posted by hot news on Feb 25
Can a stamped blade chef knife feel well balanced to a professional chef? A forged knife blade is made from a single billet of high quality, carbon stainless steel. The billet gets forged into the proper shape by hammers that wield tons of pressure on each blow. Several other steps in the manufacturing process grind, sharpen and polish the blade. Top brands are Henckels knives and Wusthof knives.
An inexpensive Chicago Culery chef knife in contrast is punched out from a ribbon of high carbon stainless steel into a nearly perfectly formed knife blade. The stamped blade is heated and cooled several times to get the desired tempering hardness and then finished and sharpened like the more expensive forged chefs knives.
As far as professional chefs are concerned weight is the only significant difference between a forged blade and a stamped blade knife 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 for professional use. It appears that the overall weight of the knife, including the handle, may be more of a deciding factor in selecting the best chef’s knife 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.