These super-sharp chef's knives got their start on Kickstarter — and they're perfect for home cooks

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• Misen makes premium-quality knives at a price that is refreshingly accessible for the average person.
• The company sent over some knives for us to test, and we found them to be a pretty fantastic option for starter home cooks thanks to their value for price.
• Due to their 15-degree edge blades (most Western-style blades come with a 25-degree), Misen knives were incredibly sharp for their price point.

Getting into cooking for the average person can be daunting. It can feel like you’re faced with the binary choice of the $20 knife set you used in college — which feels more like operating a dull saw — or the crazy price tag of the blade that the chef on your favorite cooking show uses. An in-between would be nice.

And for that tall order, we give you the moderately priced and super-sharp blades of the startup Misen. Sold direct-to-consumer and funded by Kickstarter, the company is able to use premium materials and invest in research without having to add in the cost of middlemen.

The company recently sent over a box of knives — not the weirdest thing we’ve gotten — to test. A few members of the team took them home, and after a few days of independent testing, our opinion was such:

Misen knives are a fantastic choice for starter home cooks.

Knives are arguably the most important tools in a kitchen, and you can do a lot with only a few quality tools. I tested Misen’s Essentials Knife Set, its iteration on the three most basic building blocks you need for a truly functioning kitchen, and I came away impressed by the versatility and precision of the collection for its price. For $130, the Essential Knife Set includes a chef’s knife, serrated knife, and paring knife.

If you want details, you can find them below, but the short of it is that overall, the Misen knives are really solid options for the average person, but likely not going to stun a top chef. This isn’t a bad thing.

Instead of replacing upper-level knives for a third of their cost, Misen seems to have created a particularly great mid-range knife sold at the cost of a knife of noticeably lower quality. In other words: Misen’s knives are a great deal for the average person.

On the same day that we received the knives, I went and picked up a bunch of groceries and turned the night into a meal prep to rival all others. I used every knife in the set for a few Olympic cooking events each, and was pleasantly surprised with how each handled them.

Even though the chicken I was preparing was still frozen in the middle, it only took one motion with the Chef’s Knife to halve it — which inspired an audible "oh, wow" in my empty apartment. It was smooth, instantaneous, and required little exertion. In comparison, the knife we had been using seems to simply hack at frozen food. It performed similarly well slicing through vegetables.

The reason Misen gives for how much sharper their knives are is that unlike most Western-style knives with angles of 25 degrees, Misen uses a more acute 15 degrees for a sharper cutting face. And while there are many aspects to take into account when actually calculating how "premium" a cooking knife is, it seems that Misen has at the very least been able to deliver on this element.

The serrated blade basically fell through loaves of bread, and the paring knife handled all vegetables and fruits with precision and agility.

For me, the benefits of having a nice set of knives with which to cook was less about the time and effort it spared me (which was noticeable), and more about how enjoyable cooking was when it felt like I wasn’t fighting the food to get it made. Having tools that make you extra-effective in the process makes the entire act of cooking feel more manageable, controlled, and enjoyable.

Cooking can be clumsy with the wrong tools; it can be much, much smoother with the right ones.

Every member of the Insider Picks team who tried the Misen knives received at least a comment or two from somebody else who used them. For me, it was my roommate calling out into the living room that "These knives cut like a dream!" from the kitchen. For Insider Picks editor Ellen Hoffman, it was having somebody use the chef’s knife to cut through a piece of paper in midair.

If you’re looking to upgrade to a new set or know somebody who loves to cook but maybe hasn’t graduated to buying themselves $200 knives, Misen is a great gift for the holidays.

They check most of the boxes: They’re a thoughtful gift, have frequent real-life application, and they both look and feel more expensive than their price suggests. It also doesn’t hurt that Misen is a growing company, and they’re rapidly expanding into other aspects of cookware while keeping the same ethos of an "honest price" for premium performance. If they really like the knives, your giftee can return-shop at a startup that most people haven't found yet. 

For the price, Misen is a great option for the average person. Their knives are incredibly sharp, easy to handle, and priced in a way that delivers a lot of value for a cost that won’t break the budget.

Shop Misen Cookware here >

Below are the two most popular selections currently offered by Misen:

Essentials Knife Set

Here is Misen's collection of the three most essential knives needed for a truly functioning kitchen. For $130, you can get a paring knife, a chef's knife, and a serrated knife all with the characteristic 15-degree angle blades for noticeably sharper cuts, sloped bolsters for comfortable grip, and intelligent hybrid blade design. That means you're only spending about $44 per knife.

Misen Essentials Knife Set, $130

Chef's Knife

The Chef's Knife is the most important knife in the kitchen, and Misen's iteration is prepared to hold itself to that standard. Its résumé includes being made out of high-quality Japanese steel, having the hybrid geometry of both Western- and Japanese-style features for an especially versatile blade, a comfortable grip, and a 15-degree blade angle for a sharper cut.

Misen Chef's Knife, $65