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- Verified Buyer
Heard about this deal on a knife forum talking about good, inexpensive knives. Purchased these as a house-warming gift for a friend, but I removed them from the package and gave them a try before gifting in case they needed to be sharpened.Pros:Out of the box, they are indeed very sharp. Easily glided through heavy paper, but due to how they are held down in the package, the blade needed a little honing to straighten everything. After running them past my DMT extra-fine grit diamond hone, they were very sharp and smooth.All knives easily performed the tasks that they're designed for. I preferred the size and weight of the Santoku the best. They all easily went through onion, tomato, peppers and the paring knife was sharp/precise enough to do a great job mincing garlic cloves very finely.Cons:The thing that I immediately noticed about these is the weight of these knives. They are heavy. Although I prefer the weight on a large, European style chef's knife, these are more Japanese style and seem heavy for what they are. The biggest part of this I think is the weight of the handles. They feel solid, but holding each knife, it's clear that it's the same handle weight for each knife, so the short blades are very handle-heavy, and the chef's knife is very blade-heavy. I preferred using the santoku because I think it was the most "balanced" (where the balance point of the knife is where the blade meets the handle). It is in this regard that you see the difference between these and more expensive knives.Final Thoughts:For under $100, this set is a tremendous value for how sharp they are. If I had spent $100 on a single knife that was as sharp as these are, I'd be very happy... but with this set you get the 4 most important knife shapes (minus a very long slicer and a serrated bread knife) along with a block. With that being said, although these are indeed very sharp, I cannot comment on durability of the edge as these were given as a gift, but in theory, the VG10 steel should hold up very well if properly cared for. Also, compared to a single $100 knife, the weight and balance of these is kind of all over the place, which I think is why I preferred using the santoku... it feels the most balanced. I have a Shun Hiro chef's knife that these aren't quite as sharp as, and the cutting edge has more drag with these knives compared to the Shun, which is also much lighter and more balanced.... but considering that my Shun knife is nearly $300, I think it's impressive how close these knives can get to it for essentially $15 each!Overall, I was extremely impressed. If I didn't already have so many knives, I would buy myself a set.
