Rob Babcock
Head Chef
Thinner is often good but for some uses a thicker spine (5 mm / .2 ") is more useful.
Well, again I only said thinner as a rule. Thicker can be better for some things but it's rarely better simply for being thicker. Certain styles of knives are inherently thick, such as a Western Deba. Knives like Debas tend also to be thick, and a Yanagiba will usually be pretty thick at the spine.
I do still keep one Wusthof in my work kit, an 8" Chef that I use for things like lobster and frozen food. It is a tad thicker than my J-knives but mostly it's much softer; that makes the difference. Before long I expect to have a Tojiro Western Deba- once I get that I'll probably ditch the Wustie.