All Day Goods Knives - are they worth the hype?

All Day Goods is an interesting knife company because the product has changed considerably over time.

The company's distinctive feature is its colourful handles made using recycled plastic. But when assessing a kitchen knife, we're primarily interested in what sits inside that handle: the blade.

And this is where the story becomes more complicated.

The Original Japanese Knives

The original All Day Goods knives used genuinely hand-forged Japanese blades.

In our experience, these were superb.

The steel quality was excellent, they sharpened beautifully and they were genuinely impressive cutting tools. Combine that with the company's distinctive recycled-plastic handles and you had something unusual: a design-led knife with a genuinely high-quality blade behind it.

The Sheffield Stainless Range

All Day Goods subsequently moved to a range using Sheffield-produced satin stainless-steel blades.

In our opinion, this was a significant step backwards.

The examples we've encountered from this generation have used comparatively mediocre steel and simply haven't offered the level of blade quality we would expect given the price being charged.

There's nothing inherently wrong with Sheffield manufacture – Sheffield has one of the world's great cutlery traditions. Our criticism relates specifically to our assessment of these particular blades.

For the money, we simply didn't think this generation represented particularly good value.

The Return to Japan

More recently, All Day Goods has moved back towards Japanese-forged blades, which in our view is a very welcome development.

It means that when buying an All Day Goods knife – particularly second-hand – it is worth establishing which generation of blade you're actually buying.

The colourful recycled handle may look similar, but underneath it can sit a very different knife.

Our Verdict

Original Japanese range: 9.5/10

Sheffield satin stainless range: 4/10

Current Japanese-forged direction: more promising

All Day Goods demonstrates perfectly why we always say you shouldn't judge a knife by its handle. The handle may be what catches your eye, but ultimately you're buying a cutting tool – and the quality, geometry and heat treatment of the blade are what determine how good that tool really is.