Yes I’m a knife guy, and I love The Cheese Knife! The concept of a Cheese Plane was foreign to me for a long time, and we never could come to a decision on which, if any, to offer. As Cooks Illustrated put it, “a cheese plane is essentially a small trowel with a blade embedded in the flat head; using even pressure, you simply pull the blade across a cheese wedge or block in order to get a uniform slice of cheese.” Simple enough in concept, but the quality of the execution is all over the lot.
We have tested many Cheese Plane designs: from highly adjustable and dual-blade versions, to the simplest, fixed blade versions, including multiple models from the same brands. For a tool as seemingly simple, there are several design features to consider. Before you get to the blade, you must consider the handle: it should be soft and easy to grip, long enough to allow the blade to cut well (more on that follows), and designed to assure a firm steady hand when pulling the Plane across the cheese. The blade, obviously, should be sharp, flexible enough to cut varying thicknesses (by varying the angle of the handle), and long enough to cut slices in a single pass (but not so long as to become awkward to use). It is also preferable to have a straight - not serrated - single cutting edge to the blade that will produce evenly-thick slices.
