Great Set of Knives for $120

I agree JA Henkels are great, I have had a set for about 20 years. Not sure about this set, the chefs knife and paring knife are the only 2 good pieces. Bread knife is too short, utility knife is serrated, so it is a tomato knife at my house. You can buy the 8" chefs knife on Amazon right now for $35. If the other items in the set are useful to you, this is a good price.
 
Joshw said:
I agree JA Henkels are great, I have had a set for about 20 years. Not sure about this set, the chefs knife and paring knife are the only 2 good pieces. Bread knife is too short, utility knife is serrated, so it is a tomato knife at my house. You can buy the 8" chefs knife on Amazon right now for $35. If the other items in the set are useful to you, this is a good price.
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The set does have a 6" utility knife and 5 serrated utility knife. Getting the steel, shears and block with this set is worth the money.
 
Pyle's BBQ said:
The set does have a 6" utility knife and 5 serrated utility knife. Getting the steel, shears and block with this set is worth the money.
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I agree it is a good price, I missed the 6" utility. I would add that in as a good knife. At this price, you are basically paying for the 3 good knives, and getting the rest free. I would say out of all my knives, the ones in this set are the least used though. Not because they are not good knives, but because I prefer longer blades most of the time. If you are needing knives, this would be a good starter set though.
 
I see nothing wrong with this set. An eight-inch bread knife is plenty long for many styles of bread, such as brioche. We purchased a similar set some years ago and about the least used piece is the shears. The rest are used frequently.
 
Joshw said:
I agree JA Henkels are great, I have had a set for about 20 years. Not sure about this set, the chefs knife and paring knife are the only 2 good pieces. Bread knife is too short, utility knife is serrated, so it is a tomato knife at my house. You can buy the 8" chefs knife on Amazon right now for $35. If the other items in the set are useful to you, this is a good price.
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The $35 Chef's knife on Amazon is Henckels International 'stamped' not Henckels 'forged' 4 Star. Big difference.
 
Sid Post said:
The $35 Chef's knife on Amazon is Henckels International 'stamped' not Henckels 'forged' 4 Star. Big difference.
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I am not sure what the difference between the 4 star and the international is, I didn't pay much attention, because I have a set. But the description says, that it is forged, and blade is sourced from Germany, and knife is assembled in Spain. https://www.amazon.com/J-Henckels-I...568561&sr=8-4&keywords=Henckels+International

Not trying to come off as an A$$ here, because I agree this is a good price, but I wanted people to think about the actual knives in it, and what they would actually use in the set.
 
The four star is a step up from other forged that henckels offers as well. You get the ice hardened fridour steel which is harder than the steel even in the j.a. Classic forged. In all honesty block sets are usually a waste because as someone said you usually only use 3-4. But even at 120 for the 3 good(practical) knives you would use it’s a good value. With 3-4 more pcs that are basically free if you think about it. Henckels standard shears are strong enough to split chickens for my PBC for the record. It’s a good deal.
 
Joshw said:
I am not sure what the difference between the 4 star and the international is, I didn't pay much attention, because I have a set. But the description says, that it is forged, and blade is sourced from Germany, and knife is assembled in Spain. https://www.amazon.com/J-Henckels-I...568561&sr=8-4&keywords=Henckels+International

Not trying to come off as an A$$ here, because I agree this is a good price, but I wanted people to think about the actual knives in it, and what they would actually use in the set.
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I have had both in my hand at the same time. Side-by-side there is a real tangible difference. I tend to favor the Professional S and Wusthof traditional lines a bit more but, the 4 Star is a nice premium knife too.

The Internationals compete with many store brands and are built and priced accordingly. Whether this matters to most people or not is a different issue. On the cheaper end, I will personally skip Henckels International and go for the celebrity chef package at Wal-mart for even less money. My Paula Deen Wal-mart knives compare favorably with the Henckels International and are still in use today ~7 years later and were about a third the cost of the Henckels International at the time.

