The Best Kitchen Knife Sets That You Can Buy (2020)

I love knives. They’re one of the handiest tools to have around the kitchen, and you’d be amazed at how much easier your life is if you have at least the basics. A steak knife simply doesn’t cut it (pun intended) for a lot of tasks. You ever tried carving up a whole chicken with just a paring knife? A brace of potatoes without a good chef’s knife? It’s possible, but a huge pain.

In this article we’re going to go over some kitchen knife set reviews (the best ones I can find) and more importantly how to pick the right one, so you can separate the wheat from the chaff on your own in the future.

For knife sharpeners check out our review here.

Our baseline set (the Cuisinart model) is a great set, and while not the highest overall quality, is the perfect confluence of value and quality. Other than that if you can stomach the price, the Shun Classic set and TUO Kitchen Knife Set are really good sets. For the most part these are all great, save for the final Cuisinart model above; that is a strong example of what to never look for in a knife set.

How Do I Choose The Knife Set?

Obviously, as a cooking enthusiast you want your set of knives to be of high quality. But what does that mean, in an objective sense?

Primarily with a knife you’re looking at two main things: the steel and the construction.

Unlike many household items, stainless steel is NOT actually the best choice for a kitchen knife. It’s serviceable, but cheap. Stainless steel is harder to sharpen and buff the nicks out of, leading to them deteriorating faster over time.

You want a high carbon (above .6% carbon) steel if it’s possible to get it with a reasonable price. Hand forged knives with even higher quality steel are also possible, but largely beyond the scope of this article; most of those will need to be custom made, and can be quite expensive (though worth it for a cooking enthusiast).

Ceramic is also solid choice for knives

Being technically one of the best materials. They are sharp and keep their edge a long time, requiring little re-sharpening as they age. Unfortunately they are expensive and BRITTLE, a poor combination, and should be avoided for the average household knife set.

Aside the basic material, take a look at how the knife is put together. Any half decent knife will be made of one solid piece of material, riveted to the handle. Inspect your knives; if there is clear indication that the knife is made of two or more pieces or metal welded or glued together, avoid it like the plague. These knives have a tendency to fall apart when you need them most.

Likewise look for solid rivets in the handle, with a coating of clear resin to make it smooth. This creates a solid bond on single piece knives and leaves the handles smooth and sturdy. Finally, the handle should be relatively ergonomic, fitting comfortably in the hand and gliding easily in both a chopping and slicing motion.

After taking a look at the quality of the individual knives, take note of what kind of knives come with the set. At a most basic level a kitchen knife set needs to come with: a paring knife, a chef’s knife, knife for slicing brisket and steak knives. This is the absolute bare minimum, mind you.

A good knife set will not only come with other knives, like a deboning knife, bread knife, butcher’s knife, or other long or heavier blades for various purposes, but also a set of kitchen shears and a piece of sharpening steel. Particularly good sets will come with a variety of lesser used knives like a cheese knife or filet knife, but I count these as an “extra” rather than something expected.

Finally, keep in mind your budget

As knives can get extremely expensive at the higher ends (hundreds, even thousands of dollars for hand forged, custom made models), and most people have little need for knives of that quality. Also keep in mind that not every knife set will be right for a given person; different hand shapes and even aesthetic tastes can make an objectively great knife set awkward to wield for someone to whom they aren’t suited.