I love these knifes having discovered them at an Asian store in LA. Inexpensive but sharp and easily sharpened. I can't say enough about them so it was neat to see them featured here on cool tools.

Love cheap cleavers, but dislike wood handles. In need of a new knife, googled around a bit & found same kiwi brand with plastic handles:

http://importfood.com/thai_knives.html

Bought. Can't wait to give these cheap cool tools a try.

(ps. I hope it's a coincidence that captcha words below are 'bled saw' -- yeowch)

You can send your Shun knife back to Kai USA for free sharpening. All their knives (Kershaw, Shun and ZT) have this lifetime service. See http://www.kershawknives.com/sharpening.php?brand=shun for details.

This topic made Google put up an ad next to it for a ceramic knife. Anybody tried these? The ads say they're "razor sharp", rarely need sharpening, and more. It's kind of hard to imagine ceramic taking an edge after manufacture. Just curious.

@Davey...

I've used Ceramic swivel knives for leatherwork and they are incredibly sharp and don't dull in the same way as the metal blades. They're also significantly more expensive and I can't imagine trying to sharpen them without destroying them.

I've never used them for food, so you might want to hope that someone else responds.

Z.

As a long time user and collector of knives, I know that good knives don't have to cost a fortune. What I hate is when some celebrity chef or personality (Martha Stewart and Paula Deen) market knives of inferior quality to the masses. I have had good luck with everything from Japanese to Finnish Puukko knives, bought by mail or the internet over decades. I daresay I have paid half what many people have paid, and found good cutlery. Never tried ceramic, maybe I should. Too many sharpeners and hones to switch. Kiwi knives I will definitely try.

A friend gave me a CERA folding ceramic knife he picked up on a trip to Japan.
It looks just like the one pictured on the $10 bill here:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=4954
It's nearly weightless and very sharp. Great for slicing tomatoes, and a perfect picnic knife, though I prefer steel for general kitchen use. The 6-inch version of the Victorinox chef's knife Kevin reviewed recently
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/004030.php
is just $20 and the most versatile, most used knife in our kitchen. --es

I just bought some Kyocera ceramics. After using a friends I had knife envy for months till I got mine. For 10 bucks (shipping) Kyocera will sharpen up tp two at a time for life. You cannot home hone these babies. As far as sharpness goes, I have not used anyting sharper, they cut effortlessly! They are light and fell good in the hand. Not good for boning or heavy chopping as the ceramic blade is brittle, so get some of these Kiwi bad boys and a ceramic santoku or chef and you'll be allset! I find myself looking for food to cut just to use my new knives!!

Anyone have any insight as to why expensive knives (i.e. wusthof) are so expensive? Are they really that much better than these? I know that steel knives can be forged or stamped, but that's about it. Obviously the type of steel is important, but how important? What type of steel are these?

I have all of the above mentioned knives... and a few of my favorite knives are the super cheap ones from Kiwi and other brands I cant pronounce (brand name not in english) . Mostly the cleavers, I have a few that are solid one piece stainless steel that I have cleaved deer leg bones in half with in a giant dramatic karate chop, and they are still in excellent shape. They were all quite cheap (nothing over $20) and I have found them to perform better than I expected and sit along side my Shun and Wustoff. By the way... Shun offers one free sharpening a year for life, you mail it in and they factory sharpen it and send it back for the cost of shipping.

The reason expensive knives are expensive is (usually) for one of two reasons: either they are forged, or they use some exotic mix of metals- damascus steel, or a high grade of stainess steel. A good cheap knife is usually high carbon steel- carbon is what makes steel hard. High carbon generally is easier to sharpen than stainless, but you have discoloration and corrosion issues. If you take care of them, high carbon blades are as good as stainless.

Wonderful! Thanks for the review. I have some really good knives (expensive and well respected brands) and love good knives. However, one of the best knives I have ever owned was a cleaver that came free with a wok in 1983. I think the whole thing, including fancy wooden box, wok, lid, about 7 wok accessories and the cleaver were about $20.

That was my favorite knife for years (probably 15) and I originally, before I had many other good knives, used it for many things you would be shocked at using a cleaver on (slicing tomatoes).

Eventually, the handle disintegrated. Even then I held onto the blade in hopes of replacing the handle. I look at the cheap knives in Asian markets and always wonder if one of them might be as good as my beloved cleaver, but really couldn't believe that there were other knives this good for so cheap. I'm heading to the an Asian store right now.

if you are in L.A i've seen them at the silom supermarket near hollywood and sunset. google maps link: http://bit.ly/5LajGz

THis is awesome! thanks for sharing :)

@jennyarriola

I like your review, especially cause it seems actually to be a cool tool for the money. But if these are the "jeep wranglers" of knifes, I don not wanna have them ("I got your jeep thing and now it burns when I pee"). Let us know when you found the Toyota land cruiser of knifes.

I found a cheap Brazilian cleaver at a corner store for $2.50, made by the machete maker Tramontina. They are carbon steel and so good I bought two, one I use for wood working as a lite shaping axe. Too many cheap kitchen knives are made of the wrong grade of stainless steel. I've sharpened butter knives as a lark and while they can be made very sharp the edge doesn't last for the same reason. Carbon steel or cutlery grade stainless is the way to go.

"George Cochrane" might just sell these knives. Google him.

