[0:00] I bought a bunch of the highest rated
[0:01] shift knives on Amazon to see if they're
[0:03] actually good knives or just cheap
[0:05] garbage regardless of the positive
[0:08] review count. We're going to do this by
[0:10] testing a knife specs as well as their
[0:12] performance with edge retention testing,
[0:13] toughness testing, and real world usage.
[0:17] I'm also throwing in a $300 custom and a
[0:21] $170 Woo stuff for comparison purposes.
[0:24] Which one of these knives is the best
[0:26] overall knife? And which one is the best
[0:28] value? The answer may surprise you.
[0:33] Oh man, like it's not even close. But
[0:35] first, this is not your typical YouTube
[0:38] chef's knife review. We need to get
[0:39] something out of the way. I don't care
[0:41] about the manufacturer's specs or the
[0:43] knife styles. Choosing a knife based off
[0:45] of the manufacturer's specs or style is
[0:47] kind of like taste testing based off of
[0:50] reading the ingredients on the packaging
[0:52] or recipe. It depends on how well these
[0:55] ingredients are put together that
[0:57] actually matters. Now, taste testing in
[0:59] the knife world would include things
[1:00] like hardness testing, geometry, edge
[1:02] retention, sharpenability, or how well
[1:04] the knife resharpens after use, how well
[1:07] the knife actually feels to use, and
[1:09] most importantly, how the knife cuts. I
[1:11] also asked another opinion on what
[1:13] should be the most important part of
[1:14] this review. So, I asked a fellow
[1:16] YouTube knife reviewer, Erica from
[1:18] Erica's EDC, what she thought was the
[1:20] most important. Like at the end of the
[1:22] day, the knife is meant to cut things.
[1:23] For me, the most important thing is that
[1:25] it cuts and it's comfortable in your
[1:27] hand.
[1:28] >> So, does it cut?
[1:30] >> As well as many more questions answered.
[1:31] But first, what knives are we testing?
[1:33] First, in no particular order, is the
[1:35] Mercer Culinary 8-in chef's knife for
[1:37] about 19 bucks with about 43,000
[1:40] reviews. Next, we have the Imarco 8-in
[1:43] chef's knife for about 30 bucks with
[1:45] over 16,000 reviews. Next, we have the
[1:48] Babish 8-in chef's knife for about 27
[1:50] bucks with over 10,000 reviews. Next, we
[1:53] have the Woof 8-in chef's knife for
[1:55] about 170 bucks. This is a little lower
[1:58] on the review count, but still a very
[1:59] popular high-end chef's knife. Next is
[2:01] the Moss Fiata, or however you say that,
[2:04] 8-in chef's knife for about 44 bucks and
[2:07] over 17,000 reviews. Next is the Shanzoo
[2:11] 8-in chef's knife for about 70 bucks.
[2:13] This is a lesserk known knife, but it
[2:15] did very well in one of my previous
[2:16] reviews, so I included it in this test.
[2:18] And last, but not least is a custom from
[2:20] Edge Knife Works for about 300 bucks. I
[2:24] did pay for all of these with my own
[2:25] money for this review, except for the
[2:27] custom, which was given to me to mess
[2:29] around with for demonstrations like
[2:31] these. And here's a quick and easy way
[2:32] to visualize the difference in price
[2:34] between the knives that we're testing
[2:36] today.
[2:39] I tested all of these knives on my
[2:41] Rockwell hardness tester. Steel hardness
[2:43] is a major contributor to the knife apex
[2:45] toughness and edge retention. Something
[2:47] I'll show here in a minute. To simplify
[2:49] this majorly, harder is generally better
[2:51] in all cases, especially when it comes
[2:53] to lower strength applications like
[2:56] chef's knives. Even though hardness is
[2:58] super important, it's not everything.
[3:00] And I'll leave a link to a video I did a
[3:02] couple of years ago explaining this.
[3:04] Now, we have a lot going on here in some
[3:05] of these graphics, but I will give an
[3:07] overview in the end of this video
[3:09] showing all of this at once. Now, a lot
[3:11] of these knives were better than I
[3:13] expected on the HRC testing. However,
[3:15] most of our more super budget options
[3:17] are grouped pretty close together in the
[3:19] mid50 HRC range with the higherend
[3:22] options coming in much higher. Now, it's
[3:24] important to note here that HRC testing
[3:26] isn't a linear scale, but it's more of
[3:29] an exponential scale with a onepoint
[3:31] hardness difference equaling a larger
[3:33] percentage of hardness gain than the
[3:35] previous. So, even though some of these
[3:37] knives only look like they are a couple
[3:38] of points higher, this actually equals a
[3:40] significant increase in steel hardness.
