Welcome to the premium knife world! Wustof is world renowned for their high quality knives, and this set definitely lives up to that reputation! Are you a professional chef? Do you like to pretend to be a professional chef in your home kitchen? Do you have money to burn? This is probably the knife set for you!
I was pretty excited to get this set in the mail, this is the sort of day that us cooking nerds drool over. If you haven’t heard of Wustof before, you’ve probably heard of Gordon Ramsey or Emeril Lagasse – both of these celebrity chefs fully support Wustof knives. Consumer Reports rated these knives the very best knives available in 2005. The Wustof family has been making knives since the 1800’s and their company is still family owned and operated. What does this all mean? It means that along with their high price tag, these knives are super high quality.
Features of Wüsthof Classic 26-Piece Mega Block Knife Set with Block
The Wüsthof Classic 26-Piece Mega Block Knife Set with Block is part of the Wusthof Classic line, which is the more conservative counterpart to the Grand Prix line. The only difference between the Classic and Grand Prix lines of chef knive sets is the handle style. It’s entirely a subject of personal preference. After using both lines, I decided I prefer the Classic. If you’re wondering what the difference is between a super high quality brand of knife and one the more discount or no name brands – it’s all about the details. One superior detail is in the blade (If you’re really into cooking and knives, you’ll know that this is also called the “tang”).
Wustof uses a one piece tang, made from a single piece of steel. This makes the blade incredibly strong and long lasting. Another small detail is the difference between “forged” and “stamped” steel. Lesser brands use molds to actually stamp a piece of steel into the shape of a knife. Premium knife brands like Wustof use a forging process. There are a lot of really great stamped knives out there (Take a look at my upcoming review of the Saber brand of knives!), especially for the value but forged knives really take the cake. Their balance and edge are unmatched. Now, on to the actual knives!
This set come with 3 Chef’s knives – 6″ 8″ and 10″ lengths. Smaller to medium sized hands will be using mostly the 6″ and 8″ sizes, and might find the 10″ knife a little unwieldy. These knives are more than fit for coarse or fine cutting tasks. I found myself using the 8″ a lot more than the others, but that will probably vary depending on your hand size and what exactly you’re using the knives to cut.
\The 4 1/2″ utility knife is just that – an all around workhorse of a knive. Any small to medium sized chopping you’re doing, this is the knife to use, especially if the task can’t be handled by one of the Chef’s knives. You can also use this as the lazy man’s boning and paring work done with this knife, but then – the set comes with boning and paring knives, so you don’t really have an excuse to be lazy, do you?
3 1/2″ paring knife, not a lot to say about this one, good weight, serves it’s purpose excellently.
5″ boning knife has a very thin blade to slip around bones and cut all the meat off of them without getting the knife caught up on anything. Good for fat trimming as well. This knife is well suited for raw meat, but there are other specialty knives better suited to working on cooked meats or sandwiches.
| Tomato knife | serrated to get through that tough to cut tomato skin, also forked so you can serve that tomato. This knife works great on any softer fruits or vegetables, or anything with a tougher outer layer. Think sausage, salami, citrus, even pineapple and some cheeses. |
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| Bread knife | basically the same deal as above, but slightly larger, and for cutting bread! (Shocker!) |
| Filet knife | great for slipping between small bones, you can also skin with it. |
| Cleaver | for smashing through the bones of thicker animals (beef, pork, lamb, goat even). This is basically the cooks equivalent of a hammer. Always a fun knife to pull out! |
If money is no object, and you want a super high quality knife set that will also impress all your friends, I can’t recommend this knife set enough!