A good chef's knife must, of course, be sharp. To investigate the sharpness, the laboratory used an established method where the knives cut backwards and forwards in a mechanical movement into a stack of 15 mm thick paper sheets. All knives were placed under equal pressure and after ten operating cycles, the number of cut sheets was counted. Clearly sharpest are Porsche and Mac. 

“You can feel that there is quite a difference in sharpness between the knives. Porsche and Mac are very sharp whilst Sabatier and IKEA are clearly blunter,” says Magnus Palm, test manager at SP.

But a knife being sharp when you purchase it is one thing. It must also remain sharp so that you do not have to get out the knife sharpener each time the knife is used.”
“This was tested by carrying out the same test again after the knives had cut forwards and backwards 30 times through a highly abrasive sheet,” says Magnus Palm.

While the Porsche remained relatively sharp, the Mac lost 60% of its sharpness. After a certain amount of wear and tear, the most expensive knife was no sharper than the cheapest from IKEA. IKEA's knife was not affected at all by the abrasion.

Another form of wear and tear to which knives are exposed is rust. Here too the Mac knife proved to be particularly susceptible. While Porsche and OBH Nordica appear almost unaffected after the corrosion test, the Mac was more or less unusable with large patches of rust and pitting where dirt and bacteria could accumulate. 
“Large flakes have detached from the edge. It looks really deplorable,” says Magnus Palm.

According to Magnus Palm both the corrosion test and the wear and tear test indicate that the Mac knife is made of softer, less corrosion-proof steel. 
“If I speculate a bit, I think the Mac knife is made to be easy to grind. The more rust-resistant a knife is the harder it tends to be to grind. Here, manufacturers have to walk a tightrope.”

However, this is not something that Mac advertises. On its website, it states that the knife is made of extra hard steel to make it extra durable and rustproof. The knife is said to remain sharp much longer than other leading brands of knife.

Knife manufacturers also stress that their knives are well-balanced – i.e. that the knife blade and handle are the same weight. Most knives in the test live up to this but some of them fall forward if you balance the knife at the point where the index finger would be with normal use. Åhlén's Zeus knife and Oden from OBH Nordica had the worst balance.

The laboratory also examined the knives' bend resistance by clamping them at the tip and applying a kilo weight at a right angle to the knife. When the weight was removed, the permanent hook was measured. Several of the knives were not affected at all while, for example, Fiskar's knife had a permanent hook of degrees. 

“This type of bending is not something that happens with normal use, but it still says something about the strength. It is easy to get caught with the knife in the knife-holder or the chopping board,” says Magnus Palm.

Finally, the laboratory also looked at the design of the handle. Most knives have a bolster where the blade starts, to prevent your hand from gliding onto the blade. 

“But two of the knives, IKEA and Porsche, have a sloping blade to the handle. We did not examine to what extent the hand can slide onto the blade but, of course, there could be such a risk,” says Magnus Palm.