Types of Kitchen Knives

In an average household, if you happen to go to the kitchen and open the drawer to search for knives, you might just find 3, 4, or maybe 5 kitchen knives. Applied at various occasions, some knives are considered as everyday, regular knives, and some are utilized for distinct purposes. Diverse not just in usage, but their shapes and sizes are also unique. Whether you use them for chopping, slicing, cutting, tearing, carving, or some other reasons, these knives can be viewed as any chef's best friend. Of course, each chef has his/her favorite knife out of the lot, but many amateur or home cooks can sometimes find it difficult to pick one of their own. Which is why, you need to read our article on these different kitchen knives and uses. So, let's get right to them, shall we?

Different Kitchen Knives and Their Uses

Among the various kitchen cutlery the use of knives is almost essential used for cooking. There about 32 different knives available today and chefs all over the world can have hours of discussion over which of these can be considered as best. Whether it's European, American, or Japanese knives, the fact remains, there's always tons to select from. Not just that, but there are different knife blade types. Used for various reasons inside a kitchen, let's see which knives can come in handy at what time.

Various Knives	Uses of these Knives
Bird's Beak Knife	A 2-3'' long utility knife, also known as a tournée knife, is used for making tournée cuts in vegetables, slice soft fruits, and for decorative garnishes.
Boning Knife	A thin blade, about 5-6'' long is used for removing the bone from cut meat.
Butter Knife	A blunt, small knife is used for spreading butter, cream cheese, and peanut butter over breads and rolls.
Ceramic Knife	Used for slicing different types of foods, this knife usually works best on tough items like bones and tough foods.
Cheese Knife	A thin, narrow knife which is used for lifting pieces of cheese when they are cut. You can use this knife as a bar knife to cut fruits and spreading garnishes.
Chef's Knife	Varying in size - 6, 8, 10, and 12'', the knife is used to cut meats, vegetables, and fruits into thick pieces.
Chestnut Knife	This short knife is used to score an "X" in chestnuts before they are roasted. After roasting the chestnuts, you can also use this knife to open the shell.
Clam Knife	This short, yet sharp knife is used to open the tough clam or oyster shells. Also, this knife can be used to remove the muscles from within the shells.
Cleaver	This 6'' long, thick knife comes in handy for chopping, pounding, crushing, and shredding foods. The blunt side of the knife can also be useful for turning meat into powder form.
Deli Knife	This 8'' knife is used to cut through different ingredients used for making a sandwich.
Devein Knife	This slick, sharp knife is used on shrimp. The large vein in the back of a shrimp and the shell is removed with this knife (as the name suggests).
Electric Knife	This sharp knife is used to slice, cut, and carve foods into thin, small pieces or slices.
Filet Knife	This 6-11'' thin knife is used to filet a fish. The blade helps in removing the meat close to the skin.
Frozen Food Knife	This knife has blade like a saw which is coarse that helps in cutting through frozen foods.
Grapefruit Knife	This short bent, yet sharp knife comes in either single or double-sided blades. As the name suggests, this knife is used for separating the grapefruit without taking out the membranes.
Lettuce Knife	This serrated knife is perfect when you want lettuce slices. As you use this plastic knife, it won't turn the lettuce leaves brown once cut.
Meat and Fish Slicers	The meat and fish slicer knives are used for slicing different types of meat and fish. They are about 10'' long and can slice large roasts as well. The pointed tips on the knife come in handy to cut around any meat or fish bones.
Oyster Knife	For opening the oyster and clam shells to take the meat out, this sharp knife is used. The blade works best for cutting inside the muscle and membrane.
Paring Knife	This 3-5'' small, straight knife is useful for peeling, coring, cutting, and mincing small foods.
Roast Beef Knife	The knife comes in either 10, 12, or 14'' size and is usually used to cut large roasts and ham. The sharp knife gives thin slices of meat every time.
Sandwich Knife	As the name suggests, this sharp knife can be used for slicing through different sized sandwiches, regardless of the ingredients used in them.
Santoku Knife	This Japanese knife has a narrow blade and a straight edge which is used to slice vegetables perfectly.
Sashimi Knife	This long Japanese knife is used while making sushi and sashimi dishes.
Serrated Knife	This long, sharp knife is used to slice tough textured breads, vegetables, and fruits.
Slicing/Carving Knife	This knife's blade is 8-14'' long and is mostly helpful while you opening a melon or slicing a slice of bread. The carving knife is used along with the slicing knife.
Single/Double Bladed Mincing Knife	As the name suggests, these knives are used for cutting and mincing foods, mainly bit-size pieces and slushy texture.
Steak Knife	This 4-6'' thin, narrow knife is used to cut chops, roasts, and steaks. When you want bite-size pieces from the meats, this knife is often used.
Takohiki Knife	This thin, long Japanese knife has a blunt tip which is used to filet and slice fish.
Tomato Knife	As the name suggests, this thin, narrow knife has serrated blades which are used to skin tomatoes and other soft fruits. Each slice is even every time you cut.
Usuba Knife	This Japanese knife is similar to a cleaver and is often used to cut, chop, and slice food.
Yanagi Knife	This Japanese knife is similar to the Takohiki knife and is used for the same purpose. The only difference is that the knife has a pointed blade.

Well, these were the different types of kitchen knives you can find. If there are any other knives I may have missed out on (unintentionally), please do leave a comment below. Out of all these choices, I'm sure that if not yet, but now you can easily decide which is one of the best knives. Even if you're an amateur chef and want to find your niche in this field, the first tool, your best friend, will be your knives. Why? Because without them, a chef is nothing but a person holding food in his hands, nothing to move further ahead.