogami No.2 or Gingami No.3 steel. They strike a better balance between edge retention and ease of sharpening.
I use Misono UX10
THIS WOMAN ❤
I purchased the Victorinox (bought based on the ATK recommendation) and I think that it’s junk. That with the poor performance of a couple of other products recommended by ATK/Cook’s Illustrated has really negatively impacted your credibility with me. Also, the fact that the “ATK at home” episodes showed almost no ATK chefs using the Victorinox knife in their homes was a bad look for you guys as well. Just thought you should know what someone in your audience thinks.
Just ordered my Kramer from you guys yesterday! Excited to get it. I use mostly Japanese knives, but when I was a chef I always used german.
What does O.J. recommend,thats the knife I want!
Rockwell just measures hardness, not "the strength of the metal." Hardness and strength are different qualities and while not directly related, usually have an inverse correlation, so if anything harder knives are usually less strong than softer ones.
I’m a Zwilling fan. I especially love their latest collaborations with blademakers in Japan.
Even 8 years later in finding this review fascinating and informative
Great info,thanks.
You don’t have to baby them if you let them patina or force the patina with an acid.
Why go thru all the crumminess of the Ninja ice cream maker if it’s that bad? I’d rather you spent the time demonstrating the qualities of the good ice cream makers & how superior their machines are😊
There must be HUNDREDS of super top-notch Japanese carbon knives out there (some at very reasonable prices), but ATK as usual goes with Victorinox (!) as the opponent in a match-up against Kramer. Laughable. Or just American?
In other words; keep it away from my girlfriend just like my cast iron pans.
I appreciate their effort here but just seeing the cutting technique at roughly 4:48 tells me the people doing this are not into the knife/ cutting game like a pro… Those fingers are way out in front of the thumb. Just as well, great production quality here.
The angle of the blade is the least important aspect of buying an expensive knife because you’re going to be sharpening it, so you’ll change it to your preference as soon as you do anyway
if they are too light or delicate
then can they stand the rigor of a busy kitchen?
(line cooks)
here I am, wanting a pretty knife but science has won again..
I’m a knife sharpener and some of the worst knives I’ve ever sharpened are Calphalon kitchen knives. They always end up with big chips in the edge as you sharpen them even if you do them at 20 degrees.
Knives should not be touched each other.
how about 20 years later ….
My Chicago Cutlery 7" chef’s knife is going strong. 15 years so far.
Hmm… The Togiharu Virgin Carbon Steel knife you recommended and showed in this video is not a Togiharu, but a Masamoto, and it certainly costs a lot more than $98. Are you sure you didn’t rate a more expensive knife instead?
There is one thing perhaps impossible to measure in a loved instrument, and that is the mellowing and very personal quality of the artifact as it takes on wear, sweat (handle or other wooden parts), and patina accompanying use. That may be referred to as "character", and I wonder if that doesn’t affect the allure of organic elements in design that age with use.
I love my Victorinox knives!
Said togihara and showed masamoto 😂😢😅
Thank you
This is the very scientific way of testing knives. Very well done po(respect in Filipino)!!!