Kitchen knife

Kitchen knives can be made from several different materials, though the commonest 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 in the Auvergne of France; and Solingen in the Northern Rhineland of Germany.

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 very sharpest smooth blade.

Traditionally, Western knives are bilaterally flatted on the sides, to facilitate the riveting of the handle, and have a moulded form for comfort beneath.

A tool also known as a paring knife — couteau à parer — used by 16th century French bookbinders to thin the edges of the leather binding being prepared to cover a book, in order to ensure it was neater and stuck better to the board.

Serrated knives are able to cut soft bread without crushing it; one was exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 in Chicago by the Friedrich Dick company (Esslingen, Germany).

An offset bread knife 'doglegs' the handle above, but parallel to the blade, (rather than in-line with it, although some are angled), providing clearance for the user's knuckles.

An alternative seen mostly in Europe is a baguette "chopper" or "guillotine" — not properly a knife, and prone to produce more of a "crushing" cut depending on the bread - but serving the same function.

A fugu-hiki is similar to the yanagi-ba, except that the blade is thinner and, as the name indicates, is traditionally used to slice very thin fugu pufferfish sashimi.

For very large fish such as tuna, longer specialized knives exist, for example the almost two-metre long maguro bōchō, or the slightly shorter hancho hocho.

Following the traditions of Japanese knives, they have just a single bevel, kataba, to the edge of the blade — with an urasuki hollow back on premium blades.Usuba bocho is a vegetable knife used by professionals.

From 12 to 18 cm (5 to 7 in) long, a Japanese Santoku is well-balanced, normally flat-ground, and generally smaller, lighter, and thinner than its Western counterparts.

Many subsequent Western and Asian copies of the Japanese santoku do not always incorporate these features, resulting in reduced cutting ability.

They resemble Western cleavers in appearance, but most Chinese chef's knives are relatively thin-bladed and designed for slicing, finely chopping and mincing vegetables, fish and boneless meats.

Actual cleavers in China have the same profile as chef's knives but have much thicker blades with a sharp bevel and heavier handles.

Modern Chinese knives are sold under three general classifications throughout China: Caidao (slicers), choppers and Gudao (cleavers).

The blade has a curvature or rocker along its edge that is generally uniform, improving the knife's ability to chop and mince meats and vegetables.

Such knives often incorporate blunted or rounded tips, and feature kullenschliff (Swedish/German: "hill-sharpened") or Granton edge (scalloped blades) to improve meat separation.

Slicers are designed to precisely cut smaller and thinner slices of meat, and are normally more flexible to accomplish this task.

A cleaver may be distinguished from a kitchen knife of similar shape by the fact that it has a heavy blade that is thick from the spine to quite near the edge.

[7] This type of knife comes in a variety of styles and sizes; however, the design often used in a steakhouse typically features a partially serrated blade and wood handle.

Often these blades are thin, narrow, and off-set, with finely serrated edge, to avoid crumbling as the cheese is sliced, and with a forked tip, allowing them to be used as a serving utensil, as well.

[citation needed] A girolle — a blade mounted on an axle to pivot over a wooden board — is used to shave cheese to produce wafer-thin curls.

Hard cheese can also be shaved using an ordinary kitchen utility or cook's knife, to produce these wafer-thin curls, usually used for garnishing a dish.

It can be used to cut decorative garnishes (such as rosettes or fluted mushrooms), slice soft fruits, or to remove skins and blemishes.

Decorating knives are ideal for use in making fancy cuts for garnishes, presentation, and other small tasks (such as rosettes or fluted mushrooms).

), having a broad, flexible, almost spatula-like tool, with a rounded end and sometimes one serrated edge, similar to that used by pastry chefs to ice cakes.

A palette knife has a long, wide, and flexible thin blade with a rounded tip and is used for spreading pastes and semi-liquid food — e.g. icing over a cake.

Some mincing knives are supplied with a wooden cutting board with a circular bowl-shaped indentation that matches the curvature of the knife.

It is a flat surface, generally made of either wood or plastic or composite material that protects counter tops and knives from damage.