Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Pros:* Good looking, especially if you like the color blue.
* Small footprint (good for small kitchens/kitchenettes in apartments).
* When sharpened properly and regularly, these are pretty good daily utensils.
* Kitchen shears (scissors) are bottle opener. Interesting and useful.
Cons:
* Will not stay sharp for long; the more you use, the more you'll need to sharpen.
* May be undersized for some people (a 5 inch Santoku is pretty small)
These knives are made from what is called 420J2 steel. As described, this is a type of steel that is really known for resistance to corrosion, and is often used in divers knives for that reason (assuming you are diving in salt water). However, this type of stainless steel is explicitly described as "soft" and easily loses its edge through use; 420J2 is easy to use in manufacturing, hence, it's used a lot in inexpensive kitchen knives, such as these. That does not mean this is a bad set, you should just know something about the properties of the materials used before purchasing. I'm used to sharpening knives made from this, and other cheap, materials, and personally recommend using something like this wall mounted Aladdin Knife Sharpener which I've used with other low end Ginsu knives.
I'm also a bit spoiled since a local supermarket chain where I live offers free knife sharpening you pick up sleeves (limit 3 per visit), drop the knives off at the meat department, then pick them up 24 hours later.
The upshot is, with these knives you will be regularly sharpening them. And when sharp, they are very good at slicing, chopping, cutting, and peeling. You might be seduced by them, because right out of the box they are VERY sharp which can give you an idea how they'll perform with regular maintenance.
This set also has a very small footprint. If you don't have a lot of counter space in your Manhattan/Chicago/LA apartment kitchenette, this might be a simple and utilitarian set to obtain. I personally find the blue colored handles stylish.
The individual knives are on the small side get a ruler and look at how long 5 inches is, and that's the length of the Santoku knife's blade. Not sure what a Santoku knife is? Consult Wikipedia!
I found the kitchen shears to be funky (in a good way) as they also have the ability to open bottles in two different ways (notch and vise), depending upon your preference. They also have a nice solidly built feel about them.
I can easily give this set 4 stars for being a good value for daily use (so long as you understand you'll need regular sharpening attention), the small footprint is a feature, not a drawback, and the colorful handles add a tiny dash of style. My opinion.
*The handles, while they have a nice texture and grip, don't have an especially pleasing shape. Firstly, the length feels very short on the hand, so positioning your fingers around them can cause cramping; considering I am female and don't have particularly large hands, the handle would probably be even worse for men; secondly, the shape of the handle doesn't with your hand's shape. I've seen other knife sets that have more of a curve in the middle to fit perfectly in your palm, and when comparing them to this, the Ginsu knife wears your hands out for chopping or doing anything for more than a few minutes.
*The santoku knife isn't great for chopping onions and many other things because the blade is hardly curved. Chef's knives have more of a curve, allowing you to rock the knife. This one doesn't really rock, so it requires more effort and awkward angles.
*This last detail isn't as important to many people, but it would be nice if the scissors separated (i.e. the two blades detaching). This would allow for better cleaning and decrease the spread of bacteria that can hide between the two parts. Most kitchen scissors omit this feature, so I'm not counting it against Ginsu, but it bears mentioning.
I have also read that this type of blade will wear down faster because of the soft metals used, so the fact they will require maintenance soon is off-putting.
Not bad, but not my favorite.I really like this set, It's well constructed and the wood storage block is very useful. The colors are pretty awesome too!I purchased this as a xmas gift for a friend who had a couple of knives thrown in there drawer. This isn't as good as a more expensive set, but it does feel very well in the hand.
The knives are sharp, and so are the scissors. The block fits very well on the counter and solves the question on where to put the knives. As an added benefit, these knives also sharpen very well.The set was smaller than we expected it to be, but for the price, we can't complain much.
Knives are good quality.
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