The curved blade means tasks that require hacking or uneven cuts with other knives—like peeling and shaping or removing stems, blemishes, or eyes—are done with ease and precision.
The curve helps the knife to move in a rocking motion, making mincing and chopping more efficient, especially with fruits and vegetables. Whether you're using a curved paring knife or a larger chef's knife, the curvature makes cutting easier and more controlled.
The curved edge of a Western-style knife allows for a rocking motion while you chop, which comes in handy when mincing garlic and fresh herbs. The straight edge of a Japanese knife requires you to lift straight up after each stroke of the knife, promoting precision.
Smaller curved paring knives (around 2 to 3 inches) are perfect for delicate tasks like peeling or coring fruit. Larger, flexible curved blades can handle more substantial work, like cutting through fish or meat.
Chef's knives typically have a sharp point and a prominent edge that features a sloping curve. The curve facilitates cutting and allows you to execute the knife's signature rocking motion.
By 1669, the pointed blade was changed to a rounded blade and was sharp on one side only. This had an additional benefit of discouraging diners from picking their teeth with their knife.
This is the most common design for fillet knives. The curvature makes it easy to separate skin and bones away from the flesh. Moreover, when handling delicate meat (e.g. quail), curved boning knives are your best option. On the other hand, a straight blade is better suited for detaching chunks of meat such as beef.
While the bird's beak is primarily used for hand-held tasks, a straight edge paring knife is better suited to cutting board tasks like mincing garlic or herbs, which require a flat surface and straight up-and-down chopping motion.
A bird's beak paring knife—also called a tourné knife—is named for its distinctive, downturned curved blade that resembles a hawk's beak. Designed to be a handheld knife (rather than used on a cutting board), a bird's beak is ideal for making quick work of prep tasks like peeling, hulling, and coring.
A petty knife is a multi-purpose double-bevel knife that is smaller in size than other Japanese knives, so it also allows for in-hand work such as coring and peeling, as well as other smaller tasks for which larger knives are deemed unwieldy.
DROP POINT KNIFE
It's the "Goldilocks" blade shape that's just right for most tasks. The strong tip and wide belly excel in meat processing, slicing tasks, and opening boxes from your latest knife purchase. Popularized by the late, great Bob Loveless.
The Gyuto knife, similar to the Santoku, is an all-purpose Japanese chef's knife with a longer (8” - 12”) curved blade that can be used in a rocking chopping motion and is well suited to cutting meat as well as fish and vegetables.
Should I choose a straight or a curved drawknife? The majority of general duty drawknives have uncomplicated straight edges, so these will normally be the type to go for.
Serrated knives are excellent for making long, straight knife cuts through larger items, but they aren't ideal for slicing small foods, peeling fruits or mincing ingredients. For finer tasks like these, it's best to reach for a chef's knife or paring knife with a smooth, straight blade.
Nakiri are vegetable knives, though they can be used to slice meat and fish, too. While they can handle sturdy produce like sweet potatoes and honeynut squash, super thick-skinned produce (lookin' at you, kabocha) is best avoided lest you chip the blade.
The Santoku knife is an all purpose Japanese knife, adept at slicing, dicing, and mincing. The name santoku means 'three virtues' for the knife's ability to cut fish, meat and vegetables equally well.
Petty knife, sometimes also referred to as paring or utility, is a smaller version of the Gyuto (Chef's knife), and is used for all sorts of delicate tasks where a larger knife would be unwieldy.
A balisong, also known as a butterfly knife, fan knife or Batangas knife, is a type of folding pocketknife that originated in the Philippines. Its distinct features are two handles counter-rotating around the tang such that, when closed, the blade is concealed within grooves in the handles.
A paring knife is named for the action it does best, to pare or strip away an outer material such as peel. Paring knives are usually 3-4”, and are essentially a short blade with a sharp tip that has a razor-sharp edge for doing small precise kitchen tasks.
BIRD-AND-TROUT KNIFE DESIGN CUES. A B&T knife is one that is designed primarily for processing birds, fish, and small game, such as squirrels and rabbits. We're not talking about a large camp knife, but something much smaller. The B&T is a fixed-blade knife that is slim and trim.
Serrated knives are knives of which the edge is enhanced with small serrations. The best-known example is the bread knife: a knife with an elongated and narrow blade that is rounded at the front and, as said before, has a serrated edge.
The chef's knife has a curved blade. It is the most useful of kitchen knives. It can be used for chopping, slicing, carving, dicing, milling and more. The curve allows the blade to cut more easily.
A tourné knife is a paring knife with a short, curved blade. They're also referred to as "bird's beak" knives, but a more appropriate name might be Azazel, Inciter of Anguish.
Fillet knives are curved to help you cut through the fish in one smooth motion. The curve and flexibility of a fillet knife allow for clean cuts and easy removal of skin so that no fish goes wasted.