Materials
Hardness is the single number that shapes how a knife behaves. A harder blade holds its edge longer and chips more easily; a softer one dulls sooner and forgives a twist against a bone. Japanese kitchen steels sit high, German ones lower, and neither is the right answer in general — only for a particular pair of hands.
Two philosophies, five knives.
The Sanmeiho santoku, 18 cm in 10Cr15MoV at a stated HRC 62, five-layer laminated, with a stated 12° edge. The Shan Zu santoku, 18 cm with a Japanese 10Cr15MoV Damascus core and 67 forged layers, stated genuinely forged rather than etched. The Atumuryou 20 cm, VG-10 core at a stated 60 HRC.
Sixty and above means an edge that lasts through a great deal of work — and a blade that will chip if you lever with it or drop it on a tile floor.
The Wüsthof 20 cm chef’s knife, forged from one piece, stated 58 HRC, with a laser-measured edge. The F. Dick boning knife, 15 cm in X55CrMo14 at a stated 56 HRC, flexible with a curved blade.
Fifty-six is deliberately chosen on a boning knife: it has to flex against bone without snapping, and a 62 HRC blade in the same shape would break.
Hard: sharpen less often, sharpen with better stones, and treat the edge carefully. Tough: sharpen more often, sharpen on anything, and stop worrying about it.
Every hardness on this page is the maker’s claim, reported here as published. What makes a figure credible is whether it is consistent with the steel named beside it — and on these five, it is.
20 cm blade · forged from one piece · stated 58 HRC · laser-measured edge · stainless
The top of this hub and the only knife in it that publishes a hardness: forged from a single piece of Wüsthof steel, stated at 58 Rockwell, with a laser-measured cutting edge.
Best for: The knife you sharpen for thirty years.
≈ 95 €
The Rockwell C hardness scale. Kitchen knives run roughly from 52 to 63. Each point up means a longer-lasting edge and a more brittle one, and the difference between 56 and 62 is genuinely felt.
The softer one, by a wide margin. A 56 HRC blade takes an edge on almost any stone; a 62 HRC blade wants a diamond or a good ceramic, and rewards it with an edge that lasts.
You should not put any good knife in one — the detergent is abrasive and the blade knocks against everything. On a hard blade the chipping is worse and it is permanent.
Cookware sets, knife blocks and cast iron swing by thirty euros or more across the year, and the biggest "discounts" often land at prices the same model sold for six weeks earlier. UniverTrack tracks the real price history across retailers, spots fake reductions, and alerts you when it is genuinely the moment to buy.
