10 Best Damascus Chef Knife for Professional Chefs

Regular knives can do so many things. But a knife made of Damascus steel can do wonders.

This mysterious and aesthetic knife can be magic. If you want professional quality slicing, dicing, and cutting experience, a Damascus chef knife can be your tool. That is why, today, I am going to talk about the ten best Damascus chef knife.

A Damascus knife will give you an amazing experience of cutting and slicing. It is comfortable to use. It will be one of your best weapons if you are a chef. Also, it will astound you with its exquisite appearance.

Top 10 Damascus Chef Knife Review

There was a time when Damascus steel was used for making weapons only. In recent days, this unique and amazing steel is used to make kitchen knives and chef knives.

Damascus knives have a flexible and robust structure at the same time. This makes it easy to use. Also, the multiple layers of steel give an extremely fine and sharp edge. Damascus knives are best for cutting and slicing.

Here are ten Damascus knives, which will give you a cutting experience worth remembering. At the same time, it will give you an eye-soothing and aesthetically pleasuring experience.

01. ZWILLING J.A. Henckels

This is another best Damascus chef knife, which can be a great addition to your kitchen.

It is made with excellent quality stainless steel. This J.A. Henckels knife has a blade broader and broader than any regular chef blade. This helps you to go through and slice a large amount of food at a time. A full knife blade also gives knuckle clearance.

It helps to collect and pick up the sliced food with its larger body. The knife has increased facilities of curves, utility, and balance.

A 3 step process gives the knives a finishing by the ancient Japanese knife makers.  Combining SG2 micro carbide powder makes the knife blade stronger and more durable.

 It has a beautiful 100 layered Damascus “Chevron” patterned design. The handle is made of stunning black linen Micarta. It also contains an iconic Bob Cramer pin.

02. SETO

This is another exclusive Japanese blade, handmade in Seki, Japan. If you are looking for the best Damascus chef knife under $100, this is definitely for you.

It is amazing both by its performance and appearance, just like the other chef knives of Japan.

This can be one of the best choices for any chef because these knives can give you a professional experience.

But, this knife requires less maintenance than regular high carbon knives. These knives give you the best performance for household works, with less maintenance and less money.

This knife is made of 33 layers of VG 10 stainless steel core. The sandwiched pattern of the blade makes it stain-resistant.

The handle of this knife is pretty unique. I mean, they are the regular D-shaped handles. But they are made of red sandalwood and plywood.

The blades are made by the forged processing method. They have a fluorine coating. The main target is to keep the knife edge extremely sharp as before. Fluorine coating makes it rust-resistant.

The knife blade has a beautiful Damascus pattern. It can be a useful piece for both professional chefs and regular cooks.

03. Shun Dual Core VG0017

Japan is famous for making professional quality knives for decades. Japanese knives come with exclusive features. But handling and using these knives are a job itself. Japanese knives are mostly for skilled chefs.

So, we can easily say Japan is one of the best places for Chef knives.

Shun Dual-core VG0017 knife is one of the knives which prove that very clearly. This is one of the best 8-Inch Damascus Chef Knife. The Japanese call it a “master’s knife”. It has 71 layers of VG10 high-carbon and VG-12 high chromium steel.

It is a dual-core knife. Both kinds of steel were used to make this knife go all way to the very edge. This makes the knife strong and sharp. Yet this knife is lightweight and thin.

It has a traditional Japanese octagonal-shaped handle made of “Ebony Pakkawood.” “Ebony Pakkawood” is generally used for professional kitchen uses. These handles ensure comfort and a perfect grip for your knife.

It is the sharpest knife of the company Shun till now. Because of this knife requires skilled handling. It is the only multi-purpose knife made in Japan.

We already know that Damascus knives are famous for the way they slice and cut.

 This knife also can be used for cutting several things. The 16 degrees angled blade will give you the best cutting experience.

04. Miyabi Fusion

This knife brand is owned by the famous chef of Japan, chef Morimoto. His cuisine is famous and known in Japan.

One of the special characteristics of his cuisine is that he perfectly fusions Western and Japanese traditional techniques.

This special feature is applicable for his knives too. The knives have features of both Western and Japanese knives. These fusions turn out to be amazing mostly. These knives are a perfect combination of western ergonomics and Japanese blade style.

