Chef Reviews and Ranks Amazon’s Best Rated Chef Knives
Are Amazon’s BEST-RATED chef knives actually worth it?
Today, Chef Ben and Jamie put Amazon’s top-rated chef knives to the ultimate test. From razor-sharp edges to real kitchen performance, we’re finding out whether thousands of 5-star reviews actually mean anything…
We bought Amazon’s highest-rated chef knives and tested them across 3 categories
1. Sharpness Test – How cleanly can they slice?
2. Comfort Test How do they actually feel in hand?
3. Versatility Test – Can one knife really do it all?
After scoring each knife, we reveal our true Top 5 ranking… and compare it with Amazon’s Top 5. Did the internet get it right or completely wrong?
Here are the knives we tested – just so you know, some of these may be affiliate links, which means if you buy something from the store after clicking on them, the store will pay us a percentage of your basket… This doesn’t cost or change anything else for you!
Zyliss Comfort 7.25” Chef Knife – https://amzn.to/4s5mCQ0
Paudin 8″ Chef Knife – https://amzn.to/3MUvpp7
Mercer Culinary Millennia 8” Chefs Knife – https://amzn.to/40nTbgf
Wüsthof Classic 8″ Chef’s Knife – https://amzn.to/4tMAikN
Shun Cutlery Classic 8″ Chefs Knife – https://amzn.to/4c4EkhY
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38 Comments
Always end on the Bach.
Never on Debussy.
Do a video reviewing all Japanese knives my favorite is yoshahiro.
Nice outfit Mike
I had the Paudin, It was not a full tang and separated from the bolster and the handle after a bit over a year of use.
Have few knives at home, and Wüsthof Classic (6 inch version) is definitely my favorite. And I can tell it improved my chef knive skills because it is balanced and lays in hand perfectly.
Only a min in, but have to comment. I am a pretty serious cook and for years tried to get a knife which worked for me. Never found anything, I use a tomato knife for nearly everything, when I discovered this was Elizabeth Davids choice of knife I stopped trying all the different knives. I have 2 very very sharp vintage faux bone handle knives for meat and fish, but the tomato knife sits in my hand perfectly I love it.
WOW, what a bogus set of tests!
First of all, "sharpness out of the box" should NOT be a measure of a knife's quality. Period. It represents 0.000001% of the time you will use the knife. And there are simple pieces of equipment that can rate sharpness, instead of a mess of different tomatoes being sliced by different hands.
And while we are on "sharpness out of the box", you are comparing these knives, which are all sharpened differently, and acting like you are comparing the knife, when you are comparing the out of the box sharpness, over and over! At the very least, you should have sharpened all of the knives to start, to have a fair comparison. Instead, if a company's final step of sharpening was a little off that day, you are downrating the entire product.
Second, why NO attention to food safety? Rubber handles would be abysmal for that and would probably never get an NSF approval rating.
Third, and *most important*, how long does it actually hold an edge? You pay homage to HRC ratings, but that is a marketing number, not necessarily factual. Testing HRC is simple and you should have done so.
So how many times did someone have to show their photo ID to receive these?
Take away is just buy the Paudin, value is unbeatable.
More important that out-of-the-box sharpness is how well it keeps an edge tbh.
Shouldve stuck them through the dishwasher 30 times to test them. wooden handles like the Paudin dont last. I know its probably recommended to hand wash but if you have a dishwasher its likely people will use it.
that knife is not Damascus its chinese fake crap it would cost alot more do your home work
Using Amazon Reviews is silly. The comments for a product aren't always tied exclusively to that product and sometimes overlap with reviews for other similar (or version) products from the same company.
Love this format!
I disagree with seanbrien. As an exchef, the wusthofs are overkill for domestic use (which i have, but used them professionally). For "home use", The mercer or a victorinox is all you really need (you still need to get them sharpened or know how to do it). Even the xyliss for the throw away world. Buy one once per year. A wusthof or shun is "for you", but not needed. My rusty .02
I got a paudin nakiri knife for christmas and i love it.
Shun is EXPENSIVE in the UK. I am used to seeing them very comparable to Wustoff.
Can they do a ranking test for tampons please
I had occasion to use a knife recently acquired by a friend. It had a Damascus pattern and was a pretty knife to look at. And that's the last good thing I'll say about it. It arrived dull as dishwater. I sharpened it on a stone and it took a reasonable edge in no time flat…which should have been a warning, because it lost the edge to one each carrot and parsnip. The blade was also like an ocean wave, bending first one way, then the other near the tip, making straight cuts impossible. The Damascus pattern was not inherent to the metal, but either etched or applied, leaving a 3-d feel, Worst knife I've ever used. I'd take my Cutco 8' chef's knife any day
Funnily enough me and my partner just "invested" in some Paudin knifes – have used them for past few months and we are both well happy with this purchase. Hence watched this video. 😂
2:49 that looks like they simulated the damascus effect by laser-engraving the pattern, which is much cheaper than the actual damascus process.
I run a small knife sharpening and restoration business, this stuff really is my wheelhouse. I feel like I could nitpick ALOT of nerdy things and technical mistakes in this video but honestly I think its just good advice. The first thing you want is a comfortable handle that fits your hand, the second part you look for is a geometry and shape that fits how you like to use it (like knives with flat bellies cant rock but are really good for other things).
One thing I do want to nitpick a bit though, is this hardness vs durability vs edge retention thing. Because yes whats said here is true in isolation, though not all knives with the same "specs" are made equal. A 10 dollar IKEA knife and a 400 dollar Kramer knife can in theory both be the same exact HRC but the expensive one in this case is just made with better materials and more care and a semi-custom heat treat protocol which means its just gonna be better at absolutely everything. It will hold its edge longer, it will be more durable, it will take a keener edge, it will be easier to sharpen.
