A steak knife has a few characteristics that make it easily identifiable for most people.
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What Does a Steak Knife Look Like?
For one, a steak knife is similar in length and width to a standard table knife. A steak knife will usually have a serrated blade and a wooden handle. Moreover, the steak knife may be the only sharp knife present in a traditional dinner table setting.
Steak Knife Dimensions
Handle Length
As a rule of thumb the handle length of a typical steak knife tends to fall between 4.5 to 5.25 inches.
Blade Length
The typical blade length for a steak knife is also 4.5 to 5.25 inches.
How many Steak Knives do I need?
Many knife block sets include 6 steak knives.
However, many boxed steak knife sets have 8 steak knives.
The answer to how many steak knives you need is dependent upon how many people you feed at one time. For typical families, 6 or 8 steak knives seem to be enough.
Can a Steak Knife be used to Cut Vegetables?
Of course steak knives can be used to cut vegetables! Diners can certainly use their steak knives to cut any food during a meal. Chefs can also use steak knives if needed during meal preparation. The only downside to using a steak knife during meal preparation is if using the steak knife will make you short on steak knives for place settings.
Related: Should a Steak Knife be Serrated?
Where does a Steak Knife go in a Place Setting?
The steak knife takes the place of the dinner knife in the place setting.
Therefore, it is placed to the right of the plate, with the blade facing towards the plate.
A table setting with steak knife indicates that steak or a similar meat will be served.
Dinner Knife vs Steak Knife
A dinner knife is a moderately sharp knife, usually slightly serrated, made of one piece of metal. Dinner knives are often called butter knives or table knives, although technically a butter knife is it’s own tool.
Dinner knives are typically used to cut cooked food that is easy to cut.
Steak knives typically have a distinct blade and a distinct handle. They are very sharp, and may or may not be serrated. Their main purpose is to cut meat that would be difficult to cut with a dinner knife.
If there is no steak or similar meat on the menu, the steak knife is typically left out of the place setting. If there is steak as part of the meal, the steak knife will replace the dinner knife.
How Long is a Dinner Knife?
Dinner knives are typically available in two standard lengths: 9.25 inches and 9.75 inches.
