Kit · Cooking without mains

Cook's knife and guard

One sharp knife beats three blunt ones, and the guard is the point.

Most of the cutting in this food is straightforward: onions where they are fresh, dried fruit, cured sausage, opening packets. One knife of about 15 to 20 cm does all of it.

The part people get wrong is transport. A loose knife in a crate is a hazard when you reach in and a blunt knife within a week as the edge knocks against everything else. Buy the guard or a sheath at the same time as the knife, and if the knife does not come with one, buy a universal blade guard.

A sharp knife is the safer one. A blunt blade needs force, and force is what makes it slip. A small sharpening steel or a pocket pull-through takes up almost no space and is the difference between a knife that works all season and one that stops working in a fortnight.

Avoid the serrated “camping” knives that cannot be sharpened. They work tolerably for six months and then they are scrap.

See this one on Amazon

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Last reviewed 18 September 2026. Specifications and availability change and we do not track them, so check the listing against what is described here.