Marcus Hale
Head editor · blades & blocks
Marcus runs the rankings and the cut tests. Twenty years of home kitchens, fifteen retired knives, one good steel.
About Knives & Pans
Tools that
earn their spot.
Knives & Pans is run by a three-person editorial team. Every product on the site has been cooked on, cut with, or pulled apart by one of us. Nothing is here on vibes alone.
443Products reviewed
2Editors on the masthead
0Paid placements, ever
Knives & Pansstarted as a kitchen-tool obsession and grew into a small editorial team. Three of us, three different cooking lives — and a hard rule that nothing gets ranked on a spec sheet alone. Most tool reviews care about brand stories and product photos. We care about edge retention after thirty days, heat distribution under a stick of butter, whether you'll still reach for it after six months of weeknight dinners.
Material science gets explained in plain English — carbon steel vs stainless, tri-ply vs five-ply, why it matters for the food you actually make. If a $30 knife outperforms a $150 one at home-cook tasks, that's the story we tell. When we get something wrong, we fix it.
The team
Luisa Aguilar
Recipes & technique · cookware
Luisa beats up our cookware in real meals — braises, sears, weeknight one-pans. If a pan can't release an egg, it doesn't get on the list.
Ben Park
Gear engineering · materials
Ben reads the spec sheets so you don't have to. Tri-ply versus five-ply, VG-10 versus 1095, why every gram in the handle matters by hour three.
How picks get made
Shortlists come from real-world use, not specs charts. We list measured weight (not manufacturer spec), maintenance reality, and the closest competitor at the price. Brands don't buy placement. Affiliate commissions fund the testing — they never decide the rankings. When we get something wrong, we fix it.
Full affiliate policy and FTC disclosure live on the disclosure page.
Got a knife you swear by? Disagree with a pick? Reach the team at editor@knivesandpans.com.