21 Different Types of Kitchen Knives Explained (With Chart) (2024)

Have you ever wondered why there are so many different types of kitchen knives? What’s the purpose of them all? And which do you actually need?

In this guide, I break down the 21 most common types of kitchen knives. You’ll learn about each knife’s design, uses, pros, cons, and more.

I also explain which kitchen knives are essential and which are nice-to-have, so you know where to start.

And if you’re short on time, I put together a comparison chart so you can quickly compare each knife side-by-side.

Use the links below to navigate this guide:

• Types of Kitchen Knives: Comparison Chart
• Chef’s Knife
• Bread Knife
• Paring Knife
• Utility/Petty Knife
• Santoku Knife
• Nakiri Knife
• Gyuto Knife
• Steak Knife
• Cimeter
• Boning Knife
• Fillet Knife
• Cleaver
• Chinese Cleaver
• Carving Knife
• Usuba Knife
• Deba Knife
• Kiritsuke Knife
• Honesuki Knife
• Yanagiba Knife
• Tourne Knife
• Tomato Knife
• Which Knives Are Truly Essential for Most Home Cooks?

Types of Kitchen Knives: Comparison Chart

Use the chart below to compare different types of kitchen knives side-by-side. I provide much more detail (including pictures) about each knife throughout this guide.

Are you wondering which kitchen knives are essential? Watch me break it all down in the video below:

Chef’s Knife

The first knife that every home cook should own is a chef’s knife. With its wide, curved blade it’s the ultimate all-purpose knife. In fact, if you’re on a budget or just want the most minimal kitchen setup possible, you could get by with just a chef’s knife – it’s that versatile.

Chef’s knives range from 6 to 14 inches, but an 8-inch knife is the most versatile option. It’s big enough to cut watermelon, pineapple, lettuce heads, large cuts of meat, and butternut squash. But it’s still nimble for dicing onions, mincing herbs, and peeling fruits.

These knives weigh between 7 and 10 ounces and the blade profile is wide, usually around 1.5 to 2 inches. After chopping ingredients, you can use the blade to scoop ingredients from the cutting board and transfer them to a bowl or pan. You can also use the side of the blade to crush small ingredients like garlic cloves.

The heel of the blade, which is the thickest part closest to the handle, is ideal for dense ingredients like sweet potatoes, carrots, and squash. The end of the blade is thinner and comes to a sharp point, which you can use to pierce foods and make precise cuts.

There are two main styles of chef’s knives: Western and Japanese. Western-style chef’s knives typically have a more curved edge and thicker, heavier blades made of softer steel. This style of knife is more durable and resistant to chipping. But since the steel is relatively soft, the edge requires more frequent sharpening.

Japanese-style chef’s knives usually have a straighter edge and thinner, lighter blades made of harder steel. You don’t need to sharpen knives with harder steel as often, but they’re more prone to chipping, so you have to be careful with bones, frozen food, and other hard ingredients.

Go Western style if you prefer a heavier knife and cook a lot of dense foods like meat and root vegetables. Japanese style is ideal if you mainly eat fruits, vegetables, fish, and other ingredients that require more precision.

Since you’ll use your chef’s knife every day, and in most cases, multiple times a day, spending more for a brand you’ll love is a good investment.

Although there are many great brands, I recommend Wusthof, Zwilling, Made In, and Victorinox for Western-style chef’s knives. For Japanese style, I recommend Shun and MAC

Bread Knife

Besides a chef’s knife, the only other knife that you really need as a home cook is an 8- or 9-inch serrated bread knife.

The serrated edge acts like a saw to break through bread’s crusty exterior without tearing the soft inside.

You could slice bread with a chef’s knife, but the non-serrated edge won’t cut through a crunchy crust as easily. You have to apply more pressure, which can flatten the loaf.

While excellent for bread, this knife is also helpful for delicate foods like overripe tomatoes — the serrated edge slices through cleanly without turning the tomato into mush.

A bread knife is also great for cakes, sandwiches, muffins, bagels, and any other ingredient that’s crusty or waxy on the outside and soft inside.

Another benefit of this style knife is that you don’t need to sharpen it often. Although the points of the teeth will eventually dull, it takes years since the recessed part of the edge only makes contact with the food and not the cutting board.

Since you won’t use a bread knife nearly as much as a chef’s knife, you don’t need to invest much. Go for an affordable brand with a comfortable handle like this one from Mercer.

