HOW TO CHOOSE BETWEEN OUR SIGNATURE AND PROFESSIONAL KNIFE COLLECTIONS
Both our Signature and Professional kitchen knife collections are award-winning designs, so how do you choose between them? Here we examine the similarities and differences between both our Signature and Professional kitchen knives to help you decide which one is right for you.
Designed and engineered for superior sharpness, Robert Welch kitchen knives have been a feature in homes and professional kitchens around the globe for many decades. In 2011, the Cutlery & Allied Trades Research Association undertook sharpness and edge retention tests. It ranked our Signature kitchen knives in the top 1% percent of all brand knives tested at CATRA UK, in strict accordance with The International Cutting Test Standard BS EN ISO 8442-5:2005.
Building on this success, last year our NEW Professional kitchen knives launched, which went onto win an Excellence in Housewares Award only a few months later. A distinctive blend of classic good looks and exceptional performance, the Professional knife range sets a new standard and is destined to become an enduring symbol of culinary excellence.
Choosing the right kitchen knife
The right knife in the kitchen is as personal a choice as selecting a pen or pencil, and in both cases, the artist’s preference has an impact on what they create. Robert Welch kitchen knives offer a blend of precision, durability, and timeless aesthetics. Whether a passionate home cook or professional chef you will want these tools to accompany you whenever you are in the kitchen, transforming each cut, slice, and chop into a lifetime of gastronomic finesse.
Signature or Professional: Robert Welch kitchen knives offer a blend of precision, durability, and timeless aesthetics.
Material: Fully forged, with a full tang, from high quality German stainless steel, for strength, edge retention and easy sharpening at home.
Handle: Shape, size and a comfortable feel are vital. The design of a handle’s form and curvature should fit your hand and grip well.
Weight & Balance: The stability of a knife in the hand is due to how its weight and balance works for you, it will guide your work in the kitchen.
Blade: A sharp knife is a predictable knife, a trait which makes it a safer tool to work with. Blade edges can be kept perfectly honed using our hand-held knife sharpener.
Signature Kitchen Knives
The multi-award-winning Signature kitchen knife collection has sold over 1.5 million units in the last seventeen years. Designed for purpose and practicality in everyday food preparations, the specially hardened, high-quality, German stainless steel used for our Signature knives is durable, easy to clean and maintain yourself by regularly using our hand-held knife sharpener to re-hone the blade-edges.
Professional Kitchen Knives
Inspired by Robert Welch’s 1979 Kitchen Devils Professional range, our new Professional kitchen knives have a European appearance with deeper blades and a straighter cutting edge. The precision sharpened, ice hardened, German stainless steel retains a harder more resilient blade edge for those who cook more often, and the hand-held knife sharpener will re-hone these to perfection, as often as required.
Handle
Hands come in all shapes and sizes, as do knives. The handle shape, size and a comfortable feel are as important as a knife’s weight and balance. The form and curvature should fit securely in the palm of your hand and you should be able to grip it easily.
A knife in use will become an extension of your hand, so the fit must be right for you. Both Signature and Professional knife collections are made from high quality German stainless steel onto which injection moulded plastic is fused through to the tang, for a precision smooth finish.
A specific highlight of the Signature knife collection is its ergonomically shaped handle design. The way the handle is injection moulded through and onto the full tang makes it integral to the knife’s overall strength. The shape of its form provides comfort and balance in the hand, and the smooth shape and curve of the blade allows you to cut with a rock and chop action.
The Professional knife collection builds on this design but provides an antidote to the curves of Signature. It offers a more traditionally shaped handle, European in style but still pebble-smooth to the grip. The handle’s hooked end gives those who want it that extra level of security in the hand. The profile of this knife is modern but timeless.
Top Tip! For those with particularly small hands, the handle of the 12cm cook's knife and the 11cm santoku knife are the smallest available in the Signature knife collection.
Weight & Balance
The heft of a knife will guide its use, so its weight and balance need to work for you. Some questions to ask include: Is it too heavy or too light to feel stable in your hand? Do you prefer a balanced knife, or one with the weight at the back or all in the blade? What is it you need the knife to do? What ingredients do you regularly cook with?
Both Signature and Professional knife collections are fully forged with a full tang. Fully forged means that the blade and handle are stamped from a single piece of steel with the bolster already formed. A full tang means that the stainless steel runs seamlessly throughout the entire length of the knife, ensuring that both handle and blade have been designed together, to stabilise one another and work in unison.
Comparatively quite light as a knife, neither the blade nor handle of the Signature knives are ‘top’ heavy. Professional knives are fuller and heavier in the hand than Signature knives, but this weight is still evenly distributed and therefore still balanced between the handle and blade. The increased blade weight of the Professional knife does some of the work for you however, so cutting and chopping feels effortless.
Top Tip! Experienced chef’s often select a heavy or light knife based on the task. Our knife block sets are made of a mix of knives, so you always have the right knife to hand.
Blade
A sharp knife is a predictable knife, a trait which makes it a safer tool to work with, as long as it is used properly. Both Signature and Professional knives have a 15° cutting edge, for superior sharpness, precision and ease of cutting.
The curved blade of the Signature knife provides comfort and balance in the hand, whilst allowing you to cut with a rock and chop action. Signature knives have been in use in homes and professional kitchens worldwide since 2007. The design is loved by many professionals for its uniquely comfortable grip and superior sharpness, giving excellent control in even the most delicate of tasks.
Professional knives are made to the same high standards expected by professional chefs but have been designed for daily, domestic use. Suitable for use in both homes and professional kitchens, the knives retain a harder more resilient blade edge allowing the execution of precision techniques with absolute finesse. Ice-hardened, the blade is engineered to give the frequent cook exceptional longer lasting sharpness.
Top Tip! Use our hand-held knife sharpener to ensure your Signature and Professional kitchen knives are always sharp. We recommend you hone your knife blades regularly, to realign the exact 15° edge angle for the perfect cutting edge.
A personal choice
Both ranges of kitchen knives have been designed and developed with the expertise and input of professional chefs. The proficiency of the professionals who have helped refine each design has ensured that each knife is perfectly balanced and suited to its particular specialty in the kitchen, and that its individual qualities enhance your culinary experience, whatever you are cooking.
Professional chefs are known for being particularly discerning, some even having a knife roll which encompasses a wide variety of brands illustrating that they are not loyal to one company but simply the best knife for the job.
We have established that comfort, weight and balance, blade sharpness and edge retention are crucial qualities in selecting the right kitchen knife. Both our Signature and Professional kitchen knives are designed and engineered for superior sharpness, and our knives are trusted by home cooks and professional chefs around the globe, so the choice is yours. Visit us in our Chipping Campden shop today to try both and decide for yourself which one suits you.