Gordon Ramsay Knives

Gordon Ramsay's knives come from three brands, and which one you see depends on where you are watching him. Today he cooks with HexClad, the cookware company he officially partnered with, and its Japanese Damascus steel knives are the ones he has said he uses in his kitchens. In his online cooking lessons and much of his instructional video work the knife in his hand has been a forged German chef's knife, the Wüsthof Classic 8-inch. And on Hell's Kitchen the black-handled knives the contestants cook with are Henckels, from the Zwilling J.A. Henckels family. None of the three is a "Gordon Ramsay knife" in the branded sense; the licensed Hell's Kitchen sets sold in stores and the Royal Doulton Gordon Ramsay line are separate products he does not cook with on camera.

This guide sorts those three lanes out, brand by brand, with what each knife is made of and who it suits, then covers the rules Ramsay himself teaches about buying and keeping knives, the forged-versus-stamped question, and how to hone and sharpen the one you buy. Three in-stock picks, one per brand, are carded along the way. If you want to assemble a full set around his choices, the site's Gordon Ramsay knife set guide does that; if you specifically want the show's Henckels sets, see Hell's Kitchen knife set.

Which Knives Gordon Ramsay Actually Uses

Three brands, three contexts. The table below is the short version; each brand gets its own section after it.

Brand	Where you see it with Ramsay	What it is	Best for
HexClad Japanese Damascus	His own kitchens and social videos since the HexClad partnership; the HexClad "Chef Collection: Gordon Ramsay"	67-layer Damascus steel, full tang, pakkawood handles	A sharp, hard, Japanese-style edge; buyers who want what he uses now
Wüsthof Classic	His online cooking lessons and instructional demos	Forged German high-carbon stainless, full bolster, triple-riveted handle, Solingen	A tough, forgiving workhorse chef's knife; the "one knife" buy
Henckels / Zwilling	Hell's Kitchen, the contestants' black-handled knives	German-engineered (Henckels) or Solingen-forged with FRIODUR ice-hardening (Zwilling)	The show look at two price tiers; block sets
Hell's Kitchen™ licensed sets, Royal Doulton Gordon Ramsay	Store shelves, not his hands	Licensed consumer lines that use the show or his name	Fans and gifts; not the knives he cooks with

HexClad Damascus: The Knives He Uses Now

Since partnering with HexClad, Ramsay has put the brand's Japanese Damascus knives in front of the camera as the knives he uses in his kitchens; HexClad's Chef Collection: Gordon Ramsay page opens with his line that "a chef is only as good as their knives," and the company says the deal puts HexClad on Next Level Chef, in his cookbook and at his London cooking academy. The knives are HexClad's first move outside cookware: an 8-inch chef's knife, a santoku, a nakiri, a cleaver, a boning knife, a paring knife and steak knives, sold singly and in 6- and 7-piece sets with green or espresso pakkawood handles.

What you are buying is a Japanese-style blade: 67 layers of Damascus steel folded around a hard core, full-tang, thin behind the edge. Hard steel takes a keener, thinner edge and keeps it longer than the softer German steels, which is the appeal; the trade is that a harder edge is more brittle, so it chips rather than rolls if you twist it through a bone or drop it in the sink. Reviewed tested the 6-piece Japanese Damascus set and called the blades undeniably sharp and ready out of the box, with practical sizes, while marking it down for handle comfort, the lack of sheaths and the fact that it is not dishwasher safe. That matches how a hard Japanese edge should be treated: hand-washed, honed lightly, never run through a dishwasher. If you want the knives Ramsay is holding this year, this is the set.

Wüsthof Classic: The Knife in His Cooking Lessons

For years the knife most often identified in Ramsay's instructional videos has been a Wüsthof Classic chef's knife, the black triple-riveted 8-inch that professional kitchens have run on for decades. Wüsthof has been a family company in Solingen, Germany since 1814, and still forges its knives only there; the Classic is precision-forged from a single block of high-carbon stainless steel with a full tang and a full bolster, the thick collar of steel between blade and handle that a forged knife has and a stamped one does not.

The reason chefs reach for it is the same reason a beginner should: it is forgiving. German steel is hardened to the mid-to-high 50s on the Rockwell C scale, a few points softer than a Japanese Damascus blade, so the edge rolls slightly under abuse instead of chipping, and a few strokes on a steel bring it back. The blade is thicker and heavier, with a curved belly that rocks through onions and herbs. It is the one-knife answer for a home cook who will prep everything from a chicken to a squash with it. The site's Wüsthof Classic sets guide compares the block sets built around it, and Wüsthof Classic vs Henckels Pro puts it head to head with the closest Henckels.

