By Dylan Clay
Kiwi & KOM KOM are a thai knife brand.
If you’re trying to find knives that:
These are it.
I’m talking like total disregard for care.
I even take the ones with the wooden handles and put them in my dishwasher (for shame Dylan!) – they’re still fine and it’s been 3 years.
Before each use I do a few passes on my honing rod and they’re back to new.
At this point I’ve used these to dice/mince 100s of lbs of celery, carrots, onions, scallions, garlic, etc. Same with meat.
I will say, after like an hour of cutting the wooden handles do cause a bit of a “wood burn” from rubbing.
I’ve also never used a wood oil on them either so that doesn’t help; I bet I could sand them and then apply a wood oil and they’d be fine.
They also make the knives with plastic, anti-slip handles that I know would sus the problem too.
But I’m also lazy and these are cheap.
Most “good” knives these days are expensive – apart from a brand like Victorinox which I’d deem “affordable.”
A site I like to source knives from is Cutlery and More.
They feature a lot of the brands you’ll come across:
Most Knife people would deem these “good” brands; These brands will run you $50-200+ for 1 knife.
Kiwi and/or KOM KOM are $6-12 for 1 knife.
You could likely build an entire knife set with these for less than $50-60.
While they may “feel cheap” – it’s quite literally because they are cheap and they’re awesome.
If you don’t have a honing rod, grab a ceramic coffee cup and flip it upside down.
Put the knife at an angle like you would for honing it.
Do a few passes on either side and the knife is back to new, like magic.
I’ve had the same Kiwi knives for over 3 years and these are razor sharp again after like 5 passes on a honing steel or a coffee cup.
That’s also after putting them in the dishwasher for 3 years and almost no care for them.
The blades also resist stains (the one above is my thumb print from slicing) and they’re quite thin.
Being thin also leads to dulling quick – but like I said above, they can be re-honed easily.
This thinness can be a benefit for something like veggie prep work but could be problematic for something hearty.
Here’s three different chef Knives I own side-by-side:
The only thing I don’t really like these for is deboning protein – so chicken or turkey, whole primals and sub-primals of beef or pork, etc.
The blades are flexible because they’re thin but most People like semi-stiff or stiff boning and/or breaking knives for stuff like this.
The blade being thin also affects the weight – which these are light.
If you don’t like light knives, I wouldn’t buy these.
Essentially almost any and all “knife tasks” you can think of a cheap KIWI knife can do.
So I personally don’t own these because the KIWI knives do me just fine.
KOM KOM is made by the same people only they typically have a “nicer” handle and harder/heavier steel.
To be honest though, for a knife that’s $10 or so, it’s not even worth thinking about stuff like:
These are all things “good” brands account for and they charge a pretty penny for it too.
But if you do want a little nicer quality I’d go with Victorinox over these.
