The 9 Best Steak Knives of 2024

by Bobby B.  |  Updated  March 2022 |  Knives

There’s nothing like a good steak knife in your hands when you’re enjoying a fine steak dinner with family or friends.   Perhaps it’s all about functionality to you, or maybe you just want the the finest wares available for dinner with your loved ones.  Heck, it could even be about trying to impress a special someone!  No matter the reason, one thing is true.  We’re all looking for the best steak knives we can buy in whatever budget we might have.

At at crossroads somewhere between our silverware and a kitchen knife set, steak knives are both a necessity and a staple of our kitchens.  They’re a tool, but also a show piece at times. 

Fortunately, and sometimes…. unfortunately, there are so many options for good steak knives these days.  It’s great that we as the consumers have so many options, but it makes it difficult to find the right steak knife set.  And, prices vary so much from one set to another!  We’ve separated our top picks into 3 price categories, or budgets.

In a hurry?  Here are our favorite steak knives…

Quality Steak Knives, Different Budgets

There you have it, our favorite steak knife set in each price category.  Clearly not all of us have the same budget, or perhaps even the same outlook on how much should be invested in buying good steak knives.  For this reason, we decided to split this page up into different sections so there’s good, educational info no matter what your budget.

First, we’ll review and recommend the top steak knife set and 2 runner-ups in each of the three price categories:  high-end, mid-range, and inexpensive.  We will not only make the recommendations, but share some of the features of each set and then tell you why we like that set in particular.  After the steak knives review, we’ve written a very comprehensive buying guide to help educate you in how to find the best steak knife set for you and your needs.  We cover just about everything there is to know about how to choose a good steak knife.  But first, let’s define the different price-points and budget categories we’re going to break the steak knife reviews into.

Best High End Steak Knives ($30-$80/knife)

This category is for the “best of the best” steak knives!  Look through this section if you want the highest-quality steak knives available.  The metals in these steak knife sets are usually premium, choice stainless steel and they most commonly go through additional steps in the manufacturing process to make them harder and more durable than standard steak knives.  The best quality steak knives in this category are often between $30-$80 per knife… Jump To Category

Best Mid-Range Steak Knives ($10/$20/knife)

Steak knives in our mid-range category are for folks that appreciate quality craftsmanship and understand there are differences in materials and quality when you pay a bit more for something like this.  You might call this the “SWEET SPOT”.  Getting a good steak knife is important to you, but getting good value for your money is as well.  High quality steak knives in this category are typically between $10-$20 per knife… Jump To Category

Best Inexpensive Steak Knives ( >$10/knife)

This category is likely self-explanatory.  You’re looking for the best affordable steak knives (or some might say the best “cheap” steak knives).  You don’t see value in spending much more than a couple bucks per knife, but still care about getting the best steak knife set you can for your money.  Who doesn’t?  Knives in this category typically cost the consumer less than $10 per knife, and sometimes only a few bucks each!   Jump to Category

Best Steak Knives (High-End, $30+/knife)

Thank you for checking out our recommendations on the best high-end steak knives. 

Best Steak Knives (Mid-Range, $10-$20/knife)

Thank you for checking out our recommendations on the best mid-range steak knives. 

Best Affordable Steak Knives (Inexpensive, < $10/knife)

Best Steak Knife Set:  A Complete Buying Guide

We almost all have a need for a steak knife set.  They are a versatile tool that can used for several tasks around your kitchen.  They are perfect for cutting steaks (obviously), tenderloin, roasts, pork chops, chicken, and many other meats.  Steak knives seem like such a simple tool, yet there really is so much that goes into them.  You’ll find after reading this guide, that they are not all created equal.  In fact, the price range between the best steak knife set and a cheap set can vary drastically.  Unless you’re educated on what makes a good, quality steak knife, it’s hard to know what you’re looking for. 

The BladeAdvisor team has put this buying guide together as an educational tool on how to select the best steak knives to buy.  It will also give you a better understanding what separates good steak knives from cheap ones, why you may or may not want a serrated blade, and what “full-tang” means.  Once you’ve invested in a good set of steak knives, we’ll also help you care for them and store them properly so they last for years to come.

How To Choose a Good Steak Knife Set

There are many factors to consider when buying a good set of steak knives such as your budget, the materials used, how many you need, and how they’re made.  These details are what we determine how well your steak knives retain their sharp edges and how long they last.  These criteria also happen to be the same ones we used above to populate our best rated steak knives list. 