Paring Knife

Paring knives have short, 3 to 4-inch blades. They give you greater control for tasks like peeling apples, coring tomatoes, removing potato eyes, deveining shrimp, and slicing strawberries.

If you search the internet for “Essential kitchen knives,” almost every article and video says you need three knives: a chef’s knife, a bread knife, and a paring knife.

So this may be controversial, but I don’t believe paring knives are essential for most home cooks.

If you have a chef’s knife and a cheap peeler, you don’t really need a paring knife. You can use the tip of a chef’s knife for smaller ingredients and the peeler to peel apples and other produce.

Most tutorials about how to use a paring knife feature a skilled chef peeling an apple by holding a paring knife in one hand and rotating the apple in the other hand.

You don’t need to be a pro chef to do this, but it requires some skill and practice. For most home cooks, using a peeler is easier, safer, and won’t waste as much fruit.

I understand that paring knives can make the job easier for a pro chef who does a lot of precise work. But unless you’re regularly hulling strawberries, coring tomatoes, or making small intricate garnishes, you don’t need a paring knife.

They’re nice to have but not essential.

Utility/Petty Knife

See Also

The 10 Best Kitchen Knife Sets of 2024 for Home Cooks of All Skill Levels

With its slim 4-7 inch blade, the utility knife (also called a petty knife) is a lightweight alternative to a chef’s knife.

Its medium size allows for better control than a large chef’s knife on delicate tasks like slicing small fruits, cutting the crust off bread, removing melon rinds, or peeling oranges.

Compared to a paring knife, the utility/petty knife’s longer blade also chops quickly through ingredients like herbs and garlic.

While not essential if you already own a chef’s and paring knife, the utility/petty knife is a convenient and lightweight hybrid of the two.

Santoku Knife

The Santoku knife first emerged in Japan in the 1940s as an all-purpose alternative to the array of single-use blades in traditional Japanese kitchens.

Its wide 5-7 inch blade and straight edge make it ideal for precisely slicing, dicing, and mincing – the “three virtues” it’s named after.

The Santoku’s edge has a slight curve but is much straighter than most Western chef’s knives. The blade’s spine is also straight from the handle to the end of the blade, where it bends down at a steep angle.

Most of the flat edge makes contact with the cutting board on each cut, allowing you to produce clean, uniform slices.

With only a slight curve to the edge, it’s best suited for an up-and-down chopping motion (rather than the rocking technique often used with a chef’s knife).

While the Santoku easily handles vegetables and boneless meats, its thin blade and lack of a pointy tip make cutting through bones and piercing meats difficult. It’s not the best knife for breaking down a whole chicken or piercing a watermelon rind.

Learn more in my in-depth comparison of chef’s knives versus Santoku knives.

Nakiri Knife

The nakiri is a Japanese-style knife designed for chopping vegetables. It has a thin, rectangular blade with a straight edge and squared tips. The blade length is typically 5-7 inches.

The Nakiri knife’s flat edge enables clean, straight slices in a single up-and-down motion. Its complete contact with the cutting board prevents sticking, resulting in thin uniform cuts ideal for julienne or ribbons.

Since the blade is the same width from heel to tip, weight is evenly distributed — knives that come to a pointy tip are heavier towards the heel. The blade’s even weight distribution makes fast up-and-down chopping more effortless; the weight of the blade does most of the work.

Nakiri knives are shaped like Chinese cleaver, but the blade is narrower and lighter. Therefore, the Nakiri is more agile and easier to maneuver.

If vegetables are a significant part of your diet, a nakiri knife can be a worthwhile investment for your kitchen.

Gyuto Knife

With its gently curved blade ranging 7-12 inches long, the Japanese Gyuto resembles the Western chef’s knife. However, the Gyuto is crafted from harder Japanese steel and forged with specialized techniques to produce a thinner, sharper blade.

Compared to the softer steel and thicker blades of traditional European knives, the Gyuto’s razor-sharp edge stays sharp longer. And its slimmer profile slices smoothly without wedging or tearing delicate foods.

While the Gyuto excels at clean, precise cuts when dealing with vegetables and boneless meats, the heftier Western chef’s knife is more durable and better suited for heavy-duty splitting and cutting through bones.

The Gyuto’s flat belly edge also contrasts with the larger curve of Western knives. With its flatter edge, this knife is designed for an up-and-down chopping motion; it’s not ideal for rocking.

If you’re looking for a Japanese knife that handles like a chef’s knife but holds an edge longer, the Gyuto is an excellent option. But if you want a thicker blade with a more durable edge, you’re better off with the Western version.

