First off, I'm not going to compare these knives with $100.00 a piece knives. It's just not going to happen. I will however, compare these knives with the set they will be replacing.
My wife and I are replacing a 17 year old set of Eversharps with this new set. The new set of J.A. Henckels International Eversharp Pro 13 piece block are just as excellent as the old set when they were new, but have a much thicker blade. The old set are still good knives, but not razor sharp anymore like when we first bought them.
As for the other reviewers, I don't know why the tips of their blades are either broke off or bent. I do know that knives are not meant to be used to cut through bone, nor poking, prying, separating semi-frozen or frozen foods or using the knives as a screwdriver or can opener. They are only to be used for cutting.
For a set of $100.00 knives, they are very good and razor sharp. I highly recommend this set. Buy them, you will not be disappointed.
My friend has this set, and regrets getting it. I hate using these knives!
First of all, before you consider buying these you should know the difference between J. A. Henckels and J. A. Henckles International (which this set is), J. A. Henckels are top-of-the-line quality knives and will run you around $300-$1,000+ for a set with a block. They are made in Germany. There's is a two-man logo on the knife block. The International line is made in Thailand and are very cheaply made, therefore sold cheaper. Only one man in the logo on the knife block.
Back to this set, the steak knives do not even fit in their designated slots! 5 will fit fine but when you try to put the sixth in the slot, it is too tight and the knife will no fit all the way. And it isn't just one bad slotyou can have any five knives and any five slots and whatever knife is remaining won't fit in whatever slot is left. My friend has to put the utility knife and paring knife in the steak knife section to make it work, and both of them fit differently in those slots and hang down lower than the four steak knives and it looks very sloppy. Plus, the shape of the steak knives is very odd, they have a sharp taper and very pointy tips (see them hereJ.A. Henckels International Eversharp Pro Stainless Steel Steak Knives, Set of 4), one of my friend's tips has broken off.
Also, this set does not come with a bread knife and there are no extra slots in the block for any additional knives you may purchase/already have, so I guess your bread knife can go in a drawer... Or, you could use the santoku knife that comes in this set, since it is serrated for some reason. Pretty useless, seeing as a santoku is meant for chopping and the serrated edge doesn't get the job done.
Also, these knives will definitely need to be sharpened contrary to their claim. My friend's are all dull. All knives need to be sharpened, no matter the price. This set does not come with a honing steel or kitchen shears.
The only good thing about these is that they are forged and have a full tang, but then again they don't feel very balanced, they are lighter than they should be being full-tang, they are not German quality cutlery, and having used them, I do not recommend them. Also, I think, not sure, but I think there is a limited lifetime warranty for them, so that's another plus.
I am assuming that the shoppers looking at these knives are young, maybe first time homebuyers or moving into a first apartment, or a home cook looking to replace an old set. I would definitely advise you to shop around before making this purchase, read a lot of reviews on these and other knives, look for recommendations on cooking shows, magazines, and blogs before investing in a new set of knives because having knives you love will take you much farther in the kitchen than knives that frustrate the heck out of you every time you use them.
That being said, I highly recommend Victorinox cutlery (go check out their reviews!) with fibrox handles (not the prettiest, but trust me, these knives are great). One thing I learned when choosing my first set of knives was that buying a whole knife block set may not be the way to go. You can save a lot of $$ by only buying the basics to begin with and then adding to your collection later. The Victorinox knives I bought arethe 8" and 6" chefs knives (6" makes a great utility), 10 1/4" bread knife (though it's a bit long so you may want to check out their 8"), a 7" granton edge (that means there are air pockets on the side of the blade so food slides off easier when chopping) santoku, 3 piece paring knife set, 6 piece steak knife set, and I also got a free 4 1/2" serrated tomato/bagel knife because of a promotion (I think it's still going.). I also bought Chicago Cutlery Insignia kitchen shears for about $8, I don't use shears very much so these were the cheapest ones I found with good reviews. And I bought an Oxo Good Grips honing steel for about $15. So these 16 pieces cost me total about $150, but you could totally cut out the santoku, paring knife set, or whatever else you want because the nice thing about buying individual pieces is that you can choose a couple knives knowing you can just multitask with them instead of buying tons of knives and save a bunch of money. Also, Victorinox's fibrox 8-pc. set costs $150-$175 (there's three different listings for it) on Amazon. So I got double knives for the same price! One thing I still need is a knife block though, that's the thing with purchasing individual knives is that it may be hard to find a knife block to fit them. The Wusthof 17-slot block looks like it will do the trick, and it will have one extra slot should I choose to purchase another knife later.
When looking at a product's reviews, make sure you read all of them! So many times I have come across something that someone gave a one-star review because that customer had gotten poor customer service or the shipping was late because it was Christmas or other ridiculous reasons having nothing to do with the product but still lowering it's rating, when others have rated it very highly for it's performance. Make sure you read it all!
So I will stop here and wish you good luck in your hunt for a nice cutlery set. Sorry to go on about Victorinox so much, I just want to point people in a good direction!
Hope my review was helpful!
Buy J.A. Henckels International Eversharp Pro 13-Piece Knife Set with Block Now
I was resistant to register for these but did at my husband's insistence. I really thought knives were just knives, but he was quite insistant.
These may not be the top of the line for heckles (or knives in general), but you get what you pay for.
Even after 5 years of constant use, they cut much better than brand new sets (of other brands) that cost half the price. The handles are well made and have not fallen apart, we've had no problems (like the previous reviewer) in putting all our knives into our block. We've had people come over and use our knives and go out and buy this set afterwards.
It's not a Pro knife set and these particular ones are not designed to be sharpened (because they are all serrated), but they are good for household use by those of us who have not yet been spoiled by the 100-buck-a-piece knives out there, or simply cannot afford them.
Only complaint with these is that when cutting large batches of red meat, the muscle fibers can get caught in the seration.... so we recently bought a new knife for butchering meat. Still, this set was wonderful for the first 5 years of our marriage and we are still using it today.
Worth the price--though, if you can afford to spend more money on knives, you will find better Henkels (or other brand) knives out there.
Read Best Reviews of J.A. Henckels International Eversharp Pro 13-Piece Knife Set with Block Here
We registered for and received these as a wedding present, to replace an old block of cheap knives that required a lot of sharpening but were decent. Unfortunately we took them to Goodwill upon receiving the new ones. I'd hoped to have to sharpen way less, and have knives from a quality cutlery brand. I've since learned that the International line is not of the same quality or reputation. These knives are not sharp. The micro serrated edge is not good for many things (chopping, slicing even with the tomato knife, cutting meat even with the steak knives). The steak knife tips are very thin and pointy, and a few have bent or chipped, though we have no idea how. We bought a sharpener and it doesn't help, probably because of the micro serrated edge. I will be looking into the warranty and BB&B return policy.
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We have them in all of our homes and give them as gifts to knife-deprived friends! They really do stay sharp for years
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As a working chef, I have seen offset serrated knives come to dominate the workplace in the last 15 years. They are used by most prep cooks instead of a chef's knife for primary work. It is in that light that I found this knife wanting. The build quality and ergonomics are very good, every bit what I expect from Wustoff, and if you only use it to cut sandwiches, you will never have a problem.
