Review: K05 Utility Knife

“Utility knives in the kitchen, why on earth would you need a utility knife in the kitchen?”, this kitchen-knife newbie wondered out loud. Then his girlfriend tossed some packages of food on his cutting board. Ah, it is all clear now.

Opener
The smaller K05 is just perfect for opening everthing that’s wrapped around your food items, that you wish to decimate with the mighty Santoku. A fine point for sliding under wrappers, and if you’re in a hurry just use those serrations to cut through anything that’s in the way of the food.

Meat
While meat tends to stick to the Santoku’s blade, the little K05 zips right through. The serrations leave a nice smooth cut. I find this surprizing, since I expected a jagged surface on the meat with a serrated edge. Apparently, SHARP serrations are quite a different beast. Although the narrow blade helps minimize ‘sticking’ I also suspect that the serrations are helping with ‘separating’ meat. The K05’s edge does protrude beneath the handle but not enough to fully guard my knuckles when putting the complete edge on the cutting board. If there’s one upgrade I would recommend is to find a way where the edge lies well below my knuckles, without increasing the width of the blade.

Bread
I wanted the K04, thinking it would make and excellent ‘bread’ knife with a point. The K05 proves that it indeed should be a great bread knife. It’s sad but true; the Tell-Sell commercial got it right. I do appreciate uncompressed bread now! And again, no jagged cuts whatsoever. Sharp serrations not only perform, they leave cuts that are just as smooth as the most expensive plain edges.

Conclusion
You do need a utility knife in the kitchen for everything the Tell-Sell commercials say you do, such as divind a frozen ‘block’ of vegetables. Plus, the K05 has proven itself as a top-notch package-opener, meat cutter and bread knife.