Steak Knife

Steak knives are designed to easily cut through seared meats at the table.

These knives have sharper blades and thicker handles than most regular dinner knives, allowing you to get more leverage and easily slice through fibrous meats.

They come in two main types: serrated and non-serrated, each with distinct advantages.

Serrated steak knives saw through tougher cuts like flank or skirt steak without crushing the meat, thanks to their jagged teeth that grab and slice meat fibers smoothly.

Non-serrated steak knives produce cleaner slices, particularly on tender cuts like filet mignon, preserving the moisture and flavor by not releasing the juices.

But unlike serrated steak knives that don’t require frequent sharpening, you need to sharpen these knives occasionally. A dull steak knife will tear the meat fibers and release juices onto your plate.

Steak knives are necessary if you regularly cook steaks, chops, and other thick cuts of meat. But a standard dinner knife is sharp enough for chicken, fish, and more tender meats.

Cimeter

The cimeter, also called a scimitar, is a large curved knife used for cutting meat. It has a blade typically 8-14 inches long. Butchers often use cimeters to slice large cuts of beef or pork into retail steaks or chops.

While designed for processing large cuts of meat, the pronounced curve also allows for precision fat trimming and slicing steak portions. Beyond slicing, the cimeter handles trimming, portioning, and light chopping. Its curved ergonomic grip reduces hand fatigue from prolonged use.

However, its size makes it unwieldy in home kitchens or if you have small hands. It looks and feels more like a sword than a kitchen knife.

While valued in butcher shops, the cimeter is unnecessary for most home cooks. With an 8- to 10-inch chef’s knife, you can slice and break down meat of almost any size.

That said, owning a cimeter can be helpful if you’re an avid griller or buy meat in bulk for a large family. Just know it requires space and skill.

Boning Knife

With its narrow 5-7 inch blade, the boning knife is designed for removing meat from bones. Its thin, sharp blade can cleanly separate meat without creating waste. Unlike stiffer knives, the boning knife’s flexible blade allows you to maneuver around joints and contours.

A boning knife’s narrow tip fits into tight spots that a wider knife cannot. However, it lacks the chopping power of heavier knives.

While invaluable for getting every morsel of meat off the bone, boning knives have limited use elsewhere in the kitchen. Their specialty makes them ideal for butchering tasks but impractical for most vegetable or bread cutting.

Though not essential for the average home cook, the boning knife is purpose-built for seasoned cooks breaking down poultry and meat.

Fillet Knife

A fillet knife is designed to remove skin and bones from fish and other meat. Its 6-11 inch razor-thin blade can slide just under the skin to separate pieces cleanly, and the narrow, pointed tip fits into hard-to-reach areas.

Compared to a rigid chef’s knife, the fillet knife’s flexibility allows it to glide smoothly around bones and joints without tearing delicate flesh.

Unlike a boning knife, its extra length allows you to break down larger fish in a few clean slices rather than multiple cuts.

While this knife excels at breaking down fish and meat, its specialized nature makes it less useful for most tasks. It lacks the heft for cutting through hard vegetables, thick meats, or bones.

Though not essential for most home cooks, these knives are a staple in most commercial kitchens where filleting fish and other meats is a daily job.

Cleaver

The cleaver’s wide 6-8 inch ultra-thick blade and heavyweight design allow it to chop through thick cuts of meat and bones.

Its significant heft generates enough momentum to split chicken joints or hack pork chops. The rectangular blade’s broadside can also be used as a tenderizing mallet, crushing garlic cloves, or pounding meat.

For context, cleavers can be twice as heavy as a standard chef’s knife. For example, this 7-inch Zwilling Pro cleaver weighs 19 ounces, and the 8-inch chef’s knife within the same collection weighs around 9 ounces.

However, due to its size, weight, and relatively dull edge, it lacks the finesse for boning, filleting fish, or any task requiring precision. It operates more like a wedge or an ax than a razor-sharp knife.

While essential for butchers and meat packers, a heavy cleaver is overkill in most home kitchens. With care, a good chef’s knife can handle most meat-cutting tasks. However, cleaver enthusiasts praise its ability to chop small bones while protecting the edge.

Adding a cleaver to your collection makes sense if you regularly break down whole chickens, racks of ribs, or other sizeable meats. But it’s not a must-have for most residential kitchens.

Chinese Cleaver

Unlike bulky meat cleavers, the Chinese cleaver’s thinner 7- to 11-inch blade is built for slicing vegetables. With a fine 25-degree bevel, its lightweight frame provides precision versus brute force. The wide rectangular blade also aids in scooping up ingredients after chopping.

