Kitchen knife poll fail, very sad.

tabeeb762 said:
I've never owned, used, or even set my eyes on a Cutco knife, and haven't yet had the opportunity to interact with their admirable and well renowned sales team either.

But can the knives themselves really be as rotten as they're made out to be? 440A and Made in Olean, NY sounds like a pretty reasonable blade to me.
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They're not rotten by any means, just extremely over-priced and hyper-marketed by young men and women are are typically recent high school grads or trying to make a buck during college. If they sold for 25-30% of what they charge and sold at Target Cutco would be considered a decent buy but not near the same league as an entry level J knife such as Tojiro.

One big selling point is a life-time guaranty and free lifetime sharpening as long as you pay for shipping.
 
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Had a Cutco sales person come by once. During the sales pitch, she asked me try to cut a piece of manilla rope with my chef's knife. She was shocked that my chef's knife easily cut through the rope. It was a Gerber Balance Plus 10" chef's knife. Anyways it was a good sales pitch and she wasn't pushy. Didn't buy any of them.

At that time I had not even thought about making a knife, so my kitchen knives consisted of some Gerbers (older ones, from when Gerber was still a decent brand), Henkles, a few Chicago knives, and a Victronix paring knife.

Now my kitchen knives that I use are a couple of home made ones (01 tool steel), and a modified Ontario 10" field knife (1095). My wife still likes the Victronix paring knife, she uses it for everything. One of my girls loves a custom paring knife I made just for her, it has a row of pins in the handle spaced logrithmically.

May be they need a "None of the Above" check box in the survey.

Ric
 
it would be entertaining to say the least if a cutco sales person came to my door....

"See this machine here, it's called a rockwell tester"
"oh, you want to cut manila rope? I have LOTS of 1 1/4" rope, let's see who's knife is dull first"
"hey, look what I can do with this here grinder thingy"

heheh
 
Guys, I gotta chime in here. I have been using Cutco knives ,along with a few other brands, for ,holy cow, 39 years. I have been satisfied, obviously, and my wife says their pruning shears are the best she ever had. In 39 years she had a lot of shears. We have a pair of their scissors that have been very good for heavy cutting.
I bought a 5 piece kitchen set in college, partly to establish credit, of which I had none. The price was $79, a large sum at the time, and they did have that sideshow which I was aware of and prepared for.
I sent the set in after 15 years for resharpening and when they came back I felt they were not as sharp as new but still satisfactory. This was purely a subjective judgement. Over the years we lost a couple but I still have the original carver and bread slicer. My wife has replaced the others via EBAY. The prices there CAN be a real bargain. She got about a dozen steak knives cheap and we use those as regular duty knives,making sandwiches, cutting meat, veggies and such.
They all need resharpening now and a couple of the steak knives have damage near the rivets. Others have no damage and they all take 3 or 4 trips through the dishwasher weekly.
All in all, a good investment for normal kitchen duties. I do plan to aquire a ceramic slicer but I fear the breakage. I will most likely buy more Cutco off Ebay as they have met our families needs for almost 40 years.
 
As a culinary instructor I feel like I have a better perspective on "cooks" feelings on knives. I can both defend and condemn this poll and it's people.
Your average home cook has never held or used a sharp knife let alone a quality knife. Remember when you were in High School and that $300 Honda you drove ran for ever and never needed work. Once in a while you changed the oil and washed it by hand, you were proud as can be.
Your average home cook never grew out of that relationship with their first kitchen knives. You run them through your home sharpening gadget and keep it clean and they remain proud of them.
So when Ginsu and Cutco come around with thier (I'll admit gimicky) microserrated edges it's like nothing they've ever seen before.
Back to the car example... Now it's like that old Honda doesn't look as good compared to the new Honda. WOW! However they still haven't driven a Mercedes and even if they look at the Mercedes they would say "The shifting knob is in a funny place, the steering wheel feels different, I can't figure out the cruise control, I don't like it." You know what, if all you are doing is commuting to your job on the horse ranch maybe a Mercedes isn't for you, Look at a truck, but at least look at what car is best for your job. Same thing with knives. If all you are doing is cutting the crust off of your daughters PBJ sandwich then stick with the knife that does that for you.
Now I'm not saying that any car or knife is better than the other it's just a matter of knowing what is best for what you are doing. As a culinary instructor I have graduated from the cheap knives to expensive chromium/molybdem japanese knives and now I'm switching everything it showy custom made works of art. And in my garage I have both a truck and a luxury car and I use them both for different tasks
 
Cutco as distributed by Vector marketing is anything but cheap.
My problem with them is their misleading marketing and outlandish claims they make. It's 440C steel, 54-56HRC as they themselves state, and then comes the whole it never dulls but we sharpen it for free stuff and the prices...
 
