Cutco Knives

[Jake]

Thanks for all your comments. I think the knives are very functional and effective. Not the best but hardly are they examples of scammers or crooks. And they can take a sharp edge and don't have a very exciting design or deep heritage. Middle of the road and when purchased with the regular discounts offered -- not overly expensive. And not recommended to those of you (us) who are connoisseurs of blades and cutting things.

[Domminigan]

But I wouldn't buy them mostly because they are cold and just lack any soul, if that makes any sense. They are terribly boring.

This.

My folks bought a set of Cutco knives thirty years ago. I managed to heavily chip the blade of the Chef's knife on some broccoli, they replaced it free. The bread knife and the other serrated steak knives get used rather often, and still cut through steak as well as they did in the beginning. The spatula spreader has been used to ice most of the cakes we have had over the years. The only non-serrated blade we have had to sharpen is the chef's knife.
That being said:
The Chef's knife is the only non-serrated knife we ever use. We have never used the spreading spatula for anything other than icing a cake, and I much prefer my Wilton icing spatulas over the Cutco spreading spatula. They are better suited to icing, they don't scrape bits off the icing buckets when I use them, and they don't cut me. Our steaks are never tough, and I now have some serrated steak knives that cut through tough meat vastly better than the Cutco blades can. The bread knife works better than any other of our bread knives possibly only because we don't own another bread knife. It really does do a good job on homemade bread.
As has been said before, They are a decent quality knife for people who don't demand top quality. The handles fit better than really cheap knives when dry, but get a little slick when oiled up. They don't take an ultra sharp edge, nor do they flawlessly keep their edge over years of use.
If I were to hazard a guess, the biggest reason that people love them is that they had been using poor quality knives before, and they dropped a bundle on these knives when they bought them. It's hard to not find something good to say about a product that you spent more money on than most of the other non-major appliances in your kitchen. (I know, not really applicable to many of us, but we are a bit different)
I have/had most of the knives that my parents had before getting their Cutco set. I threw most of them out as they were total rubbish. The best knives they had were a mystery set with the name brand of "Gold Standard". They can take a surprisingly decent edge, but can't really keep it. I hypothesize that many people were like my parents. Bought crap knives for years, and had a drawer full of junk. Along came a salesman, and they bought these really expensive knives that are loads better than the ones they had. They even keep most of the knives they had before, and of course the moderate quality of the Cutco knives keeps vastly outshining the really poor quality soft stainless knives. Any further knife purchases are either gimmick knives that go to crap after a while, other cheap knives to replace the crappy other knives they already had or knives that are not similar to the Cutco knives because they already have a really good knife that looks like that.

[Gammaray]

My son sold them in college. They use the direct selling method to maximize profits using an outfit called Vector Marketing. The CR consistently gives them average ratings. However, I have the ULTIMATE set and can speak from experience. My wife and I are pretty active home chefs.

ADVANTAGES:

1. Among serrated knives they have no equal. Very sharp steak knives and bread knives. I am still using them after 12 years without the need for sharpening.

2. Good fit and finish, but the handle design needs updating.

3. The lifetime sharpening and return policy is superb. No questions asked. Of course for the price you should get this level of service.

4. Extensive line with matched blocks.

5. AMERICAN MADE

DISADVANTAGES:

1. The straight edge knives are definitely bested by Wusthoff or Henckels, primarily due to better steel and forging. But the sharpness upon delivery is hand achieved and acceptable.

2. Can discolor in the dish washer.

I have an ultimate straight edge Wusthoff set next to my Cutco set. When I need a serrated knife I always reach for the Cutco and the steak knives are always next to my plate.

[Deltaboy]

Thanks I will keep my Grandmaws 1960's set of Old Hickory they are easy to touch up and you can shave with them.