This knife here is another amazing handmade knife from Japan. You know that Japan is known for creating high-quality kitchen knives. Miyabi Fusion Morimoto Edition Chef’s knives are not anything different.

This 8 inch Damascus chef knife has an original Japanese thin blade profile. Its body is made of VG10 super steel gives it sturdiness and durability. Its CRYODUR blade goes through the ice-hardening process. This process helps this knife to get a Rockwell score of 60. This makes it a pretty strong knife.

The Honzabuke process gains its 9.5-12 degree edge. This gives you perfect cuts every time. The handles are made in a western style.

This ensures a perfect grip and no slippage when you work. The handle is also comfortable to be used by both right and left hands. It is made of 64 layers of super steel. It also has a beautiful Damascus flower pattern on the blade, which makes it look gorgeous.

 It will not be a useful and fantastic chef knife only, but also an elegant piece to look at.

05. Messermeister Oliva Elite

This is a quite unique Damascus chef knife.  Its uniqueness and outstanding performance make it one of the greatest Damascus chef knives.

An important feature of this knife is its super thin structure. A thin structure makes cutting a lot easier. Also, a thin blade is one of the best qualities of a chef knife or kitchen knife.

Oliva Elité’s chef’s knife is about 10% lighter and 25% thinner than regular chef knives.

Blade made of German high carbon stainless steel makes the knife blade stain and corrosion-resistant. It also makes knives strong and durable.

This knife is made by hammer forging, which helps the knife achieve the same sturdiness from top to bottom. The 15 degrees angled blade gives a better and finer performance every time.

The knife is heat treated and later cooled to make it stronger and more durable. The Rockwell score of this knife is 57-58, which is enough for a kitchen knife.

The most interesting thing about this knife is that the knife handle is made of  Italian olive wood.

06. Yoshihiro Mizu

This knife is one of the best multi-purpose knives and a must-have for any chef. This amazing multi-purpose knife is handmade and one of the best knives, both by its appearance and performance.

This 8.25” knife is coated with a black “kurouchi” finish. This carbonized finish makes your knife heat resistant, also gives your knife a rustic look.

This knife has a unique design, which makes it versatile. Kiritsuke knives had a straighter and wider body than any regular knife. It has a little curved tip. This curved tip helps to peel some vegetables before you cut them. The straighter, wider body makes chopping or slicing everything thousand times easier.

The knife comes with a sheath made of wood. The sheath is called “Saya.” It saves your knife from dust and water and helps to store it while you are not using it. It also adds to the appearance of the knife.

 A Rockwell scale is a scale to measure the hardness of a knife. A kiritsuke knife scores 64-65 on that scale. This means this knife will be quite hard compared to its thickness. This knife is really thin and light, which makes it comfortable to use.

It comes with a traditional Japanese octagonal handle, which gives you a comfortable and tighter grip on your knife. This knife is really sharp, so it needs skilled handling and maintenance.

07. MICHELANGELO Super

High-carbon stainless steel is used in the construction of this knife. High-carbon steel is an essential element for making professional knives. Cause they can make a knife more durable by making it two times stronger.

It is an ultra-sharp knife, a perfectly shaped knife. The handle of this knife is made with resin-saturated hardwood. The properly shaped handle can help comfortably by right or left hand. The anti-slippage handle ensures a better grip.

You can use this knife for cutting or slicing anything in your kitchen without worrying about it getting damaged.

This knife is heat-treated and ice-hardened. So the knife getting broken, cracked, or chipped is little. The knife is moisture and heatproof. So you can easily use them for daily work.

The knife had versatile uses. It can do more significant cutting works as well as small and finer works. You can chop and slice anything, starting from meat to veggies, herbs, etc. You can also use the side of the knife handle to smash garlic.

The smooth round handle made of Pakkawood ensures an extra grip. The handle is also moisture-proof, so there is no chance of the knife slipping from the hand. This makes the knife safer to use. This knife can give you professional experience and performance.

The body of the blade is Damascus etched. These wavy patterns make the knife look more elegant. The knife is totally made of stainless steel, so it is rust-resistant.

08. Tamahagane San

This exclusively sharp knife with a longer blade is an amazing Damascus knife. This is also a multi-purpose knife. This knife can easily cut and slice anything. The excellent performance of this knife will amaze you.

Sixty-three layers of VG5 and SUS410 stainless steel are used in the construction of this knife. The VG5 steel is sandwiched between SUS410 layers. This process makes the knife stain-resistant.

