The Warther Cutlery
Knife Buying Guide
Our buying guide will help you find the right knife for the right task.
The Essentials
Paring Knives
A paring knife may just be the most used knife in any chef’s kitchen. Shaped like a miniature chef’s knife, it’s the perfect knife for delicate work, including peeling, hulling, slicing, mincing, trimming, segmenting, and scoring.
The Bird’s Peak Paring Knife is a specialized version of our standard paring knife. The arched blade makes it easier to achieve a clean cut on a curved surface. It’s best for peeling irregularly shaped fruits and vegetables, peeling skins or blemishes, and cutting decorative garnishes like fluted mushrooms and radish rosettes.
Ideal For:
- Peeling and cutting small fruit and vegetables
- Cutting vegetables and herbs, such as garlic
- Deseeding fruits
- Deveining prawns
Chef Knives
If you only have one knife, this is the one to have. A multi-purpose knife that excels at large tasks, like dicing an onion, cutting chicken, and slicing a ham, as well as small tasks, like chopping herbs, julienning carrots, and mincing garlic. The curved blade of a chef’s knife enables you to perform the knife’s signature rocking motion technique.
Ideal For:
- Slicing vegetables
- Dicing herbs
- Chopping nuts
- Cutting meat
Slicing Knives
An essential for holiday turkeys and hams, as well as slicing vegetables, fruits, and bread. Slicing knives have long, thin blades. The blade is more flexible than a carving knife, making it perfect for cutting thin slices of roast, fruits, and vegetables.
Ideal For:
- Slicing and carving thin cuts of meat, such as chicken, pork, beef, venison, and fish
- Preparing fruit for salads
- Preparing vegetables
Serrated Knives
A serrated knife can be very useful for several quick jobs. It has a patented serrated edge, that has large and fine pointed teeth. Serrated knives are indispensable for breaking through the skin of a tomato resulting in thin, even slices without destroying the tomato to thick crusts of old-world style breads without crushing the delicate interior. They can also be quite handy for cutting cakes into layers, sawing through the thick skins of large melons and work great in a pinch for just about anything else.
Ideal For:
- Slicing baked goods: crusty artisan loaves, soft buttery loaves, and bagels
- Tomatoes
- Large fruits
More Collections
Steak Knives
Ideal for steak and other main courses like chicken, pork, and lamb. Steak knives slice meat without tearing, producing a smooth, clean cut. They have a sharp, rounded tip to easily clean the meat off of any bone. Warther steak knives are also easier to sharpen than serrated steak knives.
Ideal For:
- Steak
- Pork chops
- Ham
- Chicken
Cheese Knives
Soft Cheese Knife
A soft cheese knife, also known as an open work blade knife, features holes in the blade to keep soft cheeses from sticking due to the minimal surface area. You can also use the holes to push a piece off of the knife.
Ideal For:
Soft to semi-soft cheeses, like Brie, Camembert, & fresh Mozzarella
Hard Cheese Knife
A hard knife, also known as a mini cleaver, cheddar cleaver, or semi-hard cheese knife, is designed to cut hard cheeses. The wide blade and cleaver shape provide the perfect combination of force and balance to push downward, and the placement of the handle keeps your knuckles from hitting the board.
Ideal For:
Semi-hard to hard cheeses, like Cheddar, Gruyere, Colby, & Fontina
Boning Knives
Boning knives have long, thin, flexible blades with a sharp tip to make piercing meat easier and safer. The blade is designed for prepping poultry and meats allowing for great control when trimming from bones and cartilage. Since the best flavor comes from the meat closest to the bone, a boning knife is an excellent way to ensure these parts aren’t missed, while reducing waste.
Ideal For:
- Removing bones from raw fish, poultry, and meats
- Precise tasks like trimming
Santoku Knife
A Santoku knife is a Japanese style chef knife for both the beginner and professional chef. With this versatile knife, more of an up-down chopping method is used because of its flat blade, with no part of the knife in contact with the cutting board between cut. This knife offers reliability, for large scale chopping, dicing, and mincing.
Ideal For:
- Chopping, dicing, and mincing
- Vegetables, herbs, and nuts
- Cutting meat
Fish Fillet Knives
Whether a fisherman is wanting to properly prepare the day’s catch, or home cook that bought some fresh fish from the market, the right tool is needed to clean and cut. When it comes to filleting, having a superior filleting knife, that offers great flexibility is key to making this task easier. This knife is a member of the boning knife family; featuring a trailing point blade that helps it go deep down in the skin of the meat to the bones for easy boning and skinning.
Ideal For:
- Skinning and boning
- Making fish fillets and pieces
Knife Sets
So many choices, right? Sharp kitchen knives are the single most important item in your culinary collection, so buying ones that stay sharp use after use is crucial. Knives that feel comfortable is very important as well since they will be used for repetitive cutting tasks day after day. Think about your cooking needs and what type of cooking you do. Knife sets contain tools for simple slicing and dicing to creating a masterpiece meal. Still unsure? Contact Warther Cutlery to help select the perfect set.
Knife Storage
When it comes to the question of knife storage, there are some great options, but tossing them in a drawer definitely is not one of them. How knives are stored can be just as important as the materials, maintenance, and cleaning to obtain optimal performance. To keep knives organized, safe and edges sharp consider a magnetic knife rack, magnetic cutting board, drawer holder or knife blocks. An important rule to remember when storing knives is to be sure the knives are clean and dry before storing.
Cutting Boards
The type of cutting board used while preparing a meal is a bigger deal than some may think. It has a large impact on edge retention, durability, and presentation. A great wooden cutting board will extend the lifetime of your knife blades. Contrary to common belief, studies have shown that wooden cutting boards are also easier to keep clean and sanitary than most of their plastic counterparts. Many memorable home cooked meals start with prepping and cutting ingredients on a board and then can be used to build beautiful charcuterie boards for your family and friends.
Sharpening & Honing
There are several tools available for maintaining and creating a sharper edge on knife blades. While we still recommend having knives professionally sharpen occasionally, it is nice to have the option to touch them up at home. With many sharpening and honing tool available it can be difficult to find the right tool to fit your situation and experience level. Any one of the tools we offer will help keep your knives sharp to keep your kitchen running efficiently and safely.
Knife Care Instructions
This knife was forged by hand.
Riveted by hand.
Buffed by hand.
And now, cared for by hand.
This knife has a story, and now, that story is in your hands. To help ensure your Warther Cutlery knife last for generations, we recommend the following care and use instructions.
Care Instructions:
- Made by hand, washed by hand.
- Do NOT put in dishwasher.
- Do NOT let soak in water.
- Dry immediately after washing.
- Always store in a knife holder, knife block or protective sheath.
Use Instructions:
- Do NOT use to open cans or remove bottle caps.
- Do NOT use twisting or gouging motions. Use a slicing motion instead.
- ONLY the Warther Meat Cleaver should be used to crack or cut bones or frozen food.
- A wood cutting board is recommended. Metal, tile, hard plastic or glass cutting boards will dull your knife faster.
- A carborundum hone or steel is recommended for sharpening.
- Do NOT use mechanical or automatic sharpeners.
The Warther Family Lifetime Guarantee
Every Warther Cutlery knife is backed by our Lifetime Guarantee, which covers defects in material and craftsmanship under normal kitchen use. It does not cover neglect, abuse or misuse.
Free Lifetime Sharpening
All Warther Cutlery knives include free lifetime sharpening. To learn more about our knife sharpening services,
