Selecting a kitchen knife is always a thing of utmost significance for any top chef. Thus, it's not a wrong assumption that whatever happens in the kitchen revolves around the knife.
Hence, one of the hottest debate making the rounds for any top chef is – handmade knives or machined made knives.
Although all blades can slice cooking condiments, the grace with which each one does it is very important to every chef. Therefore, they would want to know which category gives them the needed excellence for an amazing cook time.
However, this article exposes our in-depth analysis and verdict on hand made knives vs machine made knives. We highlight the differences between the processes, features, and quality. Alas, we’ll leave you to be the judge of the best – Handmade knives vs Machine made knives. Let’s roll.
Handmade Knives
As with all forged items, there are features that make them stand out above other knives. Besides, most knife enthusiasts and kitchen merchants would opt for handmade blades due to their resilience, durability, and toughness. Here are some amazing features of the handmade kitchen knives
Durability
Durability is one feature every chef enjoys in handmade knives. They last for a long time and still maintain their sharpness and strength. Moreover, you wouldn’t expect a handmade knife to break under pressure since they are not so flexible like the machine made.
The knife offers constant sharpness and cutting grace which is why every top chef would want to have it in their collection. All you have to do is to imbibe a good maintenance culture.
Different Design Options and Shapes
Designs can vary from simple shafts and bars to ring and specialized shapes. This also takes into consideration the hardness, length and thickness of the knife. You can have a Serbian style chef knife and folded Damascus steel. Handmade knives enable you to enjoy the limitless variety of shapes and sizes.
Sharpening Ease
Forged blades are not all flexible and this makes them solid and stable. This feature, which easily be seen as a drawback, makes it easy to sharpen because the blade won’t twist. Hence, when you hold it against a sharpening steel or whetstone, it’s sure to remain firm.
Sturdiness
Once you get a Handmade knife, you can rest assured that it’s a lifetime purchase. The fact that they are tough and resilient eliminates every chance of damage. More so, you can always restore the efficacy of its blade by constantly running it through a whetstone. So far you didn’t lose or misplace it, this kitchen faithful is sure to serve for ages.
Sharpness
You always rely on a handmade knife to be sharp because of its construction. Forged steel knives are stronger than stamped or machine cut steel yet they are not flexible.
Therefore, the knives retain their sharp edge for a longer period. Also, due to their rigidity, you can say that handmade knives are the easiest to sharpen. Thus, they are the sharpest knives on the market with a high tendency to remain sharp for a long time.
Material
The unique material that constitutes every handmade knife is the unfaltering steel. This is the best material any blade can have for maximum quality, durability and sharpness. Moreover, the steel may be immune to rust if the forging process follows the standard procedures.
This level of dexterity in production makes handmade knives not only the best but also the most wanted by any chef or individual. There are three major categories of steel that handmade knives are mostly made of and they are
- Damascus Steel
- High Carbon Steel
- Stainless steel
Machine Made Knives
As the name goes, these knives do not under go the rigorous process of hand forging. Instead, they are cut from a large expanse of metal, mostly steel, and then attached into a handle. Since, there are no guarantees during the production, the quality of the knife depends solely the grade of the material.
However, machine made knives still top the sales charts in the industry because they come at a cheap price. This reduced budget is due to the non-complicated production process. Hence, one can afford to purchase many machine-made knives for various purposes.
Here are some features of machine-made knives which may or may not convince you to go for them
Blade Sharpness
All knives are sharp when they are new and used so machine-made knives come with a relatively sharp blade. But the quality of the production or forging process determines how long you can enjoy this sharpness.
From an earlier explanation, machine made knives do not undergo a thorough forging process and so may come up short on some things. This means they are not as rigid, durable, and long lasting like the forged ones.
Besides, they are more flexible making them retain their sharpness for only a short while. More so, due to their increased flexibility, they are not easy to sharpen as they take more effort and time than the forged knives.
Quality
The quality of a machine-made knife is only as good as the steel sheet that it came from. As such, you can only hope that the parent material had a good production process.
The fact is that machine made knives are less qualitative than the forged or handmade knives hence the significant price difference. They come in sharp at first but loose its cutting grace in a short while. More so, they are flexible and can break under intense pressure.
Budget
This is one place you’d be happy to choose a machine-made knife because they are cheap and fits into a tight budget. You can have as many knives as you wish or can afford since they are easy on the purse. However, if you consider the price difference between handmade vs machine made knives, you would be puzzled. A machine-made knife is about 10 times cheaper than a handmade chef’s knife. But the result is evident in the gulf in quality between the two knife categories.
Production Design
Machine-made knives are produced with an automated assembly system which delivers a large quantity in a short time. Since the machine is set on a target quantity, the design of each piece may not be considered much.
Besides, at the start of production, there is only one programmed design on the machine meaning it cannot produce different varieties. Hence, for every production process you can only get a single design of machine-made knives.
Final Verdict
Although the choice rests solely on the user to make, we would draw a verdict based on our research. Considering the qualities of handmade knife and the shortcomings of a machine-made knife, the former takes the center stage. Therefore, we would be giving you some of the best hand made knives cooking guild has to offer.
Best Handmade Knives
Even though they are every chef’s most valuable companion, handmade knives come in different qualities. Getting the best handmade knife may be a bit difficult because its superiority depends on the dexterity of the maker.
Hand Forged Kiri Cleaver
You don’t get it better than this! It’s a significant upgrade on the snazan Serbian and Suraisu blades. This blade perfectly combines the outstanding weight and strength of the Snazan Serbian Chef’s knife with the Master Kiritsuke’s sharpness.
With its overwhelming versatility and ruthless sharpness, Kiri Cleaver gives you the dexterity of a Japanese samurai.
Moreover, the hand forged cleaver yields amazing results even against the toughest kitchen opponents. Hence, you can always enhance your cutting precision with the unique blade and shape of the Hand Forged Kiri Cleaver.
The handle complements the dazzling steel for greater efficacy. It also provides you with unrivaled strength in material for long lasting service. More so, the knife weighs next to nothing considering it’s a hand forged steel blade.
Specification
- Blade length: 30.5cm
- Blade Width: 8.7cm
- Blade thickness: 3mm
- 1095 High Carbon Steel
2. Hand Forged 8" Chef's Knife
Hand Forged Kiri Cleaver
The hand forged 8” Chef’s knife is every cook’s dream blade thanks to its infallible construction and design. it comes with a fail-proof guarantee to give you everything you’ve wanted in a kitchen knife. The high carbon steel blade duly serves every chef’s purpose with top-notch precision and sharpness.
The knife makes chopping herbs, vegetable and meats a walk in the park plus it delivers it in hand forged style. It is very sharp as it’s made with a well blazoned high carbon steel and you can bet on its durability and balance.
The handle complements the dazzling steel for greater efficacy. It also provides you with unrivaled strength in material for long lasting service.
Specification
- Blade length: 21.6cm (33cm total length)
- Blade Width: 5.9cm
- Blade thickness: 3mm
- 1095 High Carbon Steel
