The Best Chef’s Knives for $75 or Less

Our longtime inexpensive favorite remains a pleasure to use. With a sharp, gently curved blade, it effortlessly dispatched every task we set before it, mincing garlic precisely and breaking down chicken and dense butternut squash with authority. Its light weight and rounded spine made it easy to wield for long periods, and its textured plastic handle was comfortable to grip for hands of all sizes.

This knife ran a very close race with our winner. It had a very sharp, gently curved blade that tackled every task well, and its rounded spine was easy to choke up on when we used a pinch grip. It’s a little heavier than our winner, but some testers actually preferred that extra weight, finding it “solid” and “authoritative” in their hands. And it’s just as inexpensive. One small quibble? The handle is made from a somewhat slick plastic that sometimes felt slippery when wet or greasy.

This knife is nearly identical to our favorite. It has the same sharp, relatively thin, gently curved blade, so it excelled at every task we gave it, mincing garlic and powering through butternut squash equally well. And it's even lighter in weight, so we could use it effortlessly for long periods. Testers just didn't like its handle quite as much as our favorite's—it's longer, it’s slightly slicker, and it has an indentation in its belly, all of which made it less comfortable to grip.

With a razor-sharp, gently curved blade, this knife made quick work of most tasks, mincing and dicing with precision and maneuvering nimbly between joints when we broke down chicken. A few small flaws kept it from rating more highly. There’s a little less clearance under the handle than we’d like, so our fingers sometimes hit the cutting board when we sliced or diced. And the spine and butt of the blade had square edges that occasionally dug into our fingers when we used a pinch grip. Like several of the other knives, it had a slick plastic handle that was a little slippery when wet. But in general, we thought this was a respectable option.

This knife had an especially narrow edge angle on its well-sharpened blade, rendering it extremely keen and capable of dispatching all tasks admirably. We just wish that the blade itself had a slightly less pronounced curve, as we found that we had to raise our arms and wrists awkwardly when rocking the blade from tip to heel. The spine and butt of the blade were also squared off, so they occasionally dug into our hands. And like those of several other knives, the handle was made of plastic that got slippery when wet, though it was otherwise comfortable to grip in different positions.

We liked the rounded contours of this knife’s handle, which made it comfortable to hold in multiple positions. We just wish that the handle itself had been made from a slightly grippier material, as it was occasionally slippery when wet. The blade was a touch less sharp out of the box than we’d like, and its spine was squared off and thick from heel to tip, crunching through onions and garlic instead of making precise incisions and occasionally getting wedged into butternut squash.

This knife was heavy, solidly made, and pretty sharp. Despite its heft and acuity, it struggled to cut through bone-in chicken parts. With a spine that was thick from heel to tip, it crushed onions and garlic instead of dicing and mincing them precisely and got wedged into butternut squash, struggling to make clean cuts. The handle was easy to hold in a number of positions, but we wished that the plastic were a little less slick and the design a little less boxy—it didn’t nestle into our hands quite as comfortably as other handles.

This French knife felt fairly sharp, dispatching most tasks capably. With a spine that was thick from heel to tip, though, it was a little less precise on fine tasks such as mincing garlic and dicing onions. Its deeply curved blade reminded one tester of a pirate’s cutlass and sometimes put our arms at an awkward angle when we sliced. While the wood handle was nice and grippy, it had uncomfortable squared-off edges and was poorly constructed—the two halves of the handle started to separate after a few washes. Because the blade was shorter, there was less clearance under the handle, so our fingers sometimes got squished on the cutting board as we chopped.

Most users took one look at this inexpensive, incredibly lightweight knife from Thailand and called it a toy. But its blade usually felt quite keen; as a result, it sailed through most tasks. That said, it had been so poorly sharpened that we could see tiny chips in the blade before it had even been used, giving us concerns about its longevity. Because the blade was so thin, it was also unnervingly flexible, bending and wobbling dangerously when we applied pressure to cut through bone-in chicken. The blade was so short that our fingers hit the cutting board as we sliced. We also disliked the unfinished wood from which the handle was made; while it was plenty grippy, it felt rough and got more so with every wash.

In theory, there was nothing seriously wrong with the design of either the blade or handle of this restaurant-industry favorite. The handle was made from a rubbery material that made it easy to hold, though some found that it was so grippy that it was actually hard to change hand positions. The blade was gently curved and tall at the heel, providing adequate space under the handle for our fingers. And the spine tapered nicely from heel to tip, allowing for both precision work and power when cutting through butternut squash. But the edge was dead dull, crushing onions, parsley, and garlic; struggling to bite into tomatoes; and failing to get a grip on slippery chicken skin, sliding off it instead of biting in. If you’re willing to sharpen this knife before you use it, it might be worth a try—but for most of us, the lack of a good edge upon arrival is a deal breaker.