Quality Chefs Knife
Most people assume that a professional chef will say that a well-balanced chef knife has a forged blade, is probably 8 in. long, has a bolster, and has a full tang that extends the entire length of a wooden handle that is triple riveted in place. The assumption is well founded as that description includes the top of the line German chefs knives from the top companies in the industry like J.A. Henckels and Wusthof.
Can a stamped blade chef knife be well balanced? A forged knife blade is made from a single billet of high quality, stainless steel. The billet gets forged into the proper shape by hammers that wield tons of pressure. Several other other steps in the manufacturing process grind, sharpen and polish the blade. Forschner knives in contrast is punched out from a ribbon of high carbon stainless steel into a nearly perfectly formed knife blade, like an assembly line cookie cutter. The stamped blade is heated and cooled several times, often with ice, to get the desired tempering hardness and then finished and sharpened the same way as the more expensive forged chefs knives.
Weight is the major difference between a forged blade and a stamped blade of the same size. The forged blade began its life with more material and will weigh, on average, about 2 oz. more than a stamped blade. Hundreds of hours of slicing, dicing, mincing and chopping by chef testers has not conclusively determined a clear winner as to which blade type feels better balanced or better in the hand. It appears that the overall weight of the knife, including the handle, may be more of a deciding factor than the way the blade is manufactured.
Since the right balance, or “feel”, is considered by many professional chefs as the most important characteristic of a chefs knife you now know that there is very little difference in the preference of professional chefs bewteen a forged blade chefs knife and stamped blade chefs knife.
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