As a Southerner, which means my Momma is always right, it was tough to buy my first Henckel back in '83. After all, my Momma don't use no high priced, foreign knives and her cooking is as good as any I have ever had in my life. But the yuppie in me won and I bought an 8" Chef's Knife from the 4 star series.

All I can say is I'm glad I did. 17 years later that knife is as good as new and it has been joined by a half a dozen other Henckle's of various lengths and shapes. Hell, my Momma even has a set now.

What's so great about an $80.00 knife? Well, for one thing it keeps an edge better and longer than any other knife I have seen. This includes the fine Wostof's used by a couple of my professional chef friends. Another big bonus is the shape of the handle. It is much more comfortable than other knives I've tried, especially when a long morning of chopping and slicing is involved.

A side note about the company (and this is by no means exclusive of Henckel), I dropped an 8" Slicer and the blade snapped in half. Six months later I had taken my remaining knives to one of those traveling Henkel show to be resharpened and just mentioned this in passing to the Henckel Rep who promptly handed me a brand new knife. He told me to return the pieces to Henckel if any other knife broke, since they are not supposed to. I guess that kind of service is a must if you expect folks to plop down close to a thousand dollars for a full set of knives.




Recommended: Yes