You can use a Chinese cleaver to smash garlic cloves or ginger with a quick whack from the broadside of the blade, and its lightweight design makes repetitive veggie chopping less tiring.

The edge is too thin to cut through hard bones (it would chip), but you can flip the knife over and crack them with the blade’s spine.

The main drawback of Chinese cleavers is their straight edge and lack of a pointed tip, which makes them poor tools for intricate tasks like removing pineapple eyes or coring tomatoes.

While many professional chefs and home cooks praise Chinese cleavers for their even weight distribution, flat head that you can use to clean a dirty cutting board, and broad blade for scooping, they’re not a necessity for most home cooks.

Carving Knife

A carving knife is used to slice thin, elegant cuts of large cooked meats like roast beef, ham, turkey, or pork. It has a long, slim blade ranging from 8-15 inches. This specialized design allows you to carve precise, thin slices while maintaining the meat’s structure.

Compared to larger chef’s knives, the carving knife’s slender shape encounters less friction when slicing. This results in a cleaner cut with less tearing. The blade’s length also enables consistent slice thickness. Additionally, the tapered tip provides maneuverability to carve around bones or other obstacles.

Beyond meat, a carving knife’s precision and thin cuts make it versatile for slicing fruits, vegetables, and breads. However, the narrow blade limits chopping ability. It also lacks the heft needed to cut through thick cartilage or bone.

While specialized, a carving knife can refine the presentation of holiday roasts or hams. But it’s not an essential knife for most home cooks. With skill, you can use an all-purpose chef’s knife on most meats. Consider adding a carving knife if you regularly cook large roasts or hams where elegant slices matter.

Usuba Knife

The Usuba is a traditional Japanese knife used for vegetable prep. It has a thin, single-beveled blade typically 6-9 inches long. The straight edge and flat profile are ideal for precise, thin cuts.

The single bevel (sharpened on one side) on a Usuba knife allows for extremely precise slicing, making it ideal for fine julienne, brunoise, or decorative cuts. It is also great for specialized techniques like katsuramuki rotary peeling due to its rectangular profile and razor-sharp edge.

However, single bevels have a learning curve to master. They tend to drag to one side instead of cutting straight through. You’ll need to learn to adjust your technique to achieve straight, precise cuts. The single bevel can be challenging to adapt to if you’re used to double-beveled Western knives.

While valued in professional Japanese kitchens, Usuba knives are not essential for most home cooks. If you want a straight-edge knife to make clean, uniform cuts, a Nakiri or Santoku can get the job done — and their double-bevel blades are more familiar and easier to maintain.

Deba Knife

The Deba is a traditional Japanese knife for breaking down fish and poultry. Some consider it the Japanese version of the cleaver. The blade is relatively short (4-6 inches) but extremely thick, sometimes up to 5 mm thick at the spine.

The broad edge at the heel allows you to easily remove fish heads and tails without damaging the blade, and the pointed tip helps you navigate around bones.

The Deba’s weight and single bevel allow it to chop through small bones while retaining enough finesse for filleting. Most Deba blades are made of high-carbon steel known for superior edge retention (you don’t need to sharpen these knives often).

While indispensable for professional fishmongers, the Deba is not an essential knife for most home cooks unless you regularly break down whole salmon or chicken.

Kiritsuke Knife

The Kiritsuke is a versatile Japanese knife that’s a hybrid between the long, thin Yanagiba used for sushi and the flat-edge Usuba for vegetables.

The Kiritsuke has a blade profile similar to a Santoku, but the 8-12 inch Kiritsuke blade is longer. Also, instead of the Santoku’s sheep’s foot tip, the kiritsuke’s spine drops sharply at the end to form a pointed tip.

Most Japanese knives are designed for specific ingredients or techniques, but this is one of the few multipurpose knives. It’s ideal for fish and vegetables but hefty enough for chicken, beef, pork, and other more dense ingredients.

With its long blade and sharp tip, the Kiritsuke is ideal for decorative cuts, slits, and piercing. Its straight edge is suitable for up-and-down chopping (or the push/pull technique). But without any curve to the edge, it’s not ideal for rocking.

Traditional Kiritsuke knives have a single beveled, straight-edge blade with a flat, sword-like tip. But many modern versions have a double bevel, which makes them more versatile and easier to use.

Should every home cook have a kiritsuke? No. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend this type of knife for most home cooks. While Kiritsuke knives are highly regarded among professional chefs, the long blade, single bevel, and high cost make them impractical for the average home cook.

