4 comments

  1. I have a knife I use all the time had for quite a few years and it only cost me $10, it sharpens well. I have a knife that cost $150 and its always going blunt and really hard to sharpen. so sometimes the dearest isnt always the best..

  2. I have Wustof classic (with black handles) and the knifes are great, but the handles started to fall apart after about a year of usage. Wustof offered a free replacement though. Are you sure you need such a big set? I only use 3 knifes and I do cook a lot.
    Also, to help you make the right choice, I would go to the store that sells them and actually get a feel of different knifes to find the one that sits right in your hand. And don’t forget wustof knife sharpener – it’s the best.

  3. I would NEVER spend that kind of money on a knife, ever! Even a full set. I have cooked professionally for 20 years and have rarely seen any knife worth that kind of money. At the moment, my favorite knife fits my hand perfectly, has a nice sharp point, hold an edge pretty darn well and I can slice, dice, trim meat, fillet, the works and I bought it for $3.00 at a local Asian grocery store. That is NOT a typo.
    Name brand stuff is over rated and over priced and rarely worth the big bucks.
    The probelm with those sets are you will buy it and then find yourself using maybe 3 pieces of it and the rest is just collecting dust. I recommend you buy your knives one at a time.
    Look for good quality. Solid metal from tip through the entire handle. An indent on the handle to aid in gripping it. Solid steel, not hollow. The chefs knife should have some heft to it so it doesn’t bend when doing a heavy duty job.
    A big problem with knife sets are not being cared for correctly either. They should never be put through the dishwasher, never stuffed into a drawer and never used on any surface except a wooden cutting board. Stainles steel and ceramic counters, glass cutting boards are all bad news to a decent knife.

  4. I would suggest not to buy a set. in 99.99% of the cases you will end up with more than one knife that you’d never use. Or knives with very similar designation. Either way, you’re paying for something you don’t need.

    As for those two brands. Generally Japanese knives are much harder than their western counterparts, which results in much better edge holding, but increased brittleness, especially under abusive use.
    Globals are rather an exception from that rule. Globals are 58HRC, Wusthofs are 56-58HRC or 54-56 HRC, depending on the mode line.
    Either way not a significant difference.
    Globals are thinner though, and considerably lighter.
    Steel used in them CROMOVA 18 is slightly better than Wusthofs X50CrMoV15. But I doubt it’d really show unless you were grinding very thin edges, which itself isn’t very feasible with softer steels used in both knives.
    More on kitchen knife steels here –
    So, in the end 2 major deciding factors:
    1) Globals are lighter, to me that’s an advantage, as the sharp edge is supposed to cut as opposed to popular knife myth “heavy knife will cut for you”. Elementary physics will show that knife weight is rather insignificant given sufficiently sharp edge. Only if you really chop the weight comes into play, but you shouldn’t do that with kitchen knife anyway.

    2) Globals are thinner blades, with thinner edges. ~30deg. on Globals vs. ~40deg on Wusthofs. Makes significant difference for cutting. Forsofter materials Globals will work a lot better. However, wester knife users tend to use kitchen knives for bunch of stuff that isn’t really suited for those knives, e.g. whacking lobsters with the chef’s knife. For that reason western manufacturers tend to use softer steel and thicker edges. So, you have to decide what type of knife user are you to pick the correct knife 😉

    And finally the design. Wusthofs are more or less traditional western design. Globals are westernized Japanese knives, with distinct style.
    Whichever you like the best.

    Assorted kitchen knives reviews –

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