Getting started
A 20 cm chef’s knife does around ninety per cent of the cutting in any kitchen. A paring knife does the small work a big blade is clumsy at, and a serrated bread knife does the one thing neither can — cutting through a crust without crushing what is inside. Everything after those three is specialisation, and most of it never leaves the block.
Three knives, and one deliberate omission.
The Kuppels 20 cm in X30Cr14 chrome-vanadium hardened steel, full tang and balanced. A named alloy and a full tang at this price is the honest entry point. If the budget stretches, the Zwilling 20 cm is FRIODUR ice-hardened special steel with a deep bolster, made in Germany.
The Victorinox pair — two 8 cm blades with a straight edge and a centre point, light ergonomic handles, stainless. Two of the most-used small knife in any kitchen. If you want one that will be handed down, the Instrumentenrw pair is Solingen-made stainless with real beech handles.
The Moritz & Moritz 20 cm in German knife steel, serrated, stated rust resistant, and recommended for tomatoes as well as loaves. A serrated edge saws rather than presses, which is why it does not crush a soft tomato or a fresh loaf.
A boning knife, a santoku, a cleaver and a filleting knife are all genuinely better at one job. None of them is better at the jobs the three above already do, and each one is a knife that dulls in a drawer waiting for an occasion.
A whetstone. A sharp cheap knife outperforms a blunt expensive one, every time.
20 cm blade · X30Cr14 chrome-vanadium hardened steel · full tang · balanced
A 20 cm knife that names its steel — X30Cr14 chrome-vanadium — and states a full tang running to the end of the handle, which is more than most knives at this price publish.
Best for: Someone who wants a knife that is easy to bring back on a steel.
≈ 18 €
20 cm blade · FRIODUR ice-hardened special steel · deep bolster · made in Germany · seamless handle
A German-made 20 cm knife with Zwilling’s FRIODUR ice-hardening, a deep bolster and a seamless handle join — the construction that keeps water out of the handle.
Best for: A knife bought once, for a kitchen that cooks daily.
≈ 50 €
Because a fourteen-piece block is three knives you use and eleven you do not, priced as fourteen. If the block is the goal, this site lists empty ones — an acacia block with fifteen slots costs less than most sets.
Twenty centimetres. It handles an onion, a squash and a chicken. A 15 cm blade feels safer and makes every large job harder, which is where accidents actually come from.
Close. A santoku is shorter, flatter and better at straight downward cuts; a chef’s knife rocks. If you already prefer one, buy that — this site’s santoku hub runs from 13 to 46 euros.
Cookware sets, knife blocks and cast iron swing by thirty euros or more across the year, and the biggest "discounts" often land at prices the same model sold for six weeks earlier. UniverTrack tracks the real price history across retailers, spots fake reductions, and alerts you when it is genuinely the moment to buy.