[3:43] This is due to the cone-shaped indenttor
[3:45] being applied using the same force for
[3:47] each test. Now, we could spend a whole
[3:49] video on this subject alone, but we
[3:51] aren't going to. Sharpness out of the
[3:53] box. Now, this is sort of a useless
[3:55] test, but I did it anyway, which was to
[3:57] see which knife was the sharpest when it
[3:59] was new. Now, to test this, I use a
[4:01] fishing line bite test. Basically, I see
[4:04] how far away each knife will bite into a
[4:06] piece of monofilament 50 lb test fishing
[4:08] line until the knife stops biting into
[4:11] the line. I'll talk more about this test
[4:13] in a minute. And the results were close
[4:15] but apparent. In seventh place, we have
[4:17] the Mercer coming in pretty dull. This
[4:20] was no comparison the dullest factory
[4:22] edge of the test. In sixth, fifth, and
[4:24] fourth, we have the Mosviata, the
[4:26] Babish, and the Imaru. These were all
[4:29] very close together and I doubt anybody
[4:31] could actually tell a difference without
[4:32] doing some very fine test work. And tied
[4:34] for second are the Shanzoo and Wotoff.
[4:36] Both of these came extremely sharp right
[4:38] from the factory. In first place
[4:40] definitely goes to our edge knife works
[4:42] blade which was absolutely hairsplitting
[4:45] sharp when I got it and that's why it
[4:47] came in first place. Geometry or behind
[4:50] the edge thickness. How thin a knife is
[4:52] ground has almost everything to do with
[4:54] how easily it cuts stuff. Thin stuff
[4:56] passes through other stuff more easily
[4:59] than thick stuff does. So, we measure
[5:01] this by measuring the behind the edge
[5:03] thickness. Now, to measure this
[5:04] accurately, we need to have all of the
[5:06] knives sharpened to the same angle. So,
[5:08] I sharpened all of the knives to the
[5:10] lowest angled stock edge, which was 15°
[5:13] per side, and took some measurements.
[5:15] And here are the results. Our top three
[5:18] contenders are the Edge Knife Works, the
[5:20] Shanzoo, and surprisingly, the Babish.
[5:23] all at or below about 10,000 behind the
[5:26] edge. This is really good. Next is the
[5:29] disappointing Woof at around 15,000
[5:32] behind the edge. In my opinion, this is
[5:34] borderline unacceptable for a knife at
[5:36] this price range. This should definitely
[5:38] be closer to the 10,000 mark for a good
[5:41] cutting chef's knife. Will the edge
[5:43] retention make up for it? We will see.
[5:45] And last are the rest of the budget
[5:47] options. coming in at around 19,000
[5:50] behind the edge. This is really thick,
[5:53] almost survival knife thick, and that
[5:55] definitely doesn't help in relatively
[5:57] delicate kitchen cutting tasks. Now, you
[5:59] may be saying that the thickness on some
[6:01] of these knives is to help keep the
[6:02] knife from catastrophically chipping
[6:04] during hard impacts or cutting tasks.
[6:07] Well, let's see about that with our next
[6:09] test, the brass rod test. The brass rod
[6:12] test is testing the apex toughness by
[6:15] dropping a calibrated 2x4 onto the spine
[6:17] of the knife and measuring the damage
[6:19] after it impacts a small brass rod.
[6:23] As mentioned before, hardness plays a
[6:25] major role here by keeping the apex from
[6:27] deforming. Now, all of the knives are
[6:30] sharpened to the same 15° per side angle
[6:34] for this test, which is quite extreme, I
[6:36] may add. So, how do they perform?
[6:41] In last place, we have the Imaru,
[6:43] sustaining pretty severe damage. Well,
[6:46] this isn't the softest knife here at
[6:48] 56.5 HRC. I believe combined with some
[6:51] of the other tests later that this is
[6:52] one of the worst steels and heat
[6:54] treatments of the bunch. Next, we have
[6:56] the Mercer at 54.5 HRC, the softest
[7:00] steel of the bunch. However, the Apex
[7:02] held up fairly well, coming in very
[7:05] close behind the others in this test.
[7:07] Next, we have the Babish at 55.2 HRC.
