Not All Knives are Equal

You may take a little pride in your current stock of kitchen cutlery thinking you have a great knife that has some weight, good feel in the handle, and probably cost a few hundred dollars. A quality investment that should last a lifetime. But don't be fooled by brand name alone. Good quality steel that can take and hold a sharp edge costs money. Many companies will manufacture a variety of products to reach consumers of different spending levels. For example, BMW, a well known car manufacturer makes BMW cars that the Bill Gates of the world can afford and then there are BMW models that you or I can afford to buy. The same goes with knife manufacturers. J.A. Henckles, a leading German manufacturer of knives since 1731 has chef knives that can easily cost a few hundred dollars for one knife! or you can by a decent set of 10 knives from the same company for about a fraction of the cost. The key to know if you have a good quality knife comes in doing a bit of homework. Read up on the company online if necessary. See where their products are made and what process is used to make each product. Take note of the logos for J.A Henckles for example. The company first started with this logo of white twins on a red background (Zwilling also the name for this company means, "twins" in German).

I have been told that the symbols are an indication of where your knives are made in the world, keeping in mind the reputation some countries have for their standards of quality. Japan is a leader and so is Germany. The "two man" logo is the J.A. Henckles original Germany company logo.

The following logo is the international symbol that has only one red man on a white background.

Just something to keep in mind when you tell me, " I have this J.A. Henckles I bought for $12 in Walmart...so it must be good. Good quality knives take an edge, hold the edge longer and you very often have to spend a bit more money for that quality.