Ontario Knife Co. 5-Piece Old Hickory Knife Set 705

You may not be impressed with this product right out of the box. It will appear "made in China" from back when rubber dog poo was the best export they had. Then look at the blade. USA stamped right into the blade. Full-tang on the serious knives, with brass rivets holding rustic, authentic hard wood handles. They are rough for a reason. This is the set your great-grandmother always wish she had to pass down through the ages. They all started out rough. Time and love in the kitchen brought out the beauty you expected in this set. Unless you want a splinter in your hand - Take 120 grit sandpaper to the handles until they have the look and feel you expect from your grandmothers "Old Hickory" kitchen knife. (The one she never let you use). The blades are thick and the cutting edge is sharp. Work the edge with your favorite stone and it will perform to your satisfaction. You will cherish this set, you will be selective of who gets to use them and listen to them fight over who will get your Old Hickory Knives one day in their own kitchen.

I've observed that there are two groups that purchase these knives. One group purchases the knives based on reviews and the price point. The other group purchases because the blades have a high carbon content and the purchasers recognize the extraordinary bargain that these knives can represent. Inexorably aligned with the latter group, I purchased the five-knife set and added the cook knife as a separate item. The knives arrived in varying states of sharpness and condition, but all were paper-slicing sharp and usable as kitchen knives. The only knife in dire need of attention was the slicer (of course). There were three rough spots on the cutting edge and it took me about an hour to correct the issue. I cut new 30-degree (15+15) bevels on all six blades and then cut 40-degree bevels (20+20) for the cutting edges with my Spyderco Sharpmaker. All blades are now hair-shaving sharp and cut smoothly along the entire length of the blades. Eventually the knives, the slicers anyway, will go on a stone and have a single 30-degree (15+15) bevel. Particularly satisfying is the exceptional first-sharpening edge on the boning knife and the quality of the paring knives. I have no idea how many crap-metal paring knives I have used during my septuagenarian existence, but the number is certainly too many. The quality of the knives and their prospective longevity merits the possibility of fabricating and installing exotic wood or Micarta handles. Price shoppers you need these knives because of the price point. Knife people, you need these knives because they have the potential to be better than all but the most expensive knives available.

******UPDATE AFTER ORIGINAL POST****Overall, these really are great knives. Before I go on, I do want to get a word of caution out right now to prospective buyers.These knives are NOT your typical, lazy-daisy stainless steel easy-to-take-care-of knives. You can't just throw them into the dishwasher to clean. The blades on these knives are made out of high carbon, 1095 steel, which is NOT stainless steel. It is much harder, can get MUCH sharper, and retains its cutting edge for much longer. Once sharpened to taste, they are easily touched up to retain their edge when needed. If you DON'T HAND wash and then HAND DRY these knives, they will start to rust fairly quickly. If you throw them into a dishwasher, you'll only do so a couple of times before you see the handle become damaged from the machine...and you'll see that rust I'm talking about. These knives need to be taken care of; if you have the patience to do so, you'll love them, like I do.Now, on to my review. As I said, these are great knives. Yes, they come in a really cheap package. So what? I bought these for nice knives, not nice packaging. Once sharpened by hand, these knives have the razor edge that I'm used to Old Hickory knives having. I'm not a fan of machine sharpening, or this Accu-sharp tungsten carbide garbage some people swear by. I'll pit my hand-sharpened razor edges against their dull quicky-sharpened knives any day...and I'll win every time. These knives are no different. The boning knife, carver (slicer), and butcher knives are full-tang blades, which is also very nice.Now, a few drawbacks. I can live with them, but I'm not completely happy because of them, thus the four-star rating. If these had been like my last set of Old Hickory knives, then this would have been a five-star rating, for sure.What's wrong with them? They are not QUITE as thick as my last set of knives I had bought some 15 years ago or so. I'm a fairly stout fellow, but I was barely able to flex the paring knife blade in the old set. I can flex the paring knife blades without much effort, and can flex the boning knife, carver, and butcher's knife without much more effort than the paring knives. Yes, I COULD flex the old blades, but it was actually a bit difficult to do so.The two paring knives are half-tang. Really, this isn't too much of a problem, as they are not meant for the heavy, heavy duty kind of work requiring a full-tang knife. In my old set, however, even the 3" and 4" paring knives were full-tang. Guess I'm just used to the little extra bit of quality, there.Ontario's out-of-the-factory edges on these knives are abysmal. Now, I didn't expect them to be nearly as sharp as I want them right out of the packaging, but there's no edge on these knives at all. Even a machine sharpener as highly rated as the expensive Chef's Choice M130 Professional Knife-Sharpening Station, Platinum would have issues with putting an edge on these. High carbon steel like this is HARD to cut down to a good, sharp edge...when you start with NO edge at all...well, it WILL take you a while to get these sharpened up. You will have to have patience in plenty to get these sharpened to your taste. It took me a few hours to get these blades sharpened into the razor edges they have now...and I've hand-sharpened knives for over 25 years, have good stones, and even polish my edges using a leather belt and jeweler's rouge...Despite these few cons, these ARE great knives, considering the type of steel they are made from, and the lovely low price that you pay for them. If you have patience enough to take good care of your kitchen tools and to have kitchen knives that can be SUPER sharp, then you'll love these knives.*********Nine years later, these knives are still performing fantastically! I will still leave the rating as four star, simply because of the issues I noted in my original post, but after nine years we're still using the knives from this set. Both paring knives are used daily, and the rest numerous times per week. Still easy to maintain their edge, still cutting through our meats and veggies with ease. I have no doubt these knives will outlast me.

Love them best quality kitchen knives you can get totally worth the price as long as you know how to take care ofem