What is the Best Kitchen Knife Set?

Kitchen knife sets come in many different varieties but choosing the best can be a challenge especially if you are on a budget. Typically the best kitchen knife sets come in two basic types; kitchen knife blocks and kitchen knife packs that just contain a collection of knives.

Most knife sets for the kitchen come with the basic knives needed to prep everyday meals at home and typically you will find a chef knife, some sort of serrated knife, a paring knife and a few more which varies from set to set and if you’re lucky you might even get a honing rod or a pair of kitchen scissors too.

Hold on there; before you jump in head first and go running out to buy the first knife set you lay your hands on, keep on reading as we put the some of the best knife sets through their paces to see which is the best knife set for the money.

Best Knife Set Buying Guide

Knife Set	Size	Brand	Pricing	Rating	Visit
Knife Set	Size	Brand	Pricing	Rating	Visit
	12-Piece	Wusthof	High	★★★★★
	14-Piece	KitchenAid	Medium	★★★★★
	17-Piece	Victorinox	Medium	★★★★★
	17-Piece	Cuisinart	Medium	★★★★★
	18-Piece	Chicago Cutlery	Medium	★★★★★
	12-Piece	Henckels	Low	★★★★★
	18-Piece +	Cutco Cutlery	High	★★★★★
	14-Piece	Ginsu	Low	★★★★★
	6-Piece	Mercer Tool	Low	★★★★★
	22-Piece	Oster	Low	★★★★★

What to Look For When Buying a Kitchen Knife Set

When choosing a good quality knife set you need to look for same things you would look for if you were buying a single kitchen knife. Just because they come in a knife block doesn’t mean they will be superior knives.

You want to look for a knife set that comes with the basic knives and many of the best sets will contain at least one of these:

• Chef’s Knife: your everyday go-to kitchen knife; the Chef knife is used for dicing, chopping, cutting and mincing.
• Utility Knife: all-purpose knife that can be used to tackle many kitchen prepping tasks as well as opening food packets.
• Serrated Bread Knife: typically used for cutting crusty bread but has many other uses in the kitchen too.
• Filleting Knife: used for preparing fish; not really used in the home kitchen as much as they used to be since most of the fish we buy is already filleted. But it has its other uses and can be used whilst prepping fruits.
• Paring Knife: used for peeling, trimming, and intricate cutting; there are many different paring knife types.
• A Cleaver: the best meat cleavers are used for preparing big cuts of meat, but smaller version can be used for chopping herbs or vegetables.
• Carving Knife: this kitchen knife is sued for cutting thing slices of meat from roasted meat and cooked poultry – like chicken or turkey.
• Set of Steak Knives: not all knife sets have these but they can come in handy for cutting tomatoes and obviously cutting steak.
• Sharpening Steel: this is used to keep your kitchen knife sharp and aligned, sometimes called a sharpening rod or honing steel.
• Kitchen Scissors: often large over-sized succors that can be used in the kitchen for cutting herbs, opening packets of food, and trimming fat of meat.

I have gone over how to how to buy a Chef knife here which covers everything you really need to know when buying and selecting a new kitchen knife, so I won’t cover it in detail again here.

Are Kitchen Knife Sets a Waste of Money?

It all depends on how often you cook at home and what you cook on a regular basis. Many people that buy a kitchen knife set find that a lot of the knives are just left gathering dust and they will only use a hand full at most regularly.

If you are going to invest in a good quality set of kitchen knives don’t buy a cheap set, you will be literally throwing you money away. A good knife set will last for many years whereas a cheap brand will last a few months, if you’re lucky.

If you are on a small budget I would recommend not buying a full knife set but just pick out 2 or 3 of the best kitchen knives and use those.

Kitchen Knife Sets Our Top Picks

When it comes to choosing a best knife set we have picked out 3 of what we think are the best for the money.

KitchenAid Stainless Steel 14-Piece Knife Set with Block

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KitchenAid are known around the word for manufacturing some of the best kitchen equipment and appliances and their kitchen knife sets are among some of the best to.

This KitchenAid knife set comprises of 14 of the most used kitchen knives; the block contains a 8-inch slicer, 8-inch chef, 5-1/2-inch utility knife, 7-inch Santoku, and 3-1/2-inch paring knives. As well as the kitchen knives the KitchenAid knife set contain 6 steak knives, a pair of heavy duty kitchen scissors and sharpening steel.

All of the knives in this set have been manufactured from forged, high-carbon stainless steel and sit inside of a black hardwood knife block.

I was impressed with this set and had not used any KitchenAid knives in the past so I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and the sharpness of these knives and for the money you really can’t go wrong.

The only issue I found with this knife set is that after a few months small rust spots did appear, but to be honest this can happened to some of the best knife sets at double the cost. Just make sure you hand wash them and don’t leave them lying in the kitchen sink.

Victorinox Knife Block 8-Piece Set

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If you are a regular reader of this website you have probably come to know that I am a huge fan of the Victorinox kitchen knives, they really are some of the best kitchen knives money can buy.

So it would only be right for me to include the Victorinox Knife Set in my best kitchen knife set picks. So just how does this kitchen knife set compare?

The Victorinox 8-piece knife block set is a winner. The knife block contains a selection of the best selling Victorinox knives and comes with a 8-inch chef’s knife, a 6-inch boning knife, 4-inch paring, 8-inch bread, 10-inch slicing knife, plus a sharpening steel, a set of kitchen scissors and they are all housed in a elegant hardwood knife block.

As with all of the Victorinox kitchen knives the blades have been manufactured out of high-carbon stainless steel and feature a full tang from extra strength and balance. The knife handles are made from black Fibrox giving a non-slip grip even when your hands are wet. These knives are a favorite among professional chefs and have they been designed so that crevices and openings are minimized to help avoid Bactria and potential food poising.

I really cannot not find any faults with these knives they are covered by a lifetime warranty (YES lifetime) and they can been put through the dishwasher with no problems at all, which makes these knives very low maintenance when it comes to cleaning at the end of the day.

If you want a great set of knives that want cost the earth, look no further this is the best kitchen knife set your money can buy.