Put my vote in for Shun. It's shovelling against the tide of Cutco enthusiasts, but every vote counts (for what, I have no idea... :confused: ).
 
I voted for shun too ;) As for why, may be someone will get a decent knife, or at least avoid paying full price for cutco.
 
Gator97 said:
Cutco as distributed by Vector marketing is anything but cheap.
My problem with them is their misleading marketing and outlandish claims they make. It's 440C steel, 54-56HRC as they themselves state, and then comes the whole it never dulls but we sharpen it for free stuff and the prices...
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Gator,
I hate to be pedantic, but I do believe that Crapco uses 440A steel.

440C would make them much more expensive! :rolleyes:
 
Blah, thanks for the correction. Pedantic is good in this case.
I've checked their site, and yeah they say it's 440A - http://www.cutco.com/company/craftsmanship.jsp

Couple years ago Cutso salesperson was going on about 440C being so great in Cutco knives and that's where I remembered it from.

Well, so much for the steel... Makes their prices even more ridiculous.
 
Timely thread here. My girlfriend briefly sold Cutco last year trying to pick up some extra cash. I googled it beforehand & told her she was essentially selling Kirbys. It peterered out quickly but she liked the shears enough to buy them & got a nice kitchen knife along with it.

I'm a longtime knife-nerd but know little about kitchen cutlery & that Cutco knife is the nicest blade in the drawer at present. We've been discussing getting a full set with a block in the near future & I sent her to price Henckels & Shun sets. The Shun Ken Onions caught my eye but I'm not sure how stainless they are & I like the look & reputation of the Henckels sets. But again, I know very little about kitchen cutlery. Any pointers & advice?
 
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Jeff, check http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/KAGAYAKICarboNextSeries.html for the 210 tor 240 gyuto. I replaced my Wusthof (essentially the same as Henckles) and it's an amazing knife. We also have cutco which is no where near this knife either.

For more info check out these forums:

http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showforum.php?fid/26/

http://www.foodieforums.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?6-Fred-s-Cutlery-Forum[/URL]

You'll learn a lot about Japanese knives and that while Shun is a fine knife, there are many others that cost far less and are much better knives. Shun has marketed itself well and is responsible for growing interest in J knives.
 
That price-to-quality argument against Shun doesn't add up these days if it ever did. A similar sized Kanetsune/Hattori HD/Ittosai/Ryusen with damascus-clad VG-10 costs more than a Shun Classic and a Blazen in SG-2 costs more than a Shun Kaji or Shun Elite (the SG-1 Blazens also cost more and don't have the fit and finish of the Shun Elite line).
 
Thanks guys. After pricing a few sets & getting her used to hearing those projected prices I asked her if she used the same few knives over & over or would actually use a full set. So now I can, with good conscience, begin to price single custom pieces. Good times!
 
mano I said:
This is from personal experience. Perhaps not a large enough sample, but I know at least six well to do accomplished home cooks who really like Cutco for the reasons I mentioned. My wife is among them. All have and use other much better knives but I'm amazed several have full sets which are used regularly.

All are otherwise normal wonderful intelligent, even worldly people whom I'm proud and honored to have in my life.
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I have to wonder what being "well to do" has to do with credibility when it comes to knives:confused:. Also, what exactly is an "accomplished home cook"? Accomplished in what? Preparing meals in a house?

Not trying to be antagonistic, but I honestly just don't get it.
 
KarlMaldensNose said:
I have to wonder what being "well to do" has to do with credibility when it comes to knives:confused:. Also, what exactly is an "accomplished home cook"? Accomplished in what? Preparing meals in a house?

Not trying to be antagonistic, but I honestly just don't get it.
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Cutco knives aren't cheap and the sets they own cost between $800 and $2000. They're wealthy enough to buy most knives out there but they bought cutco because their kids or kids' friends were selling them. It doesn't speak to their credibility but to the high cost of the knives.

Accomplished in preparing complex labor intensive meals for a dozen or more people. On this you'll have to trust me.

And it's clear you didn't get the tongue-in-cheek nature of my post.
 
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