Honesuki Knife

With its sturdy 4-6 inch blade, the Japanese Honesuki knife is designed for deboning and breaking down poultry and meat. It’s the Japanese version of the Western boning knife.

The key difference is the blade shape. Western boning knives have narrower blades and a gradual curved edge, while the Honesuki has a taller blade, triangular profile, and a sharp pointed tip that allows you to trim closely along bones. The thicker spine and large heel provide strength for getting through joints and cartilage.

The Honesuki’s thin, angular tip can get into nooks more easily, and its thickness resists twisting. It also provides better leverage around bones than a fillet knife, although it lacks the flexibility sometimes needed for filleting fish.

While it’s an excellent tool for processing poultry and meat, a small chef’s knife or utility knife can perform the same tasks almost as efficiently. That’s why I consider a Honesuki knife nice to have but not essential.

Yanagiba Knife

The Yanagiba is a traditional Japanese knife used specifically for sashimi and sushi. It has an extra long, slim blade ranging from 8-12 inches designed for precision slicing.

The length enables smooth, uninterrupted slices to preserve the texture of delicate fish. And its razor-sharp single-beveled edge creates perfect cuts with minimal tearing.

The Yanagiba’s specialized design comes with some drawbacks.

• Unlike the more versatile Kiritsuke or Gyuto knives, the Yanagiba is strictly a single-purpose knife only for raw fish.
• The single beveled edge also requires particular honing and sharpening skills to maintain properly.
• Due to the intricate forging process, high-quality Yanagibas carry a premium price tag that may not suit a casual home cook’s budget.

While indispensable for sushi chefs, the Yanagiba’s specialized single-purpose design makes it unnecessary for most casual home cooking. Unless you regularly prepare traditional raw fish dishes, a versatile chef’s knife can likely handle your slicing needs.

Tourne Knife

The Tourne knife, recognized by its 2- to 3-inch bird’s beak-shaped blade, is designed to make intricate cuts on vegetables and fruits. It’s ideal for decorative garnishes and, as its name suggests, achieving the seven-sided tourne cut, a classical French culinary technique.

However, its specialized nature limits its versatility. Unlike a chef’s or paring knife, it’s not suited for everyday kitchen tasks like chopping or slicing. The narrow focus of the Tourne knife makes it non-essential for an average home cook.

Tomato Knife

With its short 4-6 inch serrated blade and forked tip, the tomato knife is designed to pierce and slice tomatoes without crushing their delicate interior flesh.

The small saw-like teeth on the blade easily puncture through tomato skins without requiring pressure that could damage soft interiors. And the dual tines on the tip provide a way to lift freshly cut slices.

Compared to paring knives, the tomato knife’s serrated edge slices cleanly through tomato skins without requiring multiple sawing motions.

While useful for tomatoes and other small fruits, this knife’s role is limited. An adequately sharp chef’s knife or a serrated utility knife can slice a tomato without smushing it.

Which Knives Are Truly Essential for Most Home Cooks?

Now that you know the pros and cons of the most common types of kitchen knives, the question remains:

Which do you need? And which are nice to have?

While countless specialty blades exist, most home cooks only need a core set of 4 knives:

If you only have the budget for one knife, buy an 8- to 10-inch chef’s knife. Its long, wide blade, curved edge, and pointy tip make it a versatile workhorse for almost every cutting task.

In addition to a chef’s knife, a 3- to 4-inch paring knife is helpful for smaller ingredients and finer cuts. Its compact size allows for greater precision and control.

Although slicing bread with a chef’s knife is possible, it’s not the ideal tool. Every kitchen should have an 8- to 12-inch serrated bread knife for slicing crusty loaves of bread, bagels, sandwiches, cakes, and tomatoes. The serrated edge ensures clean slices without tearing the soft interior.

Lastly, a set of steak knives to slice a ribeye or filet mignon at the table is a must.

Cutlery brands will try to sell you knife sets with over 15 pieces. But you won’t use half the knives in those sets. Start with the essentials, then grow your collection over time based on your needs and style.

The two non-essential knives I like the most are the Nakiri and Sanotku.

The Santoku is an all-purpose knife similar to the chef’s knife, but the edge is flatter, so you can get straighter, cleaner cuts.

If vegetables are a major part of your diet, you could benefit from owning a Nakiri. The flat edge makes full contact with the cutting board, and the rectangular blade profile distributes weight evenly, making up-and-down chopping effortless.