Chef's knife

In cooking, a chef's knife, also known as a cook's knife, is a cutting tool used in food preparation. The chef's knife was originally designed primarily to slice and disjoint large cuts of beef. Today it is the primary general-utility knife for most western cooks.

A chef's knife generally has a blade eight inches (20 centimeters) in length and 1 ¹⁄₂ inches (3.8 cm) in width, although individual models range from 6 to 14 inches (15 to 36 centimetres) in length. There are two common types of blade shape in western chef's knives, French and German. German-style knives are more deeply and continuously curved along the whole cutting edge; the French style has an edge that is straighter until the end and then curves up to the tip. Neither style is inherently superior; personal preference will dictate the choice.

A Japanese chef's knife is known as a gyuto ( ぎゅうとう）, gyūtō^?), literally meaning 'beef knife'. Its blade resembles a flatter version of a French chef's knife. Japanese cutlery is known for sharpness due to its acute blade geometry, and the hardness of the steel used, often exceeding 60 HRC on the Rockwell scale. A typical western chef's knife may be sharpened to an edge angle of 20-22°, while a Japanese gyuto generally has a sharper edge angle of 15-18°, which requires a harder, more brittle grade of steel. In recent years Japanese gyuto have gained in popularity with western chefs.

A modern chef's knife is a multi-purpose knife designed to perform well at many differing kitchen tasks, rather than excelling at any one in particular. It can be used for mincing, slicing, and chopping vegetables, slicing meat, and disjointing large cuts.

Chef's knives are made with blades that are either hot-forged or stamped:

The blade of a chef's knife is typically made of carbon steel, stainless steel, a laminate of both metals, or ceramic:

...
Wikipedia