Baccarat Cuisine Pro

Great Knives – There are 8 knives in the set plus a steel and the block itself. The full retail price of $399 or thereabouts was probably a bit hopeful and they were routinely available for $140 or so. At that price they are very good value indeed (this set is discontinued but I note you can still buy individual knives at $30-$40 each). These look to be a copy of Wustof Classic Ikon, and they have done a great job:

- Bolsterles design

- Very cleanly forged

- Great heft and balance (except for mini chef knife)

- Good steel (same as Wustof DIN 1.4116, ice hardened HRC 55)

- Great factory edge

- Good looking block

After nearly a year of use there are no chips on the blades and the synthetic handles are like new (I don't put them in the dishwasher, that will weather the handles and blunt the edges). Now 8 knives is essentially too many - I really only use the Chef, Mini Chef and Paring knives. The bread knife is superfluous as either of Chef's cut crusty loaves easily. My only complaint about the design is the balance of the Mini Chef - it is handle heavy, whereas the Chef is completely neutral, would have been great if they were both the same (and neutral).

Edge retention is good. I started using the steel to stop them losing their edge, but probably could have prolonged that for 3 months or so. The steel makes the edge a little rough looking compared to the factory grind, however you can use a stone to get a completely clean edge again.

You can modify the grind (I've got mine re-edged to 15 degrees instead of the factory 20), but then retention does suffer noticeably - only do this if you like sharpening knives! However the usage does improve immensely (I note that the Wustof Ikon is edged at 15 degrees...so the steel is in theory able to handle it).

Probably worth noting that the bolsterless design (remember I said they are a copy of Wustof Classic Ikon), means you can cut yourself really seriously on the heel of the blade. Proper finger/hand guarding is needed, especially as the Chef's knife is heavy - if it gets you it will hurt!