There are many different knife blade types that are used for various tasks, and it can be difficult to know which knives are essential for your kitchen. We broke down the knife types and provided explanations of each and what they’re used for.
There are so many different types of knives which are used for different purposes. It is very difficult for a person to choose among different blade types. To make your life easier, we have written detailed articles on each type of knife/blade. As knife is most commonly referred by its blade type and the type of knife blade among major factor for choosing a knife for its purpose?
But before we start, you should know major parts of a Knife / Blade
Understanding Anatomy of a blade
Understanding the parts of a knife is very important as its key to understanding different knives types and their uses. Following Image shows the main parts of a knife and it helps you to understand and identify your usage.
Following is an explanation of different knife parts:
Point
- The point is the tip of the knife. It’s mainly used for piercing through object.
- Like Meat, wood, etc.
- The Shape of tip or its presence and absence also defines knife type.
Tip
- The knife tip is considered most used part of knife as it does most of the cutting and separations in object.
- The shape of tip really matters like the point in defining the tasks.
- For Example, rounded tips are mostly for slicing whereas pointed ones are for piercing tasks.
Edge
- The edge is the sharpened side of the knife’s blade that you use to cut. Keeping your knife’s edge sharp prevents accidents while cutting.
- Its most important and vital part of the knife as it gets most of the beating.
- Different alloys and different techniques are being used over centuries to retain the edge.
- there are many types of edge grinds on different knives but will be discussed some other time.
Bolster/Guard
- The bolster is mostly found in forged knives. It’s a thick band of steel used in blade and it not only prevents its user’s hands from slipping but also balance the overall weight of the knife.
- Where as in Stamped Knives, you will find Guard in them, for the same purpose.
Butt/Pommel
The butt is the end of the knife’s handle and in survival knives you will also find lanyard hole at the butt and at times solid metal for hammer purposes as well.
Tang
- The tang is the part of the blade that extends into knife grip or knife handle to provide balance and grip on blade.
- There are full tang blades which considered superior in balance and durability and mostly survival knives or full tang knives.
- A half tang or sub tang knife is less durable but more economical and most folding folders (blades/knives) have sub or no tangs even.
Handle
- The handle is the section where the user holds the knife. This acts as sheath for folding knives and different knife handle shapes and materials are being used over centuries and even till today.
- This part of the knife may also be referred to as the scales and there is a variety of scales too, like bone, Micarta, G10 etc.
Heel
The heel is the rear portion of the blade, and it’s most often used for cutting tasks that require a lot of force, such as cutting meat or dense vegetables.
Spine
This is mostly dull side of the knife blade that is opposite the edge. At times there are serrations on it and in double edged blades spine is also sharp.
Knife Blade Shapes
There are so many different knives types but among them there are most popular blade types which are very useful and also they are most popular among its users are as under: