The most comfortable chef's knives, according to Consumer Reports

Chef's knives are the workhorses of most kitchens, used for everything from mincing garlic to breaking down bone-in chicken thighs. Cooks who settle for a poorly shaped handle face cramped hands, uneven cuts and slower prep every day.

Consumer Reports tested eight 8-inch chef's knives with an in-house ergonomics expert and four panelists who have different hand sizes and grip styles, scoring each knife on 14 factors, and the five below deserve a look before your next kitchen purchase.

Credit: Henckels

All four panelists in Consumer Reports testing reviewed the $39 Premio positively, and no other knife in the group drew that unanimous reaction. Its contoured handle suits hands of different sizes, with swells at the center and rear and no sharp edges anywhere along the grip. CR also found that force transferred efficiently from handle into blade, and dense foods such as sweet potato took less effort to cut. Some panelists felt the balance tipped slightly depending on grip style, though CR's ergonomics expert recommended the Premio over the other seven for shoppers who cannot try a knife before buying.

Credit: Wüsthof

Shoppers pay $170 for the Classic, far more than the other four knives here, and its traditional German construction accounts for much of that. One piece of steel runs from the tip through the triple-riveted handle, and Wüsthof has altered that design little over more than 200 years. Panelists worked through CR's cutting tasks without reporting sore spots or hand strain, though small shifts in grip changed how balanced the hefty blade felt. In home kitchen testing, CR found the extra mass useful on potatoes and bone-in chicken and unwelcome for delicate work such as mincing parsley.

Credit: KitchenAid

Casual cooks can stock a kitchen with this $22 model, which costs far less than the German-made knives above. CR called it a strong choice at that price and rated it reasonably comfortable for every hand size tested, though two panelists reported minor cramping. Testers found chopping easy thanks to solid force transfer between handle and blade, even though several called the blade heavy for the handle. Buyers should weigh the tradeoff behind the low price, because cheaper steel resists sharpening and wears out faster than the high-carbon steel in the Henckels and Wüsthof.

Credit: Global Knives

Professional chefs have favored Global for years, and the Classic 8-inch model is priced at $100. CR's panelists who use a pinch grip called the knife well balanced, while those with larger hands or a full five-finger grip found the slim handle less comfortable. The panel also found that the dimpled metal handle kept the knife from slipping once testers coated their hands in oil. CR's home tester praised the light build for chopping herbs but switched to the heavier Henckels for chicken and root vegetables.

Credit: Mercer Culinary

Mercer builds its knives mainly for working kitchens, and the $40 Renaissance borrows the heavy German look of the Wüsthof for less than a quarter of its price. The blade has no bolster at the point where it meets the handle, so a cook with decent skills can carry a stroke through a large roast without breaking the cut. CR's tester preferred this knife to the Wüsthof for that reason and found it easy to work with across a full range of prep tasks. Steel running the full length of the handle helped with force transfer in panel testing, though cooks who grip farther back felt the balance tip and one hit a pressure point on the rounded section, leaving pinch-grip users as the better match.