Benchmark knives professional#

If you know enough about your personal taste in knives and have the money to order a custom knife, then that is what you should do. For this price, you could order custom knives, like my fellow chefs did years ago. A good knife doesn’t have to be expensive my favorite knife has no markings on it, and I can’t recall where it came from or how much it cost. The other big question is whether they are a good value for the money. That’s true, though there are two options for the Benchmade set, either CPM-154 or 440c, the former being what I tested. They will rightly point out that there are harder steels out there.

Knife fanatics might roll their eyes at this sort of thing, but these knives won’t make them happy anyway. But more than that, there’s just something intangible about them that makes you want to pick them up and use them. They don’t have a crazy swirling pattern in the steel, and they don’t look like they need hours of care when you’re done with them (because they don’t). They look like most people’s idea of chef’s knives.

Some of it might be that they’re less exotic-looking than many knives I test. I don’t have a logical explanation for my family’s willingness to grab these knives. My kids also use these knives without hesitation. The Benchmade knives are the first test knives my wife has ever used regularly. All of them live in the kitchen drawer (I know, the horror, but it’s a good stress test). Thanks to that knife guide, I test dozens of knives every year. I can’t pin down exactly why that is, but I have observed it in the rest of my family. They are somehow more approachable and easier to work with than many of the knives in our knife guide. It’s worth noting that, more than a knife for the fanatic, these are great knives for the newcomer. That can be tricky to maintain, but I used a Work Sharp field sharpener ( $30 at Amazon, $34 at Work Sharp), which has 20-degree guides, and then just brought it down to 14 from there. That may be due to Benchmade’s proprietary SelectEdge technology, which uses a 14-degree angle. These seem to hold an edge better than my Benchmade folding knife. I have only sharpened them twice since I got them, which is far less than I sharpened my own knives in the same time period. They hold an edge remarkably well, which means less time spent sharpening. After several months of using them, I find that about 80 percent of the time, I still reach for the 6-inch utility knife. Otherwise, these are good-looking, light, highly responsive knives. The handles are comfortable and well-balanced against the blade, although I question the wisdom of having pivot ring holes in a chef’s knife, as they’re more likely to collect food and grime than they would in a folding knife. A good tool allows you to operate on instinct and experience that way. The blade was thin and slid under the flashing on a skirt steak I was cleaning without my having to plan it. When the Benchmade set arrived, I immediately grabbed the utility knife (which is what I would call a petty knife), and about 10 minutes later I forgot I was holding it (in a good way). And if you’re really interested in becoming a better cook, few investments will pay off as well as an excellent knife and plenty of practice with it.Ī good knife is more than a tool it’s an extension of your hand. They’re not cheap, but they do have a lifetime warranty, so you can think of them as a one-time investment. The maple-handled set with carbon fiber bolster that I tested costs $910, over $300 per knife. The cheapest handles and inlays will still set you back $750, or around $250 a knife. I did not go in on this deal, and I’ve regretted it ever since.Īll of this is to say that good knives cost money. I still thought of being a chef as a way to pay for college, not something I’d end up doing full-time for the next seven years of my life. If memory serves, it worked out to about $200 per knife, which was way out of my budget. About six months after I started, several of the more experienced chefs pooled their money and ordered custom Japanese knives.

Benchmark knives professional#

I got my start in professional cooking as a garde-manger at Five and Ten in Athens, Georgia, under chef Hugh Acheson.