When deciding on a knife, look sharp

David Punch is a knife geek. The Ten Tables chef owns dozens of knives, he says -- different sized blades and handles for different kitchen chores -- and, like many professional cooks, favors Japanese designs for their light weight and long-lasting sharp edge.

In the kitchen at Aujourd'hui, chef William Kovel is attached to the Wusthof his mother gave him early in his career. He knows the feel of it so well, he says, he could pick it out of a lineup blindfolded.

Knives are the most essential and most personal tool in the kitchen. There are more on the market than ever, from Japanese santokus with dimpled Granton edges to forged steel chef's knives with molded plastic handles from Germany. But whether they follow trends or traditions, serious cooks still look for function first: the quality of the steel, how well the blade holds an edge, and how easy it is to sharpen. Beyond these critical qualities, what makes a knife great is a matter of preference, says David Mark, owner of Stoddard's Cutlery in Chestnut Hill.

This month, Mark began carrying a line of locally designed knives that are striking to look at but difficult to get comfortable with. Designed by MIT graduate Adam Simha, this nine-piece knife set includes an imposing 10-inch chef's knife, boning and paring knives, a blunt-ended sushi knife, and a mezzaluna. The knives are fitted with ridged vinyl grips that look like bike handles, and the English-cut high-carbon blades are only sharpened on one side of the blade, which makes for quick cutting and easy sharpening.

Simha, whose Cambridge firm, MKS Design, specializes in original steel-fabricated furniture and housewares, started working on ideas for knives more than five years ago after taking a bladesmithing class at MassArt. After locating a company to manufacture the blades, he began shopping prototypes to restaurant contacts he'd known from his days cooking and baking. He combined feedback and criticism with his understanding of bladesmithing and his observations of other knives on the market. "We see lots of new [knives]," says Mark of Stoddard's, "and with MKS, we felt that there was intent to the design, it felt good in the hand, and it was really fresh." Simha's line, Mark says, "takes the best of the European knives, the best of the Asian knives, and combines the two."

Until fairly recently, American cooks have associated quality cutlery with German manufacturing. The familiar forged steel chef's knives from Wusthof and Henckels, or the American-made Lamson, have relatively thick, heavy blades that are sharpened evenly on both sides. For Kovel of Aujourd'hui, and other cooks, these versatile knives provide the right weight and balance for most tasks.

Mark credits the influence of Asian cuisine for the popularity of Japanese knives. Brands like Global, Shun, and MAC are often favored in professional kitchens because their light weight doesn't cause as much fatigue as a heavier knife might, and the razor-fine edges offer more precision and control, says MAC USA owner Harold Arimoto. Although professionals are MAC's primary customers, Arimoto sells many professional-grade knives to home cooks, who, he says, "saw chefs using the knives on the Food Network." One of MAC's best-selling knives is a santoku, the all-purpose Japanese knife popularized by Rachael Ray. "Even if someone has two chef's knives at home, they'll come in and buy a santoku because they think they need it," says Michelle Fais, assistant manager at Kitchen Arts in the Back Bay.

The flood of knives on the market highlights differences in manufacturing. Each maker has a different recipe for steel, says Mark. Carbon steel is the traditional knifemaking material because it's softer and holds an edge well, unlike stainless, which looks nice but makes an inferior blade.

Forged steel blades are assumed to be superior, but in a global market, "there's not necessarily any magic around forging," says Mark. Many of the Japanese blades are stamped, then ground and tempered to the desired edge, and if properly handled, these blades can be of higher quality than some industrially forged blades.

Whether the blade is forged or stamped, the design modern or traditional, the ultimate appeal of a knife comes down to how it feels in the hand. Kovel found the grips on the MKS chef's knife awkward, and for Punch, the 10-inch blade was too heavy and big. But Patrick Connolly, chef at Radius, appreciates the MKS slicing knife's durable, pliable qualities, and uses one for 95 percent of his work, including meat and fish butchery. "A knife is very, very personal," says the chef. "You train it as an extension of your arm."