The first step to becoming a cook is to learn how to use kitchen knives. This is true for both professional and home kitchens. This itself shows that a knife is the single most important piece of equipment in the kitchen.

Cooking is an art. Just like an artist needs the right tools to create his art, a cook also needs all the equipment to prepare the food. Among all the things that there are in a kitchen, knives are the most basic, yet inevitable tool. At first glance, all knives are similar. All they have is a tip that is sharp for cutting and another tip that is blunt for holding. But over the millennia, knives have evolved so much. These days, there are special knives for cutting different things. Before you start shopping for knives, read this article to find out more about them. Having a better understanding of knives will help you make the right purchase decisions when you shop.

Different types of kitchen knives

Knives are a very versatile tool that humans have been using for thousands of years. Even today, you need knives to carry out a lot of day to day tasks. Moreover, there are a lot of different types of knives designed for various purposes. Sometimes you need a small, lightweight knife for delicate cutting. However, such a knife won’t work for cutting meat. You need a large and heavy knife for that. Therefore, the knife you choose should be fit for the nature of the work you do in the kitchen. Here is a list of the four most common types of kitchen knives.

Paring knife

For everyday kitchen activities like cutting a small fruit or trimming strawberries, you need a paring knife. The difference here is that to do all of these things, you need to hold the subject, i.e., the fruit or veggie in your hands. This is not comfortable to do with a long chef’s knife. The knife shouldn’t be too heavy either. A paring knife is therefore the knife that is required for all the hand cutting that you do in the kitchen. Looking at the size, these are typically considerably smaller than chef’s knives. Small size and light weight make it ideal for delicate work.

Chef’s knife

Add a professional touch to your kitchen with a high-end chef’s knife. But how is a chef’s knife different from a regular kitchen knife? The difference is not that obvious. But chef’s knives have a subtle curve that makes it easier to cut faster by moving the handle of the knife up and down and barely moving the tip. In short, a chef’s knife is the kitchen knife for chopping. Balance is also vital for professional knives. The knife will have its centre of mass right in the most appropriate point of its length. Ideally, it is a little off from the centre towards the hand. This will reflect in the overall weight distribution of the knife. The handle of a chef’s knife will be heavier than regular knives.

Bread knife

Unlike the name suggests, a bread knife is not just for cutting a loaf of bread into small slices. The long and corrugated blade of bread knives makes it ideal for slicing vegetables and fruits with thick skin that are too tough for a paring knife or a chef’s knife. Think about pineapples, winter squash, and watermelon when you read fruits with thick outer skins. In fact, you can cut them with a paring knife, but it will take you more time and the slicing might not be smooth. Therefore, this is a speciality knife. But having this will make your work a hundred times easier.

Boning knives

When you are done cutting vegetables, you need a kitchen knife for cutting bone. You can work with a boning knife on both meat and fish. You can tell a boning knife apart from other knives because of the long and narrow blade that resembles the beak of a long-billed curlew. Such knives have an extremely sharp point that helps with precision boning. It makes it easier for making sharp cuts and narrow holes. Curved blades can enable you to work around bones and muscles. Except for the blade, there is no significant difference in the construction of the handle.

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