Customer Reviews

Calphalon Katana Stainless-Steel 8-Piece Knife Set with Block

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Pros:
These knives are pretty, with a rounded black handle, and a layered damascus-style blade. This means the blade, while relatively smooth, has a wavy-layered look to it. The Amazon picture is accurate to what you will receive in your set. Out of the box, each knife is quite sharp; enough to shear paper, but not hair.

I have smaller hands, and have some trouble wielding the 8" chef's knife, but find that the 5" Santoku is excellent for chopping vegetables. The 6" utility knife is also very useful for thinly slicing meats. I do use a different paring knife (Pampered Chef) as I find the Katana paring knife a little too sharp and rigid for say, lopping the ends off string beans in my hand. We also made the additional purchase of the 9" bread knife to complete the set. The bamboo block is attractive, and the slots are wide and deep enough to put other wide-bladed/long knives in. However, note that if you get the bread knife, that only leaves 3 empty slots (i.e. no dedicated steak knife slots).

Cons:
Two slight cons about this set: (1) The diamond-sharpener looks too coarse to use on these blades, and; (2) The shears in this set are lackluster. While they are relatively heavy-duty, they do not come apart for cleaning, and the handles are a little large and unwieldy. I prefer a smaller-handled set of kitchen shears that come apart for cleaning (when I decide to cut meat instead of slicing it, a la Alton Brown). But in their defense, they do cut cleanly.

Comparisons:
We love our Katanas, and they make ordinary chopping/slicing a much more endurable chore with their sharpness and ease. If you are "stepping up" from an ordinary consumer-grade set, you will definitely feel the difference. For example, I had a $90, 10-piece Kitchenaid set. The Katana Santoku knife is definitely more balanced, and the garlics/onions slide right off the Katana's grooves, whereas sometimes foods would stick on the Kitchenaid. I do find that the Kitchenaid chef's knife is slightly easier to handle, due to the longer curve (better rocking-chopping motion), and the slightly reduced weight, but the Katana is sharper, more rigid, cleaner-cutting, and therefore faster. The Kitchenaid shears were lighter (easier to wield) but flimsier. Unlike the KitchenAid shears, don't expect the Katanas to make a scissor-like snipping noise, they are entirely silent. The Katanas do require slightly care than your run-of-the-mill knife set, but simply wash them shortly after you're done using them and dry them prior to putting them back into the block.

Personal Opinion:
I don't know what "Professional Chefs" think, and I'm just an average cook. Thus, these knives went above and beyond my expectations by reducing my prep time, and adding an attractive focal point to the counter. Granted, they don't come out of the block making a lovely ringing steel noise like our Shun steak knives, but for the foreseeable future on a limited budget, the Katanas are a worthy investment.

Some Miscellaneous Notes:
These knives are made from VG-Japanese steel, but they are manufactured in China. We found this set (1st Quality) at more than 50% off in one of the big box stores, which made it a steal. However, if we had paid full-price, we probably would have done a comparison with a Shun knife set instead.

[Edit - July 2008] Since purchasing these knives, we have noticed the following: (1) do not leave them overnight in water - as they will rust badly, (2) the 5" Santoku has inexplicably developed two hairline fractures in the blade. It was my favorite knife, was not used on inappropriate objects/materials (not used for chopping bones or anything), and was always used on a cutting board, so this development within a year has been very disappointing. I still like the set, but the rusting and the fracturing make me a little less pleased with them. I would drop the star-quality to 3.0-3.5.

Couldn't resist the design, but to try these out first bought the 8" chefs bargain and then fell in love with the feel as well as the look and got the set with the storage block. Plan to expand to what is still missing (esp the honesuki and nikiri)

I find the handles a very comfortable fit, and the blades are so well balanced that I don't find them tiring at all. The parer is a precision instrument, and I love the santoku (both sizes). The sharpener is exactly that: so use with care and keep a honer handy as well for in between touch up. I used the small utility for getting every last bit of meat off of a turkey carcass after Christmas -- think the small honesuki might be even better for this task -- but the utility did a superb job and was easy on the wrists -- I find the short handles make for more finesse in handling and the knife seems to "go" where I want it more easily.

Not everyone will find these to their taste, but I think they are great!

I must say I'm a big fan of Calphalon. I own several pots and pans from both their tri-ply stainless steel and non-stick contemporary series and I love them and highly recommend them.

I bought these knives assuming that their quality in cookware would translate into cutlery. I ended up returning them after several days... here's why.

PROS:

Absolutely beautiful knives that are well crafted with very rigid stainless steel (more rigid than Henckels and Wustof). The Santoku knife is a nice addition. I loved that the steel construction went all the way to the end of the handle. The steel provided with the set supposedly actually SHARPENS the knives as opposed to only HONING them. Who knows.

CONS:

1. Very heavy. Compared to the German knives, these are not agile at all and can be painful on the wrists especially when using the very substantive chef's knife. I thought the weight would add to the cutting ease but it really did not. On top of that, the weight was unevenly distributed making the knives feel unbalanced.

