Utensils Premium Knives & Cutlery

The steel is heated, pounded, and molded into shape before being cleaned, attached to a handle, polished, and sharpened. Just about any peice of steel can be sharpend to razor sharpness. So last night I finally busted one out and let me tell you, the first thing I cut was a 16th-inch slice of tomato that peeled off like warm butter. I sharpen my Wustoff regularly, but the thing feels like a toothbrush compared to these new knives. Cuisinart, universally known for introducing the food processor in America, is a leader in culinary appliances, professional quality cookware and kitchen accessories.

For those who can’t pay top dollar, the Henckels is our first choice. The full tang, riveted handles have an endcap polished off with thick stainless steel to increase durability. Throughout testing, the blades remained sharp, and there wasn’t any sign of warping. It features remarkable quality given the price, and it’s more robust than others, making it able to withstand the abuse of big meals. However, the handles are angled right where they meet the blade providing a solid pinch grip. The sharper angles can dig into your palm when slicing larger quantities of tougher ingredients, such as butternut squash.

cuisinart knife

Where the set falls short is the chef’s knife, specifically the length. The 6.5-inch blade is shorter than most chef’s knives, which may be a problem for some. Those with larger hands may not like the petite size of the paring knife and want something with more heft. However, if premium quality and performance are what you’re after, the Wusthof is hard to beat. Cuisinart Advantage Colored Knives have stamped stainless steel blades with non-stick coating.

The steak knives are a nice addition if you prepare steak or other tough cuts of meat often. We don’t have much need for steak knives, so it’s a bit of a waste of space for us. The sharpening steel guarantees the knives are always sharp and ready to use, too.

Therefore, we put a great deal of focus on this aspect of performance. A precise knife can thinly slice whatever you throw its way, whether that be tomatoes, cheese, or raw fish. We sliced, diced, chopped, carved, and minced various ingredients to test each knife in every set. We assessed how sharp each blade was by how effortlessly it cut through food and examined said food for clean cuts and desired thickness. Overall, the sharpness of one knife in a given set matched all the others.

From storage block to bevel, we closely examined each set, then tested them out on a variety of ingredients to see if they had the chops to withstand our testing kitchen. A serrated knife features a tooth-like blade that bites into thick-skinned produce and crusty bread. So it was only natural that we sliced artisanal sourdough bread and delicate, Cookware Sets soft tomatoes to evaluate performance. The smaller 5-inch santoku in the Chicago Cutlery meant less precision and more effort when chopping large onions. On the other hand, the full-sized santoku proved to be a good tool for the job. Thanks to the sharp blade, it took little pressure to chop up onions and slice through tomatoes.

Due to grip style and personal preference, balance will feel slightly different for everyone. Therefore, we assessed this metric by finding the balance point of each chef’s santoku and paring knife. This entailed pinching the knife on the blade with our thumb and index finger, then adjusting until the knife was fully horizontal. We also sliced, chopped, minced, and peeled using a pinch grip and handle grip style.

Unfortunately, Marco did not perform well in this metric due to some manufacturing issues. Right out of the box, we noticed that more than one steak knife had a minute gap between the tang and the handle. A small defect like this made us suspect that the handles and blades may eventually separate and break.