[7:11] This knife performed ever so slightly
[7:13] better than the Mercer. However, the
[7:14] steel also has some slightly better
[7:16] qualities than the Mercer, which we'll
[7:18] discuss later. Next, sustaining slightly
[7:21] less damage than the Babish, is the Mos
[7:23] Fiata. This is actually surprisingly
[7:26] good for 55.8 HRC. Next, we have the
[7:30] Wotoff at 57.5 HRC. To be honest, even
[7:33] though this knife came in third, at
[7:35] $170, I would like to see better,
[7:38] especially when compared to the next
[7:40] knife on the list, the Shanzoo. At about
[7:43] 60 HRC, the Apex definitely held up
[7:45] slightly better than the WoF while being
[7:47] about $100 cheaper. This is very
[7:50] impressive results for a $70 knife.
[7:53] Last, we have the Edge Knife Works at 63
[7:56] HRC with extremely minimal damage. This
[7:59] could easily be honed out on a fine
[8:01] ceramic rod very quickly on the go with
[8:03] no need to go back to a stone in order
[8:05] to fix it. Very impressive results. It
[8:08] seems as if sometimes you may actually
[8:10] do get what you pay for.
[8:12] [Music]
[8:14] Finally, what I think a lot of you are
[8:16] waiting for. Now, edge retention is a
[8:18] very tricky thing to test. Now, the
[8:19] reason for this is due to how the test
[8:21] is measured. You see, we need some sort
[8:23] of way to measure knife sharpness or
[8:25] dullness as we are cutting whatever it
[8:27] is that we're cutting. The problem here
[8:28] is interpreting what is dull and what is
[8:31] not dull. In the past, in order to test
[8:34] sharpness, I've used everything from the
[8:36] shaving test, the paper test, the paper
[8:39] towel test, hair whittling test, fishing
[8:42] line test to specialized sharpness
[8:44] measuring scales, which I no longer have
[8:46] or use. And I've come to the conclusion
[8:48] that there are extreme variables in
[8:50] every test. Personally, I think that the
[8:52] simplest and most effective test out
[8:55] there is the fishing line test.
[8:56] Basically, it involves holding a strand
[8:58] of monofilament 50 lb test fishing line
[9:00] in your fingers and recording the exact
[9:02] moment the edge stops fully biting into
[9:05] the line about a/4 in away from your
[9:07] finger. I know, super scientific. This
[9:09] seems to be a very hit or miss test,
[9:11] meaning that one cut can mean the
[9:13] difference between biting in and skating
[9:15] the line. This is not a test that you
[9:17] try to beat in a sense where the goal is
[9:19] to try and score as low of a number as
[9:22] possible or as low of a score as
[9:24] possible on some sort of push test or
[9:27] try to interpret exactly when the knife
[9:29] stops cutting something like paper. It's
[9:31] more of a hard stop rather than an
[9:34] infinite sliding scale of dullness. The
[9:36] reason I like this test is because as
[9:38] the knife gets sharper or duller to the
[9:40] extremes, it becomes more and more
[9:42] difficult to differentiate between the
[9:45] extreme ends of the sharpness or
[9:47] dullness scale. You can kind of
[9:48] visualize this like this where as the
[9:50] knife gets sharper, the difference
[9:52] between ultrasharp and ultra ultra sharp
[9:55] gets very difficult to measure. And we
[9:57] don't really have a test we can perform
[9:59] that gives us this type of precision. On
[10:02] the opposite end, as the knife gets der,
[10:04] it gets harder and harder to determine
[10:06] what is dull depending on the test. The
[10:10] paper test, for instance, has a very
[10:11] large window where the knife will sort
[10:13] of cut paper, but it won't cut it great.
[10:16] So, there's this game where the tester
[10:18] has to decide what is or isn't cutting
[10:20] well enough to continue. I think what
[10:23] this line bite test does is test this
[10:25] middle range where the knife is still
[10:27] pretty sharp when it fails biting into
[10:29] the line, but it's obviously not ultra
[10:31] sharp or ultra dull. I think this test
[10:34] focuses more on this middle range of
[10:36] sharpness rather than the extreme ends.
[10:39] So, here's an example of this. We have
[10:41] one knife
[10:44] that immediately bites into the line.
[10:47] You can see how it pulls right up on the
[10:50] line. it immediately bites into it. The
[10:52] next knife
[10:54] does not
[10:57] does not bite into the line
[10:59] whatsoever. However, on our paper test,
[11:13] it becomes a little bit harder to
[11:15] distinguish between the two
[11:18] between the two knives.
[11:20] Now, some may say that they can actually
[11:22] hear the difference, which you can, but
[11:24] back to our chart. As a knife gets der,
[11:26] it becomes harder and harder to hear or
[11:29] feel this difference. Well, this is the
[11:30] theory anyway, so I went with it. I
[11:32] taped up the knives exposing about 1 in
[11:34] of blade length and cut cardboard until
[11:37] the knives stopped biting into the line.
