There is a lot of bullshit out about knives. Not to be a food centrist (although I really am) but you hear about these 300+ dollar knives or 500 dollar knife sets, or these ultra cheap walmart knives that are “all you need”. These people are constantly at odds with each other, when that simply shouldn’t be the case. I just want to slice for gods sake. . Most knife advice you find online will be bad. The people who know the most about knives are not online.

Top suggestion for all knives

If you’re in America, Restaurant Depot is the obvious choice for anything. Post-pandemic, non-restaurant people can come in. This is the place where you can get $1 paring knives and $5 chef’s knives. Many also have a commercial sharpening service in the depot, or nearby, so super cheap sharpening here too. Because the pros can always do it better than you. These are brands that us pro cooks have been using for decades, Dexter probably being the biggest. You can even get a decent Chinese cleaver for $30 bucks. These types of stores will probably have the best deals, but depending on where you are, your mileage may vary. But if you can buy from restaurant supply places, quality and price will always be good enough

If you’re not at RD/Wholesaler

Buy Mercer mostly. I hate to sound like an ad, but Mercer is easily the best mainstream knife brand price wise. They’re not amazing knives, they more just took Victorinox’s place. But Mercers cheapest line are pretty much the standard kitchen knives with minor QOL improvements such as the shape or material of the grip. As far as going cheap, the wholesalers will usually win, but Mercer can at least come close. I used to buy a lot of stuff from China, but the shippers over there usually aren’t willing to ship ANYTHING that could possibly be used as a weapon. Can’t even get food shipped most of the time, a knife is a stretch. They have decent prices on restaurant knives, but you can’t really buy from knives direct from China in the west.

First suggestion is the Mercer Bar/Paring Knife. With a 4 inch blade, they have extra length to cut more. Mercer also uses a copy of Victorinox’s grip design, which is by far the best paring knife grip available. However, Victorinox keeps raising their prices with their relative prestige, so they’re not the move anymore. They’re just Mercer with better QC and higher prices. If you sharpen your own knives at all, Victornox is a scam compared to Mercer. No matter what you buy after this, you NEED a paring knife. Most tools in the kitchen can be replaced with a paring knife, especially peelers.

The second suggestion is a bread knife, and this goes to Mercer again. Separate from price, this is my 2nd favorite bread knife. The 1st goes to a type of bread knife that seems exclusive amongst restaurant cooks. Here’s the Dexter version of this standard restaurant bread knife, but that’s a difference I noticed after thousands of sandwiches. The superior blade of the Mercer knife is a better choice for most people. The scalloped handle on the Dexter is super nice though, makes plating way easier

Main knives

You have a few picks for this. But you need a giant, sharp knife. You can peel a potato with a chef knife, you can replace a paring knife with a chef knife easy, but the opposite doesn’t apply. Try cutting a sweet potato with a paring knife and it’ll probably break

Cheapest suggestion is Dexter knives. You can get them dirt cheap at the right prices, and they’re good enough that you don’t get distracted by them. They also have any form factor you want. There are better knives, but since it’s the same price as bad knives, you shouldn’t buy anything worse than Dexter. However, you need to pick a main form factor for your main knife. You can have all the knives, but I find that people really only need one of these four.

1. Classic Gyotos/Chef knives. They’re 8-10 inches, 210-240mm, and what you think of as a cooking knife. They’re good for everybody. If you don’t have the opportunity to experiment, or can’t think of which one of these knives would be most useful, buy one of these. The Mercer chef’s knife is $20.

2. Santokus. My personal favorite. These are stubbier knives that still have a point at the end, usually with granton edging on the side to help with being non-stick. These knives were made as fusions between Japanese nakirkis (vegetable knives) and the Chef’s knife. These are the most versatile knife, long enough to cut anything, but also short enough to replace a paring knife in a pinch. The extra thickness over a Nakiri gives durability and versatility

3. Chinese Cleavers. These are rectangles of metal with tiny grips on the side that force you to hold the blade. This is probably the most universally used. You can use it as a bench scraper and a million different other minor tools. Extremely useful, but require more education to use to their full potential. They’re big and clunky, and that’s only worth it if you intuitively understand why they’re big and clunky. These things do not break unless you seriously fuck up, you can realistically grind off all the metal before it becomes useless. These knives are more expensive than everything else I’ve listed, but their durability makes them extremely useful. CW: MEAT These are the only knives worth using to chop through bone and other similarly hard things.

4. Nakiris. Japanese vegetable knives. Essentially just smaller, thinner chinese cleavers with larger handles. If you’re vegan, skip the cleaver and just go with the Nakiri. Compact, yet still full sized knives best for slicing easy things. Mercer has a cheap one that’s good. However, THESE KNIVES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PARTICULARLY THIN! These do require some babying to prevent from breaking if you cut anything super hard like sweet potatoes.