Product Will Ship March 10

Standard chef’s knives are big and heavy because they evolved from Middle Ages daggers, which were designed for defense. It stabs fine, but how well does it handle standard kitchen tasks such as chopping and slicing? Our solution was to look toward Japan, where knives are based on the design of the featherweight samurai sword. Japanese knives are thinner and designed for the task at hand. Based on these lighter, safer knives and our own cooking experience, we developed an all-new modern chef’s knife that’s remarkably easy to use. It’s the Milk Street Kitchin-to, part Chinese cleaver and part vegetable knife. It can handle small jobs such as slicing garlic but also makes heavy-duty jobs a breeze. With the Kitchin-to, you let the knife do the work!

The serrated Milk Street Kitchin-tan utility knife will be the most useful knife in your kitchen. It’s a pinch-hitting wonder that spans the gap between a chef’s knife and paring knife. It’s long enough for many big tasks, but small enough for detail work. We’ve taken the proven shape and functionality of the Kitchin-tan and added a maintenance-free serrated edge. The grippy razor teeth effortlessly slice though anything and everything: thick-skinned tomatoes and peppers, fibrous broccoli stems and asparagus stalks, rubbery citrus peels. You’ll be amazed at how often you use this knife.

Every kitchen should have a Chinese-style cleaver, whose tall, heavy-duty blade and forward-heavy balance do most of the work for you when chopping big batches of vegetables and mincing meats or herbs. We found an excellent model from Japanese producer Toryumon that, unlike most flat-bellied cleavers, has a slightly curved edge similar to a European-style chef’s knife, so American home cooks will find it easier to use. Roughly 7 inches long and 3.5 inches tall, the blade is smaller and more approachable than other models and ideal for those with smaller hands.

These are the only two knives you’ll need in your kitchen. The utility-sized Kitchin-tan strikes the perfect balance between a paring knife and a chef’s knife. We were inspired by Japanese petty knives, which are commonly used as the go-to knife for smaller tasks around the kitchen, but we added many signature design touches as well, including a file pattern on the blade for a better grip, a unique “lock-in” handle made of micarta (a linen/resin mixture that is grippy even when wet) and a safe rounded-tip knife blade of German 1.4116 steel, a high-quality alloy that holds an edge, resists corrosion and is easily sharpened. Using this knife feels like cutting through butter—it makes cooking fun! It even makes a great sandwich knife.

And the Kitchin-to combines the thin blade of a Japanese vegetable knife and the satisfying heft of a Chinese cleaver. The goal was to design a knife that feels good in the hand, gives you total control of the blade from heel to tip—whether slicing garlic, chopping parsley or cutting through butternut squash like it were butter. We traveled to knife shows, scoured kitchen shops around the country, quizzed home cooks and studied how our cooking school students slice, dice, chop and mince. We then worked with knife-makers and an industrial designer to realize our design. We went through numerous iterations of blade shapes, thicknesses, grinds, weights and handles before reaching what we believe is the perfect knife for all-around kitchen use.

Perfect for thick-crust pizzas, focaccia and aged cheese, we love the Boska Pizza and Cheese Rocker. After testing six different pizza slicers to find our favorite, we found this one excelled in cutting through even the thickest pizzas. Its uniquely designed shape features a long, slightly curved blade that cuts on the first swipe and doesn’t require much elbow grease. The nonstick cutter also features two comfortable oak handles, one on each side so you can keep your hands far from the sharp blade and still get extra leverage when cutting. Best of all? It’s not just made for pizza. This rocker also can tackle aged cheeses like cheddar, Parmesan or Gouda.

These are the only two knives you’ll need in your kitchen. The utility-sized Serrated Kitchin-tan strikes the perfect balance between a paring knife and a chef’s knife. We were inspired by Japanese petty knives, which are commonly used as the go-to knife for smaller tasks around the kitchen, but we added many signature design touches as well, including a file pattern on the blade for a better grip and a safe rounded-tip knife blade of German 1.4116 Steel. Using this knife feels like cutting through butter—it makes cooking fun! It even makes a great sandwich knife.

And the Kitchin-to combines the thin blade of a Japanese vegetable knife and the satisfying heft of a Chinese cleaver. The goal was to design a knife that feels good in the hand, gives you total control of the blade from heel to tip—whether slicing garlic, chopping parsley or cutting through butternut squash like it were butter. We traveled to knife shows, scoured kitchen shops around the country, quizzed home cooks and studied how our cooking school students slice, dice, chop and mince. We then worked with knife-makers and an industrial designer to realize our design. We went through numerous iterations of blade shapes, thicknesses, grinds, weights and handles before reaching what we believe is the perfect knife for all-around kitchen use.

When a chef’s knife is too big, and a paring knife is too small, the Milk Street Kitchin-tan is the perfect pinch hitter. We borrowed elements from our favorite Western- and Japanese-style knives to create this all-purpose utility knife. From making sandwiches to chopping herbs, dicing shallots and cutting fruit, this 5½-inch blade will become the go-to knife for all of your between jobs. It has a comfortable grip, cuts like a dream and has a curved sheepsfoot tip, which makes the knife safer to use.