The Henckels International Classic knives appear to be slightly updated knives from the ones I tried in the past so, I'll give them some credit for that. They still don't represent a "good value" to me though. YMMV. :wink:
 
Kitchen knives have a whole lot of marketing hype around them. Add reviews and opinions by casual users and you have the potential for a lot of confusion at many levels.

Don't get sucked in by "German" steel as a marketing gimmick. German steel is available in most parts of the world and is not in and of itself super special with some secret combination iron, nickel, etc.

Forging is another term that gets lost in marketing. Many knives are stamped because it is plain and simple, cheap to do so. Forging on an industrial scale for knife production is a little more expensive but, not too expensive if you are using a good quality steel appropriate for forging.

The real differences in metallurgy are driven by heat treatment and tempering (and in some cases extreme cold quenching) along with the knife profile.

As to which 'series' is best, handle options for knives are like buying shoes. Everyone's hands are different and what they do with the knives is unique so, what is best for me personally probably won't be for someone else.

After many years selling custom knives and very high-end production knives, I am pretty darn particular about the knives I use. Today, I tend to go to both extremes using either cheap quality 'forged' knives or pretty expensive Japanese pattern knives with really thin and really hard blades. In fact, I actually was part of a team that helped design a line of knives for Hattori.
 
I have a hard time with expensive knives because I'm just too concerned about damaging them. I'd rather get less expensive "good enough" knives and not feel bad replacing them in a few years.

I would like to get a nice ceramic knife. I've heard good things about them.
 
JD08 said:
I have a hard time with expensive knives because I'm just too concerned about damaging them. I'd rather get less expensive "good enough" knives and not feel bad replacing them in a few years.

I would like to get a nice ceramic knife. I've heard good things about them.
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I have tried a couple of cermaics, and if you are worried about breaking them, I would stay away. The ones I had, were on the low end of the price range, so they could have been junk, but if you cut anything other than vegetables with them, they will chip out. I threw mine away. If you want a good cheap knife, that will last for a long time, I don't think you can beat Forschner. They sharpen easy, and hold an edge very well.
 
20 years ago I got at a yard sale a 10" Henkels 'carbon steel' knife with a small bit of the tip broken off for $1. Re-pointed it, sharpened it to a very keen edge, and to this day I have only used the steel on it. Few months ago I got at a thrift store an ss henkels butchers knife with a lot of curve in it, had been apparently allus been sharpened with one of those carbide 'scrapers', very blunt edge. I have an old Delta wet grinder (about 60 rpm's), put a keen edge on it, think it'll be like the old carbon one, stay sharp, , , , use the steel.

ss one was $1.50,

-corne-
 
bed bath and beyond has the same set in the 5 star version. same knife but better handle.

the price is $149 but you can use their 20% off coupon.
 
I have a set that I bought in 1987 that are still going strong today. My boning knife and 4" paring knife show the most wear from being ground over the years (I worked as a chef for many of those years), but overall they still look and function great.

Three comments:

- The handles are a little large for some. The fit my big hands great, but not so much my wife.

- Very hard steel. May take a little more effort to sharpen with a stone, but they stay sharp for a long time.

- Thick Spines, and slightly heavy Chef's Knives - If you are using your Chef's Knife primarily for slicing or chopping lots of onions, etc. you might be more comfortable with a thinner spine and blade. If you want to hack Chicken bones in half, this is your blade!

Can't go wrong at this price!
 
That is a great deal. I just bought 3 Global Chef knives for my Sous Chefs for Christmas and they were $109 each. For any chef home or professional that is a great deal.
They will last for years with some TLC and NO dishwashers.
 
marvda1 said:
bed bath and beyond has the same set in the 5 star version. same knife but better handle.

the price is $149 but you can use their 20% off coupon.
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This is the set I picked up today at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and I used their 20% off coupon. I've been wanting a decent set of knives and figured that this deal was pretty good.

Wayne
 
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