The Players
First things first. There are three basic kinds of knives:
Chef's Knife
It's 6" - 12" long with a curved blade so that you can do that rocking motion all the Iron Chef contestants do when chopping the food of the day. A pointy tip allows you to get around bones or other tight spots and the flat surface is good for crushing garlic. The ideal chef's knife will weigh over 7 oz. and have an 8" - 10" blade. If you only buy one knife, this is the one. Super versatile.
Utility Knife
The utility knife is 4" - 5" long with a straight blade. Though longer than a paring knife, it's really easy to handle making it good for peeling and cutting small fruits and veggies.
Serrated Knife
Like Ruffles, they have ridges. These guys come in lots of sizes and are great for cutting tomatoes and fresh bread without smashing the entire loaf. They last forever but, since they cannot be sharpened, when they die, they dead. Thankfully, they're less expensive than the others.
Support Staff
There's a knife for pretty much everything you might ever want to cut. They come with lots of funny names and compelling reasons for you to want them, but these are some other basics that you might want to consider adding down the line.
Paring Knife
4" blade for peeling, chopping, slicing.
Slicing Knife
10"-12" blade for slicing anything from meat to bread to poultry.
Boning Knife
5" blade, the name gives it away. It has a thin blade for flexibility to, say it with me, "Get around the bones!"
Fillet Knife
7" blade for, you guessed it, boning and cutting really thin meat/ fish/ poultry.
Cleaver
6" -10" blade for cutting the heads off of chickens…or whatever.
