Customer Reviews

Chicago Cutlery Centurion 3-Piece Knife Set

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

**Please note that I have posted a similar comment about the chef's knife elsewhere on Amazon since I use that one a lot. I wanted to make sure anyone just looking at chef's knives would get the benefit of my experience.

Wow, I bought this starter set of 3 knives back when I worked in a local Italian restaurant in college. I cut and prepped all the veggies and fruit. One of my other duties was sharpening all the knives in the kitchen. After being frustrated with all of the low cost Sysco knives since they were never sharp and could never be sharpened, I noticed that the boss always had his own knife - at first a Henkel and then a Global. I decided to invest in my own knife for restaurant work. This starter set was what I found on sale and I can't tell you how please I was (and still am) with this set. Out of the box - they were so sharp I was scared, but I eventually realized what the phrase "a sharp knife is a safe knife" really means, because prep work with the chef's knife was a dream. I bought a plastic holster for the blade so I could use it myself. But every other cook in the kitchen wanted to use my chef's knife. The chef's knife feels GREAT in your hand while you are cutting which is due to the shape, balance, shape and material of the handle and the full tang blade. I would also like to comment these knives have an attractive classic look to them. I still have the same set of knives 7 years later and occassionally take them to a professional knife shop for sharpening. What else can I say? I love these knives and will probably buy a full set if I can find one that has everything I want. Oh, I forgot about how great the price is - I have used Henkels, Globals and a few others and I can tell you if you keep these knives sharp you will be just as happy so you don't need to spend all of that $$ on the so-called higher quality brands. Chicago Cutlery has outdone themselves with the Centurion line!

I've owned these knives for several years now. These Knives are a great value for almost anyone. There is nothing fancy about these knives, just typical, and they do what they're supposed to do -- get the job done.

The knives are OK balanced (get japanese balance out of your head). A word about Chicago Cutlery Knives -- they are not sharp out of the box. You need to hone these knives at about a 20 - 25 degree angle to get them sharp. But you can get these babies very sharp.

They don't keep their edge that well if your comparing them to the German knives. But they'll do just fine if you sharpen them every once in while, depending on how much you use them. For your average domestic cook that translates to approx. every 2 weeks. Like all knives they stain if you keep them wet to long.

If your looking for a starter set this will suit you perfectly.

In my 55 years I have purchased predominately Chicago Cutlery knives. For the first time I am disappointed. While not the best of knives, they had always been good quality steel, good quality handles, and good workmanship. Making them, I thought, about the best value on the market, and a good knife that you would want in your home.

All of the knives that I speak of here are the Centurion model. I have purchased 2 sets of 4 steak knives, the 3 knife set of chef knife, paring, and utility, also the slicer, and the serrated bread knife, for a total of 13 knives.

If anyone has read my comments on the steak knives I would like to amend that here. I have noticed that all of the rivets on all 8 knives stand proud of the handle. A sure sign of poor workmanship and poor quality control. The rivets on the rest of the knives are either exact or acceptable.

I don't recall ever buying a Chicago Cutlery knife that was sharp out of the box, but they weren't too bad. Out of the 12 of these knives, discounting the serrated bread knife, only 2 meet the not very high Chicago Cutlery standard for sharpness. The other 10 are quite dull and will require a lot of work. The first inch of the chefs' knife, near the heel, has been so badly buggered that it will be difficult to fix even with my course diamond stone. The slicer has a nick in the blade that is about 1/16 inch wide and 1/64 inch deep. This is not repairable except by someone with the equipment to regrind the shape of the knife. The first 2 inches of the slicer has been ground in a concave shape. Because of the angle of the bevel here, it looks as if someone buggered the blade and had to grind this concave shape in order to fix what they messed up. The rest of the blade is straight until the end where it is convex coming to the point. There is no point in making only the first 2 inches concave, but what happens is that the knife cannot now be sharpened on flat sharpening stones. The picture of the knife, even when magnified, does not show this area to be concave.
I am no metallurgist, but it looks as though the quality of the steel is not as good as it was. It looks a little less gray, and a little more shinny. Indicating lower carbon content, indicating lower quality steel.

It is a shame that everything is becoming Wal-matized. A poorer and poorer quality. Some things that I have purchased were so bad that they were not even usable for their intended purpose. These knives are not anywhere near that bad. I will send the chefs knife and the slicer back to Chicago Cutlery for replacement. If the ones I get back are in good shape then the knives may still be a good value for the price. But, the poor workmanship really brings that into question.

These knives are a bang for the money. They look and feel great. I thought they would be really flimsy and cheap looking but they are not at all. They have a decent weight and get the job done. I am not a knife aficionado so I can not comment too much on that but I am very satisfied. I wanted inexpensive quality knives and I got my wish.

I received a set of these knives a few years ago as a gift. They are well made and well balanced. I've use them each at least once a week. I never thought I'd use the smaller knife, but I find myself grabbing this one the most. I like them so much that I purchased a set for Mom, to replace her dull knives. If you cook at least once a week and are looking for a decent knife, it is well worth the money.

The Cehicago Cutlery Centurion 3 piece kitchen knifes have the attributes I was looking for: good weight, balance, and at this early stage blades that hold an edge well. They are getting the job done and are a pleasure to use. Only time will tell how the blades and edges hold up after long service. So far so good.

Yes, you can spend more on a chef's knife, but why? Put this one side by side with a Wustoff and you will be hard-pressed to tell them apart. Good knife, good steel, good balance.

for the price these knives are great. i have not sharpened them but they seem to be holding their initial edge just fine. nice weight and solid construction. easy to clean.

We loved these knives when we first got them. Stopped using our other knives for the most part. Sharp blade, precise cuts, well balanced and excellent handle comfort. Felt like a high quality forged knife.

But after about a year we started noticing the knife getting dull and the edges getting jagged despite semi-regular sharpening. The tip of the paring knife broke off and we started noticing a little rust on the chef's knife (probably caused by our dish washing machine).

If these were built to last I would probably have given them 5 stars, but then again I probably could have taken better care of them too.