Pampered Chef Knives Rated by Consumer Reports

[KimoMakano]

I have noticed a few threads about rust spots and nicks on knives so thought I would do a little checking. By the way, I really do like the knives.

When I went to Consumer Reports (online) I found that they actually had ratings on Kitchen knives. Out of curiosity I checked and found that they had rated a Pampered Chef knife. The model nbr was #1041, not sure what this is since the review was done in November 2005.

Of the 33 "Fine Edged" knives (sets) the Pampered Chef came in at nbr 31! Yikes!! Cutting was rated at Very Good and Handle at Good. As for Corrosion it indicated as "Less Corrosion".

I think the death blow was the handle because in cutting and corrosion it was right up there with the best.

Granted this is a couple years old but it is the most recent they have posted and the Pampered Chef knives have come a long way since then.

Just some perhaps useless information.......

 

[cmdtrgd]

The forged knives have only been around since last Fall, I believe. The knifes you are referring to are the ones with sharpening cases.

 

[KimoMakano]

Correct Kate.
I believe the knives they test are even at least one generation behind the forged knives currently available. I think the current ones are probably a better quality than the ones reviewed.

 

[ParishKitchen]

Like you, I haven't been around long enough to be familiar with the "1041" set, but I am familiar with CR's ratings. Like other posters mentioned, these ratings were for the self-sharpening knives, not the forged ones. Also, for that particular test, they were rating sets as a whole -- not just knife performance. I think the death blow was probably the number of "missing" knives. According to CR:

Missing indicates which of the mainstays (Chef’s, Paring, Slicer, and Utility) aren’t in the set we tested. Usually, they’re available separately; we’ve noted when they aren’t.

The set that was tested had only two knives, and the entry under "Missing" was "C, P, U," which means the set did not contain a chef's, paring, or utility knife. For a cutlery set, that's pretty miserable (and kind of makes me wonder what actually was in that set). Fortunately, this set is obviously no longer available, and the paring, utility, and chef's knives are all available individually.

As for performance, as you said, the PC knives got a "Very Good" rating for cutting, and a "Good" rating for handle construction. However, many other knives got "Excellent" ratings for one or even both of these categories.

However, it should be noted that the knives receiving the top ratings were all forged. In a way, this isn't really fair way to present their findings, because stamped knives never compare well to their forged counterparts. CR definitely should have separated their ratings into stamped and forged categories. If that were the case, and the knives themselves (rather than the sets) were being rated, I'm sure PC would have gotten top ratings (if not top rankings).

Also, the PC forged cutlery is very, very good. As someone who has owned Henckels and Wusthof forged cutlery long before starting out with PC, I can tell you that these knives compare well with the best of them. I'd love to see CR update their testing to include the PC forged line -- I have a feeling these knives would give the "Big Boys" a run for their money. (But then again, maybe not, because IMHO, the Kershaw Shun Classic deserved a much higher ranking than what it got.)

Anyway, just be sure to put those ratings in context, should anyone ever mention them. Remember,

1. The ratings were on the overall quality/value of a set that is no longer sold by PC.
2. The ratings compare stamped and forged cutlery in the same grouping.
3. Our forged cutlery is not included in these ratings.

HTH!

 

[Grandmarita]

Quality of Knives - #1041 F/W 2006 catalogFor those who are new, this was a carving set with two pronged fork and 8" knife and storage case with built in sharpening and honing mechanisms for $45.50. It had a Lifetime warranty.

 

[reba515]

For those who are new, this was a carving set with two pronged fork and 8" knife and storage case with built in sharpening and honing mechanisms for $45.50. It had a Lifetime warranty.

which I love! Just used it tonight as a matter of fact

 

[ParishKitchen]

For those who are new, this was a carving set with two pronged fork and 8" knife and storage case with built in sharpening and honing mechanisms for $45.50. It had a Lifetime warranty.

CR used a carving set in their testing? That's not fair at all. I really do hope they update their knife ratings to include the PC forged line.

 

[legacypc46]

thank you for some great information Parish Kitchen!

-leggy

 

[finley1991]

I had a customer a few shows back come and order our forged knives because she saw them in CR and said they were ranked pretty high. Which surprised her and impressed her. I didn't really pay attention to her because I was busy with orders and other things and frankly didn't remember about it until just reading this thread. Guess I'll have to look into this...

 

[missydivine]

Let us know what you find out.

 

[ParishKitchen]

Leggy, you're very welcome. It's my pleasure.Really, it is. I'm a total geek for this stuff.