Your Expert Guide to Knives, Sharpening & Kitchen Blades in the UK
Pick up a blunt knife and try to slice a ripe tomato. You’ll mash it, saw at it, maybe nick a knuckle in the process, and mutter something unrepublishable under your breath. Pick up a decent stainless steel knife and that same tomato falls apart in clean, unbothered slices — no drama, no bruised flesh, … Read more
There’s a particular kind of humiliation reserved for the person who invites friends round for a New Year’s Eve seafood platter, cracks open a box of rock oysters with genuine confidence, and then spends the next twenty minutes losing a knife-fight with a mollusc. It happens more than anyone admits. The problem is almost never … Read more
There’s a particular kind of kitchen chaos that only a mound of parsley can cause. You’ve got a chef’s knife, a chopping board wobbling on the worktop, and green flecks migrating to places green flecks have no business being. This is usually the moment someone remembers they own — or should own — a mezzaluna. … Read more
There’s a particular kind of kitchen confidence that comes from owning a knife built for one job and doing it brilliantly. That’s the deba in a nutshell — a stubby, heavy-spined Japanese blade that shrugs off fish heads and rib bones the way a chef’s knife shrugs off an onion. If you’ve ever wrestled a … Read more
There’s a particular kind of silence that falls over a kitchen the first time you draw a proper single-bevel blade through a fillet of salmon. No sawing, no tearing, just one clean pull and the flesh parts like it was never really attached in the first place. That silence is what you’re chasing when you … Read more
Stand in front of a well-stocked knife shop and you’ll spot them sitting side by side, looking almost like cousins who never quite agreed on a family photo pose. One has a squared-off, no-nonsense blade that looks like it means business. The other curves gently towards a rounded tip, like it’s trying to be diplomatic … Read more
Somewhere between “I fancy cooking more” and “why does chopping a swede feel like a wrestling match” lies the moment most people discover the best nakiri knife isn’t a luxury — it’s a shortcut. A nakiri is a rectangular, double-bevelled Japanese vegetable knife with a flat edge that runs the full length of the board, … Read more
Stand in a knife aisle long enough and the vegetable cleaver starts to look like an identity crisis with a handle. Cai dao, Chinese chef’s knife, vegetable chopper, Chinese cleaver — different names, same rectangular blade, all of them doing a job that a standard chef’s knife frankly struggles with: turning a mountain of onions, … Read more
There’s a moment every home cook has, standing over a chopping board with a pile of spring onions, ginger and a chicken thigh that needs boning, wondering why their Western chef’s knife feels wrong for the job. That moment is usually the start of a love affair with the Chinese cleaver knife. It looks intimidating … Read more
Somewhere between “I’ll just use my chef’s knife” and “why is there bone dust on my ceiling” lies the exact moment most home cooks realise they need a proper bone chopping cleaver. It’s not a dramatic realisation. It usually happens mid-stew, wrist aching, standard kitchen knife wedged sideways in a lamb shank like Excalibur in … Read more