Babish High-Carbon 8" Review

The Babish is an 8-inch stamped steel blade made in China. It comes with a polymer handle with an etching of Babish's stylized face on the end. We measured it at a hefty 8.3 ounces.

Performance Comparison

Cutting Performance

The Babish pleasantly surprised us with its cutting performance. Despite some manufacturing flaws in the blade when we took it out of the box (which we discuss in the build quality section), once we got it cleaned up, we found it to be surprisingly capable.

The reported HRC (a measure of steel hardness) of this blade is 55. Our laboratory measurements found it to have an HRC of 51, which is still well within the bounds of what we would expect from a quality blade designed to hold its edge.

Throughout our several months of testing, we found that the Babish did, in fact, hold an edge quite well and had no issues with some common hang-ups like soft tomato skins and floppy basil leaves.

With a classic chef's knife shape, the Babish falls within the realm of what we expect in terms of making precision cuts like the ones we made during our testing — chiffonading some herb leaves and employing a brunoise cut on some onions and peppers.

Practicality

Despite its strengths, the Babish performed just average during our tests of this metric. It has the appearance of a pretty standard chef's knife, but the shape and weight of its handle held it back from being as dextrous as many others.

The surprising weight of the handle means that any grip other than your textbook grip becomes rather awkward, particularly during unusual cuts. We had a harder time doing things like splitting a butternut squash or breaking down a chicken, as the heavy, rounded handle of this knife just didn't stay securely in our hands the way it should.

With wet hands — from washing vegetables or fatty raw meat — the rounded handle of the Babish proved a weak point in its grip. The strongly angled, metal front end of the handle helped to stop the whole thing from twisting in our hands while breaking down a chicken and chopping a canteloupe, but our confidence using this knife was less than many others.

Ergonomics

The basic shape and style of the Babish High-Carbon are based on other high-end knives, some of which are also in our full testing lineup.

The handle shape itself, our testing team found to be quite comfortable across many different grips — similar to the knives this affordable model is based on.

Its long handle gives a fair bit of versatility during normal cutting actions. Though it doesn't have a bolster, the front of the handle features a well-angled slope and defined edges that fit well in the hands of our whole testing team.

However, one significant drawback to the overall comfort and ergonomics of the Babish is the imbalanced weight of the handle. It is intensely weighted towards the back of the knife, and we felt out of balance when we were cutting. However, if you prefer to have the bulk of your knife gripped in your fist, perhaps this skewed blade won't bother you.

Build Quality

Although the Babish is a solidly built knife, we found some significant issues with its finishing. Immediately after unboxing, we noticed several small patches of rust on the metal portion of the handle!

Additionally, the tip of the blade had a small but noticeable burr left over from the manufacturing process and was not sharpened or polished away. Fortunately, we were able to clean all of these things up with about 20 minutes of light work in our shop. However, receiving an unfinished blade rubbed us the wrong way, and it was by far our biggest complaint about this knife.

Once the obvious faults of the Babish were fixed, the Babish easily passed our paper slice test.

Should You Buy the Babish High-Carbon 8"?

If you are looking to save money, you want the look of a more expensive knife, and you don't mind potentially having to make a few fixes to your chef knife, the affordable Babish could be just the knife for you.

What Other Chef Knives Should You Consider?