Real Research. Real Tests. Real Reviews.
My mission is to help others discover, research, and select knives and other kitchen products that meet their needs, desires, and budget.
Every product that I review has been researched, analyzed, and tested by myself. The reviews I share are my honest opinions of the products. I want the best for my kitchen, and I want to help you find the best for yours also.
Who is Timothy?
I am the author of SteelBlue Kitchen. I learned to cook early on in life from my mother. She taught me my first knife skills. I continued to follow my love for food and cooking in a local antique tea shop and later on as a college cafeteria assistant manager. Today I manage my own home kitchen where my wife and I feed our 4 growing children.
Although I knew about knives, I never truly understood the importance of good quality knives and proper care until recently. Like many people, I started with a generic knife block that we received from our wedding. It was a simple set that we used for nearly 14 years without properly taking care of them. Leaving them in the sink, never sharpening them, and washing them in the dishwasher. This destroyed our knives and had us regularly tearing through meats, squishing vegetables, and mutilating bread. It wasn’t until we broke down and purchased our first forged knife from a direct sales company that I realized what all we were missing.
That experience created a desire to stock my personal kitchen with high-quality knives. I had questions such as: What knife brands are best? What knife styles do I need? Are there budget-friendly knives? How do I take care of knives?
In my quest to answer those questions I created SteelBlue Kitchen.
How I write my reviews
Real Research
I research each category before getting a product to make sure I find the best products available. There is no reason to review a product that I wouldn’t buy for myself.
Real Tests
Each product is put through a series of tests in a real home kitchen. Kitchen tests in isolated test environments do not give you results that you can expect in your personal kitchen.
Real Reviews
Each review is written from the results of my personal tests and research. I do not compile and rewrite customer reviews from other sites to give you honest and factual reviews.
Product Links and Relationships
Here is a list of all of the companies whose products are listed with affiliate links on our website. Although we purchase most of our review products, there are some cases where a company will send a free product for use to review.
| Company | Free Product |
|---|---|
| Curious Chef | No |
| Greener Chef | No |
| Kai | No |
| Made In Cookware | Chef, Paring, and Bread Knives |
| Mercer | No |
| Misen | No |
| Opinel | No |
| Star Pack | No |
| Victorinox | No |
| White Cook | Yes (Chef Knife) |
| Wusthof | No |
How I score my reviews
Review Scoring 2.0 (February 2021 – Present)
After using the specific chef knife scoring of Review Scoring 1.0 for four years, I decided it was time to simplify my methodology to allow other products to be scored. When looking for kitchen products these are the key areas that determine whether you will make a purchase or not:
Any kitchen knives that do not score at least a 70% will not be listed.
- Design – What features does the product provide? Are there particular elements added to improve the product usability?
- Quality – What materials are used to create the product? How is the product constructed?
- Performance – Does the product perform its intended purpose based on the given design?
- Usability – How easy is the product to use? What goes into maintaining the product?
- Value – Does the price compare to the design and quality of the product?
*Each area contributes to 20% of the score.
Review Scoring 1.0 (February 2017 – February 2021)
When I launched this website in 2017, I determined the chef knife review scoring based on 9 different areas. Each of these areas was given a score from 0-100 and then weighted based on a percentage.
- 20% – Kitchen Usability: The Kitchen Usability component uncovers the functionality of a knife.
- 15% – Sharpness: What good is a dull kitchen knife?
- 15% – Grip: The grip should be the major point of contact when using kitchen knives.
- 15% – Materials and Construction: The materials and construction of a knife include raw materials from handle to blade and the process of constructing the blade.
- 10% – Cleaning and Maintenance: Maintaining quality knives in your kitchen isn’t always maintenance free.
- 10% – Value: Does the price match what you are getting?
- 5% – Weight and Balance: An unbalanced knife can be a pain to navigate around a cutting board.
- 5% – Returnability: Returnability can sometimes be quite the inconvenience
- 5% – Warranty: In the case of a manufacturer defect, it is important to know you are covered for a replacement.
Scoring Tiers
All kitchen knife reviews are scored using a 1-5 star rating system. This star scoring system is converted to a percentage. Lastly, these final score percentages are used to determine a standard A, B, C grading scale. The grading scale is as follows:
- A+ – 97-100 – the very best of the best
- A – 93-96 – exceptional
- A- – 90-92 – great
- B+ – 87-89 – very good
- B – 83-86 – good
- B- – 80-82 – above average
- C+ – 77-79 – slightly above average
- C – 73-76 – average
- C- – 70-72 – mediocre
Disclosure for Amazon.com
SteelBlue Kitchen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Other Disclosures
SteelBlueKitchen.com (furthermore referred to as SteelBlue Kitchen) does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any information’s, content or advertisements contained on, distributed through, or linked, downloaded or accessed from any of the services contained on this website, nor the quality of any products, information’s or any other material displayed, purchased, or obtained by you as a result of an advertisement or any other information’s or offer in or in connection with the services herein.
You hereby acknowledge that any reliance upon any materials shall be at your sole risk. SteelBlue Kitchen reserves the right, in it’s sole dis-creation and without any obligation, to make improvements to, or correct any error or omissions in any portion of the service or the materials.
SteelBlue Kitchen respects the rights (including the intellectual property rights) of others and we ask our users to do the same. SteelBlue Kitchen may in appropriate circumstances and in its sole dis-creation, terminate the accounts of users that infringe or otherwise violate such rights of others.
SteelBlue Kitchen is not endorsed by any company, organization, group, or brand featured on SteelBlueKitchen.com.