How the index is built
Every number on this site can be traced to a public shop listing on a stated date. This page says what we collect, how we compute, and what the data cannot tell you.
The method
What we survey
We read the public catalogue of each shop: product name, displayed price, crossed-out price if any, blade length, layer count, core steel and handle material, as written on the listing. The current survey is dated 14 November 2026 and covers 6,741 listings from 119 brands in the United States, France and Germany.
A knife is included when its listing says the blade is damascus or gives a layer count for a kitchen knife. Pocket knives, hunting knives and accessories are left out, and so are blades whose listing says the pattern is printed or laser-etched. Only knives in stock on the survey date are counted. The database also lists Japanese-shaped kitchen knives (santoku, gyuto, nakiri and others) without a damascus blade; price pages, rankings and brand scores count damascus listings only.
What we do not do
- We have not handled, cut with or measured these knives. Steel, hardness and layer counts are the sellers' statements.
- We do not guess. When a listing does not name the core steel, the field reads “not stated”.
- We do not convert currencies. Each market is shown in the currency and with the taxes its shoppers see.
How figures are computed
The median is the middle price: half of the listings cost less, half cost more. We prefer it to the average because a few very expensive knives would otherwise distort the picture. The “middle half” runs from the first to the third quartile. A figure is only shown when at least five listings support it.
Each knife type has its own page so that a small paring knife is never compared with a long slicer. Sets are counted separately from single knives.
Limits
A listed price is not a sale price: discounts, codes and stock change daily. The survey is a photograph of one day. Shops that sell many models weigh more in a median than shops that sell few. Brand pages show how much data stands behind each figure.
Partners
Some brands have a commercial relationship with The Knife Index Their listings are collected and computed the same way as all others. The list is on the partners page.
Reuse
The dataset is free to download from the database page and may be reused with a link to The Knife Index.