Guide to Selecting the Knife
Explore Kitchen Knives and Hunting Knives
As one of Australia’s leading online providers of knives, Zanvak prides itself on superior quality, safety and precision control to help you get your most important jobs done.
If you have been looking to upgrade your Knives, consider Zanvak as your first source of expert knowledge, experience and recommendations from those who have worked in the same shoes. From commercial systems to kitchen tools, consider some of the following guidelines and recommendations when selecting your next equipment.
Further questions? Feel free to reach out to our team. From industry experience, we’re happy to speak with you about your regular usage and process, and suggest the equipment we believe will best suit you.
How to Select the Best Knife for you
Professional knives need the following traits to find a place in our EDC kit, in our kitchens or in our homes. These include:
- Precision: The impact of a sharp blade on individual projects can minimise the risk of injury due to slip, strain or repetitive use, help you work faster, and support fewer trimming errors or rework. See? The quality of the precision outcome from your system to your blade is important.
- Safety: As with the use of any tool like this, the equipment you use for sharpening must prioritise safety. Whether you top-up your blades every few days or with less frequent use, the safety of your equipment must be the first and foremost concern that comes to mind.
- Longevity: Not only do you want the sharpener you select to have a long life, you want it to maximise the use and life of your tools. By ensuring that you pair the right equipment and technique together, you can extend the life and safety of your tools with every use.
How to choose and shop for the best knives online
Owning a set of quality, sharp knives can make all the difference to how one approaches food preparation at home. Almost every cooking task requires a knife whether its for slicing garlic, onions, meat and fish or fruits and vegetables. As one of the most used tools in the kitchen, quality knives are a wise investment and will guarantee to make preparing food a lot more efficient and enjoyable.
Food Preparation
Two of the most commonly used knives in the kitchen are:
Paring knives are a small yet versatile kitchen essential. Ideal for trimming or slicing, they allow for a feeling of control in the hand making them a favoured tool.
Chefs knives on the other hand are much larger than a paring knife, however, can tackle almost any slicing or chopping task in the kitchen. The size of the blade allows for efficiency and speed whilst still being accurate.
Fresh bread is also a common food staple in most Australian homes and therefore justifies the need for a good bread knife, especially if you bake or buy artisan loaves with thick crusts.
Utility knives are also very versatile prep tools in the kitchen. A lot of home cooks prefer them to a chef’s knife because they are smaller in size and are perceived as easier to control in the hand.
Japanese vs German Blades
The most common question asked is should I buy a German or Japanese knife? The answer to this question comes when you decide what is most important to you in a knife. Do you favour edge retention (i.e. stays sharper for longer) or the sharpest edge?
German blades are not as sharp as their Japanese counterparts, however, because of their composition, they tend to offer a sharper edge for longer and are often more durable due to the angle of their blades being thicker.
Japanese blades like Global Knives, Shun Knives and are the sharpest available because they tend to have a higher carbon composition and hardness, alongside a tighter angle for their edges to create this benchmark. The downside of this is extra sharpness is that they tend to be more fragile and require more maintenance.