It is really light in weight. The knife handle is made by compressing laminated linen. This knife is made of clad materials. Clad materials are combining more than one material. So the characteristics of the metals get combined and create better material.

This knife has a longer blade than most other knives. It has a length of 15 inches, including the 10-inch blade. This kind of blade makes cutting and slicing easier than ever.

This Damascus knife has a beautiful blade texture. The wavy pattern gives the knife an elegant look.

09. Coltellerie Berti

Coltelleire Berti is an amazing brand that works with tradition. They prioritize tradition more than anything. This is why they are making their knives in the same process they used to make it when they started in 1895. And all of their products carry this signature style.

Coltelleire Berti Wine Saber chef knife is also not different. The maker beautifully makes it. It is so unique in style. The little engraving on its body makes it unique. It has a beautiful black lucite handle, which makes it look so elegant.

In Coltelleire Berti, one maker works on one knife at a time. He completes every single process needed to make a knife. This means only one person works for making a knife from first to last. 

After the maker completes making a knife, he engraves his credentials on the knife. The use of this knife will amaze you, but it will also be something you will save up with care for years. The specialties make it one of the best Damascus Chef knives.

10. Zelite Infinity

It is one of the best custom Damascus kitchen knife sets. It gives you perfection and professional quality performance. The knives in this set are exquisite. Also, their performance makes them a necessity for any chef.

It has 45 layers of high carbon stainless steel and Japanese AUS10  steel, which gives an extremely sharp edge. It can cut and slice anything in minutes. It has a beautiful “Tsunami Rose” Damascus pattern imprinted on it, which gives it a touch of elegance.

The bigger knife is 8”. Another knife of 4.25” comes in this knife set. And both of these knives help you to master kitchen work. It has a hardness of HRC 61±1, which makes it durable and lasting. The knife set has a lifetime warranty.

The company has a unique technique of cooling it with liquid Nitrogen. This process gives it stain and rust resistance.

The handle of the knife contains a tapered bolster, a full tang, and a 27-piece steel and copper mosaic rivet. These give you and extra grip and comfort while you work.

These beautiful sets of knives come with a larger case to store them perfectly. Overall, this can be counted as one of the best Damascus Chef Knife.

Things to remember before buying a Damascus chef knife

Damascus chef knives are one of the must-have knives for any chef out there. This famous knife is mainly known for its fine slicing and cutting performance.

But the slicing capacity or performance is not the only thing you should look for in a Damascus knife. There are several things we need to keep in mind while we buy a Damascus knife.

Knowing these are really important. You can have a list of the best products but choosing the one best for you is difficult. And This is why you need to know the following things.

Cast Damascus steel Vs. pattern welded

As we stated before, a Damascus knife is made of Damascus steel. Damascus steel is made by forging more than one kind of metal together. This combination of metals makes the beautiful pattern on the blade.

Depending on this fact, the Damascus knife can be of two types. Pattern welded and cast Damascus steel. Among them, Cast Damascus steel is the actual Damascus steel.

To make cast Damascus steel, the metals are actually appropriately measured and then combined at a specific temperature to get the beautiful texture of Damascus steel. These techniques need to be learned from an expert—there are so many things you need to know to make this kind of Damascus knife.

On the other hand, pattern-welded Damascus steel is just iron sheets with patterns in them. Those patterns are manually made to make them look like real Damascus steel. These pre-patterned sheets are cut, and they are then used to make knives and other things.

Before you buy a Damascus knife, you should know which Damascus steel knife you are buying. And to know that, you will need this basic knowledge.

Size

Size is another crucial factor while choosing a Damascus knife. It is not like that there is some specific size for a Damascus knife. But you must know which size would be easy for you to handle and work with.

Damascus knives have an average length of 6-14 inches. Almost all of the Damascus knives are of this length. 8 inch Damascus knives are the most common. The knife’s length and width can affect your work, so you should be aware of those.

If you are a skilled and professional chef, you can handle a knife of any size. But if you are a clumsy or new cook, going with smaller sizes would be better for you. But, generally, it is easy to handle lighter knives. If it feels uncomfortable in your hand, you would not be able to work with it.

Weight

The facts we discussed the knife size are almost the same for the weight of a Damascus chef knife.

If you are new at cooking, heavy knives will be difficult for you to handle. It is risky too. It takes practice and skill to handle a huge knife.

