A while back at my favorite kitchen-gear trade show, I spotted what appeared to be a trending category: barbecue knives. Their distinguishing characteristics seem to be a fairly tall blade, a shape that encourages a wokka-wokka–style rocking motion, and a target audience that skews heavily toward dudes with beards. Not all of those traits scream “great for grilling,” but I was intrigued.

One question immediately stuck in my head: What, if anything, makes a knife grill-friendly? Those I’d come across certainly had a look that blended pirate cutlasses and samurai swords, along with Japanese kitchen knives and occasionally Chinese cleavers. Ads with Guy Fieri look-alikes who