Customer Reviews

Emerilware by Wusthof 3-Piece Paring Knife Set

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Emeril and I have someting in common! We both use Wusthof knives! He's famous, I'm not!
Wusthof manufacturing quality and time tested paring knife designs for a real good price. The handles in this set are CLOSE TO the Wusthof Classic Line but not quite as comfortable and "familiar". I would say these knives are more a compromise between the forged CLASSIC line and the lower cost consumer "GOURMET" line from Wusthof. Only TWO instead of three rivets in the handle, the other differences are that the blade is not forged but STAMPED and the gauge (thickness) is lighter / thinner. It uses X46Cr13 steel (equivalent to a 420 steel) instead of X50CrMo15 (a 440 steel) that is used in Wusthof's higher end knives (Classic, Culinar, Gran Prix) lines. This is STILL an excellent HIGH CARBON STAINLESS steel! The knives are made in Solingen, Germany. The packaging states the knives are full tang meaning that metal is covered running under the complete handle. A good thing for balance and longevity of use.
The three paring knife designs are the three I use most while food prepping - a 3-in. Paring Knife, 3-in. European Style Serrated Paring Knife and a 2.25-in. Curved Peeling Knife. The knives had a good, sharp "hand honed" edge from the factory.
There's this big todo over dishwasher safe and handwash only. The high temperature, caustic detergent and banging against other items DESTROY knives edges! Any knife. It destroys low price ones AND high price ones. Buying a knife because one manufacturer uses "dishwasher safe" in their spiel is paramount to listening to a car salesman telling you to jump your new car off loading docks! Your purchase in either case will need replacement sooner than if you took care of your item. The salesman would like that.

These knives are almost identical in materials and profile to the equivalent knives in the Wusthof Classic line.

The difference is in the construction: these knive's blades are cut, not forged, are much thinner, have no bolster, and are 3/4-tanged. The handles are molded onto the blades, and have two rivets, not three (though larger Emerilware knives have three rivets). The result is a very inexpensive knife that can sit next to your Wusthof Classic Chef's knife and carver, and still look like it belongs to the same set.

If you're used to forged Wusthof or Henkel knives, picking up one of these for the first time is a shock - because of the thinner, 3/4th-tanged blade, the knives weigh about half as much as you expect. This doesn't effect their performance, however - the blade steel is still just as sharp, and the handle feels about the same in the hand. I would never buy a chef's knife from this line, but for uses where weight doesn't matter, these are a definite win.

The birds-beak parer is just the right thing for trimming mushrooms or fine herbs (any place where the cutting surface is the curve of your thumb, not a board). The tapered point is a slightly more disposable version of the Classic (I put it in the dishwasher without cringing).

The serrated blade is the blade that lost the set a star; the edge is of good quality, and would be just the right thing for tomatoes, grapefruit, and bread loaves if it were just an inch longer. As it is, I can cut supermarket tomatoes but not heirloom, small grapefruit but not large ones or large navel oranges, and using it for bread is a lost cause. (If you want a smooth drop-point, buy the Wusthof Gourmet set, which is the same line without the signature).

The Amazon[.com] price is about what this set is worth. If the serrated blade were longer, I might even have been willing to pay the list price.