Canada's Premier Online Knife Store - Shopping for a folding knife, hunting knife, kitchen knife, pocket knifes, survival knives, custom knives or fantasy knives ? At KnifeZone™ Canada we have tantos, bowies, samurai swords and many more made by spyderco, coldsteel, sog, united, grohmann knives ... If you don't see the item online, please email us and we'll see if we can special order the item for you.

A Canadian company selling knives and swords at discount prices worldwide. 1-866-885-6433 (limited hours)

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Bear Grylls
Becker knives
Boker knives
Buck knives
Cas Iberia
Cold Steel
Ceramic knife
ChefsChoice
Condor knives
Columbia River
Esee knives
Gerber
Grohmann

Helle knives
Hibben
Junglee
Ka-Bar knives
Kershaw
Lansky
Mantis
Movie Replicas
Ontario knives
Paul Chen
Puma
Rachael Ray
Schrade knives
Smith and Wesson
SOG knives

Spyderco
Survival knives
Swiss Army Knife

Tool Logic
Tops Knives
United Cutlery
Victorinox

Wenger

Choosing a kitchen knife

SIZE Size needs to suit you. It has to fit in your hand properly and the blade the proper length for what your doing. Too small a handle for a large hand risks injury. The same as too long a blade for a small hand risks injury as well.

PRICE Price actually is a good indicator of quality and thicker blades. With a reputable knife brand the more expensive the knife the better the quality and the longer it will last.

BLADE The thicker and heavier the blade the better. Also the TANG (the part of the blade that extents into the handle) should be full. Meaning it goes all the way through the handle. This give the knife the greatest strength.

STEEL Steel type is extremely important. The better kitchen knives will be rated on the Rockwell Scale which is a hardness scale (conceived by Prof. Ludwig in 1908). The higher the rockwell number the harder the steel and the better the quality of knife. A Rockwell or RC of greater than 54 is desirable.

There are 4 main classes of Steels:

High carbon steel - is a softer steel so it is easy to sharpen but edge retention is not as long. It will discolor and is prone to rust if left wet. Your grandparent´s butcher knife is an example of high carbon steel.

High carbon stainless steel - besides carbon, it will have chromium to prevent discoloration. A bit harder to sharpen but holds an edge well.

Stainless/surgical steel - it has less carbon and higher amounts of chromium. Its the most common and economical of the steels.

Other blade materials:

Ceramic knives are very hard, wear resistant and are made of Zirconium oxide (Zirconia). A ceramic knife is second in the hardness only to diamond according to MOHS Hardness Scale created by mineralogist Fredrick Mohs.

     Diamond is a rating of 10 MOHS
     Ceramic is a rating of 8.2 MOHS
     Most steel has a rating of 5-6 MOHS

Ceramic blades are made by taking ceramic powder molded into blanks by use of special high pressure presses. These ceramic knifes come in two colors, white ceramic which is made of zirconium oxide and black ceramic which is made of zirconium carbide-turns black once when fired. However, only use on cutting boards not china plates as this can hurt the blade. If dropped on the tip, it may will break. Also some chipping will occur if you try to cut through bones or pry with the blade.

However, since ceramic knives are not steel they won´t rust lettuce like steel and will almost never need sharpening.

Titanium blades are a matrix of titanium & carbides, They are lighter than steel, more wear resistant and holds an edge as well steel. The carbides allow for heat treating to reach an appropriate hardness for cutlery and are more flexible so it is not a good choice for your decorative cuts.

Pauline Favreau
Owner and President of Knifezone.ca
and daughter of a knife maker

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