ZWILLINGFOUR STAR Chef's knife, 16cm, Black

This is a 16cm chefs knife, which is what will suit most people cooking for a small family in a domestic kitchen. Professional chefs seem to prefer 20cm, but this will be too large and unwieldy for most domestic cooks.Its fairly stiff and heavy, there is no flex at all in the blade. The edge out of the box is quite sharp enough to use immediately without further sharpening. There's about the right amount of curvature to the cutting edge. The hand protection at the handle is excellent.These handles, though less elegant looking than riveted ones, are actually much better to use, they fit the hand perfectly. The balance is good. Its not clear whether there is a full tang - its not two riveted pieces so you cannot see - but in any case, the handle is heavy enough to balance it properly.Be cautious with a steel, if you use one. Very light passes and not too many of them. A burr will appear almost at once on one side and will need careful correction.The best way to sharpen decent knives like this is with wet and dry sandpaper on a robust piece of flat glass. You can get such offcuts from glass merchants. You need 400 grit for occasional resetting, 1000 for most sharpenings, and 2000 for finishing. Get it at auto supply stores. Or you can buy at much greater expense good quality water stones or diamond sharpening stones, but used carefully wet and dry is cheaper, easily replaceable and just as good.If you use a steel, it should be a very fine one, and used carefully and lightly.In conclusion, an excellent well made, robust and well designed knife, it will last forever. It looks like it will hold an edge and be reasonably easy to sharpen. Perfect for home cooks.You can pay anywhere between £20 and £200 for this kind of knife. £20 is way too little for quality, and £200 is money for hype. This at around £50 is as good as any family cook needs. In fact, its doubtful that spending more gets you any discernible improvement.

arrived promptly. No blade protector with it. bit disappointed as i bought two Japanese knives of good average quality and they both came in nice box with blade protectors. But what surprised me is the ZWilling knife 6 inch is sharper than the two Japanese blades. It cut through paper quite easily. overall it is impressive. i recommend watching the you tube video of how they are made.

I own a number of Henckels knives and this one fills a gap between the smaller paring/vegetable knives and the larger slicing and cutting knives. Great for butterflying chicken breasts and slicing and dicing smaller cuts of meat. This replaces a 40 year old wooden handled knife of the same size and I think it will become my No. 1 knife for kitchen duties. Great product.

It's was an Xmas gift for fly partner. I have the same knife at my house and he always wanted one. Very nicely balanced and a very useful size.

This is a top quality knife but it does suffer one little problem: in 2011 Zwilling Henckle launched their new "pure range" of knives, these are very similar to the 4 star range but have a better shape to the tang which makes them more comfortable to hold.You may get a good deal on the older 4 star range while stocks last (its still a damn good knife) or you may prefer to pay a bit more for the new range (though they don't seem to be on Amazon UK yet)

I love this knife - it is the ultimate kitchen knife. I inherited one from my great uncle years ago and have bought 2 more as presents for family as it annoys me when I go to their houses and watch them struggle with cheap knives! It is well balanced, sharp, tough blade which can handle frozen food, scraping meat off bones etc. and is just the perfect size and blade profile for 90% of jobs in the kitchen. You only need 2 other knifes - a bread knife and a small peeling knife and you're set! This one from Harts of Stur is the best price I have come across.

I brought this soon after I first started cooking. In the past I have always been annoyed by small/flimsy/cheap knives which increase the time taken to make food.This knife is perfect for the amateur chef who can perhaps not afford professional equipment but still wants the best. It is perfectly balanced, sharp, well weighted, and a pleasure to use. It makes light work of all my kitchen tasks. It is one of those cooking implements that makes cooking FUN!

Think it is expensive, well its not it will last a lifetime and it stays sharp. Buy the Henckels sharpener as well and it will stay in mint condition. I use this knife every day just in the home and would be lost without it