Blade toughness is another property we highly consider when paring blade steel to a particular knife. Toughness is a measure and scale of how well the steel responds to striking. As the hardness of steel increases the toughness decreases. The challenge for knife makers to optimizing both of these areas for each specific use of a certain knife. For example, Chef knives are meant to cut vegetables, fruit, and other softer foods. The edges of these knives are ground very thin and are also very hard. These characteristics work amazing in dicing veggies, but if you were to use this knife to cut through boney meat you could chip the edge of the knife. On the other end of the spectrum, you have a boning knife. A boning knife’s edge is ground to a steeper angle and tempered to a lesser hardness. This will allow the knife to go up against bone and not chip. The characteristics of a boning knife will not make it the best choice in cutting veggies but is perfect for splitting ribs and de-boning wild game.