What Knife Suits You?
There are a great many types of cooking knives. Which knife should you choose? How much should you spend on it? and why should you not just purchase a cheap one from wally mart?

Why spend $30 to $200 on a single knife when you can buy one for less than $20 at Kmart of Walmart? Well, there are a number of reasons. Some of these may matter to you, some of them may not. However, they're all important to consider.

- A sharp knife is far less likely to cut you, and a blunt knife can cause serious injury. If a knife blade is blunt, it requires more force to cut things, meaning that you push harder, and are more likely to slip. A sharp blade will cause a clean slice, a blunt knife will tear your skin and cause more damage You -will- end up cutting yourself if you work with knives, the question is, how serious do you want the injury to be?

-A good knife will last a lifetime. While you might save yourself $20 buying a cheap and nasty knife, it will only last a year two at the most. A good quality knife --and I do have to stress that good knives start at as little as $40-- will require that you sharpen it once or twice a year, which costs around $2-$5, depending where you take it (or you could get a steel and sharpen it yourself)

-A sharp knife will save you time,  and save you energy. A sharp blade cuts more quickly, easily, and evenly than a dull blade. If you entertain a large group of people, a sharp knife will save you time and effort. Dicing half a dozen onions with a table knife is not fun, I know, I've tried it.

-A sharp knife can even make your food taste better. Yeah, I know, this sounds like I'm trying really hard to sell you something. I'm not. A sharp blade will cut your food more evenly and uniformly, it will also allow you to fall into a more steady and even motion when dicing, mincing, or chopping. This means that any food you cut will be of a more uniform size and thickness. This means that these pieces of food will cook at a similar speed, which will do two things for you; 1) Eliminate overcooking (burning) or undercooking (giving your guests food poisoning) of food pieces 2) will cause all of the food you have diced to reach the same temperature, texture, and thus -flavor- at the same time. A good cooking knife really can make your food taste better.

Chef's Knife

The Chef's Knife is the mainstay of any kitchen. It has a long, slightly curved blade, and is used for most preparation work. It slices, chops, dices, juliennes, minces, as well as a host of other functions.

Select a Chef's Knife if you want a multi-function tool that you will always use. If you want to purchase just one knife to start, make a Chef's Knife your choice.

Reccomended:
Tends to Retail for about $40

My personal favorite, this chef's knife is incredibly well priced, and out performs anything under the $200 mark. No exaggeration here folks, just a near perfect knife. Rated 'best value' and 'top performer' by Cooks Illustrated Magazine.

Forged high-carbon steel, easy to grip, well balanced.

Paring Knife

A paring knife is a must if you handle a lot of fruits and vegetables. While a chef's knife can trim things up, it's often much easier to cut the core of a pepper out with a smaller knife.

Select a paring knife if you do a lot of work with produce. While you'll still need a bigger knife to chop it up, a paring knife will allow you to prune your produce into manageable chunks.

Reccomended:
Tends to Retail for about $10

Victorinox and Forschner are the same knives, manufactured under different names. As with the chef's knife of the same line.

Forged high-carbon steel, very good grip.

Boning Knife

Boning knives tend to come in styles.

-Stiff Boning Knives, which are used for Beef, Pork and other 'heavy" meats

-Flexible Boning Knives, which are used for Fish, Poultry and other "light or Fine" meats

I don't get a huge amount of use from my boning knives, as I don't prepare a lot of dishes with meats that still have a lot of bone. However, if you do, you definitely need a good boning knife. Here are two of the best, according to Cooks Illustrated, and Cooking.com customers. Forged high-carbon steel, polished dimpled metal handle:



Reccomended:
Tends to retail for about $69.95

Cleaver

Ah yes, the cleaver. Probably first used in Asia somewhere, and star of every bad horror flick for the past forty years, what's not to love?

Cleavers are used to take on the really heavy meat, bone, and produce of a kitchen. I don't use mine often, but let me tell you, when I do need to separate that leg of beef, it's a godsend.

Forged high-carbon steel,Easy to grip handle.

Reccomended:
Tends to retail for about $40

Serrated (bread) Knife

A serrated knife can be used for many different tasks. Generally, it will be your knife of choice to cut objects that have hard or solid skins or crusts (like bread, strangely enough) and soft centers. While a chef's knife will still be the most common option for slicing delicate fruits, sometimes they're just too soft, no matter how sharp the knife. I really like serrated knives with an offset handle, meaning that I don't smash my knuckles when using them.

Reccomended:
Tends to retail for about $80

I've used on of these before when the Whustof salesman was giving demonstrations at the cooking supply store market in the south Philadelphia market (that place is AWESOME, by the way, go there if you're in the area), but I  don't own one. It will Definitely be my next purchase in terms of knives. This is what Whustof have to say about theirs:

Comfortable to hold and razor-sharp, the 7-in. Deli Knife by Wusthof cuts slices of cheese, meat and slices your sandwiches with ease. Offset blade lets you get even slices in a single motion, especially with harder foods that require a little more leverage. Blade is slightly serrated so you leave food intact. It's part of the Gourmet series,a moderately priced collection that offers the same quality steel blade and comfortable, composite, triple-riveted handles as all Wusthof knives. The difference in this newest collection is the precision stamped blade, making it a good choice for the cook who likes a slightly lighter weight knife for everyday food prep. Knives are made in Solingen, Germany.