Cutco. Had a full set for almost 20 years, never had better. Trident, Heinkle, Sabitier? etc…Excellent knives, just not half as good as Cutco. The patented Double D™ edge that Cutco has is still sharp as a razor, even after almost 20 years of use. I hone the straight edge knives- butcher, chef, paring etc… a couple times a year and they hold the edge beautifuly as well. Get Cutco, you’ll never look back.
True. The other issue I have with Chicago is the wood handles. They easily crack/warp/splinter/pull away from the tang (shrinking/swelling).
You are quite correct. The more easily it dulls, the more easily it is sharpenable. I just prefer not to sharpen my knives very often. I grew up with the no-name knives (mom was ‘afraid’ of sharp objects) and was fine with it. Yes, she would kill a knife off in a few years due to repeated sharpening, but the cost/use ratio was low enough where she didn’t mind it. Yes, I spent (10 years ago) a total of $1200 retail for my knives (I didn’t pay that much-worked for a knife store), but I doubt I will have to replace anything but the paring knife and the kitchen shears.
Many of the “self sharpening” knives are serrated. They cannot be sharpened. The teeth are too fine for it. You can hone the teeth off, but then you have a piece of REALLY bad steel, for the majority of the brands out there. I’ve seen the infomercial for the “NEVER SHARPEN CUTS CONCRETE” knifes many times, and yes they are just fine for everyday in home general use. But I prefer to dice, not slice. You cannot dice with a serrated edge-it’s a saw. IMO, it’s like comparing a Honda with a Mercedes. Yeah, they’ll both get you to where ya want to be, but there’s a HUGE difference in how you get there.
Weirddave: Did you sell Cutco, by any chance? You sound remarkably like the Cutco reps that would come in and try to get us to buy the stuff. I have tried Cutco. Like the knives I noted above, they work, but they (again, IMO) ain’t all that.
Your answers have laid to rest more troublesome questions than my reading this whole week, thanks. Chicago makes two versions: one with the more typical plastic-type handle. I like the wooden ones because they feel nicer, but they may not be available anymore, anyhow.
I thot your technique was to claim them as plunder from battles with ex-fiances. . . .
The kind I was thinking about was the straight edge sort that are housed in a storage unit that sharpens the blade as it’s taken out and replaced.
This upset me so much I joined to set the record straight. My neighbor’s son sold Cutco knives to everyone in our neighborhood and they are not good knives for the money. I bought the Cutco kitchen scissors which cost me around 100 dollars total and they are now worthless. I know I can send them in for sharpening but it isn’t worth the effort. They no longer cut anything much less a penny. (Cutting a penny is part of their sale pitch). The joint in the scissors is stiff and the thing no longer works. They have caveats in their guarantee and considering all the hype in their advertising I tend to not trust them. Still there is no comparison between Trident, Henckles, Sabatier and Cutco knives which use the cheapest steel 440A versus the fine 440C of Henckles). Cutco are stamped not forged like the high quality knives. They say their knives are “surgical quality steel” but that is just hype. They are made a inferior steel to the brands Weirdave mentioned. They don’t have bolsters (a little piece of steel at the end of the blade behind the heel) which helps with balance and safety. Just looking at the blade stuck straight into the handled without a bolster makes me shudder. The “Double D” edge is just a variation of a serrated edge. You must send them in to have them sharpened which adds up and is expensive. Plus they aren’t even patented. I read that was another lie. The handles are just cheap injection molded plastic. Plus they are NOT full tang knives. The tang is steel part of the tool that extends into the handle. A full tang extends the full length of the tool into handle which makes the knife very balanced and is what you will find in Trident, Henckles and Sabatier. Cutco are very expensive too. You pay more for them than Henckles but you get much less. I own a mixture of Henckles 4 stars and a few Sabatier Commercial knives. My four main knives are Henckles 4 Stars (three chef’s knives and one paring knife) and I love them. I have had them for decades too. When Sabatier went on sale I bought a few of them to fill out my collection. I don’t baby them at all and they are still amazing knives. My husband collects knives and keeps mine nice and sharp. My neighbor bought the Cutco knives and paid so much more money just years ago and they are just terrible. I hated reaching for a knife in her kitchen. Please don’t be taken by those crooks.
Do zombies use knives?
Regardless, I have been very pleased with the Henckels knives I acquired some years ago. They have worked very well in my kitchen.
10 year update
The Henckels knives I had back in my first post are still my go-to blades in the kitchen. I did add a couple of Wusthof blades thanks to a marriage, they are also lovely knives. A couple of weeks ago, I spent maybe 45 minutes at the dining room table with a sharpening stone, giving them all a nice edge. Once or twice a year, that is not too much to ask of a quality blade.
What’s the best knife for cutting text walls into paragraphs?
This is a quite old thread and most of the links are dead, and possibly some of the participants in this thread. 
Kaththee, we’re glad to have you at Straight Dope and hope you’ll stick around. I am, however, going to close this thread to new comments for the above-stated reasons. If anyone would like to continue a discussion of knives, please feel free to open a new thread in Cafe Society, a forum that did not yet exist when this thread was started. I am going to move this whole thread there, where it can still be read.