2. Short handles. As you progress to the smaller knives, the handles got annoying short. This just compounded the weight issue.

3. No sharpness advantage. I ended up purchasing the Henckels twin cuisine set of knives as they were similar in design (and also has a Santoku in the set!) to the Katana series. I noticed that even though the "VG Japanese steel" was supposed to be even sharper and stronger than the German steel, I felt like the Henckels knives were still sharper and cut through everything with much more ease.

4. Slightly harder to clean. The integrated bolster design makes it slightly hard to clean since any sponge you use against the blade tends to snag on the sharp end of the bolster. All the other German knives have a rounded bolster. This is by far the least important con.

All in all, I think the Henckels Twin Cuisine knife set is extremely similar in price and design, and additionally does not suffer from the deficiencies of the Katana Series knives.

I ordered this set for my wife. Her initial response was why did you spend so much money for a set of knives. They can't be any better than what I already have. Now that she has been using them for several weeks she is hooked. She says they are the sharpest and easiest knives she has ever used. I just hope she doesn't decide to use them on me. Excellent buy.

Disclaimer: I did not buy the actual set for sale, as I didn't want the block, but I purchased almost the entire set individually.

I am a professional chef, and I have to say that these are some of the most comfortable knives I have ever worked with. Comfort and balance are of utmost importance to professionals, and these knives deliver. I personally like the heft as well, and the perfect balance makes using the knife almost effortless. I purchased these as my professional set when I first started in kitchens, and they lasted me perfectly through the first few years. I have since started to invest in serious Japanese knives for my more precise tasks, but these are great all-around knives.

The only cons to these knives (from a professional standpoint) are as follows:

- The blades are very thick, making it difficult to slice certain ingredients neatly. They are particularly poor for cutting hard cheese unless you want it crumbled.

- Because of the blade shape (which is like a wedge), these knives struggle in fine-detail work. Mini brunoise is very difficult and slower than with some thinner knives, for example.

- The serration on the bread knife is EXTREMELY severe, and I have found it best suited to very hard, crusty breads, and entirely useless for soft loaves.

- Contrary to some other reviews, the shears do come apart. They take a small wrench to do this, and they loosen/tighten quite easily -- perhaps too easily, as they often get loose with regular usage.

I definitely recommend these to home cooks looking for a set of solid knives, but not so much for professional cooks, unless these cons are outweighed by the reasonable price tag.

I bought this full set after Christmas, and have been extremely pleased. I have small hands, but they fit very well and feel very comfortable. They are a little heavier than some other knife brands but not enough, to me, to cause any difficulties. In fact, I like the solid feel that I get when using them. They are incredibly sharp and have done everything I've asked of them with no problems. I'm looking forward to adding on to the set!

Really enjoying this knife set. The selection and sizes of knifes are good for home cooking. Have owned these for about 8 weeks now and they knives seem to be holding there sharpness well. I particularly like the Santuko knives and use those the most. And I found cleanup of the knives to be simple and easy. They fit well in my hand and feel very comfortable. They also seem well made and high quality.

While I'm not a chef myself a couple people I work with are and they showed me a bunch of different manufacturers knives. They told me they rather liked the Calphalon knives and suggested I check them out. I bought the 7" Santuko by itself prior to buying the set. I liked it so much that I decided to invest into a set. No regrets at all. A set of knives like this will last me for many years to come.

The handle fits well in hand and the blade has good heft to make chopping, slicing and dicing easy. The blades hold their edge and sharpen well. The set has most all the knives you'll ever need, though I added a bread knife to complete the set. Small downside is the blades stain easily if you leave them out unwashed. The manufacturer recommends washing and drying immediately after use. If they do stain, there are various polishing products to bring them back to looking new. All in all a great set.

got the 13 piece set from bed bath and beyond, turns out to be a really nice knife set cuts awesome especially after sharpening. can't imagine anyone complaining about a set for the cost. Best bang for the buck I ended up getting every single knife in this set. I'm not by all means a master chef but when it comes to getting the best for your money after 3 different knife sets I came to a conclusion as seeing these as the best for the money. Don't really need all the knives in the katana line up but when I saw the knives performance first hand I jumped online and bought every one! Don't be misled by any cons about these knives, you can't get more for the money!

Found these on line and purchased for my wife who runs a home based daycare and cooks for 12-14 kids daily. She has never had the privilege of using nice cutlery and would probably not spend the money on something like this for herself. She frowned at me when she found out what they cost and wanted me to return them. I insisted that she give them a try and was just as pleasantly surprised as she was. The handles are very comfortable and allow for a variety of holding positions. The Damascus style blade is beautiful. The only word of caution I can offer is that you wash and dry the blades immediately as the blades will stain if not attended to promptly. We have been using these for almost a year now and are just as pleased with their performance today as we were the first day.