Not every kitchen has room for a block, and a loose knife in a drawer blunts against the other cutlery long before it blunts on food. A guard solves that for a few pounds and is the single cheapest thing that keeps an edge.

Five sizes covering ninety to two hundred and forty millimetres, so the whole set of blades in this course is accounted for. Felt-lined polypropylene with a positive clip that will not shake off. Top-rack dishwasher safe, but dry the felt before a knife goes back in — a damp guard is worse than a drawer.

What it will not take: a bone, a frozen edge, a glass board or a dishwasher. Every one of those chips or rolls a hard edge, and the harder the steel the less it forgives. Cut on wood, wash by hand, dry immediately.

Why this one. Two numbers decided it — the steel and the Rockwell hardness — and both are printed above rather than described as professional or restaurant-grade, which are words with no definition. A harder blade takes a finer edge and chips more easily. Neither end of that trade is better; knowing which one you are holding is what matters.