Zhen Japanese Steel 8" Chef Knife set + 10.5" Bread Knife

This is a good set of knives.

The Price is fair.

Knives are very sharpened so be careful.

I recommend it

this is an excellent set mostly bought the set for the bread and paring knife. i already had a Santoku, so i got this set. I was worried that these knives were marketed as 440C, but would arrive as 440 (there is a very real and very big difference between 440 and 440C). the bread knife has excellent scalloped serrations and the knife cuts bread like a champ with out shredding or smashing my bread. I mostly use the paring knife for cheese and it does okay the hallow grinds in the blade help to keep cheese from sticking to the blade.

Pros

True 440C steel gets really sharp and stays sharp.

The knifes are not nearly as hard to sharpen as my vg10 kitchen knives.

Great value for the steel.

Handles are okay not bad, but not good

Cons

Don't stay sharp as long as my vg10 knives

Handles are not as good as my other set

The chef and bread knifes came bent (I straightened the blades out myself)

summary

If you are on a budget, these are probably the best knives for the price. i really wanted to complete my expensive set, but the bread knife for my set is $150 and i don't have that kind of money anymore. While I really impressed with this set, I wouldn't trade my other knife set for these; however, if i had never owned top dollar kitchen knives, i would like these knives more than i do.

----

Reason for 4 stars

The blades came bent (straightening them didn't require much effort). The bread knife edge needed some touching up out of box (not unusual for serrated blades). The knives are a little too light for my liking. The handles are not not bad, but not good.

Buy Zhen Japanese Steel 8" Chef Knife set + 10.5" Bread Knife Now