Elements of a Good Knife knifeopedia
What exactly is it that distinguishes a mediocre knife from a great one? It's not just one thing, it's a combination of different factors that define how good a knife is. Those can be broken down into five categories:
Defines the basic properties of the blade.
Defines the cutting feeling.
Defines the sharpness of the blade.
Defines the cutting comfort.
Defines the level of perfection and overall user satisfaction.
For a knife to be truly great, everything needs to come together. But for a knife to be poor, it can be just one thing that is wrong. A gorgeous looking knife with perfect fit and finish, thin blade and expensive steel, but with a wrong heat treatment results in a knife where the edge chips and corrodes like crazy.
So knives are complex products, and understanding them requires knowledge. On this site, we are trying to share our knowledge in a non-scientific way.
If you would like to go a step further and understand knife blades on a more scientific level, here is a great site for that: www.knifesteelnerds.com