Mercer Culinary M23510 Renaissance, 8-Inch Chef's Knife

I stumbled onto this while reading reviews on some Zwilling steak knives, the reviewer mentioned that these Mercer's are great, and MUCH less $$, but same forged quality and sharpness, so I tossed it in my cart WITH the Zwillings that were there. Even before it was out of the package I was impressed with the look, feel and size. Man! Is this baby great! I LOVE the size, I have small lady hands. In fact, after 2 days of using it, when the Zwilling's arrived, I didn't even open them from the shipping box and returned them! I'm going to order the 5" size as well to use for BF and guest steak knives ( regular hand size people! ). And BONUS! The handle is an exact match to my other Zwilling Pro knives that I LOVE and use every day! Next time I need a gift for someone who loves to cook as I do, I will DEFINITELY be buying them a Mercer (or 2!) The price / quality is unbeatable!

A very well-made knife, offering true value for money. Nicely balanced one that is sharp and serves the purpose of a good, sturdy and well made bread knife.

I've got some fairly expensive Shun and Wusthoff and Zwilling chef's knives, but for single-serving meals this 6 inch knife is by far my favorite. When just doing a quick chop of a single veggie, it fits perfectly well on my smaller cutting boards and offers a little bit more control than a larger knife.The blade doesn't feel flimsy or too heavy (like most of my Wusthoffs). The grip is very comfortable, not too heavy, not too light, not bulky at all, and not square-edged and uncomfortable (like some of my Zwillings).Out of the package, it's razor sharp and after several months of use, all it needs is a quick pass on a honing rod to restore that.It honestly makes me regret spending so much on some of my other knives. I could have several more of these Mercer's for what I spent on those.

Mercer knives are made with the same steel as Wusthof, Henckels, and Messermeister, but cost a fraction of what the German-made equivalents do. They're not quite as well finished as their German counterparts, but that can actually be an advantage- that mirror polish on the Wusthof is beautiful to behold, but any knife that gets any use at all will inevitably get scratches on the blade and handle. The more polished the knife, the more the scratches stand out.The Mercer knife takes a few design cues from Messermeister, namely the thinner blade, the abbreviated bolster web, and the rounded spine.Back in the 1980s, when Wusthof was king, the thinking was that a heavier blade was better, that somehow the weight of the blade would "do the work for you"- a silly proposition. A thinner blade goes through the food easier and without as much wedging, and the lighter weight is much less fatiguing. The only time a heavier blade is better is if it isn't sharp, and you have to force it through the food with brute strength. Sharpen your knives and you won't have to worry about it.For a long time, a fully webbed bolster was considered a sign of quality. The reason being that it identified the knife as being forged, rather than stamped. The web itself (which is what most people mean when they say "bolster") serves no purpose, and actually gets in the way of sharpening the knife properly, and makes it far more difficult than it needs to be. Messermeister and Mercer have done away with the webbed bolster, so there's nothing getting in the way of keeping your knife sharp.Wusthof and Zwilling/Henckels have nice, crisp, squared-off edges on the spine of the knife. It looks pretty, but when holding the knife properly, the square edges dig into the skin where your index finger meets the palm of your hand.Messermeister and Mercer round off those sharp corners, making it more comfortable to hold correctly, especially when using it for any length of time.I personally don't like the Mercer 10" Chef knife, and the 8" (which is considered the norm for household use) is just not quite enough knife. In my experience, the 9" Chef Knife is the sweet spot, and the one I recommend.This is the knife that will handle 80% of your cutting needs. After that, an inexpensive serrated bread knife and paring knife (serrated knives aren't worth sharpening, once it gets dull, it's best just to get a new one, so a reasonably cheap stamped bread knife is the way to go) will round out the kit. After that, if you're going to be fabricating proteins and/or boning out poultry, a 5.5" boning knife will come in handy.

After having and using this knife for a few weeks, I have to say, function-wise, the 8" Chef knife is excellent. I see why so many recommend this knife. It came pretty sharp "out of the box", though I would recommend touching it up if you have the tools (I touched it up using a Spyderco Sharpmaker, I have not taken this to my waterstone yet). It is well balanced, and makes quick work of basically everything I throw at it.Unfortunately, my concern is the QC of the steel. I see that there are noticeable number of other reviews that talk about blemishes, tarnishing, and rusting. It is obvious that the knife seems to be properly made in Taiwan, but the raw steel doesnt seem like its QC is up to what I am used to with Taiwanese made products. I have a feeling that they get their "German steel" (just a German formulation of steel, it doesnt mean that it's made in Germany), from some random factory in "China", like the countless other cheapo Chinese made knives you can find. It took only a few days before I had some noticeable blemishing along the blade for me. I do actually take good care of my knives, as I only hand-wash with dish soap and a soft sponge. I also towel dry my knives immediately after washing. It looks like the batch of steel used in my knife was a little off from what it was supposed to be. In the end, the blemishing is not major, as it doesnt seem to be so bad that it might threaten the structural integrity of the blade, it seems to be just cosmetic. Its more disappointing more than anything that the "stainless" steel is not actually "stainless".It looks like, if you get this knife, functionally, you can expect it to perform extremely well, however, you roll the dice on if it will have minor cosmetic issues/rusting.