My Favorite is 5½" of Hardened Steel

I like to have a variety at my beck and call, of course, but my favorite is 5½" and oh so perfect for me. I love how it feels in my hand, how very hard and sharp it is, how it's heavy enough, but not so heavy as to be a burden. It goes everywhere I need it to go. I know that some feel that bigger is better, but I love my 5½" the best.

It's 5½" of forged steel, ice-hardened, with a full tang and a comfortable handle. It's a santoku, my favorite general purpose knife style. I use it for just about everything. It slices, it dices, it minces - veggies, fruits, fish, chicken breast, herbs, almost everything. The smaller size fits my smallish hands and the weight is comfortable for me. It's perfect for mincing onions, garlic, or ginger, or for chiffonade, being fairly small.

For bigger jobs, I have the brothers of the 5½", the 7½" santoku & the monster 9½" santoku. I also have a traditional 8" Wüstof chef's knife and my beloved J.A. Henckels boning knife, which is also ideal for skinning fish. And bread knives, carving knives, and paring knives, of course. But the santokus, the chef's knives, and the boning knife are the core of my collection.


All my favorites are German. Not sure why that is. I guess because they are nice and hard and stay sharp a long time. I hone my knives regularly at home, but do have them professionally sharpened when necessary. A dull knife is a dangerous knife!!!

The wood-handled ones never, ever go in the dishwasher, of course. The non-wood handled ones do, laying sideways in the upper rack, edge up to prevent dulling. I do not keep them in a knife block, as I find the block tends to dull my knives. The most used are kept out in plain sight, within easy reach, on a magnetic strip. The lesser-used ones are in sleeves or cases in a drawer or cabinet, out of the children's reach and sight.

One of Spousehole's main objections to how I keep my kitchen is that the knives are in full view. He feels that they are a temptation to the little ones. I say they are well back from the edge of the counter, where the children would have to stand on something to reach them, and I have taught the children that they may never, ever touch Mommy's knives as they are dangerous. Just like they leave the hot stove or oven alone, the children have left the knives alone. Go figure.