[11:39] And here are the results. The best
[11:41] performer was the $300 Edge Knife Works,
[11:44] cutting 240 in of cardboard before it no
[11:47] longer bit into the line. In second
[11:49] place was the $70 Shanzoo cutting 176
[11:53] in. Next was the somewhat disappointing
[11:56] $170 Wotoff cutting 112 in before it
[12:00] stopped cutting the line. The last four
[12:02] knives cut about the same with only 16
[12:05] in of cardboard or one cut separating
[12:08] them, which is probably within the
[12:10] margin of error for this test. Now, on a
[12:13] pure dollar per inch of edge retention
[12:15] value standpoint, I know the Mercer at
[12:19] $18.74
[12:20] will give you the best edge retention
[12:22] for your money. And the worst is the
[12:24] Wotoff. However, this chart is somewhat
[12:27] misleading since in order to achieve the
[12:29] same number of cuts as some of the
[12:31] better edge retention knives, you would
[12:33] have to resharpen some of the lower-end
[12:35] options in between your cuts. Now, we
[12:37] can look at this from a time standpoint
[12:39] or how much time does it take to make
[12:41] the same 15 cuts as our best performer,
[12:44] including a quick restropping or honing
[12:46] in between to maintain the same
[12:48] sharpness standard. And this shows that
[12:50] in a pure testing format, it takes about
[12:53] twice as long to complete the same task
[12:55] as our best performer with the lower-end
[12:58] knife options. However, this is on a
[13:00] very small scale, not taking into
[13:02] account the middle of the road knife
[13:04] options, which get cheated somewhat on
[13:07] time based on a resharpening they
[13:09] otherwise wouldn't need if we increase
[13:12] the test sample size.
[13:16] So, one of the things not talked about a
[13:18] lot in knife reviews is how well or how
[13:21] easily does a knife resharpen from a
[13:23] dled state. Now, this has to do with the
[13:25] heat treatment, the hardness, and the
[13:28] steel quality of the steel that these
[13:30] knives are made out of. And basically,
[13:32] the better those three things are, the
[13:34] steel quality, the heat treatment, and
[13:36] the hardness, the easier it's going to
[13:38] be to resharpen or get these knives back
[13:40] to a super sharp state. So rather than
[13:42] this being a completely subjective test
[13:45] and giving my opinion on which one was
[13:46] the easiest to sharpen, I timed myself
[13:48] sharpening each one to hair whittling
[13:50] sharp after dulling each one from a
[13:52] sharpened state on a sharpening stone.
[13:55] And here's the results. Initially, the
[13:57] results look very close, but there's
[13:59] definitely a difference between our
[14:01] times from the good knives to the
[14:02] lower-end knives. The lower-end knives
[14:04] definitely take a little extra work in
[14:06] order to minimize and remove the burr on
[14:08] both the stone and the strap. Now, we
[14:11] could test these things forever, but I
[14:12] don't think we have to because for me,
[14:14] there's an obvious trend line
[14:16] developing. Have you seen it yet? But
[14:19] before we get into that, we've got to do
[14:21] something. And this is something that
[14:22] you can't really test with pen and
[14:24] paper.
[14:24] >> Like, at the end of the day, the knife
[14:26] is meant to cut things. For me, the most
[14:28] important thing is that it cuts and it's
[14:30] comfortable in your hand.
[14:32] >> That's why I have such a hard time doing
[14:33] these reviews is because sometimes you
[14:35] just like something and you can't really
[14:37] explain why that is. You're like, "Oh,
[14:39] this is this is my favorite." But I
[14:41] don't know why. I know why. At least in
[14:43] this case, because after sharpening and
[14:45] testing and resharpening and retesting,
[14:48] cutting everything in sight, both on
[14:50] camera and off, I noticed for actual
[14:52] kitchen tasks, I gravitated towards
[14:56] three knives in particular. Now,
[14:57] something I didn't mention at the
[14:58] beginning of this video was I actually
[15:00] already own several of these knives. So,
[15:03] yes, I bought duplicates just for this
[15:05] test. And after using all of these
[15:06] knives side by side, there was most
[15:08] definitely a huge difference in actual
[15:11] use. That is cra like you. It's crazy
[15:15] how much you can feel the difference.
[15:17] Not even close. So, here's my subjective
[15:19] rating. Rating the knives 0 to 100 with
[15:23] 100 being a theoretical perfect score.
