Cutlery Reviews

Ok I was given 4 steak knives and the 8 Inch Chef Knife for Christmas last year and found after using the large knife for a couple things that it was not sharp anymore. Not like when took it out of the package the first time. We do have a knive sharpening tool it looks like I don't know a round item that we got from much cheaper knives quite a few years ago and somy husband sharpened the knife "thought it was a life time knife" and alright it was sharp again, but have to sharpen each time want to use or every other time. When husband bought for a gift seeing it had a lifetime warranty, maybe it would stay sharp for a lifetime but maybe we are a little ignorant to the Lifetime warranty, and they don't tell you in the directions you have to sharpen. So as far as sharpness, it's ok but have to resharpen all the time.......

Wow, I bought this knife 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 chef's knife was what I found on sale and I can't tell you how please I was (and still am) with this knife. Out of the box - it was so sharp I was scared of it, but I eventually realized what the phrase "a sharp knife is a safe knife" really means, because prep work with this thing 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 it. It 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 that it has an attractive classic look to it. I still have the same chef's knife 7 years later and occassionally take it to a professional knife shop for sharpening. What else can I say? I love this knife 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 this knife 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 this knife!

storage is a snap and easy to grap when you need a knife quick

This is definitely a large blade. I cook every day and I'm happy just using my 8", but then, I'm a little person. Maybe bigger people who cook bigger portions need bigger knives like this one. If that's the case with you, then you can't go wrong with Shun.

Shun knives are beautiful creations period. Since I'm Asian, I love the tradition look and feel of this Japanese knife. I love the beauty of the blade and the dark, polished, Pakkawood handle. The unique "D"-shaped, Wood handles are preferable. The shape fits my hand perfectly, and the wood does not get slippery when wet - providing a very secure hold. The steel is of utmost quality and sharpness. Do not put this blade into any old electric knife sharpener! Electric knife sharpeners are made to put one angle on any blade. These blades come with a 16 degree angle and you don't want to be changing that angle. There are electric knife sharpeners that can sharpen these knives, but you'll have to do some research and find out which ones can be a fit with these knives. I prefer to hone with a sharpening steel and manually sharpen with a stone if necessary (and I don't see it being necessary to touch it to a stone any time soon). The blade is sharp straight off the factory and as Alton Brown says - it's the sharpest straight out of the factory edge as he's ever seen.

These knives are more expensive than most, but I think it's definitely worth it. To have the sharpest, most beautiful knife around - it's no contest. If you are on a budget, build your collection slowly. It's been said that there are only 3 knives that are the absolute basics for any kitchen: A 8" Chef's Knife (or some kind of similar, large-ish chef's knife), a Paring Knife, and a Long Serrated blade for cutting bread and larger items. I would add a thin utility knife and a boning knife to that list next. Then I would add those "in-between" sizes as I get more money flow in. =)

If you plan on spending any time in the kitchen, good kitchen knives are a definite must. Preparation is the bulk of cooking and when you have good knives, it cuts down on the danger of cutting yourself, it adds pleasure to the work, and it cuts down on prep time. Knives are also a very personal choice and it's best to at least go to a store and try it out for yourself first. Shun Knives are designed by the Japanese, so remember - it's designed for small hands. This makes it fit most women's hands perfectly, but I've heard of guys with larger hands not like it so much and going back to the German knives. So definitely try it out. It's a personal thing, it needs to fit you.

Why spend so much money on a knife? Well, if you spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and you almost always have to bust out a knife to prep a meal from scratch - why not use the best? Why spend that time with items that you love and brings you pleasure to use? Many times, it's the small things that brings us the most pleasure in life, and I consider my Shun knives as one of those things. Having something so beautiful and yet so sharp and perfect - it makes my time cooking just that much more enjoyable.

Another good thing to know is that although the Shun Knives are usually offered for right-handers, you can get these knives for left-handers. You just need to find the guys who stock and sell those ones as they are less known, and less common.

I'll try not to be dull (pun intended). I went through three phases with this knife when I finally decided to buy it.

The first: it's simply beautiful to look at. Sure, the Damascus styling is just that, but why not add beauty to something you're going to use everyday for every meal. In fact, it probably lowers the cost of the knife because it's made of a slightly lower grade of steel than the super-steel interior. Let your eyes dazzle, and your friends be jealous.

The second: I picked it up. Hopefully when you buy a knife, you get to use it (I'll get to that in a minute), and I actually don't suggest buying this, or any knife, from Amazon until you've checked it out in a real chef supply store. But still, I picked it up. The balance is perfect for a medium or small sized hand using a pinch grip. The blade rests in peace on your pointer as you let your middle and index fingers wrap around the circular metal bolster. The knife does all the work for you. Unlike its German counterparts, the Shun is thin and light, making a night's worth of prep work a true pleasure.

