New forum member, first post. Looking for advice on what to do about my "brand new" Zwilling Kramer chef knife.
I'd been eyeing the Zwilling Kramer carbon chef knife for a while now, and I finally bit on an 8" blade when Bloomingdale's (yes, Bloomingdale's) had a decent sale. Received the knife in the mail today and it looks used. The brass bolster is scuffed all to hell, there's a slight curve to the tip of the blade, and while the carbon blade doesn't have any stains, I can see the marks from where it has been wiped down. To add insult to injury, the fit and finish of the handle is absolute crap--the wood isn't flush with the rivets OR the tang (one half of the handle appears to have already shrunk) and there is some rust/corrosion on the edge of the tang exposed by the shrunken wood (which also appears to have some slight water damage along the crease).
So basically what I want to know is, should I send this thing back? Or should I be happy with paying $180 for a "used" Zwilling Kramer? It's out of stock now, so there's no exchanging it. If the fit and finish issues (wood shrinking, scuffs, etc.) are problems I'm going to potentially run into down the road anyways, does it make more sense to keep it? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I'd been eyeing the Zwilling Kramer carbon chef knife for a while now, and I finally bit on an 8" blade when Bloomingdale's (yes, Bloomingdale's) had a decent sale. Received the knife in the mail today and it looks used. The brass bolster is scuffed all to hell, there's a slight curve to the tip of the blade, and while the carbon blade doesn't have any stains, I can see the marks from where it has been wiped down. To add insult to injury, the fit and finish of the handle is absolute crap--the wood isn't flush with the rivets OR the tang (one half of the handle appears to have already shrunk) and there is some rust/corrosion on the edge of the tang exposed by the shrunken wood (which also appears to have some slight water damage along the crease).
So basically what I want to know is, should I send this thing back? Or should I be happy with paying $180 for a "used" Zwilling Kramer? It's out of stock now, so there's no exchanging it. If the fit and finish issues (wood shrinking, scuffs, etc.) are problems I'm going to potentially run into down the road anyways, does it make more sense to keep it? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.