[15:25] With the Edge Knife Works scoring 90 out
[15:27] of 100, this is a fantastic knife. Not
[15:31] only is it thin behind the edge, but
[15:33] it's also the only knife of the bunch
[15:34] that's hollow ground, which means it
[15:37] will keep its thinness throughout
[15:39] multiple sharpenings. It just cuts the
[15:41] best here, plain and simple. This is the
[15:44] outlier of the group, though, but it
[15:46] does give us a reference for a
[15:48] comparison. Next is the Shanzoo. This
[15:50] knife just feels very neutral, and it
[15:53] cuts very, very well. It's super thin
[15:55] and has good food release, which is
[15:57] surprising given its somewhat mirror
[15:59] finish. I think combined with the rest
[16:01] of its results in all of these tests,
[16:03] it's the best overall value here. It's
[16:06] just a fantastic knife for the price,
[16:08] and it looks pretty cool, too. Next is
[16:10] the Babish. This knife was surprising
[16:12] since it didn't look very good in most
[16:14] of our other tests. However, in actual
[16:16] use, cutting food, its thin geometry
[16:19] paid big dividends. It just cuts really,
[16:21] really well. It also notably takes a
[16:24] very sharp edge. I think its only
[16:26] downside is its handle. It may not be
[16:29] for everyone, but I really didn't have
[16:31] that big of problems with it. It just
[16:33] has superior cutting performance than
[16:35] most of the other knives here. And that
[16:36] is simply due to its super thin
[16:38] geometry. Next is the disappointing
[16:40] Wotoff. Unfortunately, despite this
[16:42] knife sharpening very well, getting very
[16:45] sharp, having a great handle and feel,
[16:47] it just doesn't cut that well due to its
[16:49] super thick geometry. Sure, it feels
[16:52] nice, but you'll need that comfort
[16:54] because you'll be gripping this thing
[16:56] harder than you should.
[17:00] Really not a fan of this Woo stuff. It
[17:04] just doesn't cut that well. If this
[17:06] knife was just 10,000 behind the edge,
[17:09] it would be in a completely different
[17:11] world. Maybe that's something we'll fix
[17:13] in a later video, but for $170, it's a
[17:16] hard pass for me. Sorry. Next on the
[17:19] list is the Moss Fiata. This knife was
[17:21] noticeably better than the last two
[17:23] here, mainly due to its food release.
[17:26] For some reason, nothing seemed to stick
[17:28] to this knife. I don't know if that's
[17:29] because of the pattern on the knife or
[17:31] what it is, but for some reason, nothing
[17:34] stuck. And yes, they were all 20° per
[17:37] side on the bevel. So, I scored this
[17:39] slightly higher than the last two, even
[17:42] though in other areas, this knife
[17:45] performed about the same as the last
[17:47] knives here. Now, the last two, both the
[17:49] Mercer and the Immaru, just didn't cut
[17:51] that well due to the geometry being
[17:54] super thick and the food sticking to the
[17:56] knife. I would say that they have better
[17:58] edge retention and sharpenability than a
[18:01] $1 knife from the dollar store would,
[18:03] but other than that, the cutting
[18:04] experience isn't a night and day
[18:06] difference. Sure, the handles are a
[18:09] little better than a $1 knife, but at
[18:12] the end of the day, I don't think that I
[18:13] could really tell a difference in a
[18:15] blind cut test between these last two
[18:18] knives and a $1 knife from the dollar
[18:20] store. Now, finally, the total results
[18:22] combined, where I combine the subjective
[18:24] rating that I gave the knives with the
[18:25] objective testing to give a clear
[18:27] picture of exactly what's going on.
[18:29] where lower is better. On this chart, we
[18:31] actually have somewhat of a perfect
[18:32] situation where we have a $300 Edge
[18:34] Knife Works as the best expensive
[18:36] option, the $70 Shanzoo as a good medium
[18:39] or value price point option, and the $26
[18:42] Babish as a good super budget option.
[18:45] The only slightly weird thing here was
[18:46] the WoF and the Babish, where the Woof
[18:49] scored significantly higher in the
[18:51] objective testing than the Babish, but
[18:53] in actual use, the thicker geometry on
[18:55] the Wotoff really was a detriment to its
[18:57] cutting performance. So, here we are.
[18:59] All the knives from best to worst. So,
[19:01] believe it or not, I had a lot more
[19:03] testing that I did that I didn't include
[19:04] because it was redundant. Now, thank you
[19:07] for watching and we'll see you in the
[19:08] next video.
[19:15] [Music]