Cutlery Reviews

I own the little 5" chef knife and contend that no good kitchen should bewithout one!My son owns the big 8 piece set of Emeril/Wusthoff knives and they are identical in workmanship with my 5 " one.My"downgrading to "only" 4 stars is due to the lack of a metal ferulewhere the blade meets the handle( this would offset the lack of a bolster that comes only with forged knivesat premium prices. the Emerils do have full tangs rhrough the handle andwill survive manyyears of constant use.Higher prices notwithstanding, forged knives are not necessarily an absolute need in a home kitchen( my 8" Forschner(of Swiss army knives fame is not forged but has survived 30 years of daily use, losing only 3/8 inch of height due to my prequent sharpening on a special 180 grit silicon carbide High speedwheel.I've sharpened thousands of knives proffessionaly and suggest you buy the emeril set plus the little5 inch chef knifeand use thedifference to buy one ofthe CHef choice electric sharpeners.At Amazon's prices, you'llput enjoyement back into your kitchen cutting!and be safer too as even slightly dulled knives are hazardous to your fingers!Note that the steel is German Solingen though the knives are made in China and ifthey'renot as well polished as their Grand Prix brethren, look at the prices! Performance iswhat counts ultimately andthe Emerils deiver that perfectly and they're pretty as a picture too!

wusthof's gourmet line including the emerilware series is one of the best value's on the cutlery market today.. i own this one plus the gourmet santuko and matching asian paring knife in addition to my normal block set and having nothing but praise for these knives.. they are sharp as a razor, keep their edge well and balance well in your hand.. and you can see the quality in the steel, perfect grain throughout without any flaws.. what else can you ask for in a knife.. what lack the sophistication and a bit of balance to the forged series' they make up for in value and function.. perfect for the home chef.. can't recommend them enough

I'm the one who wrote the "disposable wusthof" review below.

After more than a year of steady use, the the bird's beak parer just snapped in half in my hand, right where the tang ends in the handle.

Full tangs strengthen the handle, but I figured for a paring knife (that never hit a cutting board) a 3/4 tang was good enough. I was wrong - cheap knives are cheap knives. I'm buying the Classic version to replace this.

I sure got a nasty surprise when I cut the cheese. A piece of one of the blades went flying across the room.

These knives are almost identical in materials and profile to the equivalent knives in the Wusthof Classic line.

The difference is in the construction: these knive's blades are cut, not forged, are much thinner, have no bolster, and are 3/4-tanged. The handles are molded onto the blades, and have two rivets, not three (though larger Emerilware knives have three rivets). The result is a very inexpensive knife that can sit next to your Wusthof Classic Chef's knife and carver, and still look like it belongs to the same set.

If you're used to forged Wusthof or Henkel knives, picking up one of these for the first time is a shock - because of the thinner, 3/4th-tanged blade, the knives weigh about half as much as you expect. This doesn't effect their performance, however - the blade steel is still just as sharp, and the handle feels about the same in the hand. I would never buy a chef's knife from this line, but for uses where weight doesn't matter, these are a definite win.

The birds-beak parer is just the right thing for trimming mushrooms or fine herbs (any place where the cutting surface is the curve of your thumb, not a board). The tapered point is a slightly more disposable version of the Classic (I put it in the dishwasher without cringing).

The serrated blade is the blade that lost the set a star; the edge is of good quality, and would be just the right thing for tomatoes, grapefruit, and bread loaves if it were just an inch longer. As it is, I can cut supermarket tomatoes but not heirloom, small grapefruit but not large ones or large navel oranges, and using it for bread is a lost cause. (If you want a smooth drop-point, buy the Wusthof Gourmet set, which is the same line without the signature).

The Amazon[.com] price is about what this set is worth. If the serrated blade were longer, I might even have been willing to pay the list price.