Top 10 Kitchen Knives Under $100 in 2024 + Buying Guide

Kitchen knives: they can make or break your love for cooking. Having the right kitchen knife for your culinary ventures is invaluable. 

This device becomes the obstacle-slayer between you and enjoyable entrees of all sorts. 

Discover the clear-cut answer: How and where do I find the best kitchen knives under $100? 

Whether we’re just beginning our home-cooking journeys or becoming seasoned life-long chefs, owning the proper knife tools for our personal kitchen needs will be a game-changer.

Top 10 Kitchen Knives That Slay Amazon Ratings

Vremi 10 Piece Colorful Knife Set

Let’s start with those number of colors! The Vremi ten-piece knife set will definitely add flair to your kitchen aesthetic with its five brightly colored knives. They also feature a nonstick coating that enhances their user-friendliness. This set is for the home chef who enjoys using the “proper” knife but is also inspired by a splash of pizazz. 

Pros

Cons

Takeaway

These knives are making night-and-day changes in many home chefs’ kitchens. However, take into account your personal stance on nonstick kitchenware as well as your preference for that knife-handle feel. 

Marco Almond Turquoise Knife Set

Marco Almond has done it again. This stunning knife set is the cutting edge, according to many reviewers. The beautiful rainbow blades will cause you to flash a smile every time you see them, and they are as useful as they are epic-looking. 

Pros

Cons

Takeaway

Marco Almond’s rainbow knife set—complete with turquoise handles—is a one-and-done knife purchase for your home-cooking needs. The stunning design is an absolute plus and will undoubtedly increase your joy while food prepping. 

Chef’s Vision Knife Set: Masterpiece

Wow, if there were ever a perfect gift for art enthusiasts, this is IT! Chef’s Vision Knives has curated a set of six valuable knife varieties, each celebrating a masterpiece artwork painted on its blade and handle. 

Pros

Cons

Takeaway

This knife set is truly a work of art. This gift is both FUN and FUNCTIONAL for the art lovers in your life. 

TUO Vegetable Cleaver

TUO Cutlery has created a hardcore utensil for all your vegetable chopping needs. This single-knife purchase may be the one that rules them all. It features a curved blade of steel and boasts an ergonomic handle made of Pakkawood. This knife is available in multiple handle colors. 

Pros

Cons

Takeaway

This knife may be more than the average home chef is asking for. But for those who are hardcore about their vegetable-chopping game, this knife is worth a place in your kitchen. 

Emojoy Knife Set

The Emojoy 15-piece knife set comes with a wood block for easy and accessible storage. The company is proud to offer German steel in the knife blades, known for its quality and durability. 

Pros

Cons

Takeaway

Emojoy’s knife sets are a classic design with an elegant wood block for storage. This set is easy to start using, and the block makes for easy access during all stages of your cooking or food preparation.

DEIK Stainless Steel Kitchen Knife Set

The Deik 16-piece knife set comes with potentially the most eye-catching holster around. Rather than a traditional wood block, the Deik set has a transparent acrylic stand to show off all of its sleek, black knives. 

Pros

Cons

Takeaway

If you’re interested in a sleek design, this knife set is for you. The black knives are beautiful and are an easy match for most kitchen aesthetics. Additionally, its transparent base allows you to identify which knife is which without pulling every one out.

Global Oriental Chef’s Knife

As the name implies, this is a unique variety of kitchen knives. The proper term for this style is the “Santoku” knife. Call it whatever you prefer—people are raving about this fantastic kitchen knife from the East. 

Pros

Cons

Takeaway

Despite the cost, people claim these knives are the best they’ve ever owned or used— period. Those particular reviewers also admit that the knives will require more care and an understanding of specific knife design and function. Overall, for the chef in-house or in-restaurant that knows what they’re doing, the Shun series may deliver high expectations with lasting results.

Wanbasion 6 Piece Black Titanium Knife Set

The Wanbasion set reviewed here is nearly the opposite of the cost spectrum from our last review but with equally pleasing results. This set is for the home chef who does not enjoy an afternoon of regular knife maintenance (as is necessary for many top-end knives). Instead, with some primary care, these knives are versatile and long-lasting. And they’re a bargain buy with high-quality impact. 

Pros

Cons

Takeaway

This is a great, inexpensive knife set that will get you on your way to proper cooking with knives that are made for your recipes and preparation. 

DDF iohEF Kitchen Knife

Again, we are talking about a series and not a set. This means each knife in the series is sold separately (but the individual price tags are very reasonable for what they offer!). The DDF iohEF knives are made for some serious cooking action. Each knife is crafted with a balanced weight and ergonomic handle for easy use.

Pros

Cons

Takeaway

The high-quality steel knife series is made to last, and each knife is really multipurpose. While the experienced chef will enjoy collecting each piece or a total, durable set, the home chef may enjoy adding even one to their home collection. The experience is worth it, according to many reviewers. 

Rada Cutlery Cooking Essentials Set

Rada Cutlery has several highly rated knife sets. The cooking essentials three-piece set is perfect for those just beginning their top-end cutlery collection. This set is beautiful and sleek— great to give as a housewarming gift. 

Pros

Cons

Takeaway

The Rada essentials set is excellent for beginners or to give as a gift. However, note that they still require special knife upkeep, such as handwashing and regular sharpening over time. 

Master Maison 19-Piece Knife Set

Let’s end with a bang. This 19-piece knife set is the granddaddy of sets. It comes with its own stylish wooden block to keep everything neat and organized. This set has everything a budding chef will need in the knife arena, including eight essential steak knives for daily use or dinner parties. 

Pros

Cons

Takeaway

This voluminous knife set is ideal for a home chef. It will allow you to experience various chef knives while also expanding your necessary steak knife collection for easy use. 

Buying Guide

What should you look for when purchasing a kitchen knife or knife set? There are a few basic tips to keep in mind. Use this list to help you find the best kitchen knives under $100. These will help you cut through the fog of bad choices and find the perfect knife set for your kitchen.

1. Know Your Knives

We’ve referenced the mass of kitchen knife varieties in this article, but let’s get a little more technical and define some terms. 

There are many types of knives that chefs around the world claim are essential for your kitchen. We’ve compiled a list that condenses the knives chefs know and love best. Read on to find the list in our FAQ, and determine which knife (or knives) would make the most sense for you to add to your food prep. 

2. Be Sharp About the Future 

Kitchen knives are made to be perfect for their respective purposes. That involves a specific blade design, but note that any design will dull over time. You’ll need to consider getting a sharpener tool of some sort. 

Different knives may require different tools, depending on the material your knife is made with. If you want to remove all guesswork, purchase a knife set that comes with its own sharpening tool.

If you choose to purchase individual knives or several smaller sets that do not include a tool, make sure the sharpener you buy will work on all of them (or you’ll end up having to buy multiple tools as well). 

3. Care for Your Blade 

That brings us to this next point: blade care. This note is twofold: washing maintenance and knife-blade material. Each knife manufacturer may have slightly different advice for how to clean their knife collections best. It is best to check the website or seller site before purchasing if a specific type of cleaning is preferable for you. However, most legitimate kitchen knives will say to avoid the dishwasher and hand wash with plain tap water and dish soap. 

As for the varieties in blade materials, see below for a quick rundown of what’s available and how it might navigate your final choice:

Stainless steel

Most domestic kitchen knives are some form of stainless steel. Carbon steel is a variety of stainless steel frequently used and easily accessible to the average knife buyer. It is used for its inexpensive quality but also for its nonrusting and long-lasting nature. However, while it is resistant to rust and bending, stainless steel knives generally have to be sharpened pretty regularly to maintain their value in your kitchen cookery. 

Damascus steel

Damascus steel is actually two types of steel welded together, creating a patterned or textured appearance. In addition, because of the process of making this type of steel, these knives are known to be extremely durable and shatter-resistant. 

The blades are known to stay extremely sharp (if initially sharpened correctly) and last a long time. 

Ceramic

Due to the nature of ceramic, ceramic-blade knives are able to maintain a super sharp edge for a significant length of time—even with regular use. They’re also known to be lightweight, resist corrosion of any sort, and are generally stain-resistant.

However, note that their ceramic nature also means they can chip easily and aren’t as durable as the steel types.

Titanium nitride-coated

The core of titanium nitride-coated knives is a very hard ceramic. The coating is used to improve the blade’s texture and protect/harden it for greater durability. 

Titanium nitride is considered nontoxic. It naturally appears as a thin, gold coating; for this reason, it is often chosen for displays out of the drawer due to its pleasing aesthetic. 

Nonstick 

Many home chefs appreciate nonstick knives—but not by cooks who care quite deeply about the toxicity factor. Like nonstick pots and pans, nonstick knives are generally coated with a sort of Teflon plastic that has been revered for its slippery-like qualities. Alternatively, studies over the past decade have shown not-so-great consequences from the extra chemicals in the home and kitchen. 

If chemical use (such as brand-name household cleaners and nonstick pans) is not a concern to you, you may find the value gained from a knife with this coating to prove invaluable. Many who start using nonstick knives will never go back to other blade types. 

4. Hold it right there!

We’re going to focus on the handle (the part of the knife you hold) for this final point. 

Handles can be made of all sorts of material. It’s essential to pick a knife/knife set with handles that are (1) pleasing to look at (match your kitchen aesthetic), (2) easy to hold/maneuver, and (3) durable. 

Breaking this down:

• Knives are going to be part of your regular kitchen ventures. It would be best if you chose knives that altogether match your kitchen decor. This is especially the case if you purchase a set with a block or holder that’s supposed to reside on your kitchen counter. 

• You need to be able to hold and maneuver your knife easily. This is essential. Choose a knife size and shape that is very easy for you to grip and work through tough moments. Remember when trying a knife and holding it for the first time that you won’t always be so calm and collected. Surely there will be last-minute meals and holiday prep in the future of you with this knife—where you won’t be paying the greatest attention (although you should!). Because of this, you need to choose a knife that can become your greatest ally and not a self-harming weapon!

• Knife handles need to be durable. While you may be focusing more on blade durability, consider the fact that the entire weight of pressure from your hand into the food items has to travel through the handle and to the tip of the blade, sometimes breaking through tough squash skins or other difficult moments. The handle needs to be a hard and trusted material with good reviews from users. 

FAQs

Last stop on our knife know-how journey: blade types. The ultimate tip to help you choose the best affordable knife set is to consider what you and your household will get the most use out of. For example, if you only ever buy sliced bread from the store, you may not need a bread knife. Or again, if you’re in a family of vegans, a meat cleaver or oyster knife may not need to be the featured item in the knife set you purchase. 

There are literally dozens of kitchen knives and even many homesteading knife tools like this one. We’ve compiled a list of the top ten commonly used (and most versatile) kitchen knives for you to consider:

Chef’s Knife

• The basic kitchen knife for those who are embarking on any level of culinary journey above cereals and milk
• Also known as the cook’s knife
• Shape: large, broad blade; the back may be straight or slightly bowed; the sharp edge is rounded up to the point
• Shape is designed to allow for rocking back and forth—making chopping/mincing easier and more efficient 
• Six to twelve inches long, depending on chef’s hand size (i.e., the choice is made to ensure good weight balance between hand and knife—hence the name: “chef’s” or “cook’s” knife) 
• Will need to be sharpened often if used as frequently as it’s designed for (this is made to be your one go-to, multipurpose cooking tool) 

Utility Knife

• Second most commonly used knife in a basic cook’s kitchen
• This knife is essentially the multipurpose tool for everything that a chef’s knife is too bulky to handle, but a paring knife would be too small for
• Shape: elongated blade with a pointed tip; usually a flat back and scalloped edge
• Generally four to seven inches long

Heavy-Duty Utility Knife

• Similar to the above, but made with a harder material than the essential utility knife
• The shape and function of a heavy-duty utility knife is like a cross between the broad, flat blade of a chef’s knife with the sleeker nature of a utility knife (also includes the scalloped edge)
• A good knife for people who like the cutability of a utility knife but the leverage of a chef’s knife

Paring Knife

• The smallest of your primary three (chef’s knife, utility knife, paring knife)
• Paring knives are petite—in the blade and overall size
• They are usually slightly rounded on both the back and edge sides, with a smooth edge for easy cutting of small things (think garnishes, cherry-pitting, etc.)
• Three- or four-inch blade

Bird’s Beak Paring Knife

• Quite literally the shape of an elongated bird’s beak, with features otherwise identical to a regular paring knife
• This is particularly useful for garnishes or uses in which precision is an absolute priority

Boning Knife

• As you may have guessed by the name, this type of knife is made for animal meat preparations such as filleting fish, separating meat from the bone, chopping meat, etc.
• Some savvy chefs get a boning knife slightly on the shorter side, as they find it to be additionally preferable for vegetable chopping (perhaps more so than the basic utility knife shape)
• Typically anywhere from three to eight inches in blade length
• Also, a difficult knife to pin down a “true” shape; these tend to be unique from one another in their own category; can be flexible, semi-flex, or stiff, and vary in widths
• Generally, they are a medium-length, sharp-pointed knife with a smooth edge. In some ways, they look like a cross between a utility knife’s size with a paring knife’s shape

Bread Knife (Slicer)

• Again, probably not too hard to figure out what this knife is used for
• Bread knives are absolutely crucial to all homes in which bread is regularly made (and/or when whole loaves are preferred from the grocery store)
• Also useful for cutting cakes and any other preparation in which you might need to saw through something with firmness but not squish/damage the structure of that thing (such as a fresh loaf of bread)
• These are long knives with a serrated edge

Kitchen Shears

• Okay…so this isn’t technically a knife, but it deserves an honorable mention (and might explain why you often see some “scissors” in knife sets)
• Kitchen shears are made to be particularly durable from the tip through finger rings in order to provide excellent grip and strength
• Made to be used in food preparations, from vegetable to meat matters

Meat Cleaver

• Typically the fullest and heaviest knife you would find in a kitchen
• No belly shape; rather, more of a rectangle
• Made to be very durable and with a sharp edge for cleaving meat

Santoku Knife

• The Japanese equivalent to Western chef’s knives
• This is essentially the same shape and function as a chef’s (cook’s) knife, except it’s slightly shorter and has a thinner blade
• Santoku means “three virtues”
• Functions well for slicing, dicing and mincing (which happen to be the three virtues it is named for!)

Conclusion

With a little understanding of the knife types and materials used, you can do an efficient compare, and contrast of the knives suggested above and identify which will be perfect for your chef-ly needs. A good cheap knife set may be the perfect thing for you. Or you may discover that just one best chef’s knife under $100 is simply all you need. 

Choosing a kitchen knife can be a dicey business. This article will help you find the best kitchen knives under $100 and choose the one that’s perfect for you and your household!