Henckels and Zwilling: The Hell's Kitchen Knives

The black-handled knives in the contestants' hands on Hell's Kitchen are Henckels, and the two names on the box confuse people. Zwilling J.A. Henckels has made knives in Solingen since 1731 and sells two brands: ZWILLING, the premium line forged in Solingen with FRIODUR ice-hardened blades and the SIGMAFORGE single-piece forging, and HENCKELS (the "Henckels International" of older boxes), a lower-priced line that is German-engineered but largely made outside Germany. The show's knives sit in the Henckels lane, which is why a full block set costs a fraction of a Zwilling one.

For a buyer that means a decision, not a brand loyalty. A Henckels Classic 8-inch chef's knife gives you the show's look and a satin-finished, honed German-style blade at an entry price; a ZWILLING Pro or Gourmet gives you the Solingen forging and ice-hardened steel, which holds an edge longer, at two or three times the money. The best Henckels knife sets guide walks the block sets by line, and Wüsthof vs Zwilling settles the German-versus-German question for the premium tier.

The Hell's Kitchen Knife Sets You Can Buy Are Not the Show's Knives

A search for a Hell's Kitchen knife set turns up licensed Hell's Kitchen™ branded cutlery: a Damascus steel collection the Hell's Kitchen Store describes as forged from 67 layers of Japanese Damascus steel with full-tang construction, plus stainless block sets sold through farm-and-home retailers. These are consumer lines that license the show's name, in the same way the Royal Doulton Gordon Ramsay knives license his. They are not what the contestants cook with, and Ramsay has not been shown using either on camera. If the goal is the knives from the show, buy Henckels; if the goal is a gift with the logo on it, the licensed sets are exactly that, and the Hell's Kitchen knife set guide lists the Henckels sets that come closest to the contestant kit.

Ramsay's Own Rules for Buying and Keeping Knives

In his knife skills lesson and the kitchen-setup lesson that precedes it, Ramsay is consistent about four things. Buy fewer, better knives: he would rather own a small collection of high-quality knives than a drawer full that "don't do the business." Spend the money on the knife and the pan before anything else in a small kitchen. Sharpen every time: he runs the blade over a steel before and after each use, holding the steel like a knife with the fingers behind it, and the longer the steel the easier the job. And judge a knife by its handle: he wants the weight in the handle, because that weight gives him direction and control on the slice, and a knife that is light in the hand is harder to gauge.

His working kit in those lessons is four knives, not a 16-slot block: a serrated bread knife for loaves and large vegetables, a chef's knife for chopping and slicing, a flexible boning or filleting knife, and a small paring knife. That is the honest shopping list behind every brand on this page. A chef's knife you will hone and a paring knife you will actually pick up beat a set of twelve you will not, which is also why the cards here are single knives and one compact set rather than blocks.

Forged vs Stamped, and Why Steel Hardness Matters

Every knife on this page except the licensed budget sets is forged: a single bar of steel heated and pressed into shape, then ground, hardened and tempered. Forging leaves the bolster, the thick steel collar at the heel that adds weight behind the edge and keeps your fingers off the blade, and it lets the maker put more steel at the heel and less at the tip. A stamped knife is cut from a flat sheet like a cookie, so it is thinner, lighter and cheaper, with no bolster and usually a molded handle. Stamped is not automatically bad, and some excellent Japanese knives are made that way, but at the prices most stamped block sets sell for the steel is soft and the edge is gone in weeks.

Hardness is the number that explains the rest. Blade steel is measured on the Rockwell C scale: German knives such as the Wüsthof Classic and Zwilling lines sit in the mid-to-high 50s, Japanese-style Damascus blades such as HexClad's a few points higher. Harder steel holds a thinner edge longer, because the edge deforms less with every cut; softer steel dulls sooner but bends rather than breaks, so it survives a twist through a chicken joint and comes back on a honing steel. Zwilling's FRIODUR process hardens the blade by deep-freezing it after heat treatment, which the company says leaves the steel harder and more corrosion-resistant without making it brittle. Pick the hardness for the cook: a Japanese edge for someone who slices carefully and hand-washes, a German edge for a kitchen where the knife gets used hard.

Honing, Sharpening and the Care That Keeps Them Sharp

Honing and sharpening are different jobs. A knife edge is a fine ridge of steel that folds over microscopically as you cut; a honing steel stands that ridge back up without removing metal, which is why Ramsay steels before and after every use and the knife feels new again in ten strokes. Sharpening grinds a fresh bevel, removing steel, and a home cook needs it a few times a year on a whetstone or with a guided sharpener; German edges are ground around 14 to 15 degrees per side, Japanese ones closer to 12, and a pull-through sharpener set for one will chew the other. The site's self-sharpening knife sets guide covers the block-based option.

