- Joined
- Jan 13, 2013
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I, like many people I think, recommend the Victorinox brand when somebody wants the best value knife for the least money, and, (like most of us) think sets are generally a joke - but I was recently blown away after being told about a knife set(!) that turned out to be am insanely good value.
The background is that I was doing some random googling and came across a post in a forum (by someone who was trained professionally), about an amazing knife set he found for less than $100 sold by Sam's club. The guy seemed to know what he was talking about.
More precisely, the knives in the set are Shun Classic clones and consist of a 8" chef, a Santuku a petty, a paring knife and a block. They really do seem like clones: other than that they say Tramontina and being made in Brazil, they look and feel exactly like the Shun classic line - they have a Shun style "damascus" with a VG-10 core.
http://www.tramontina-usa.com/Damascus - Product Info.html
(Tramontina does some excellent mid tier kitchenware - I have their Le Creuset clones and they are an excellent value...).
I bought a set for fun and to practice my sharpening skills. They weren't super sharp out of the box,nowhere near as sharp as a Tojiro or even a Shun but they sharpened up pretty easily to be as sharp as my Tojiro DP's and while I haven't used them long enough to know for sure, so far they seem to keep the kind of edge one would expect of VG-10.
The knife set, while apparently no longer available at Sams club, seem widely available on ebay and Amazon for between $70 and $100.
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A postscript: I don't yet know how chippy they will be but I suppose - ) ) since they cloned Shun, they will be pretty chippy! (Easily cured by a micro bevel of course.) Still, these knives are unbelievably good for the money, they sharpened up fine and the balance is really nice as well I thought.
The background is that I was doing some random googling and came across a post in a forum (by someone who was trained professionally), about an amazing knife set he found for less than $100 sold by Sam's club. The guy seemed to know what he was talking about.
More precisely, the knives in the set are Shun Classic clones and consist of a 8" chef, a Santuku a petty, a paring knife and a block. They really do seem like clones: other than that they say Tramontina and being made in Brazil, they look and feel exactly like the Shun classic line - they have a Shun style "damascus" with a VG-10 core.
http://www.tramontina-usa.com/Damascus - Product Info.html
(Tramontina does some excellent mid tier kitchenware - I have their Le Creuset clones and they are an excellent value...).
I bought a set for fun and to practice my sharpening skills. They weren't super sharp out of the box,nowhere near as sharp as a Tojiro or even a Shun but they sharpened up pretty easily to be as sharp as my Tojiro DP's and while I haven't used them long enough to know for sure, so far they seem to keep the kind of edge one would expect of VG-10.
The knife set, while apparently no longer available at Sams club, seem widely available on ebay and Amazon for between $70 and $100.
************************
A postscript: I don't yet know how chippy they will be but I suppose - ) ) since they cloned Shun, they will be pretty chippy! (Easily cured by a micro bevel of course.) Still, these knives are unbelievably good for the money, they sharpened up fine and the balance is really nice as well I thought.