Having the right knife in your kitchen is like having your best friend beside you! But with so many knives to choose from, how do you know to choose the right ones to start creating your personal knife collection? Each knife was created with a specific purpose in mind, a carving knife won’t work to cleave and, if it does, you’re probably using too much force and damaging the blade. Hold on, this does not mean that you’re required to buy every single knife under the sun, but rather you should consider what you enjoy cooking most often and tailor your knife collection to suit your needs.

Some knives are great multitaskers, some are best used to fulfill their fish-boning destiny and it is important to use the correct knife for the correct purpose. A chef’s knife is a great multitasker, but for delicate work like de-seeding peppers and coring tomatoes, a small and nimble paring knife is better.

Don’t know how to choose a knife? We’ve got you covered.

1)Chef’s knife / Kitchen knife:
This is the fundamental kitchen tool for classic cooking, and chopping because of its blade spine which is used to scrape foods from the board, and the flat side for crushing foods such as garlic.  A chef’s knife is great for so many different uses – chopping, dicing, mincing all types of fruits, vegetables, meats, and fish as well as slicing fresh ingredients.

2)Bread knife:
This knife gives you very smooth, clean slices. It’s perfect for slicing bread or soft, juicy fruits and vegetables.  The Bread Knife is perfect for slicing cleanly through all types of bread and cakes without smashing them. It’s also ideally suited to cutting assorted sandwiches and wraps. Serrated edges cannot be used with a sharpening steel, but are designed to cut effectively for a long time. The edges of quality serrated knives can be re-sharpened by a professional. You only really want to use this knife for some sort of slicing duty – it’s not meant for chopping or peeling. Use it for tomatoes, eggplants, and slicing the rinds of melons, pineapples, and hard winter squash. It’s true that a sharp Western chef’s knife can do these jobs too, but a serrated knife is safer to use and usually more effective.

3)Tomato knife:
Using your other knives to cut a tomato can smush it and squeeze out its seeds, which is caused by pressing down on the fruit. A tomato knife is designed to provide tools for both preparing and serving tomatoes. A tomato knife is good for piercing the fruit almost effortlessly and slicing through a tomato’s deceptively thick skin.

4)Vegetable & Fruit Knife:
Using the right knife for cutting, slicing, or peeling fruits and vegetables is ideal in preserving some of their nutritional value. This type of knife has been carefully crafted to help with chopping lots of veggies quickly, easily and safely.

Check out this selection of great knives by Tramontina available at Crazy Plastics: