Northwestern Cutlery — Local services in Jefferson Township

It was finally time to upgrade my main kitchen knife from the Pampered Chef santoku I got back in college, and plunge into the world of quality knives! When finding a cutlery store in Chicago, all roads seemed to lead to Northwestern Cutlery!

Long story short: went in and came away with these two Kikuichi knives: an 8-inch gyuto and a 6-inch petty knife! The two staff members I chatted with were great at finding a variety of knives within my budget. They then left me with a table of them, a cutting board, and time to experiment and see what really worked for me and what didn't.

For example, I discovered the point at which the angle of the knife becomes uncomfortable for me (i.e. when using the blade tip for a mincing motion), just by using a few knives with different profiles. That made it pretty clear that, generally speaking, Japanese-style knives with flatter bellies are going to be better for me than Western-style knives with more curve.

There's nothing better than being able to actually hold the thing you're going to be using on a regular basis before you buy it—especially if it's a local shop! I also stayed under my budget and opted to use the remainder for two new cutting boards!

The only thing I wish I had done differently is to have them sharpened to a fresh edge before I left! Perhaps I'll have to take one of their sharpening classes to do that myself—but I'll definitely be returning...

To start off this is one of the best knife companies in the Chicagoland area. I have been to multiple sharpeners and to multiple stores looking for different knives and knife accessories but no one and I mean that no one in the Chicagoland area except for northwestern cutlery has what you would want if you're looking for any type of knife or kitchen appliance or knife accessories. Jerry I believe he's one of the main guys, was awesome, I went in to find a new pocket knife and he took a lot of time to talk with me and show me a lot of the different options they had and I ended up picking a beautiful Benchmade bugout. I can't say enough about the quality of this knife. It has aluminum milled scales, it has red thumb studs and red barrel spacers, and it has a black cerakoted m390 drop point blade that's razor sharp out of the box. This knife is also completely centered which is something you would expect out of a USA made knife. I absolutely love this place and will continue to go there for as long as I'm in the Chicagoland area, even if they are way up North and Way out West LOL. Thank you for being so awesome, speaking about all the staff who helped me. And please keep doing what y'all are doing! Loved my expierenced. And you guys deserve a well written 5...

When I lived in Michigan, I would drive to their previous location, which was Downtown in the seafood and restaurant warehouse District to get my knives sharpened. After they sold their building and moved up here towards Harlem, I’ve been to their new store a couple times. The layout of the store is much bigger broader very classy. This allows them to display their goods in a much nicer way. They have all their old stones and belts in a large sharpening area for knives. They’ll do knives for five dollars apiece or hand sharpen them on stones for $25 apiece. Traveling from Reno to downtown Chicago for a meeting. I had to bring some of my kitchen knives to get sharpened because I don’t trust anyone else to do a good job. These guys are the best and they’ve continue to satisfy...