Chicago Cutlery Insignia Steel High-Carbon Stainless Steel Knife Block Set with Cutting Board (19-Piece)

I bought this for my wife as a Christmas gift hoping to see her excitement as she opened up a nice new set of knives and block on Christmas morning. Of course having read the other comments that the block seemed to be a problem in most, the instant onset of buyers remorse matched with my habitual need to be cheap came like a whirlwind of karma and slapped me in the face with my wife’s disappointment on Christmas morning. Now I have to send back the entire package, in hopes I get another with a good block 🙁 Hoping they’ll just replace the block, or I may just fix it myself since the knives look good.

UPDATE*** After we found out it would take two months to get a replacement set we opened some of the knives to see if they were ok, and we would just repair the block ourselves. Not surprised at this point, the knives had spots on them, light scratches, etc. It looks like they may have given us a used or defective set.

I will always buy Chicago cutlery. They honor their warranty. I live on an island so a lot of things I own tend to rust. If you wash and immediately dry the knives there is a less chance of rust, but Im lazy and I work constantly so I just toss them in The dishwasher. Mine havent rusted yet, but I have owned them for a few months now. But my mother in law’s knives have rusted. They replaced her knives free of charge

Overall, were happy with these so far. They are very sharp and even though we haven’t used it yet, the built in sharpener is a nice touch. However, one of the knives looks damaged? Like somewhere along the manufacturing process someone got a little heavy handed with the edge. See pics for the dip along the edge of the knife. Although I don’t think it will make a difference in how it cuts, just a little disappointing being how much this set costs.

The knives came sharp and intact. I did not have the problem with the wood block as some have said they did. It arrived in good condition with a very nice smooth finish. I like these knives because there is no separation between the handle and the blade, as though they were forged from one piece of metal. This means food cannot get caught in the crevice between handle and blade.

Naturally they are very sharp, and the built-in sharpener seems to work fairly well. One of the blades did have a little sand sized piece of metal on it but I pulled it through the sharpener and it came right off. Some people have complained that the steak knife holes are misaligned, and I did find this to be somewhat the case. They are slightly lower on the left than on the right which makes the knives sit not quite in a straight row. I would say the far right steak knife is a few millimeters higher than the far left. Given the relatively modest cost of the set I really have no problem with this. The cutting board which came with the set was a nice surprise, good quality, with a very smooth finish.

Some people have complained about the scissors coming apart. I have not had this issue. They come apart for cleaning but I’ve never had them come apart accidentally or not when intended.

What can I say? Extremely impressed with this cutlery. Came very well packaged and these knives are extremely sharp! It was definitely worth the money. Not to mention that they show off really nice on the kitchen counter, clean well and nicely designed.

Be careful, these knives are quite sharp and slice through tomatoes, meats, and almost anything like a knife through hot butter.

So far fairly impressed with these knives. tTese knives are extremely sharp. Which is what I wanted. We go through quite a bit of meat in our household and need sharp knives to handle it. Haven’t had to sharpen them yet but its only been a couple weeks. We will see how they hold up.

My rating is based on the knives above because ultimately that’s why I bought the product but there are some downsides to the total purchase

Inserts on the block where the knives are stored are way to big for the knives. They do not fit snug. There were some imperfections in the block. They were not pet of the wood. You can tell they were done with epoxy during manufacturing. There were slight scratches on the knife handles. Also the scissors fell apart. I can fix this so I’m not so concerned about it. But it’s one more thing on the list.

All in all I bought the product for the knives and the price. I got what I wanted, very good knives for under $200+. If you want the glamorous knife block and scissors that work you may want to keep searching.

My old knife set decided we sharpened it too many times and the tip broke off on one. So it was time for another set. I love this set! It feels heavy not cheap. The sharpener in the cube is awesome to have. The cutting board is nice and heavy and the perfect smaller size. No complaints at all.

Sturdy, one piece design. These have a nice weight and balance. Very pleased with this purchase. These knives go through meat and vegetables like a hot knife through butter! Makes preparing meals more enjoyable. I wash them by hand as the manufacturer suggests, however; I have also put them in the dishwasher without incident.