The third: I used it. The store I was at knew its business. When I asked if I could test it, they brought over a wood block, a potato, and a tomato. I started with the potato. The blade nearly fell through the russet and I got a paper-thin slice to share. You could actually see through the slice. But the real test in my mind is with tomatoes. Their skins can sometimes trick mediocre knives, but the best will just fall through. I was happy to report that I got a little nervous when I started because it seemed to resist a little. When I realized that I was already cutting the wood board, I knew I had found my match.

I tried the Wustoff, the Henckles, the Global, and even a few of the new ceramic toys. The Germans seemed silly after the Shun. Sure you can sharpen any decent knife to a 15 degree angle, but the effortlessness of the Shun made all the difference. The ceramics just didn't compare in ease of use. I must say, I tried the Ken Onion Custom. And if I wanted to spend another 70 dollars on a knife, I probably would have gone for that. So here's my advice. Try it. Try the others. Knives are a very personable thing. Some like heavy, wide blades. Others prefer the ease and speed of the Japanese knives. Still others have larger pockets for the Ken Onioin. My only complaint with the Onion is that it's actually quite short.

And lastly, please watch your hands when taking out of the box. As many reviewers have said before, this is one of the, if not the, sharpest knife out of the box. Happy cooking.

I already owned an 8 inch chefs knife from a different manufacturer and was satisfied. But last year I wanted to buy myself a Christmas present so I splurged and got this knife. Suffice to say, I no longer have that old chefs knife which was given away.
This knife keeps it's edge, it handles nice and is incredibly well balanced. That said I would recommend starting with a smaller blade if you are not adept with such a large blade or you will lose a finger. I am rather prificient with such cutlery and nearly lost a finger tip.

I bought this set, and then returned it because of the handles. The plastic handles, while I suppose are very durable, did not feel well balanced in my hands. The 4-stars are not the full tangs that I expected (while they are full "rat tail" tangs, you cannot see the tang because its embedded in the plastic handle and "rat tail" I guess refers to the shape and amount of blade material that is embedded in the handle), which really diminished the weight/feeling in my hand. I returned them and got the full tang riveted version (Pro S series) for only $20.00 more.

I much prefer the look and feel of the Pro S - - my personal preference is that the full tang riveted handle makes the knife set appear to be of higher quality (non-plastic handle).

I really suggest that you actually hold & compare the two different handle styles before you buy. It made a surprizing amount of difference to me! If you like the plastic and lighter feel, then the 4-star is for you -- the blades are all superb of course. I did like getting the Santoku with this set (which now I will have to buy separate since the Pro-S doesn't come with one!)

I had these knives for a year or so and really enjoyed them. Then I was given the 5-star knives for Chistmas and fell in love. The handles are better on the 5-star and they're a little heavier than these knives giving you the feeling that your really holding something sturdy. My advice is to go with the 5-star line instead of these. Sure they're more expensive, but you'll thank yourself in the long run.

We've had this knife set for five years and it works great. We use the Henckels 8" chef and 6" utility knives to cut meat and vegetables on a daily basis. The knives cut easily through everything from meat to melons to tomatoes (just keep them sharp). One of the great things about these knives is that you can sharpen them time and time again. Another great thing is that they are well balanced and the handles never come loose. We would buy this set again in a heartbeat. Every few years we add another Henckels 4 star open stock knife to our set because they work so well.

This Henckels is a big upgrade if you have been cooking with the likes of Ikea's finest, then you will love this knife. It feels fairly solid and the initial sharpness is acceptable. I really like the weight of this knife. You can feel that there is a lot of steel at your disposal and the handle is comfortable. That being said, I have since purchased Wusthof Grand Prix II knifes. You can tell that they are in completely different leagues. I am keeping this knife as a backup knife in the event that I need one in the future as it is fairly sharp but does not hold its edge as well as a higher end knife. All this being said, this is a great knife to bridge someone from a cheap set of knives into premium ones. The difference between this and the kives I had been using prior to the Wusthof's is amazing. It has motivated me to cook more in the past month or so.

what to say about,

- its stamped
- its cheap
- is sharp enough for standard tasks
- not a smart idea to fillet a fish with it, works... but use a fillet instead. it's way easier

I bought this knife a year ago and replaced it a couple of weeks ago with some 4 stars, because they are nice, but cost 4 - 5 times more and are not reasonably sharper. The handling is ok and yes food sticks to it, if you cut really thin slices.

so its a good allround knive for beginning cooking, until you want to buy something better like the shun's santoku.

