Ginsu Koden Series 14-Piece Cutlery Set with Black Block

 (31 customer reviews)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS - I've used many different kitchen knives and cutlery sets before, and one of the main problems with some of them is that they give you too many knives and they're low quality. Most home cooks should be able to get by with a chef's knife, paring knife, kitchen shears, and steak knives. I also have a tomato knife, a boning knife, and a bread knife in my personal collection. However I am a bit of a knife snob, so right away, I was looking for faults in the Ginsu knives. I replaced my regular knives with the Ginsus and used them for one month to evaluate their effectiveness.

SHARPNESS - Ginsu advertises these knives as "never needs sharpening." This is a bit misleading. One would think that they never need sharpening because they are made of some type of fancy space-age steel that never dulls. Many knives make this claim, and you will notice that all of them are serrated. These knives are made of high carbon stainless steel. ALL knives will get dull...Read more

... and my knife skills aren't going to impress anyone on "Top Chef," but I just was not happy with this knife set. The steak knives and the kitchen shears work just fine, but the other knives are all terribly awkward to use, in my opinion.

I found the "Always Sharp blade with symmetric edge technology" was consideribly less impressive than it sounds. The paring knife was almost impossible for me to use, and I think I tried every knife in this set trying to find one that would cut through a large sweet potato with ease. (I ended up getting one of my old Henckels -- the cheap ones -- out, which did the job with no problem at all.)

I did find the knives satisfactory for cutting through meat, but I really wouldn't recommend them when so many of these knives are so difficult to use. I'm giving them to charity and hanging on to my Henckels.

The thing I like the most about these knives is that they look very sleek, presentable and beautiful. The knife block looks great and will be an ornament to any kitchen.

The variety of knifes is not as good as I'd like to see. There are too many steak knives, for my taste. Normally, a set of steak knives is something that one has apart from the kitchen knife block. This block could have used more specialty knives instead of adding a number of steak knives that are completely identical.

Other than that,the knives are really good, sharp, and very convenient. They make cooking simpler and more fun.