Review of Calphalon's Katana Series Knives

When my wife and I were putting together our wedding registry, she gave me free reign over a few things. One of those was the kitchen knives. When I found the ones I wanted, we got them. And I haven't regretted it at all.

Ask any chef (or cook, for that matter) what the most important tool in their kitchen is and most of them will tell you that it's their knives. While fancy gadgets can do just about anything that knives can, they don't have the versitility to handle everything that a single knife can do. While there are more types of knives than the average cook needs, a few are essential: a chef's knife and a paring knife are the two that I couldn't do without.

You can find knives for sale for anywhere up to several thousand dollars for custom made pieces. And while it's true that any knife, no matter how good, can be ruined by mistreatment, there is a definite minimum level of quality that you need. For instance, if a knife can't hold an edge, then what good does it do you?

There are a number of things that you can do to help make your knives last longer and give you a better experience.

1) Keep them sharp. When you use a knife a lot, it will start to get dull. There's nothing that can be done about that, no matter what Ron Popeil says. There are several methods for sharpening knives, but an inexpensive sharpening steel gives good results with a minimum of practice. And remember...dull knives are dangerous to the user. Even if you're cut with a sharp knife, the wound won't have the ragged cut that a dull knife will give you and will heal faster and with less chance of scarring.

2) Keep them dry. Knives are primarily made of metal. When metal gets wet and stays wet, it can oxidize. Even if you're using a rust-proof knife, failure to dry knives can lead to water spots and that just makes your quality knives look like crud.

3) Keep them safe. A wooden knife block can help protect your knives in a variety of ways. It helps wick away excess water to keep them dry, it protects them from random damage, it keeps you from getting hurt by them, and it puts them all in one convenient place.