What’s the best carving knife set for BBQ? We bought 5 of the most popular carving knife sets on Amazon, ranging from under $30 to over $100, to find out which ones are actually worth buying. We tested all 10 knives for sharpness, comfort, and real-world performance while trimming briskets, deboning chicken thighs, and slicing smoked brisket, pork, and turkey.
Does spending more get you better knives, or can a budget-friendly carving knife set outperform the competition?
Quick Links to the products mentioned in this post:
- Keemake carving knife set
- Syokami slicing knife set
- Sunnecko BBQ carving knife set
- Cutluxe carving knife set
- Dalstrong 2-piece knife set
- Brisket board (get VIP pricing with code: BBQLAB)
- Edge on Up BESS tester
- Essential Equation
First, a disclaimer… we bought the top 5 most popular carving sets on Amazon ourselves. None of these are sponsored and none of the manufacturers have any idea that we’re using their products in this content. We devise the tests and let the results speak for themselves.
The Keemake pair is the lowest priced in the group, coming in at $28.49. The Sunnecko set is right around $15 more coming in at $42.49. The duo from Syokami is just $3 more than the Sunnecko for a price of $45.48. Cutluxe comes in at $6 more than the Sunnecko set, at $51.99. And rounding out the bunch at about double the price of every other set in the group is the Dalstrong combo coming in at $103.20.
Bess Sharpness Testing
The first thing out of the box I wanted to do with each knife is put it through our Bess sharpness tester to see how sharp they are. This tester uses a polymer monofilament that is uniform for each knife, and we get a rating to use for comparison. We started with all of the boning knives, and each knife had multiple attempts getting through the filament.
We averaged their scores and the Dalstrong took first place with a score of 77.5, which on the scale shows as sharper than a double edge razor blade.
- Dalstrong- 77.5
- Keemake- 90
- Sunnecko- 107
- Cutluxe- 121
- Syokami- 168
After the boning knives, each of the slicing knives had multiple attempts at the Bess tester as well. With such a long knife, we were just testing the tip of the knife, but we were really impressed with the results.
We averaged their scores and again the Dalstrong came out on top with an average score of 97, which is also sharper than a double edge razor blade.
- Dalstrong- 97
- Keemake- 105.5
- Cutluxe- 117.5
- Sunnecko- 136
- Syokami- 161
Boning Knife Tests
Brisket Trimming
We did a brisket class here at The Lab for around 25 guys, and I was able to use all of the boning knives while trimming up 4 whole packer briskets. I trimmed 2 the day before since they were going on the smoker overnight for the class, and the Keemake was up first, and I found it to take a little too much sawing back and forth to make meaningful cuts, but it got the job done.
The Syokami was next, and I noticed a marked difference of how much easier it was to trim with this knife compared to the Keemake. The Cutluxe was the third knife up, and I found it even easier than the Syokami to cut through the hard fat from the deckle than the two knives before it.
The last two trimming knives I used during the class in front of the group, trimming the largest brisket of the bunch. I started with the Sunnecko, which had its ups and downs, but I would say landed in the middle of the pack in this test. The Dalstrong was the final trimming knife I used, and I found it to perform almost identical to the Syokami knife which I would say tied for the best of the group.
Deboning Chicken Thighs
I picked up a package of bone-in chicken thighs to put the boning knives to the test. Two of the knives are thinner in the tip than the others, and the Sunnecko has the thinnest tip that isn’t rounded and comes to a point. That’s really helpful when deboning, and it was my favorite for this test. The Dalstrong and the Keemake also come to a point, making these more useful in deboning as well. I would rank them with the Sunnecko first, followed by the Cutluxe, Dalstrong, Keemake and the Syokami rounding out the bunch. They were all useful, but the top two stood out among the rest.
Slicing Knife Tests
Slicing Brisket
Of course, we didn’t trim 4 briskets not to cook and slice them, so I pulled the slicing knife out of each box and started our test in front of our class with the overnight briskets.
The Syokami was up first, and it gave me some trouble cutting the top of the brisket slices as well as pulling the slices apart towards the ends. The Sunnecko didn’t give me as much problem tearing the top of the slice, but still wanted to pull apart the end of the slice since this was a very moist brisket. The Cutluxe was up third, and it really made it look easy compared to the two knives that came before it. No tearing the top and it always cut through each slice.
The Keemake was up fourth, and it gave a great performance, never really giving us a problem during the cutting and the Dalstrong slicer was the last to be used, and glided through brisket slices like it was made to do so. Overall, I would say that the Cutluxe stood out to me as the easiest to use from this group with the Dalstrong hanging right there with it. Keemake surprised me, and I would put it in third place in this test.
Slicing Pork Loin
I wanted to test how these knives do carving meat other than just brisket, so I put two half pork loins on the smoker with our Essential Equation.
The Cutluxe had the easiest time cutting perfect slices. The Dalstrong struggled a bit in this test, not cutting all the way through in our slices, leaving what was supposed to be separate slices of meat connected at the bottom.
The Syokami knife has something I want to point out here, and that’s a definitive right angle on the butt of the knife, and it got caught a few times. The Sunnecko had a difficult time penetrating the crust we created on the pork loin, which was a surprising result of this test.
Slicing Turkey Breast
For dinner, I smoked 2 boneless turkey breasts, wrapped them in foil and transported them home for the family. I cut the turkey with each carving knife, and the Keemake gave me the most resistance cutting through the breast. It still cut through, but it was markedly harder than the rest. The Cutluxe once again shined here in this test as the easiest slicer in the bunch.
Final Thoughts
After all of the testing, I have some final thoughts that I want to share about each of these knife sets.
Syokami Slicing Knife Set
I love the look of this set. The wood handles, the texture on top of each knife to give a grip if you’re pulling skin off chicken… It’s a nice knife set, but it’s more looks than performance for me.
Keemake Carving Knife Set
The Keemake set is a fine set of knives, but there’s not much that distinguishes it from the others, and that may be what they’re going for. It’s a good middle of the group set that would be fine if you don’t have anything else to compare it to.
Sunnecko BBQ Carving Knife Set
The Sunnecko set has a wood handle that I really like. It’s polished and incredibly smooth. The boning knife was one of the top performers while the slicing knife ranked in the middle of the pack for me.
That really leaves the Cutluxe and the Dalstrong sets as the best in the group.
Cutluxe Carving Knife Set- Best Budget Pick
The Cutluxe handles fit my hand perfectly, and I feel like I have more control over the Cutluxe slicer than any other. They performed towards the top 1 or 2 in most tests, so I’m going to name the Cutluxe as the winner at the $50 range of the group.
The question remains, would I rather have the Dalstrong set if I had to pay twice as much?
Dalstrong 2-piece knife set
The things I love about Dalstrong knives are the handles and the blades. Their blades tested the sharpest out of the entire group by a wide margin, and I can work with these knives for a good amount of time without experiencing as much fatigue in my hand as I do with a few of the other brands.
The Cutluxe gives me almost the same results in each of these two categories, so I’m going to stick with my Cutluxe knives for half the price over the Dalstrong in this test.
If you’re also in the market for a set of steak knives, we’ve tested those as well.