Below, we’ll break down each criterion in detail so we don’t miss anything, starting with how much money you should spend on knives.

Budget

This is going to be different for everyone and we respect that no matter what level you choose.  We are all at different stages in our lives and probably all come from different backgrounds and have different income levels and lifestyles.  We don’t judge…promise.  If you’re just looking to get through dinner without fighting with your steak and you don’t want to spend more than $25, we get it.  The same is true if you’ve decided to invest in quality steak knives like the best of the best Wüsthof classics. 

Some people see the value in buying the best craftsmanship and premium materials upfront the first time so they last for life, and others either can’t afford it or just don’t care that much about steak knives.  Either way, it’s okay.  Then there’s those of us who fall smack dab in the middle.  A quick guestimate says that’s probably most of us.  We like nice things and don’t want to keep replacing junk.  But at the same time, we don’t have hundreds of dollars to spend on knives we aren’t going to use all the time.  We just can’t justify it.  This is the reason, we ranked the the best steak knife sets in all 3 ranges.   

Materials

Once you’ve determined how much money you can afford to invest, it’s time to find the highest quality steak knives we can help you find for that amount of money.  One of the more important choices you will have to make is the materials used.  Steak knife blades and handles can be made from many different materials.  There are two parts of the knife we should be concerned with, blades and handles.

Blades

There are so many different steels out there that it can be confusing.  Even more confusing, materials that are good for one reason have a trade-off for other reasons.  For example, stainless steel is a great material for convenience-sake.  It’s easy to wash, resists rusting and corrosion, and can often be thrown right in the dishwasher with the rest of your silverware.  The trade-off to that is that blades made out of stainless don’t typically last as long as those made in a high-carbon steel because they are softer.  Carbon is the hardest element and it makes for hard knife blades that hold an edge (aka – stay sharper) longer.  For this reason, most fine dining restaurants prefer high-carbon steel blades.  If you go this route, keep in mind that you will need to take special care when washing them (see below in “Caring for Steak Knives”).

Each of the top manufacturers has their own preference for which alloys they use.  Many are now marketing a high-carbon stainless steel. This basically means it has at least 10-12% Chromium (corrosion resistance) to make it “stainless” steel and roughly 0.5%, or more, carbon for hardness purposes.  This is an attempt at getting “the best of both worlds”.

Handles

Handles aren’t quite as confusing as blades, but there are still made of many different materials.  The three most common include wood, steel, and some sort of poly or plastic.  First let’s discuss wood handles.  We hope not to upset anyone here, but wood is not our favorite material for handles.  Yes, traditionally many steak knives in Western steakhouses use wooden handles and that’s part of the motif.  Unfortunately, wooden handles run the risk of wood rot.  In mild cases, they produce a funky odor.  In more serious cases, the rot can ruin your handle and thus the knife.  Wooden-handled knives require special care when washing and also storing them.  This is a preference thing for us, but we did not recommend any knives with wooden handles above.

So which is better then, steel or poly?  They both have their benefits, but they are close enough in our eyes that again, it’s preference.  Which do you like the look of?  Both are long lasting, durable, and can be designed to look great.    

How Many Steak Knives Do I Need?

The short answer is probably 2 more than you think you need.  Clearly this depends on your particular needs and if you ever have dinner parties in your home.  How many knives do you actually need?  They typically come in sets of 4, 6, 8, or 12 pieces.  When choosing a set, consider when you’ll be using these steak knives and how many people you will be hosting.  Make sure you get enough.  There’s nothing worse than pulling out 4 “good” steak knives only to give the 5th a paring knife!  If you know you need at least 6 knives, consider getting an 8-piece set.     

Weight and Bevel

There’s not necessarily a lot to choose here.  We just wanted to let you know that there is a difference in the balance and the weight of good steak knives versus cheap steak knives.   There is even a difference in weight between German steak knives and Japanese steak knives!  German knives are typically solid and much heavier than Japanese knives.  They also have flatter angles, an average of roughly 20 degrees, which often makes the blades thicker, adding to their weight and durability.  On the other hand, Japanese knives are usually lighter weight and have a thinner, sharper blade using a roughly 15 degree bevel.

Serrated vs. Non-Serrated Steak Knives

Serrations are like small teeth on a knife that re similar to a saw blade.  A non-serrated knife has a straight edge like most other kitchen knives.  There’s quite a debate on if steak knives should have serrations. When you get into it, you’ll realize there are good points made by both sides and ultimately, it comes down to a personal preference and how you use your steak knives.

