Equipment Review: Best Carbon-Steel Chef’s Knives & Our Testing Winner
Best carbon-steel knife:
Best stainless-steel knife:
Full review and results chart:
Carbon-steel enthusiasts have long considered these knives sharper and more durable than stainless. But do they really perform better—and are they worth the upkeep?
We tested 8 carbon-steel knives to find the best one:
Bob Kramer 8″ Carbon Steel Chef’s Knife by Zwilling J.A. Henckels
Tsukiji Masamoto Gyuto, 8 1/4″
Togiharu Virgin Carbon Steel Gyutou, 8.2″
Misono Swedish Carbon Steel Gyutou, 8.2″
Masamoto Sohonten Virgin Carbon Steel Gyutou, 8.2″
Messermeister Park Plaza Carbon 8 Inch Chef’s Knife
R. Murphy Chef’s Select 8 Inch Carbon Steel Chef’s Knife
Sabatier Mexeur et Cie 8″ Chef
ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America’s Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
Each week, the cast of America’s Test Kitchen brings the recipes, testings, and tastings from Cook’s Illustrated magazine to life on our public television series. With more than 2 million viewers per episode, we are the most-watched cooking show on public television.
More than 1.3 million home cooks rely on Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country magazines to provide trusted recipes that work, honest ratings of equipment and supermarket ingredients, and kitchen tips.
If you like us, follow us:
Why go thru all the crumminess of the Ninja ice cream maker if it’s that bad? I’d rather you spent the time demonstrating the qualities of the good ice cream makers & how superior their machines are😊
Rockwell just measures hardness, not "the strength of the metal." Hardness and strength are different qualities and while not directly related, usually have an inverse correlation, so if anything harder knives are usually less strong than softer ones.
I love my Victorinox knives!
I use Misono UX10
such i wonderful review i watched it already 5 times in the last 6 months or so!
Weird that you exclude Wursthof. Not only is it the biggest name in kitchen knives, their steel combines pretty much the best of all worlds – their Chromoly steel is stainless and is also hardened to a level which is within acceptable ranges for high carbon steel. Also a very aggressive angle at 14 degrees, which is pretty much on par with Japanese knives.
This is the very scientific way of testing knives. Very well done po(respect in Filipino)!!!
Great info,thanks.
Just ordered my Kramer from you guys yesterday! Excited to get it. I use mostly Japanese knives, but when I was a chef I always used german.
You can but 6 Victorinox knives to 1 of those carbon steel knives- it's a no brainer
I'm a Zwilling fan. I especially love their latest collaborations with blademakers in Japan.
What does O.J. recommend,thats the knife I want!
here I am, wanting a pretty knife but science has won again..
"Strong"
Interesting video.
8yrs later, knife (more importantly steel) technology has drastically changed with the introduction of "super steels". Super stainless has some very competitive knife offerings far surpassing even the very best heat treated custom carbon steel blades. If you are willing to spend the cash to get one, the performance can't be matched by any carbon steel offering, anywhere. The question becomes how much are you willing to pay, and how much performance are you willing to sacrifice. Also, how skilled are you at knife sharpening and how often are you willing to sharpen your knife?
Even 8 years later in finding this review fascinating and informative
In other words; keep it away from my girlfriend just like my cast iron pans.
Thank you
Why are they show a Masamoto knife and calling it a Togiharu lol
There is one thing perhaps impossible to measure in a loved instrument, and that is the mellowing and very personal quality of the artifact as it takes on wear, sweat (handle or other wooden parts), and patina accompanying use. That may be referred to as "character", and I wonder if that doesn't affect the allure of organic elements in design that age with use.
For me, quality is the first priority, price doesn't matter.
Very nice looking Chef Knife with obvious quality which is what I expected. Bought it as a gift and felt it is a bit high in price but is well known for quality—great buying from Almazan Knife.
2:00 is this a Misono Swedish Carbon Gyuto 210 mm?
how about 20 years later ….
Id say masimoto makes best carbon steel chefs knife they are not cheap though about 400 dollars
This comment will probably be buried since this video is so old, but a cool tip for carbon steel knives is that you can "force" a patina that will add some protection against rust. You only need to submerge the blade or coat it in some sort of acid: vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, etc. This will cause the steel to darken quickly so if you want your blade to stay shiny don't do this. Your blade will still rust, but it will be considerably easier to clean and there will be less rust if you happen to leave it wet. You can even use cold gun blue that you can get at any outdoors store or gun shop.
I purchased the Victorinox (bought based on the ATK recommendation) and I think that it’s junk. That with the poor performance of a couple of other products recommended by ATK/Cook’s Illustrated has really negatively impacted your credibility with me. Also, the fact that the “ATK at home” episodes showed almost no ATK chefs using the Victorinox knife in their homes was a bad look for you guys as well. Just thought you should know what someone in your audience thinks.
And that's a fantastic review – well done, and thanks!
You don't have to baby them if you let them patina or force the patina with an acid.
I appreciate their effort here but just seeing the cutting technique at roughly 4:48 tells me the people doing this are not into the knife/ cutting game like a pro… Those fingers are way out in front of the thumb. Just as well, great production quality here.
I bought a Victorinox a year or so ago and I will never buy anything else. The handle/grip is excellent and the blade is great.
I wonder whats bout those vintage Emil Ern Carbon Knives that are offered for horrendous money even if they are at least 40 years old. Is there something special?
My mom gave me a family heirloom knife set. Olde forge brand hi carbon steel knifes, with a black that hangs from the wall
Fyi… at 5:08 that is the masamoto gyuto not tojiro Gyuto or whatever they said it was lol.
Great review. My wife is a great cook, and spends a lot of time in the kitchen doing part time catering. She asked me for better knives. I realized what she was using was a pile of old Goodwill used knives I'd bought for $2 each to practice sharpening with. I JUST bought her 5 Tojiro DP, 2 Victorinox, and found a brand new Global 8" at a pawn shop for $10 so far. She's pleased with me. Happy wife, happy life. I'd get her all nice Tojiro, but I have to see how she cares for the ones she has first 🙂
– Joe