Kitchen Hand Tools That Earn Their Drawer Space: Wood, Steel and Silicone

Ownership disclosure: Kitchen Artifacts, the shop whose tools are discussed here, is owned and operated by the same company that publishes BuyingBench. We earn no commission on a Kitchen Artifacts order. That is a material connection, so we state it before anything else.

Short answer: most kitchens run on a handful of tools used daily, and the material of each one decides whether it protects your cookware and how long it lasts. Buy wood where the tool touches a non-stick surface, silicone where you want heat resistance and easy cleaning, and steel where you need strength — then stop before the drawer fills with things you use once.

BuyingBench has not used these tools in person. Everything below comes from what Kitchen Artifacts publishes on its product pages, read on 21 October 2026.

Material is the first decision

Kitchen Artifacts sells its hand tools across three materials, and each has a clear job.

• Wood — the five-piece teak utensil set (spatula, slotted turner, spoon, ladle, skimmer, 20–34 cm) and the acacia cheese knife set. Wood will not scratch a non-stick pan and does not carry heat up the handle, but it needs hand washing and occasional oiling to stay in shape.
• Silicone — the 2-in-1 spatula tongs lock shut into tongs and are moulded in one piece, so they take pan heat and are non-stick-safe.
• Steel — the six-piece gadget set (whisk, grater, peeler, pizza wheel, scoop, can opener) is the durable workhorse, but steel tools can scratch a non-stick coating if used to scrape it.

Which set to buy first

If you cook daily, the utensil set or the gadget set is the better first buy than a single specialty tool, because each covers several jobs in one purchase. The utensil set suits someone who sautés and stirs in non-stick pans; the gadget set suits someone who preps and opens and scoops.

The cheese knife set and the knife sharpener are for the person who already has the basics. The sharpener is a hand-held four-segment stone for refreshing an edge, not a replacement for a properly sharpened knife.

Trade-offs, plainly

• Wood needs care. Teak and acacia are durable but hand-wash-only woods. A steel or silicone tool goes in the dishwasher; wood does not.
• Silicone takes heat, not abuse. The spatula tongs are heat-rated and non-stick-safe, but a silicone edge will not slice or grate — it is for turning and lifting, not cutting.
• Sets look cheaper per piece but count only what you use. A six-piece set with a whisk you never touch is not a saving. Buy the set whose pieces map to what you actually cook.

Our view: start with the material that matches your pans, then add one specialty tool at a time as a real gap appears.

Disclosure: Kitchen Artifacts is a sister brand of BuyingBench under common ownership. See our affiliate and ownership disclosure for the full policy. For how we source claims, read our methodology. Browse our kitchen section or see who writes our guides.