French Vs. German Vs. Japanese Knives

Before we compare European-style chef's knives, it is important to set what a chef's knife in this context is. Some places call them cook's knives, but we will use chef's knives here.

A chef's knife is a multi-purpose knife that often can be used in either hand, and is designed to cut most foods in the kitchen, especially meat and other proteins. European-style chef's knives mostly curve from heel to tip. That's where the similarities end, though!

Each major region makes a very different kind of chef's knife. While they all do the same job, they approach that job differently, as they were made in different time periods for different needs. The German-style came first, which the French adapted into the French-style. The Japanese then turned the French-style into the Japanese-Western, and later on Japanese-Traditional styles.

We will be comparing the most common type of each knife style. For example, a "French-style knife" will be made in France and use steel and techniques associated with French knifemaking, not influenced by other styles. It's important to mention this because knife styles can (and often do) influence each other more than what originally inspired them. We call these hybrid knives, such as a German-style knife blade attached to a Japanese-Traditional style handle. Knives have also modernised in many ways over the years, and it's good to keep this in mind.

This article is also not a comparison between manufacturers or artisans, who all have their own personal choices in knifemaking. This especially applies when it comes to edge grind, so we won't go too deep into detail. Each style of chef's knife comes with various edge grinds, bar some special exceptions.

Finally, it's important to remember we have our own bias, we're a Japanese-style knifemaker after all! We make our knives in Japan using Japanese materials and techniques, but not all knifemakers do - and that is okay! For example, an American-based knife company with German heritage makes Japanese-style chef's knives in Italy! Knifemaking is a very global operation, with lots of room for interpretation!

With the preamble out of the way, let us break each type of knife down one-by-one.

France started bringing their own knives to market when Philippe Sabatier registered his brand Sabatier (now called K Sabatier) in 1810. Most famously coming from the commune of Thiers, French-style chef's knives use the softest steel in this comparison at 54-56 HRC on average - you can learn more about what HRC is here. These are normally made using stainless steels such as Z50C13 steel and sometimes X50CrMoV15 steel, which makes them very resistant to rust. Carbon steel knives exist too, as they do for all styles - stainless steel was only invented in the 20th century after all.

French-style knives use a wider cutting angle between 15-20 degrees per side to counteract this softness, generally placed on a flat-grind. Despite these characteristics, they are still quite light and have thin blades. This makes French-style chef's knives more flexible, easier to use, and resistant to breakage, at a cost of not being as sharp as other knife types and needing more frequent sharpening.

While they are thinner and lighter than German-style knives, they don't go to the extreme levels that Japanese-style knives do. With a standard 50:50 blade alignment, they can be comfortably used in either hand thanks to their riveted full-tang handle.

The spine of a French-style chef's knife slightly tapers all the way from base to point, increasing sharply near the tip of the blade. This makes French-style chef's knives great at cutting and slicing work that also requires some flexibility and toughness.

In summary, French-style chef's knives are soft to medium-soft so they will need more frequent sharpening, and won't be as sharp due to their cutting angle. Yet they are relatively flexible, tough, and resistant to rust while staying light, and are good at slicing techniques.

While all the knives we are comparing today look somewhat similar, the German-style chef's knife stands out in appearance!

Most consider Germany to be where the world's first "modern chef's knife" was invented, when Peter Henckels created his brand Zwilling (now called Zwilling J. A. Henckels) in 1731. Famously hailing from the iron and coal rich city of Solingen, German-style chef's knives are 56-58 HRC on average–slightly harder than their French counterparts. These are also generally made from stainless steels such as X50CrMoV15 steel, but with a focus on toughness. Remember, a knife is more than just its steel, it's also about how the knife is made.

German-style chef's knives are by far the thickest and heaviest in this comparison, making them suitable for heavy-duty work like chopping tougher root vegetables and even small bones in some cases. Their medium-soft steel in combination with their thickness increases resistance to chips and impacts. While you should still treat such knives with care and not drop them or cut frozen food, they're less likely to break if you do.

At the same time, despite being harder than French-style knives, the thicker German-style knives are designed for more downwards rock chopping over push-pull slicing. This means that blunting can occur very quickly. These knives will need more frequent sharpening, but they are easier to sharpen than harder knives like Japanese-style ones.