And do you want to have a japanese knife, produced by a german company?

overall I give it 4 stars, because it's sharp, cheap and perfect for learning.

I have used a number of steels in my life, and though there may be some that are better, this steel is as good as any I have used, and is priced right. The diamond steels are a tease, but they do not seem to last very long. Also, the main job of a steel is to "allign" a blade. In practise, they will improve the sharpness of a blade, but that is just a small bonus. When a blade gets dull, you hone it on a stone (get a good one). If you use a steel for it's intended purpose, this one will do the job well.

I have a Wusthof 7" Santoku and love it so I thought I'd save a few bucks and get a 5" Calphalon. What a mistake! It can't be made to be as sharp as the Wusthof and it rusts! I recommend you save up your pennies and get a good Wusthof instead of this mediocre knife.

Don't get me wrong, this knife isn't all that bad, but it's not all that great either.

If you are looking for a smaller Santoku for a decent price then you might want to check this out, but I ended up taking this one back. I'm the kind of guy that really only uses a couple knifes in the kitchen. I find that the Santoku satisfies just about every need, so I felt buying a set of 15 knives would be a waste of money, as I would only use a couple of them. With that in mind I went to go buy this Calphalon santoku.

First I realized that this knife was too small for me (but this isn't taken into account in this review, that was my own fault). I then proceeded to make a few cuts with this knife to test it out. I grabbed a grapefruit and decided to see how small I could slice it up. The first couple of cuts were beautiful, but I quickly realized that it started to dull out on my as I got towards the end of the grapefruit. I used my sharpening steel to re-align the blade and everything seemed okay again (but you shouldn't need to do that after a single grapefruit!)

I also noticed that this knife stains pretty bad. There are (were) pretty ugly stains on the blade after a single use. I tried washing it (by hand of coarse) and the stains did not go away. The stains looked a lot like finger prints.

I have heard a lot of good things about Calphalon so it's possible that the knife I got was a bad one. I didn't take this chance again, instead I got the Henckels Four Star 7in Santoku. It may be twice the price of the Calphalon, but if you find that you only need a couple knives I believe you should probably get the best knives your wallet will allow. The Henckels Four Star are absolutely amazing by the way!... but that's a different review.

It's multipurpose, well balanced, sharp.
First knife out of the block most nights.

They promise lifetime warranty and in their papers they say you pay 4.95 for shipping but they don't say it is only for 3 blades.
Plus when you ask for replacment they never replacment

Bought my set 2.5 years ago, and while the quality is not great, the knives work great.

Pros: For the price (approx 25-30 dollars for the set) these knives can't be beat. I just bought another set to replace the wear and tear listed below. $30 and used the set for 30 months...can't beat it. The Rock/Chop, Bread knive, Scissors and Steak Knives get a daily workout at my house.

Cons: These knives WILL rust. However, the Rock Chop and Bread knives have not rusted.I don't take care of my steak knives very well, leave the steak knives in water glasses in the sink (I put them in the dishwasher too..) and broke the scissor handles doing something stupid. The little button decals came off the first month. Don't even bother contacting customer service, it is TERRIBLE.

Yes, I bought a second set.
I'm sure I could spend $200 to $300 dollars and get an awesome set I will never have to repair or replace, but at a dollar a month(my cost to use before replacing....) I can't see spending the extra money. These knives REALLY work great.

I don't know about the other reviews that say this knives aren't stainless steel, the labels fall off, or the filet knife breaks, but what it's for sure in my case is that these knifes work great. I don't go by fanciness nor brandy items... I WANT KNIVES THAT CUT nice and easy, and the Miracle Blade III are the best.

It's true, if you love your things just follow what says in the instructions manual. Don't dish wash your knives because in addition that they rust, they start to reduce their original sharpness. Even more, any knife will reduce their original sharpness no matter what the manufacturer says. Do not wash knives in the dishwasher or hand wash them with hot water.

All of my knives preserve their labels and looks like new, and I use them on a daily basis. Once again, it's a matter of following instructions.

My filet knife is in perfect condition. Common sense: Don't do everything what the infomercial shows. Don't bend the filet knife to verify that the guy on the infomercial's testimony is right. This knife cuts beautifully without too much bending.

Finally, I own this set of knives for two years and a half and they still cut as good as the first day I received them by mail. I live in Colombia, South America, where this product is not too cheap, so I had to think several times before I decided to make the call. Today, after two years and a half I don't regret of making that call, and I am very happy cooking with my Miracle Blade III knife set. Furthermore, I do recommend this knife set to anyone.... JUST FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS, that's all.