And just to be clear, im not saying people SHOULD be going out and buying 400 dollar knives unless they really desire one, im saying theres differences and getting a decent one is very much worth it if you spend alot of time in the kitchen.
3:56 "Waffer"?!
Thanks for video guys, but you make some mistake in my opinion;
1 – if you compare 5 knives , why do you take 4 no bolster, and one wusthof with bolster? Wusthof has no bolster of the same knife in no bolster variation, second – why you didn't cut the carrot to Julien slices with the wusthof? In carrot slicing wusthof can't be better than shun, because is geometry – kai shun is better in carrot and potatos just because shun have thinner geometry ( I don't wanna say that wusthof is a bad knife, i have both of them – shun classic blonde and wusthof classic so it's amazing knives )
3 you say that bolster is better in you opinion because it is more bulletproof, but and the same time you didn't say bad issues about bolster, so actually bolster have more minus than plus
Got my Paodin vor 17€ on Black Friday tree years ago. I still love it!!!
the thing is it is all very subjective myself I don't like rocking I like push pull I find it way easier for prep work.
The reason that mercer is so highly rated is because it is an american company and amazon is american based too so that makes sense
that knife is the answer to victorinox (not very good the mercer) you see them all over kitchens in the usa color coded mostly, yeah that handle isn't nice
I don't like the wustof for a few reasons the bolster, (I stone sharpen my knives and I put 2 fingers on the bolster so that doesn't feel right) the weight, (way too heavy for 8 hours of knife work) the thickness I like thin blade, the price (too expensive for what they are).
Long time ago I started with a victorinox and that has always been my standard to judge knives by, light weight, thin blade 2.3 mm, easy to stone sharpen and strope constistency.
For a while I had a victorinox santoku great knife but not a straight blade then I discovered chinese cleavers and there was no looking back those things are absolutely perfect for most of the bulk work.
Lately I have tried victorinox chinese cleaver and that is a winner for me.
I also use the knives that ppl always make fun off the kiwi 172 those are so so easy to sharpen and use and you cannot beat the price, yes the blade is very flexible but that works for me.
I smiled when I saw them doing julienne with a chef knife always used a victorinox bread knife for that or my trusted chinese cleaver/172 kiwi.
No santoku 😢
How about diving into knife shapes next?
Extremely disappointing in the methods that you used and the accuracy in your comparison. First of all black jacket guy seems to be a professional chef and possibly even a culinary school teacher. White jacket guy looks and works like a student who maybe just got his first job as a sous chef.
The testing fails in many ways by not using easily measured criteria. Sharpness of the blade can easily be measured by the little tension, tester strings that are reliable and accurate. Personal opinions of “chefs“ is just that an opinion. I know this, especially when the white chef guy was slicing the tomato in on one knife. He slice it at an entirely different angle, which not only affected the control of the knife, but also the pressure needed to make the cut. That’s why I use something that can be actually measured.
Secondly, there is no mention of the sharpening angle of the knives. If you know, chef knives, you know that they can be sharpened at different angles, depending upon their intended purchase. This is important for consumers because based on the type of steel and the angle that they are sharpened at dramatically affect how long their “edge“ will last. Again, absolutely no mention.
It’s sad also that there was no attempt to show the durability of the edge and it is just mentioned in passing at the end. Probably that’s the most important factor to Consumer who likes to cook. Not everybody enjoy sharpening knives, knows how to sharpen a knife, or wants to sharpen a knife. Those are important factors, but obviously can’t be done in a video that took an hour to fill and would likely have gotten many more views. Again, very disappointing.
I watched this with the hope of seeing an accurate review rather than a 100% personal preferences based on inconsistent individual life testing. Even though these knives are available on the UK and I don’t live in the UK it was still of interest to me, or so I thought.
Interesting that this is titled “chef“ not “chefs” and after watching the two participants, I think it’s obvious that one is a “chef“ and one isn’t.
I also laughed at the end when I said “you get what you pay for“ however there’s no explanation of what led to that comment. Did he mean to say how long it would take an edge, how easy it was to sharpen, I don’t think any of the knives had a question of them breaking, but there is a question durability of the knife which was never addressed and the durability of the handles because 50% of these knives probably end up in a dishwasher. So the question of “you get what you pay for” is relative and also not probed in this video.
Hrm. Feel like we are going to need a video on how Ben takes care of his knifes.
I have bought the Shun, the Wust, Global the Merc. I threw the Shun away. The tip broke in the first week. When I was breaking a ra chicken and it chipped again a week later. The Wust, I call the knuckle buster. Bc, when you are chopping at max speed, you bust your knuckles bc of the heel. Global is good for veg. It's light, holds an edge and the Merch. That's a work horse. That can handle anything that you throw at it. I bought the Global about 15 yrs ago and my merch about 12. Those are my go to knives
the only thing you ever need to know about buying knives: check what steel they use and pick accordingly.
everything else is marketing.
and no "german steel" is not a steel grade, nor is "japanese steel"
testing sharpness is entirely pointless. any knife can be made sharp as you like. the difference is how long they stay that way.
The Paudin is 26 quid now, possibly thanks to this video! Still bought one, though.
Looked at the price of that Wustof on Canadian Amazon… $240! Oof. My wallet cries
got myself cheap B-quality Solingen bladed knives for like 40 a pop. wusthof also uses solingen blades, but less hard steel.
tried a paudin knife and they do not use the steel they advertise. fairly soft.
I LOVED this video! Everything I've ever wondered about the chef's knives. More like this please
"Go and feel some knives" is great advice, but not really something most people can do in reality.
I’ve had a wusthof classic for about 5 year. Hone and sharpen regularly. It’s a beast of a knife. Super comfortable to use.