Knife Parts

Appears in
Professional Cooking
Professional Cooking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2014

  • About
Chef’s knives and other knives have a number of parts, and you should be familiar with their names. These parts are illustrated in the diagram.

The spine is the back of the blade. It is the edge opposite the cutting edge. The tip is the pointed end of the blade, while the heel is the back end of the blade closest to the handle. On some knives, the blade has a raised part called a bolster at the heel end. The bolster is a sort of guard that helps protect the hand from slips and also helps balance the weight of the knife.