Messermeister Meridian Elite 6-inch Utility Knife

A 6-inch utility knife covers the gap between a parer and a chef’s knife, and Messermeister points to slicing cucumbers, segmenting oranges and halving sandwiches. The narrow Meridian Elite blade is long enough for small board work and slim enough to steer around the core of a bell pepper or the seeds of a melon wedge.

It is also handy at the counter for slicing a bagel or a block of cheese when a full chef’s knife feels like too much. The slim blade also cleans silver skin from a tenderloin and slices cured meats. For a culinary student or a home cook assembling a kit, it makes a useful third knife after a chef’s knife and a parer, and its handle matches the larger Meridian Elite knives. With no full bolster at the heel, the knife avoids the dead spot common on traditional German knives, so the whole edge stays usable through years of honing and stone sharpening.

Utility or Boning Knife?

For trimming and deboning meat, the 6-inch Stiff Boning Knife has a narrower, more rigid blade.