Chinese chef’s knives in general enjoy incredible multifunctionality - they can be used for nearly every task in the kitchen: chopping, slicing, garlic-smashing, bench-scraping. In testing, we found that people enjoyed the speed of being able to scoop up chopped ingredients from the chopping board in one single movement, without putting down the knife. 

But when it comes to the uniqueness of our knife over other Chinese knives, it really comes down to the higher grade of steel that we use, and our blade design. The steel we use is high-carbon stainless steel, meaning that it holds an edge longer than other stainless steel knives, while still retaining stainless steel’s anti-tarnishing properties. The balance-point of the knife is shifted further towards the tip than most knives, in order to encourage users to pinch-grip the blade. 

Anything, aside from cutting through bones! The knife, with a bit of practice, is capable of even the most delicate and precise of cutting tasks. It’s at its absolute best chopping through large quantities of vegetables and boneless meat, as it can be used to scoop the prepped ingredients straight into the wok or pot in one single movement.

Very sharp, and ready to use immediately. Handle with care.

The pattern on the handle helps with grip, especially with wet hands. The wave pattern itself is a reference to Hong Kong’s history as a port city of trade and migration. Mainly it’s for grip though.

The knife’s balance point is shifted away from the handle a little more than most knives in order to encourage the user to pinch-grip the blade, offering superior safety and knife control. You can see a demonstration of this grip on our instagram page here or our youtube here.

Wash the knife gently with warm, soapy water. We recommend washing the blade soon after use - while it is stainless steel, leaving acidic food on the blade for long periods will discolour even stainless steel, and leaving it submerged in water is not recommended. If you do see spots of colouration, these are easily removed with gentle scrubbing. Do not put the knife in the dishwasher, nor any knife, ever.

While it is better to dry the knife with a towel, air-drying the knife works too. If air-drying the blade, leave it with the handle up and the blade down. This allows water to drain away from the wooden handle, which is made of natural rosewood. The handle will absorb natural oils, richening and darkening in colour as you use it.

We recommend storing the blade on a magnetic knife holder. Knives can get chipped or scratched easily if stored in a drawer, and hard knife blocks are difficult to clean. If storing in a drawer or for travel, we recommend a sheath, available here.

Sharpening is recommended at least once every six months. Our knife edge is sharpened to 20 degrees, which is wider than normal for Chinese vegetable knives. We found this extended the life of the edge significantly, without compromising on sharpness. However, eventually the blade will have to be resharpened. The regularity of sharpening depends on use, but twice a year is a good target in our experience. We tend to use a three-stage process to sharpen our knives, first with a low grit stone (up to 1000 grit) then with a high grit stone to refine the edge (~2000 grit) then a leather stop with a diamond compound to finish off the edge. 

Regular stropping of the blade is recommended, though not essential. The knife is made out of a high-carbon stainless steel, which is able to take a finer edge and hold it for longer than other stainless steels. Stropping the blade will extend the life of each edge between sharpenings.

We’re a small team of people who love knives, and have tonnes of ideas for different versions of our Chinese chef’s knife for the future, and have also received a fair few requests for a heavy stainless steel bone cleaver. We’d also like to make a great quality chopping board, and some other equipment that is easily found in China and Hong Kong and harder to find in the west. For the moment though, we’re fully focused on our Chinese Chef’s Knife, and getting this into as many kitchens as we can. If you want to hear about any new products we’re testing or releasing, the best way to keep in touch is through our newsletter here, or our instagram page here.

Our knives are proudly made in Yangjiang, Guangdong Province, China. Yangjiang has been China’s knife capital for over a thousand years, and is the centre of Chinese knife, scissor and blade production. The city is a few hours away from Hong Kong by train, and we’ve been lucky enough to get to know it very well: the city practically breathes knives. Our knives are made in a workshop owned by a third generation knifemaker, who we’ve been working closely with since the very beginning.

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Yes! We offer free shipping on all domestic UK orders. More details can be found here.

Our full returns policy can be found here.

We work really hard to ensure that every item we ship is in perfect condition, but if you found something that we missed please email us at orders@fragrantknives.com and we’ll make it right. More details can be found here. 

Our products are made to last, which is why we’re proud to offer a discretionary one year warranty on our knives and sheaths. Please email us at orders@fragrantknives.com and we’ll make it right. More details can be found here. 

While our knives are made in Yangjiang and designed in Hong Kong, all of our stock is warehoused in the UK.