Hi Kevin. Thanks for having this blog, and thanks for mentioning Kiwi knives from Thailand. I am the owner of ImportFood.com, we import the Kiwi knives and sell a good selection. Yesterday we got an order for the knives from a person in Austin TX, and he mentioned that they'd been mentioned on your "cooltools" blog. Much appreciated.

It's nice to know you've discovered these knives and recommend them to others. When compared to knives from Japan or America or Germany, for example, Kiwi aren't the "best". Most Thais can not afford expensive imported knives, but Thailand is a country obsessed with spices, food and cooking. So they make their own knives, with local incomes and longterm culinary use in mind. I've heard from many chefs over the years who love Kiwi knives, most had at some point worked with Thais and discovered them that way.

Not too long ago we expanded our line to include more of the larger Kiwi knives with plastic handles, as the plastic is easier to clean. The link above, from "Angus" goes directly to our Kiwi page. The little carving knives, and Pro Slice Peeler, are popular, and probably the most popular overall is the round-point fruit knife.

If anyone reading this blog wants to order, call toll free 1-888-618-8424 and we'll offer free shipping on $10+ orders of Kiwi knives to anyone who mentions kk.org.

Thanks again Kevin, and Happy New Year.

@mike - No, I don't, but I've blogged about them before. Just a fan, really. I've certainly given away a lot of them, as gifts.

Why do some knives cost more than others? Isn't it just a piece of steel?

For insight, I recommend the Nova episode "Secrets of the Samurai Sword"
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/samurai/

Cheap knives and fancy knives all have their place.

If you do buy a cheap knife, make sure at a minimum that the blade is strongly secured in the handle, preferrably with a full tang. I've seen some that look sketchy and might turn into a sharp flying projectile if you start hacking away with it.

very excited about these, THANKS

I've been using the rectangular Kiwi knife pictured above exclusively on veggies for over 5 years. I too have owned my share of expensive knives and yet this is the first knife that I grab when a vegetable task is at hand. For the price, these knives cannot be beat! I'm glad to hear that they have plastic handles, and will have to pick up a set of those (especially after hear my friend's son go on and on about unsanitary wooden handles last time he came to sell us some Cutco knives)

On another tangent, I've owned the black 6" Kyocera Chefs Knife in the past, and while I was impressed w/ the super sharp edge that shaves fingernails if you don't pay attention, I have experienced the sorrow of chipping that blade :(. The annoying part of using a ceramic blade was the fact that I'd be cutting bone-in-meat w/ a steel counterpart and I'd have to fight off the temptation to grab the Kyocera for fear of chipping the blade. While I appreciate the tech, I'm going to have to go w/ Alton Brown and say that the only uni-task tool in the kitchen should be the fire extinguisher.

This recommendation came at a perfect time - I was looking for a new knife, and while $30 for a Victorinox/Forschner isn't that much, getting this instead was a no-brainer. If anyone is looking for these in Seattle Uwajimaya does not carry them, but Viet Wah does.

Update on #2:

I bought three of these Kiwis with the plastic handles from the ImportFood.com folks (as I mentioned above). Arrived quick. Must say, grrreat little knives for the money. Super sharp, good balance, and the plastic handles are exactly what I wanted. Thin blade of course, but intend to get quite a bit of use out of these. Though will keep them away from cooking-phobic wife for a bit. Too sharp.

Drawbacks? Only the smallest knife fits in my wood block. But I've been meaning to upgrade to an on-the-wall knife magnet (or?) -- any cool tool recommendations?

I picked up a few of these last week. Nice knives, but the blade feels too thin. I'll keep using them, but I may go back to my regulars (Furi and a couple of old Japanese knives that we've had for years).

I checked several Asian markets in Cleveland, OH. The only one that had them was Park to Shop on East 30th by Payne. $6.15 for the third one down in the picture.

Another data point... I ordered the 3 plastic handled set from Import Foods and they shipped promptly. I've got two of the knives stashed in a cupboard.

I've been using the rectangular bladed "meat" knife. I have a Forschner 10" chef's knife and 12" slicer; and a Henckels santoku. The balance of the Kiwi is different, but easy enough to adjust to. It's really sharp and a joy to use. It's easy to get paper thin slices out of firm veggies and it has no problem with over-ripe tomatoes. Don't know how long it will stay sharp, but for the price of a Wusthof or Henckels paring knife I got 3 full sized knives.

I've had a Kiwi knife for close to 15 years and it's been my favorite and the sharpest one in the kitchen (especially once I got a decent knife sharpener). You have to drag it across a steel to treat the edge, but I only have to sharpen them once every couple of months.

And 15 years of dishwasher cleaning hasn't caused the wooden handle to fall off. I know that people say you shouldn't put your knives in the dishwasher, but I like to use it as a way to sterilize the blade especially after cutting meat.

Nice knives. I went searching for them after seeing the article and have so far bought three. I will no doubt add to my collection. Easy to sharpen, easy to clean - nice knives! And a killer price!

A friend gave me the Kiwi knives--LOVE them, they are sharp, glide through a tomato skin as well as cut the fell (membrane) off of a leg of lamb. They cut through fresh baked bread without squishing it and also cut through crusty baguettes without shattering the crust with equal ease. Chopping vegetables is a breeze. Just don't cut yourself. They will knick if you are not careful, but resharpen easily and can go in the dishwasher without problems. My go to knife for everything!!