Customer Reviews

Victorinox 47508 3-1/4-Inch Paring Knife

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This knife was bought out of jar on the counter of the Robertson's Meats main store in OK. I got it as a whim needing to cut a summer sausage in the car. What a surprise...it has been great and I have bought 3 more.

What is the best thing in a knife is how long it keeps it's edge and how well it sharpens. This knife beats any other brand in this category. Yes the handle is simple and small.

No other knife let's me slice a block of hard cheese paper thin without much thinking about it and other's always drift. The beauty is in the thin blade...it is not flimsy...thinness of the blade is what makes the knife and yet it is durable.

For someone who really gets into cooking, a knife this size gets probably more use than any other. It's just right for detail work like garlic, ginger, etc. I trust the Victorinox brand, I have owned Victorinox knives in one form or another for 30 years. The only ones that I am not still using are ones that I have lost. For the price, I don't know if there's anything out there that would come close to what you're getting with this knife.

First off, I am a bit conflicted in giving this product 3 stars because it is a product that I still use and generally enjoy, and I got it for only $5 bucks (it's a bit more expensive now, but not much).

But there are a few reasons I feel this knife falls short for most potential consumers. One of the biggest - the standards of Forschner's excellent and popular 8-inch chef's knife are not met in this product.

I've owned a forschner chef's knife for a while now. Like most, I was impressed with the quality and bargain. So I had fairly high hopes for the paring knife. But when this knife arrived, I noticed a few things.

1) It was quite thin and flexible, bordering on flimsy. No big deal, for a paring knife. I wasn't planning on using it to cut through bone anyway and being thin is useful for a lot of things. In fact, I've come to think this is a major strength of this knife - a thin knife cuts with less resistance and there's no reason for most people to want a thick heavy-duty paring knife that I can think of.
2) It wasn't polished to a mirror shine like the chef's knife. Again, though some claim a glossier knife sticks less to food, I don't really find there to be much of a functional difference, especially for a knife of this size.
3) The handle is nylon and not fibrox. I'd have known this of course if I'd read the description better. Still, I sort of liked the feel of the fibrox on the chef's knife and wish that forschner had some paring knives with the feature. (Maybe they even do, I don't know. BTW I have no idea what fibrox actually is except that it's some sort of plastic.)
4) The handle is very small, even on the "large handle" version. This small handle is useful for fine detail work, but can get lost in my hands (normal adult size) when trying to do faster paring knife work - peeling, coring, cutting citrus wedges, making tournees of vegetables, etc.
5) Most importantly, I noticed immediately that the paring knife was not nearly as sharp as the chef's knife. The chef's knife was sharp enough to easily shave hairs and shred paper to ribbons upon arrival. This paring knife on the other hand tore paper as much as cut it and couldn't shave hair at all. No real defects - just not carefully sharpened at the factory. It was, in short, about as sharp as any new but crappy knife. I wondered if it was even made of the same high-quality x50CR MO steel as the chef's knife. I looked online and though I couldn't find any info specific to this model, i did find an assurance that all victorinox forschner knives use the same steel.

So I took out my whetstones. And I'm happy to say that the little knife sharpened up beautifully. The metal ground away quickly, but the steel was still very willing to take a good razor sharp edge for me - i didn't have any of the problems I often have with cheap soft-steel knives. I believe I will probably use this knife and be quite happy with it. But here is the problem. If you don't do your own sharpening on stones, I can't really recommend this knife much above other cheap paring knives. Those electric or roller sharpeners will not do the trick. And most people won't bother to pay a professional to sharpen a $5 knife. But you'll never get cutting performance comparable to the forschner chef's knife without a good sharpening.

The edge retention is comparable to the chef's knife, meaning that it's strictly OK. Expect a few months of home use before it starts to feel dull. There are better options for edge retention, but they also cost more - sometimes much more.

I guess it could have been just the knife that I personally received. But again, there did not appear to be any defects. It simply lacked the polish and craftsmanship of the much nicer chef's knife. So while this knife is actually a nice bargain for those with whetstones due to the quality of the steel, it was still a bit disappointing to those expecting the same quality as forschner's chefs knife.

This knife is handy for peeling apples and also for slicing. The knife is small and lightweight with good balance and the handle is textured so it doesn't slip. And it's sharp! I've used it to slice lemons, carrots, potatoes, apples, etc. and it cuts smoothly with little effort. This is a smaller than usual paring knife; I think the standard size has a 4" blade, but the length is great for fine mincing of garlic and herbs. Good value for the money.

* probably could do with sharpening right out of the package
* good value for the price - for me, it's worth the sharpening effort

BUT

* the handle is TOO SMALL - I don't even have that big of hands (I'm a 5'8" woman in her twenties, ring finger size 7, if that means anything to you) and the handle is much too narrow. I like knives with handles that are a little rounder - this one is very rectangular.

* the blade also seems a little short, although it says clearly how long it is so I probably should have known that...

All in all, I like a paring knife I got from IKEA much better :-)

Everything I am looking for in a paring knife... I will be buying another one after discovering how great it works for me. Fantastic price for such an awesome knife.

This is absolutely the best paring knife I've ever purchased. I bought it after reading in Cooks Illustrated that it beat its more expensive peers in essentially all of their tests, and it has done the same in my kitchen. It is a little more flexible than most paring knives, though still rigid enough to be used with anything. I end up using it for tasks that would normally require a much larger chef's knife because it's so convenient and comfortable.

I generally use Wusthof Classic knives, including a Wüsthof Gourmet 4-Inch Paring Knife that costs $19. That's enough to buy three of these perfect little Forschner knives and still have some money left over. Do yourself a favor and buy the three Forschner ones.

Since my original purchase, I have bought at least 5 more of these knives for myself and others. Never will your loved ones be so thankful for a $5 gift!

I've had these knives for a while and have had no issues with them losing sharpness -- I occasionally run the knife over a sharpening steel just to make sure the blade is still aligned, but it really shouldn't require any care. And if you do have any problems -- hey, it only cost five bucks.

This is a great little knife for a great price! I have an assortment of more expensive paring knives, none of which keeps an edge for very long. This one keeps its edge, is light and easy to hold, and was cheap.

I'm getting quite attached to the Victorinox line of knives -- very good quality and a great price point. Cooks Illustrated rated their Chef's knife (~$25) as best buy -- over several other $110+ knives by big brand names.

This little paring knife is small, easy to handle and wicked sharp. The black 'Fibrox' (whatever that is) handle is slip resistant and dish-washer safe as far as I can tell.

Cooks looking for a big beefy blade should look elsewhere, but that's the only negative I can find ...

I bought this to replace one of my two Whustoff paring knives (I won't admit here what I was doing when I damaged it.) I had read some time back that Cooks Illustrated really liked the Forschner boning knife so I thought I'd give their paring knife a try. It is not a Whustoff, but for the money this is an excellent little knife. A true value.