Our chef's knife blade is 7 inches, not 8. It weighs a bit over 6 ounces, not 10. It has a deeper blade, a huge advantage that makes it easier to rest the flat side of the blade against the knuckles while slicing, which substantially improves comfort and safety. The heel of the blade is scalloped, which means there is room to bring up your fingers for a good grip on the blade for close-up work. It also feels like a knife that you can handle, which won't get away from you like a 20-inch chainsaw or a 12-cylinder sports car. It has enough power to do the job, but it's not overwhelming. The knife also features comfortable, midsize polymer handles and tough high-carbon stainless steel that will hold an edge and resist rust. (To preserve the blade’s edge, we strongly recommend hand washing and drying.) It is constructed from German stainless steel with a forged one-piece design and triple-rivets in the handle. — Christopher Kimball

With three unique blade edges, this compact version of the popular Seseragi bread knife from Suncraft combines the function of two knives in one—slicing through everything from delicate fruit to sturdy loaves with ease. The blade is 5.5 inches, perfect for smaller tasks that larger serrated knives are too clunky for, like slicing through bagels, tomatoes, pastries and salumi. The knife’s unique “wavy” serrations, with two different sized teeth, slice cleanly through everything: the larger waves make easy work of crunchy, rustic outer crusts, while the tighter, smaller teeth slip through the inner crumb (or delicate foods like soft sandwich breads or juicy fruit). The knife features a small length of straight blade at the tip to slice through stubborn areas, like a bit of bread crust or melon rind that just needs one last pass to break through. Plus, the handle is specifically designed for a comfortable grip, with a slight curve to it so it fills the palm. And the blade comes with a handy plastic sheath for safe storage, so it protects the tip and your hands when reaching into a cluttered drawer.

The typical bread knife tears its way through loaves and mashes tomatoes to pulp. So we spent months re-engineering the bread knife from the ground up, testing competitors’ knives to learn what we wanted and discarding what we didn’t. The result, the *Milk Street Tri-Edge Bread Knife*, perfectly handles it all, slicing easily through any style of bread, delicate pastries, overstuffed sandwiches and tough tomatoes. It is also the perfect knives for doing difficult tasks such as chopping nuts and chocolate, handling dried fruit, and cutting up large blocks of butter.

Every kitchen should have a Chinese-style cleaver, whose tall, heavy-duty blade and forward-heavy balance do most of the work for you when chopping big batches of vegetables and mincing meats or herbs. We found an excellent model from Japan that, unlike most flat-bellied cleavers, has a slightly curved edge similar to a European-style chef’s knife, so American home cooks will find it easier to use. Plus, the barrel-shaped handle can you more control than a standard shape.

A safer and more effective all-purpose kitchen knife than the triangular European-style chef’s knife, the Japanese santoku is the ultimate kitchen tool for the home cook. Our exclusive Milk Street-designed santoku (which translates as “3 virtues”) features a 7-inch blade that is tall at the heel and retains a nearly continuous height to the tip thanks to the rounded sheepsfoot tip. That means there’s plenty of blade steel to protect your fingers when chopping, and it also works well for scooping up chopped vegetables to transfer to the skillet or mixing bowl.

The blade features a pronounced curve to the belly for easy rock chopping and mincing, while the pointed tip makes it all-purpose enough for prepping meats or mincing onions, garlic and shallots.

The comfortable “lock in” ergonomic handle, fashioned from durable matte-finished polymer, is broad at the top and narrows to the bottom for a palm-filling grip. It doesn’t twist or turn during heavy-duty use. The handle tapers towards the blade for a comfortable transition between handle and blade—a benefit that few knives take into account.

The heel of the bolsterless blade is scalloped, which makes the knife comfortable to choke up on for a controlled, confident pinch grip. And a patch of file pattern embossed into the blade adds even more grip between the thumb and pointer finger.

This sleek layered-steel knife straddles the line between a thin chef’s knife and long slicer. The blade isn't so long as to be unwieldy, just enough to create smooth, clean slices even with larger cuts of meat. Its narrow shape reduces friction between food and your blade, and the hand-hammered tsuchime surface is a traditional Japanese approach to a nonstick coating, allowing airflow beneath foods being cut. The Damascus stainless steel has a classic two-toned rippled appearance from the forging process, and paired with the hand-hammered finish it makes for a beautiful rustic blade.

The oldest continuous knife-maker in Japan, Kikuichi uses methods from the samurai era, inherited from imperial blade-maker Shiro Kanenaga through four generations. This knife is produced using the warikomi method, a traditional “split and insert” forging technique in which soft blade steel is wrapped around a hard steel core, forming a steel sandwich. The exterior both protects the inner steel and adds some flexibility to the blade for a nimble, lively feel. The center VG-10 steel core, meanwhile, takes on and maintains a razor-sharp edge. The knife is hardened to 60-62 Rockwell, meaning it'll hold a keen edge through countless kitchen tasks (routine steeling on a honing rod will prolong that edge between sharpening).