MasterClass Trojan 6-Piece Designer Stainless Steel Knife Set and Knife Block

In my kitchen at home, I've got a rather fantastic Henckels 4 star knife block. One of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Henckels-Knife-block-set-piece/dp/B00009QN7H - its an outstanding set of knives that has lasted me the best part of ten years and is still (nearly) as good as new. Super sharp, well balanced, easy to use. The Rolls Royce of knife block sets, as you as you'll ever buy. The down side is that it comes in at a cool £300+ to buy.Every year I go to my mum's house to cook Christmas dinner for the extended family and use a set of these Kitchen Craft knives that i bought her as a present some 4 years ago. And you know what? Whilst I'm embarking on a week of catering for 10-15 people, with a need to have a bunch of decent equipment to hand, I find using this set of knives, I don't really miss my Henckel knives. Sure these knives look a bit cheaper, the block itself is a bit cheap looking (with plastic slots for the knives to slip into, and a slightly cheap metal cladding). But this is all cosmetic stuff. When it comes to doing what they are supposed to do, these knives really are very good. They've got decent heft to them and feel relatively heavy in the hand, something I like and that you don't often find with cheaper knives. They balance very well, sitting just right in the hand when you want to do some cutting (again something you rarely find in cheap knife sets). They stay pretty sharp and sharpen up well when needed. Pretty much everything you need in a set of knives.Whats astonishing is that they are priced at somewhere less than 10% of the cost of the Henckels set. Sure you get a few less knives, the finish isn't quite as great, and the block doesn't look brilliant. But in terms of bang for buck and value for money they are at least as good as or better than the top price set. Its an absolute steal at the price.In fact, if I were buying a set of knives and didn't have the money to spend on one of the nicer Henckels sets, I think I'd probably save spending money on any intermediate value knives and buy a set of these. They do a good job, feel excellent in the hand and come at a price that is so ridiculously cheap you have to check it again once you've tried them out. An outstanding bargain.

The main carving knife of a set of knives that I'd had for 10 years snapped in half, so I was on the look out for a new set and these Kitchen Craft knives are the ones I chose.I am certainly not disappointed ...This 5 piece set of knives come complete with a solid heavy brushed stainless steel knife block which will look stylish on anyone's work surfaces. The knives themselves are of a good well balanced weight, they feel very comfortable to hold and equally pleasant to use.The set consists of a 8.5 cm Paring knife, a 13 cm Utility knife, a 20 cm Bread knife, a 20 cm Chef's knife and a 20 cm Carving knife. Each knife does the job it's intended to exceedingly well.So to sum up the Kitchen Craft 5 piece knife set in stainless steel block, looks good, all knives are razor sharp and they cut, peel and slice brilliantly.

I think this is OK as my daughter has not complained (unusual in itself!) Had no firm feedback so can assume they are doing their job.

Good set of knives. Not amazingly sharp from the box, as some others have commented on. Sure they'll sharpen up OK when the time comes, though. General feel and weight is good, and the stand looks nice. Can't really complain about anything at the price - all I'd say is that the blades are a bit thicker than more expensive knives, meaning some things don't cut quite as easily.

I have had these knives now for just coming up to 18 months now.I will be honest and say that when I first purchased this set of kitchen knives that I was very happy with my purchase. Nice weight to them, good looking knife block was a nice touch and looked good in the kitchen.Bearing in mind these knives are dishwasher safe, I wanted to point out that they rust incredibly easily along the blade(s), meaning they require a good scrub with one of the green scouring pads (non-metallic ones to avoid scratching the surface of the steel, causing more damage, thus more rust). I think it is safe to assume the these knives are not made from a high quality stainless-steel - hence the rusting.When using the knives for chopping, one of the smaller knives chipped down near the handle end of the blade. Now although this is not a major issue as it does not effect the cutting action of the knife in any way, it still shows what poor quality these knives are.And to add salt to the wound, Halloween 2011, not 18 months into owning these knives, my wife was cutting out a pumpkin (simple face pattern with triangular eyes), the large chef's knife snapped right on it's tip. Now we all know that pumpkins are not particularly hard, and it was just a case of piercing the pumpkin and pulling straight back out, so no real sidewards strain/pressure on the blade to cause it to snap.Overall, I am very dissapointed that this set lasted not even 18 months. In fact, less than that when we first started seeing the poor quality of the manufacturing of this set of knives.My advice - keep looking. There must be many better sets of kitchen knives out there.

These knives are brilliant, the holder is heavy and solid which will not move around when removing and placing the knives. The knives themselves feel well made, sharp and comfortable to use.The only problem I have is with the packaging which is great to protect the knives themselves but the biggest knife is packaged at the front of the box in clear plastic so you can see the knife and makes the packaging more appealing. The knife itself is hard to get at; I had to remove the plastic from box and then once I got at the knife there is a small bit of plastic tied around the knife to keep it in place. This was on so tight that there was very little movement to cut it off to remove the knife. Please be very careful when you remove this knife, I would suggest completely destroying the box to get at it to make is safer for yourself. I tried to keep the box intact and managed to slice one of my fingers in the process.