Going for a lightweight knife is always a clever move. A heavy knife is more difficult to move. It will lessen the speed of your work.

Materials

The material which is used in the construction of the knife also matters. Cause so many qualities or demerits depending on the material the Damascus knife is made of. So, materials are another thing you should know about before you purchase a Damascus chef knife.

Damascus knives can be made in different ways using different materials. One of them is carbon steel. This is one of the necessary materials of a Damascus knife.

We understand from the name that it is just carbon mixed with iron. These knives can be really heavy. And the main problem with this is that it is just pure iron. Yeah, the carbon makes the steel stronger. But as it is iron, at one point, it will rust.

You need to be extra careful while you use a Damascus knife made of carbon steel. You will have to clean it with water and dry it afterward. If your water dries it, it will rust. You will have to store these knives in a cool, dry place. Also, you will have to oil them to keep them in good condition.

Another material used for making Damascus knife is stainless steel. This is a lot more convenient than carbon steel knives.

Stainless steel is a combination of nickel, chromium, molybdenum. The other metals help to prevent rust. Stainless steel is also light in weight so, easier to carry and use.

So it is clear that a Damascus knife made of stainless steel would be a lot lighter. Also, it will be rust-resistant. So, you will be able to use them without being worried about destroying your knife.

The latest kind of material is high carbon stainless steel. Most of the knife brands use high-carbon stainless steel to make Damascus chef knives.

The purpose of this material was to combine the goodnesses of the materials which are already being used. Damascus knives are mostly being made by this material nowadays. This is better than the materials it originated from.

Handles

The materials, texture, and size of a knife handle matter too. A knife handle should be one solid piece without any cracks or chips. The size, texture of the handle should be comfortable to your hand.

If the handle is comfortable to hold and has a better grip, you must choose that knife.

Versatility

Most of the Damascus knives are for multi-purpose use nowadays. An ideal knife should be able to cut anything from large to small. Most of the knives can cut anything from meat to vegetables using one knife. So it is obviously wiser to go for a knife that can do it all.

Why is it called a Damascus chef knife?

Damascus chef knives are mainly chef knives made by Damascus steel. The reason why that specific kind of steel is called Damascus steel is not clear.

But there are several approximated reasons behind the name. One of them is, they might be made in Damascus. There is a particular procedure for making Damascus knives. And this assumption says that the procedure came from Damascus.

Another assumption is that the Damascus Knives were not made, but produced in Damascus. Later they were bought or imported from Damascus.

There is another interesting fact about Damascus knives. The emprinted wavy design on their skin is quite similar to the pattern or design of Damascus fabrics. Some people also think this to be a reason behind the name Damascus knife.

But we can just make assumptions. We still do not know the reason behind the name. So, let’s just leave it here and know the amazing method of making a Damascus knife.

Damascus steel is famous for being used for making weapons and later different kinds of knives. Because Damascus knives are flexible yet strong, these knives were made by layering steel blades together by maintaining a specific temperature.

At first, it was made by a special kind of steel called “Wootz steel.” Wootz steel was produced in places like India, Sri Lanka, Persia, etc. Wootz steel was not real, pure steel too. They were iron and steel melted together charcoal.

The whole process was done in an atmosphere where there is little or no oxygen. By this method, the steel absorbed carbon from charcoal and create Wootz steel, which was used to make Damascus steel.

There are two kinds of Damascus steel. One is Cast Damascus steel, and the other one is Pattern-welded. The cast Damascus steel follows the ancient original methods of creating Damascus steel. On the other hand, the pattern-welded Damascus steel is not real Damascus steel.

As we know, Damascus steel is famous for the watery wave pattern of its body. Nowadays, some kinds of steel are made to create the pattern on regular knives. In cases like this, the maker just layers up iron over steel. The hammer and weld these two materials at a high temperature, just to bring the watery pattern.

This means they do not go through the critical process of making a real Damascus steel. Instead, they just fake the pattern to make it look like a Damascus knife.

FAQ About Best Damascus Kitchen Knife Set

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Final Verdict

But no matter what, it is one of the essential things. It can serve as a professional as well as a regular person who loves to cook. Knowing about this knife and its use is important because that is how you choose the best damascus chef knife for yourself.

A Damascus knife is one of the most important things in a chef’s kitchen. It is a unique and quite mysterious knife as we do not know the origin of this unusual name.