Kitchen knife

A kitchen knife is any knife that is intended to be used in food preparation, as opposed to a table knife used when eating, as part of a set of cutlery. While much of this work can be accomplished with a few general-purpose knives — notably a large chef's knife and a smaller serrated blade utility knife — there are also many specialized knives that are designed for specific tasks such as a tough cleaver, a small paring knife, and a bread knife. Kitchen knives can be made from several different materials, though the most common is a hardened steel blade with a wooden handle.

Historically, knives were made in "knife cities" that are noted for being the best at their production in that country with the pre-emininent, in Europe, being: Sheffield in Yorkshire, North of England; Thiers, Puy-de-Dôme in the Auvergne of France; Solingen in the Northern Rhineland of Germany; and Eskilstuna of Södermanland in Sweden. Each of these produced knives in a styles particular to the city, with Thiers especially being noted for the French point of Laguiole and steak knives. Whereas in Japan, there are many dispersed centres of kitchen knife production due to diversification that followed in wake of legislation restricting the production of sword-making. These are Tsubame-Sanjō in Niigata Prefecture, Seki in Gifu Prefecture, Sakai in Osaka Prefecture, Takefu-Echizen in Fukui Prefecture, and Tosa in Kōchi Prefecture amongst a number of others. Each area have their own style of knife, with Sakai in Osaka favouring the "sheep's foot" or drop point, in contrast to the square-tipped style of Edo, modern-day Tokyo.

Steel blades can be manufactured either by being forged or stamped.

The edge of the knife can be sharpened to a cutting surface in a number of different ways. There are three main features:

Kitchen knives generally either feature a curve near the tip, as in a chef's knife, or are straight for their entire length. The edge itself may be generally smooth or "straight" edge, or it may be serrated or scalloped with "teeth". Lastly, the point may differ in shape:

Serrated blade knives have a wavy, scalloped, or fine-toothed saw-like blade. Serrations help when cutting things that are firm on the outside and soft on the inside (such as bread or tomatoes); the saw-like action breaks the surface more easily than anything except the sharpest of smooth blades. They are also particularly good on fibrous foods such as celery or cabbage. Serrated knives cut much better than plain-edge blade knives when dull, so they do not require frequent sharpening, and are sometimes used to make steak knives which do not need frequent sharpening. However, they are not readily sharpened properly by a user, requiring specialized equipment, and may never be resharpened during their useful life. Serrations are often used to improve the cutting ability of a less-expensive blade not capable of taking and keeping a sharp edge, usually having a thin, polished blade designed to minimise friction. A serrated knife is more practical for a user who is not prepared to sharpen it frequently; a well-maintained and sharpened smooth edge is keener. Some companies have names for their own serration patterns and apply them to an entire line of knives. Examples are the Cutco Double-D edge and the Henckels Eversharp Pro series.

Away from the edge, a knife most simply has either a rectangular or wedge-shaped cross-section (saber grind v. flat grind), but may also have indentations, whose purpose is to reduce adhesion of the food to the blade. This is widely found in Japanese knives, and in the West is particularly found in meat carving knives, though also in knives for soft cheese, and some use for vegetables.

These indentations take many forms: