Well, you know what they say; If you love something, blog about it incessantly. As I’ve mentioned before, Thailand’s Kiwi knives are well-balanced, quite sharp, durable, easy to hone, and cost somewhere between $2 and $6. Everything from the parers to the cleavers work well and cost next to nothing. If you don’t already own fancy knives, go blow $10 on a few of these at an Asian market. *cue angel choir*

I recently took my brand-new $3 slice of awesomeness (8″ Kiwi chef’s knife, model #21) on a weekend trip to Lake Tahoe. I was the only person who brought their own knife (amateurs!), and it was the only sharp knife in the entire cabin, so everyone used it. A few hours after an awesome night where my pals made about 103 different pizzas, I noticed my knife sitting, stuck into a pizza, on a metal cookie sheet.

I looked around. There was no cutting board in sight. The knife was fiercely covered in sauce, both tomato and otherwise. So not only had the knife been used as a pizza cutter dozens of times on metal surfaces, it was also coated in acidic, corrosive goo. That formerly keen edge was undoubtedly curled-over, battered, and slowly dissolving into something less fierce.

Normally, I would have started swearing at this point, but before I grabbed my sauce-coated knife and went huntin’, I remembered that heck, the thing only cost me $3. I could afford to sacrifice it. On a lark, I decided to see how it’d fare on a fresh, ripe tomato, given its compromised state.

Like a razor, it schussed through the tomato. I tried it again on various parts of the blade. All were fine. After a quick hit with a steel, it was even more razor-ic. I baby my Kai Shun santoku, and I can’t keep it that sharp for more than a meal or two at a time without a trip to the stone. You’re trying to tell me that an essentially FREE tool can shrug off such abuse with aplomb?

I, for one, welcome our new Thai knifesmithing overlords.

Filed under: Tools

11 Responses to “Another Post About Kiwi Knives… Sigh.”

1. Formica Says:
   January 6th, 2009 at 1:16 pm

   Your description of these knives is both inspiring and amusing. I am so getting some of these

   YOUR BASAL NERVOUS SYSTEM WANTS THESE KNIVES

2. whit Says:
   January 6th, 2009 at 1:38 pm

   Wow, at that price it may be worth picking up a couple to have around. Shoot, I may even pick one up for my model making tool box, never know when it may come in handy for hacking up pieces of foam!

   Thanks for the tip.

3. jkw Says:
   January 7th, 2009 at 2:18 am

   OK. I love knives. For me it’s what makes cooking fun (wielding super deadly blades with no regard for anything really). I have a pretty good collection of fancy ones myself, but it looks like I need to branch out and try some of these. Thanks for the recommendation!

4. Joie de vivre Says:
   January 7th, 2009 at 3:14 pm

   My hubby and I once brought our Henckles chef knife to Hawaii to make Christmas dinner. It cost a little more than $3. That is an amazing knife!

5. Steph Says:
   January 7th, 2009 at 5:30 pm

   I brought some of these back from Thailand… I’m shocked they got through customs.

6. Steph Says:
   January 7th, 2009 at 5:31 pm

   Joie de vivre: a Henckels knife for $3?

7. LacY Says:
   January 7th, 2009 at 8:42 pm

   Hubby is impressed. I might be getting some of these. From where would you suggest I get some?

8. Nate Says:
   January 22nd, 2009 at 2:40 pm

   Hi, new to your site. I thought a Kiwi knife was a special tool to cut kiwi fruit or something.

   Thanks for adding us as a friend on Foodbuzz. We welcome you to come visit our site!

9. Debi Grzymala Says:
   September 6th, 2009 at 1:44 pm

   Wow! Where have these babies been hiding? I just purchased one from Ebay, and I could not believe how sharp it’s edge was! I wanted to start chopping, dicing, and slicing till the cows came home! Now after reading your blog I am destined to purchase a whole set!And what a price too for the budding gourmet!All I can say is Groovy!

10. Harold Says:
    October 4th, 2009 at 1:11 pm

    I got my first Kiwi knife at the local Asian market
    close to 15 years ago, and it was the sharpest knife in the house for many years (now I know how to work a basic knife sharpener and keep an edge on all my kitchen knives). Just last year I was able to find the other knives at Wokshop.com, now the well-used knife has four companions of various sizes and styles.

    I’m also a baker, the pearing knife slashed bread dough before baking better than any other method I’ve tried. That is one sharp blade. And for the price, essentially disposable.

11. DivingDancer Says:
    April 8th, 2010 at 3:17 pm

    I’m a bit of a knife freak myself. I rarely find a knife that is sharp enough to make me happy, so I tend to take my personal knives with me everywhere I go.

    I used to carry a selection of pretty expensive knives. Then I attended a cooking class being taught by a famous chef, and guess what knives were being used? Kiwi. After using these knives in class for four weeks, I decided that I couldn’t be without one. My Kiwi knives have now replaced every other knife I own. I don’t remember the last time that I reached for anything else in the past 5 months.

    These things are RAZOR sharp! You can easily slice check and beef so thin that you can see through it. And the skins on peppers and tomatos don’t offer any resistance at all. These are the only knives in my collection that intimidate me.

    I’ve read a couple of comments, on various websites, indicating that they probably don’t hold an edge well. Not true. I used one of them on a daily basis for almost 2 months before sharpening. At that point I dragged a very fine ceramic stone over the blade, very lightly, and that was it. Back to razor sharp.

    I’ve spend a lot of money on knives over the years, but never again. HIGHLY recommended.

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