Knife Set With Block – Choosing The Correct Knives For Your Household Kitchen
When choosing a knife set with block it is always worth considering, firstly, the type of steel that is used in the knife blade and also how it is made as this will determine how long the knife will last and how easy it will be to sharpen.
Generally, there are 2 processes in which knives are manufactured, stamping and forging. A stamped blade is simply cut from a sheet of metal followed by shaping or pressing it into the shape of a blade. Forging, however, involves taking a piece of metal, heating it to a high temperature and grinding it into the shape of a blade, making it much heavier and more durable than a stamped knife.
Many knives today are manufactured with a high blend of carbon stainless steel, which is good, as anything else will be prone to rust and corrosion over time. The edges are also tapered to make it easier to sharpen. Although everyone wants to have high quality kitchen knives (at reasonable prices) not everyone is happy with high maintenance, such as professional chef knives that have quality, light weight, precision blades but need re-sharpening every time they are used.
In order to find the right type of knives for you to use in your kitchen it is always worth knowing exactly what you are going to be using the knives for, for example, cutting, slicing, boning, chopping or dicing. This is why a knife set with block is designed today to be more suited to household uses as they contain a variety of knives for many uses.
Most decent sets will usually contain around 7 knives, but can be up to 15 depending on how seriously you take your cooking preparations. These are some of the more common ones contained in a set:
Chef knife – It has a triangular blade around 6 to 12 inches long giving it good leverage. It is basically an all-purpose, professional knife that usually requires sharpening more often than the others
Paring knife – This is the most commonly used knife. It is like a 3 inch extension of your hand, used for paring and chopping fruit and vegetables
Serrated knife – It has a long wavy, saw-like blade used for slicing things like bread or any fruit and vegetable that tends to bruise easily
Boning knife – These have quite a narrow, durable blade used for slicing meat off bones
Slicing knife – Again used with meats but having a long, thin blade it tends to be used for preparing joints of ham, roast or turkey into very thin slices for serving
Butcher knife – This is the pre-evolution of the chefs knife. It has a long blade with many uses and is usually much heavier and more durable than the others in the set. Consequently, it does not require sharpening that often
Cleaver knife – This can have either a curved or straight edge and is used for heavy chopping or cutting through bone and the likes
You could always decide to purchase your knives separately, but not everyone knows what knives are required for what purpose, therefore, can end up with an incomplete set lying around, unsafely in their kitchen draw. So for the everyday household kitchen it is advisable to always select stainless steel knives in a block set as many come with lifetime guarantees to suit any budget, along with being complete and multi-purpose.