Cutlery Reviews

This knife chops perfectly every time I use it. It does not ding easy, and is strong enough to cut everything. Very very easy to sharpen. Excellent knife for the money.

This knife will probably last forever, but the sharpness was a disappointment and I felt the serrations were too widely spaced. When coring, cutting, seeding, skinning bushels of tomatoes, the knife is important.
However, it is strong enough for cutting bagels. I like the tip for coring tomatoes and apples, de-seeding and peeling the tomatoes, and for de-ribbing peppers.

Definitely a nice knife. I really like the unibody and the blade is very sharp. Clean cutting knife.

Great little knife--cuts everything as advertised. Nice balance, right size, very sharp, etc. Sharpest knife I have ever owned, especially the point. Stay away from the point, it will leap up and bite you. Note that sharp knife cuts heal quickly.

These knives are well made and enjoyable to use, but it's worth noting that Henckels International has recently changed this set's contents. I bought this set a few years back, and was so impressed with the weight of the blades (very thick and stiff, they feel substantial in your hand) that I've given two more sets as gifts since. I'd give the ones I own 5 stars.

I recently picked up another set to give as a gift, and noticed two significant downward changes. First, Henckels dropped the bread knife and 6" utility knives from this set, and now includes a 7" santoku and kitchen shears. The shears aren't quite as heavy as the Henckels shears you can buy a la carte, but they're okay. So, the 7-piece set now includes only 4 knives, plus the shears, sharpening steel, and the block.

The second difference is that the steel of the blades and tangs is thinner than it used to be, by about 1/32 of an inch on every knife. Not a huge difference, but it's definitely noticable, and gives slightly more flexibility to the blades. The knives (other than the santoku) have the exact same model numbers imprinted on the blades, so Henckels has apparently changed the specs on these blades since revamping the set.

I would still recommend these knives -- they are much better than other similarly priced sets -- but I would have preferred them to raise the price rather than lower the quality.

My only complaint is that the handle color of these knives is actually a distinctive dark gray, not black, which is fine except that I can't find a cleaver to match! They're wonderful knives for the price, however.

I recently picked up the french blade at [a store] and figured that it was worth a try for the price, and knew that I had always been happy with a Henckels blade. The first time that I used it I loved it. It performs comperably if not better than many of the more expensive and equally reputable brands that I had had the luxury of using while working as a sous chef. I highly recommend these knifes to anyone looking for a good, well-balanced blade that will perform. Take my advice, though, and hand-wash and immediately dry just to be sure.

**Please note that I have posted a similar comment about the chef's knife elsewhere on Amazon since I use that one a lot. I wanted to make sure anyone just looking at chef's knives would get the benefit of my experience.

Wow, I bought this starter set of 3 knives back when I worked in a local Italian restaurant in college. I cut and prepped all the veggies and fruit. One of my other duties was sharpening all the knives in the kitchen. After being frustrated with all of the low cost Sysco knives since they were never sharp and could never be sharpened, I noticed that the boss always had his own knife - at first a Henkel and then a Global. I decided to invest in my own knife for restaurant work. This starter set was what I found on sale and I can't tell you how please I was (and still am) with this set. Out of the box - they were so sharp I was scared, but I eventually realized what the phrase "a sharp knife is a safe knife" really means, because prep work with the chef's knife was a dream. I bought a plastic holster for the blade so I could use it myself. But every other cook in the kitchen wanted to use my chef's knife. The chef's knife feels GREAT in your hand while you are cutting which is due to the shape, balance, shape and material of the handle and the full tang blade. I would also like to comment these knives have an attractive classic look to them. I still have the same set of knives 7 years later and occassionally take them to a professional knife shop for sharpening. What else can I say? I love these knives and will probably buy a full set if I can find one that has everything I want. Oh, I forgot about how great the price is - I have used Henkels, Globals and a few others and I can tell you if you keep these knives sharp you will be just as happy so you don't need to spend all of that $$ on the so-called higher quality brands. Chicago Cutlery has outdone themselves with the Centurion line!