The care rules are the same for all three brands. Hand-wash and dry at once; dishwasher detergent is abrasive and the rack knocks the edge against other steel, and wooden and pakkawood handles swell and crack in the heat. Cut on wood or plastic, never glass, stone or a plate, which dull an edge faster than a month of onions. Store the knives in a block, on a magnetic strip or with edge guards rather than loose in a drawer. And keep the hard Japanese edge away from bones, frozen food and squash; that is what the German knife is for. Handled that way, a forged knife from any of these makers is a decades-long purchase, which is the whole point of Ramsay's "spend money on a knife."

Which Gordon Ramsay Knife to Buy

If you want what Ramsay uses right now, it is the HexClad Japanese Damascus set, and the 6-piece is the sensible size. If you want the knife he taught with and the most forgiving all-rounder for a family kitchen, it is the Wüsthof Classic 8-inch chef's knife, and adding the matching paring knife covers most jobs. If you want the Hell's Kitchen look for the least money, it is the Henckels Classic 8-inch, with the Zwilling Pro as the step up if the budget allows. For a Japanese alternative that is not HexClad, the best gyuto knife guide compares six, and best kitchen knives ranks brands across the whole market. Whatever you pick, buy a honing steel with it and use it the way Ramsay does, before and after. The full kitchen gear section has the rest of the equipment guides.

Go deeper on the brands: Wüsthof vs Zwilling, Wüsthof Classic vs Henckels Pro, and where to buy HexClad. Build the set: Gordon Ramsay knife set.

Gordon Ramsay Knives FAQs

The questions that come up most: what knives Gordon Ramsay uses, whether he uses HexClad, Wüsthof or Henckels, what knife set Hell's Kitchen contestants get, whether he has his own knife brand, what size chef's knife he recommends, whether the HexClad knives are any good, and how he sharpens.

What knives does Gordon Ramsay use?

Three brands in three settings: HexClad Japanese Damascus knives in his own kitchens and videos since he partnered with the company; a Wüsthof Classic 8-inch chef's knife in his online cooking lessons and instructional demos; and Henckels knives on Hell's Kitchen, where the contestants cook with the brand's black-handled knives. None is a Gordon Ramsay-branded knife.

Does Gordon Ramsay use HexClad knives?

Yes. Since partnering with HexClad he has said the brand's Japanese Damascus knives are the ones he uses in his kitchens, and HexClad sells them under a "Chef Collection: Gordon Ramsay" heading. They are 67-layer Damascus steel, full tang, with pakkawood handles, sold singly and in 6- and 7-piece sets.

Wüsthof or Henckels, which does Gordon Ramsay prefer?

He has used both. The Wüsthof Classic is the knife identified in his instructional videos; Henckels are the knives on Hell's Kitchen. For a buyer the practical difference is price and hardness: the Wüsthof Classic and Zwilling lines are Solingen-forged premium knives, while the Henckels brand is Zwilling's lower-priced, German-engineered line.

What knife set do Hell's Kitchen contestants get?

Henckels, the black-handled knives seen throughout the show. The licensed Hell's Kitchen™ knife sets sold in stores are a separate consumer product that uses the show's name; they are not the contestants' knives. The Hell's Kitchen knife set guide on this site lists the Henckels sets closest to the kit.

Does Gordon Ramsay have his own knife brand?

No knife line of his own. Two licensed products carry his name or his show's: Royal Doulton sells a Gordon Ramsay knife collection, and Hell's Kitchen™ branded knives are sold through the Hell's Kitchen Store and retailers. HexClad's Damascus knives are the ones he actually endorses and uses, sold as HexClad's Gordon Ramsay chef collection.

What size chef's knife does Gordon Ramsay recommend?

An 8-inch chef's knife is the size in his hand in his lessons and the size of the Wüsthof Classic and HexClad chef's knives he is associated with. His working kit is four knives, not a block: a chef's knife, a serrated bread knife, a flexible boning or filleting knife and a small paring knife.

Are the Gordon Ramsay HexClad knives good?

Reviewed tested the 6-piece Japanese Damascus set and found the blades sharp out of the box with practical sizes and durable construction, and marked it down for handle comfort, no sheaths and no dishwasher safety. That is the profile of a hard Japanese-style edge: keen and long-lasting if you hand-wash and hone it, chip-prone if you treat it like a German workhorse.

How does Gordon Ramsay sharpen his knives?

With a honing steel, before and after every use. He holds the steel like a knife with his fingers behind it and runs the blade down it in quick strokes; a longer steel makes the angle easier to hold. Honing realigns the edge without removing metal. True sharpening, on a stone or a guided sharpener, is only needed a few times a year.