Blade taper and why it matters.

What Is Blade Taper and Why Does It Matter?

Blade taper is the way a knife's thickness and geometry change along its length from handle to tip and along its width from spine to cutting edge.

It matters because a knife is not simply a flat piece of steel with an edge attached to it. Its geometry determines how it moves through food, how much resistance it creates and how the edge behaves.

Thickness Can Change Along The Blade

Many kitchen knives taper towards the tip. The heel may be stronger and more substantial while the tip becomes progressively finer.

This is useful because different parts of a knife are often used for different tasks.

The problem comes when sharpening or previous damage changes that original relationship.

Sharpening And Taper

Every time material is removed from a knife, the geometry changes slightly.

A knife that has been sharpened repeatedly can develop a thicker area behind the edge anywhere along the blade. If that thickness becomes excessive, the knife may still be sharp at the very edge but perform poorly because the blade is wedging through food.

This is one of the reasons we look beyond the cutting edge when assessing a knife.

Taper And Bevel Width

The amount of taper affects how wide the bevel needs to become to reach the appropriate cutting geometry.

A thinly tapered knife and a relatively thick knife can therefore finish with very different-looking bevels even when both have been sharpened correctly and compared side by side.

This is not a fault. It is a correction of geometry to provide the sharpest edge.

Why We Assess Every Knife

At Blade & Butler, our sharpening process is deliberately bespoke. The knife is assessed according to its condition, thickness, taper, profile, steel and intended application.

The result is that two knives from the same household can receive different treatment.

That is exactly what should happen. Other companies will clamp your knives to a machine at an appropriate angle and sharpen them all the same. From cleaver to filleting knife. We don't.

Blade taper is one of those details you may not notice at all. To us, it is one of the most crucial aspects of a knife and should be one of your first considerations when buying a new knife. Once you understand it,

however, it becomes obvious why professional sharpening cannot sensibly be reduced to 'put every knife at the same 15 degree angle'.

The blade itself tells us what it needs.