What I loved: I’ve been skeptical of Quince’s forays into more serious kitchen wares (maybe I was just tired of all the podcast advertising), but these knives impressed me. They slid through pork chops and tomatoes with that buttery smoothness I mentioned above, and passed the paper test both before and after cutting through piles of meat and vegetables.
At just $100 they have both a Pakkawood handle and a Damascus steel blade (I didn’t find this contributed to the sharpness, it just looks cool, with those signature waves apparent in the metal). They’re made from Japanese steel, but in a Chinese, keeping the price down. If you’re looking for a sharp knife that looks more expensive than it is, this is a great option.
What I’d leave: This knife is lighter and feels less sturdy than the winning Material knife above. The handle felt light for a full tang knife—not so much that it isn’t balanced, but I preferred the heft and slightly superior balance of the Material knife overall. Its handle also isn’t quite as comfortable to grip as the Material’s, and certainly doesn’t offer the ergonomic feel of the Shun.
How I tested steak knives
To test initial sharpness out of the box I held a piece of paper up, and quickly sliced a knife through it. Knives that are properly sharp should be able to slice cleanly through the paper, while duller knives will crumple the paper without slicing it.
Next I put the steak knives up against a giant pile of seared pork chops to see how they handled a thick piece of protein. I used them to cut strategically through the toughest areas of the meat, around the bone, through the fat, and into as thin of slices as possible.
I used each knife to slice through tomatoes, which we frequently include in our knife testing, because their delicate flesh can easily get squished by a dull knife.
The weeknight dinner test
Finally, I used these steak knives in everyday life for several weeks, to slice through regular dinners, to note which ones felt best in my hand, and did the best job slicing through a variety of everyday dinners. I paid attention to the knives I gravitated most toward in my daily life.
After all of this testing, I did a final paper test to see which knives best retained their edge.
Emily Johnson
What to look for in steak knives
Steak knives come with both straight edges and serrated blades, and a few of the models I tested existed somewhere in between, with micro-serrations. I prefer a straight-edged blade to a serrated blade because it can be honed regularly to maintain their edge, and sharpened.
Handle material and blade material
All the knives I considered had high-carbon stainless steel blades. That combo helps knives maintain their edge, but also not corrode provided you wash and dry them effectively.
I also considered knife-handle construction and material. I tested knives that had metal, wooden, and plastic handles, and that were full and partial tang. I was looking for a knife handle designed to be comfortable to hold and durable, as well as attractive.
Some of the knives I tested featured blades that emerged from their handles at upward angles (Chicago Cutlery’s knife represents the most dramatic example of this), while others have a totally straight line. These angles are designed to promote cutting leverage and better forearm control. Blades with angles better support a rocking or sawing motion than straight blades, which are better for diners who like a slicing motion. A lot of this comes down to personal preference. In general I preferred a straight angle, though my luxury pick from Shun featured a gentle curve that enhanced cutting leverage.
I paid attention to how these knives felt in my hand as I sliced through many pork chops and tomatoes. A well-balanced knife should support a slicing, rather than rocking, motion you need to make when cutting through a hearty cut of meat.
I tested knives that looked classic, rustic, and ultra modern. Of course, the look of your knife is all about personal preference, so I tried to provide options that fit different aesthetics—classic, rustic, and ultra modern (with the caveat that performance was, of course, always the top priority over looks).
Other steak knives I liked
Victorinox
Grand Maître Steak Knife Set
Victorinox makes kitchen knives of all kinds that we’ve loved in our testing over the years. This full-tang steak knife had a nice balanced weightiness. Its wood handle had that arch that I liked for its ergonomic qualities. It passed all of our sharpness tests, as well. For the price ($346 at the time of writing), I thought the Shun had a nicer, more expensive-looking finish and a more impressively sharp blade.
The New West knife was very sharp out of the box, second only to the winning Shun model. I was impressed at how it cleanly ripped through the paper test, and how it worked on a piece of pork chop. However, as I kept using the knives regularly, their strange design became more apparent. The knives have a short blade length, with a much longer bolster than I’ve ever seen on a steak knife. And just the tip of the knife is serrated. Because of this design, the knife is sharp at the front, but doesn’t have a lot of long workable blade space toward the back. I didn’t mind this when I was cutting meat, but it made the knife awkward to use when cutting through hunks of potato and tomato. Those last two aren’t tasks everyone would use their steak knives for, so it might not be a dealbreaker. These knives are also the priciest we tested, at $1,230 for a set of six at the time of writing, and the serrations can’t be maintained at home.
Zwilling
Twin Gourmet Steak Knife Set
These steak knives from a classic and beloved knifemaker are very reasonably priced. The blades are made of German steel, and they feature a nice-looking composite handle. They were sharp out of the box and performed well. My gripe was that these knives felt a little too light, and that the handle was a little bit small, making it slightly uncomfortable to grip. Still, this is a nice option at a great price that will absolutely cut through some steaks.
Chicago Cutlery
4-Piece Walnut Steak Knives
These steak knives have a rustic look and feel, and are the least expensive of any we tried. At the time of writing, you can get a set of four for just $35. They’ve won many other product tests across the internet, including one done on our sister site Epicurious a few years ago. They are decently sharp and full tang, but I didn’t love the discrepancy between their thick, substantial handle and the small, upward curving blade. It made the cutting motion feel awkward. I also didn’t love the feeling of the unpolished wood on my hand. This is a set of steak knives to consider if you need something functional on a budget; the look is reminiscent of something a place setting you’d get with your porterhouse at an old-school steakhouse.
These classic Ikon knives are beautiful and balanced, with a good weight to them. They feature beautiful African blackwood handles with Wusthof’s classic metal rivets. They succeeded in every test, but in the end, didn’t win a top spot because of their high price tag ($595 at the time of writing)—much less expensive knives performed just as well.
Other steak knives we tested and didn’t like
Miyabi’s stainless steel steak knife didn’t pass the initial paper test and felt clunky in hand.
