Zwilling J.A. Henckels Four Star 11pc Block Set Including 4 Steak Knives

The four star line came out in 1970s, and is still the most popular choice for buying a Zwilling J.A. Henckels knife in Germany and many countries. However the four star isn't the highest line of this brand, I would say it is very enough for someone who's new in high end knives, and for someone who has a budget.There are many different knife brands, such as Wusthof, Global or Shun. I happen to own both 4 brands, so let me explain the differences between them and why I choose to buy Zwilling but not the others.Zwilling made the knives that have about 20 degrees angles, so the knives pretty much suit the cooking style and habits of Western cuisines.Wusthof is slightly different in the angles, it's about 16 to 18 degrees, so the chef's knife from Wusthof will be closer to what we say as the Japanese chef's knife, but it is still very suitable for cooking Western cuisines, let's just say it's something between the traditional western chef's knife and the Japanese chef's knife.=> The reasons for buying Zwilling but not Wusthof are, firstly, the only 3 people in my family who cook are me, my dad and my sister, all of us are very used to the Zwilling knife angle, and we decided not to buy other better lines (Professional S or 1731, for example) within this brand, is because we think 4 four line is very much enough for our daily cooking. (Although we do have one Wusthof, we don't use it very often)Shun and Global both make Japanese chef's knife, this means those knives, especially the chef's knives, are firstly, very thin comparing to Wusthof and Zwilling; secondly, the knife angle is very narrow, most of the Japanese knives have a 15 or 16 degree angle; thirdly, the weight differs, too, Japanese knives are often less heavy than western knives.=>The reasons for not buying the block set of some good Japanese brands are, for one thing, it's very expensive; for the other thing, we already have one Shun chef's knife, and one from Global, so we think adding one block set of this traditional western knives is pretty much enough for all our cooking habits (we cook both Western, Chinese, Japanese and other Asian cuisines, and will change knives when needed. By the way, if you're looking for a Chinese chef's knife that has the rectangle shape blade, you might want to change brands, too,I find that Zwilling is not very good at making Asian style knives, but well, it's from Germany after all).As for those 4 steak knives, they are made in Spain, and I think the company kind of added the steak knives with the original four star block set to attract more customers or to control the prices. Anyway, those steak knives are good, too, although that's kind of cheating when saying " Four Star 11pc block set".And I don't compare this set with some higher brands or higher product lines within the same brand, I mean, it's very unreasonable to say that four star is not as good as 1731, or something like "I still think Shun knives are much better" especially when you're comparing the high end line of Shun with this basic product line of Zwilling.

Solid set but the shears, though decently weighty, do not have the four star/twin imprint and the steak knives are pretty insubstantial (and also lack the four star mark. Still a better deal than the 7 piece set selling on Amazon for 50% more. I fully intend to replace the steak knives unless they perform better than they look. The larger hands feel very comfortable in the hand and are well-balanced. In general, this is a good quality set for those looking for a step up from the JA Henckels International Premio set.

very good knife set, sharp, easy to use.

These flimsy steak knifes are made in Spain. They are stamped not forged. They do not match. No metal bolster . The block and shears are made in China. The sharpener is made in Taiwan. The other knifes are very good but not anywhere like older four star knifes. They still make actual four star steak knifes but for some reason they have been substituted with this . 50 percent of these knifes are very cheap imposters.Nowhere on any website does it say that. It says German made. Misleading at best. Bait and switch. BACK THEY GO!!!!!