On one hand, serrated blades stay sharper much longer than knives without serrations.  This is because less of the blade’s surface area makes contact with the hard plate you’re cutting on, which is often what leads to a dull steak knife.  Since the areas between the serrations don’t touch the plant and only contact the meat, it won’t dull as quickly and continues to cut meat cleanly.  The trade-off is when you need to sharpen serrated knives.  This is more difficult and confusing to do than with straight edge knives.

On the other end of the spectrum, straight edged steak knives have no serrations and therefore no protection against the blade quickly dulling.  However, they do tend to cut meat more cleanly as long as they’re sharp and don’t rip or tear it.

Both serrated and straight edge knives work just fine, and which you use is up to you.  If you want less maintenance, choose serrated steak knives.  If you want a cleaner cut and will keep them sharp, go for straight edges.

Craftsmanship (Forged vs. Stamped)

We really enjoy industrial design and appreciate the craftsmanship of good steak knives.  There are many processes that take place to make quality knives that the average consumer doesn’t even know about.  An example of this would be forged steak knives versus stamped steak knives. Forged knives are made out of a single steel bar and then shaped into a knife, either by hand or by a machine.  Stamped knives are made of sheets of steel that are stamped out into the shape of a knife.   

Forging was once indicative of only high quality knives as they are often heavier and include a bolster.  A bolster is a lip near where the blade meets the handle.  It adds weight towards the center of the knife, thus improving balance and assisting the user with a better grip.  This is not necessarily true these days as you can find some pretty good steak knives that are stamped and some not-so-good ones that are forged.  If all else equal, forged knives tend to be harder and thus retain their blade edge longer.      

Full-Tang or Partial-Tang?

A tang is the is the extension of the metal blade through the handle.  One that goes all the way to the end of the handle is considered a “full-tang”, whereas one that barely goes into the handle is considered a “partial-tang”.  As you may have guessed, full-tang steak knives are superior to anything less.  Full-tang steak knives are also typically more balanced due to the weight of the blade continuing through the handle, providing a better “feel” to the knife when you’re cutting.  It is common knowledge now that this is true and most decent steak knives have taken this into consideration.  There are so many decent steak knives, even for lower budgets and what consumers like to call “cheap steak knives”, that there’s no reason to settle for a full-tang design these days.

Product Reviews / Customer Feedback Ratings

We saved one of the best for last.  Reading product reviews like the ones we have above is a great way to find good, quality products.  This allows you to compare multiple good options of the same thing all at the same time and on the same page.  Another awesome tool you should use are the many customer feedback ratings provided from actual product users at online retailers like Amazon.  Most products that are not new to the market have hundreds or even thousands of customer reviews telling you if the product is any good.  This information is so powerful and wasn’t available to most of our parents in the same stage in their lives.  Take advantage of all this free information on the web and use it!

Caring For Steak Knives

If you’re going to invest in the best steak knife set you can afford, you should probably know how to take care of them and how to store them.  Let’s face it, for most of us, spending $100+ on something means we should value it and take good care of it.  It’s kind of like the saying you hear parents tell their kids when the trash their toys or something.  “This is why we can’t have nice things!”  So, let’s make sure you know how to take care of, and protect, your investment.

Personalized Steak Knives

Best Steak Knife Sets:  The Final Cut

We hope you enjoyed reading through the BladeAdvisor’s best steak knife reviews.  Most importantly, we are optimistic that you learned a thing or two about steak knives.  You should now have the confidence to go out and buy a good set of steak knives, whether one from the list above, or another that better fits your needs, whatever they may be.  

As a quick recap, steak knives come in many different levels of quality, and also fit into different budgets.  We break these down into 3 categories: high-end (luxury), mid-range, and inexpensive.   Only you can determine what budget is right for you.  As we said above, our recommendation is to buy a good set at the outset so you don’t buy multiple cheap steak knife sets throughout your lifetime and still have nothing to show for it.  Our other recommendation is to buy a set with a few more steak knives than you think you currently need.  In the future you might need more and you don’t want to have to buy an entire new set to get a couple more.

The BladeAdvisor team chose the Wüsthof Classic Steak Knives based on the criteria outlined in the buying guide above.  Wüsthof is a family-run business that has been making quality knives for over 200 years.  Here’s a short video about the brand.

Thank you for taking the time to read through our recommendations and buying guide on the top steak knives.  We appreciate your time and feedback.  If you still have questions on something covered, or feel like we missed something all together, please feel free to contact as us the link below.  Thanks!