Commercial Knives

The tang is the part of the blade that runs into the handle. A full tang runs the whole length, so force applied at the tip is carried by steel rather than by the handle join.

Partial-tang knives are cheaper and are the ones that snap or work loose at the ferrule. In a kitchen where a knife gets used to lever things apart, full tang is worth the money.

German-style blades are heavier, softer and more forgiving: they take a beating, sharpen easily and roll rather than chip. Japanese-style blades are harder and thinner, hold a finer edge and cut more precisely, but they are less tolerant of bone and of being thrown in a sink.

Most commercial kitchens run German-style as the workhorse and keep one or two Japanese blades — a santoku is the usual choice — for fine work.

Honed on a steel at the start of every shift and whenever the blade starts pushing instead of cutting. Properly re-ground far less often, when honing stops bringing the edge back.

Honing realigns an edge; sharpening removes steel. Confusing the two is why knives wear out early. The sharpeners range covers both jobs.

A moulded composite handle with some texture. It grips when wet, it has no gap at the join, and it survives a machine wash better than timber.

Timber handles are more comfortable and need hand washing and drying. If the kitchen is not going to do that, buy composite.

They should not, whatever a listing says is possible. Detergent dulls the edge, the blade knocks against racks, and handles loosen. A commercial dishwasher is the fastest way to ruin a good knife.

Wash by hand, dry immediately, store on a rack or in a block. It takes less time than the dishwasher does.

Three or four. A chef's knife does eighty per cent of the work, a paring knife does the small jobs, a serrated knife does bread and tomatoes, and one specialist blade covers the menu.

A twenty-piece block is mostly decoration. If you want them all in one purchase, the knife sets range is the sensible version of that.

On a magnetic wall rack or in a block, edge protected, where a hand can take one without feeling around. Loose in a drawer is both the worst for the edge and the cause of most kitchen cuts.

For chefs who travel between sites, a knife case is the answer. It also stops knives walking.

In a kitchen handling raw protein and ready-to-eat food on the same bench, yes. Colour-coded handles make a cross-contamination mistake visible rather than invisible.

Match the colours to your chopping boards so it is one system. Two different colour schemes is worse than none.

A steel, a board and somewhere to store it. A knife bought without those three will be blunt within a fortnight.

After that, kitchen scissors and a peeler cover the jobs a knife is wrong for. The rest of the kitchen cutlery range fills out a bench.