A knife blade for a cutting knife of an agricultural harvesting machine, with a blade top side and a blade bottom side, wherein a surface of the blade bottom side is composed of a planar surface arranged in a plane and a recess region extending above the plane. A height of the knife blade corresponds to a maximum distance between the blade top side and the planar surface in a direction normal to the plane, a material thickness of the knife blade corresponding to a distance between the blade top side and the blade bottom side, and a method of manufacturing a knife blade.