Like their French-style counterparts, you'll find these knives have a 15-20 degree angled, flat-ground, 50:50 aligned cutting edge, and use a riveted full-tang handle. This combination gives German-style knives great durability, complementing their thicker and heavier blades. Due to their weight and robustness, these chef's knives excel at chopping, and using a rocking cut motion to process foods.

German-style knives have the most curved cutting edge, giving them a big difference in apperance and usage. This curve starts from around the middle of the knife's cutting edge, and sharply curves up to the tip. Designed for rock cutting motions, this strong curve is compatible with using more downward rolling force. The bolster also merges onto the blade's chin to make a finger guard that improves safety. However cutting with the base of the blade becomes more difficult. It's much trickier to sharpen, too.

In summary, German-style chef's knives are medium-soft to medium, may need frequent sharpening (but it's easier to do) and won't hold their edge long due to their material and purpose. They are thick knives with good rust and chip resistance for heavy-duty work, are safe to use because of their finger guard, and are good at chopping techniques that use more rolling downward force.

Japanese-style chef's knives are broken down into two major categories - Japanese-Western, and Japanese-Traditional. Let's start off by talking about Japanese-Western chef's knives!

While Japan has been making kitchen knives since the 1600s, the Japanese-Western style chef's knife or gyuto (牛刀 or literally beef sword in Japanese, culturally translated as Western cuisine knife) didn't see fruition until the Meiji Era as Japan moved to eating more beef. Using the French-style chef's knife as a base, the Japanese-Western chef's knife was born and is still commonly used in homes and sold by knifemakers today.

While the blade form was slightly modified, the riveted full-tang handle has stayed similar to French-style knives. As Japanese knives are generally lighter, sometimes the bolster has extra weight to give Japanese-Western knives the same balance point as French and German-style ones. Bolsterless versions of these knives exist that forego the comfort grip, changing to a straight one.

Where the German-style and French-style chef's knives have almost fully embraced using stainless steel in their knives, in Japan knives are made using either high-carbon steel or stainless steel, depending on factors like region and need. Sakai is generally known for making knives using high-carbon steel, and Seki is known for making knives using stainless steel. There are other regions too, and you can learn all about that in our regions of Japanese knifemaking guide here!

Japanese kitchen knives are known for being incredibly hard and light, with a focus on cutting precisely with extreme sharpness. In a sense, they are akin to a luxury car; they are marvels of craftsmanship and excel at what they are designed to do, but they need intricate care and maintenance or they may fail. As their HRC levels are anywhere from 60-67, they can be significantly more brittle. In turn, they hold their sharpness for a very, very long time. Stainless steel variants will be around 60-62 HRC (with some notable exceptions like High Speed Powdered Tool Steel), and carbon steel can get to around 65-67 HRC, depending on the steel.

To make the most of this hard steel, the knife's cutting angle is also made thinner, anywhere between 10-15 degrees per side. Their grind is also different, often using a convex-grind/clamshell edge (called hamaguri-ba in Japanese), which is designed to improve cutting performance while mitigating brittleness. More importantly, the edge symmetry is also different, often having a 70:30 edge that leans to the right-hand side. Cooking was taught and done right-handed in Japan for many years, so Japanese kitchen knives were and still are made with this in mind. In the modern era, knives are also made available with a 70:30 edge that leans to the left-hand side, but it's best to check before you purchase. A knife can always be sharpened back down to 50:50 as well.

The lack of finger guard makes the entire knife usable and easier to sharpen, even if the steel itself makes sharpening take longer and forces you to use mostly water-based whetstones instead of other tools like oil whetstones, sharpening rods, or pull sharpeners.

In summary, Japanese-Western chef's knives are hard, have a very thin cutting angle, and hold their edge for a long time. While they take longer to sharpen, they are sharpened less often. They are very thin and light, making them good for precision work and slicing techniques where cutting performance is key. Rust and chip resistance varies depending on the steel, but they are all relatively inflexible. They tend to lean to the right, but this can be changed.

While the santoku also exists and is sometimes classified as a chef's knife, we classify santoku as a category of their own, and are leaving them out of this explanation. You can read our article comparing santoku to gyuto here!