| | |  | Henckels | Home » » J.A. Henckels Twin Cuisine 11-Piece Block Set | | | | | | | Description: | | This 11 Pc TWIN Cuisine block set from J.A. Henckels features knives and accessories including: 2 3/4" parer, 3" hollow edge kudamono parer, 4" parer, 5" serrated utility, 6" utility, 7" hollow edge santoku, 8" bread, 8" chefs, TWIN L kitchen shears, 9" | | | Features: | |
• Forged from a single piece of Henckels exclusive high carbon, no-stain steel
• FRIODUR ice hardened blades for maximum no stain properties and blade strength
• Unique handle featuring fully exposed horizontal tang between ergonomic polypropylene
• Hand honed and laser controlled edge for lasting sharpness
• Super bolster provides weight and adds balance
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 16.75 inches | | Product Width:
| 9.75 inches | | Product Height:
| 5.5 inches | | Package Length:
| 16.6 inches | | Package Width:
| 9.8 inches | | Package Height:
| 5.3 inches | | Package Weight:
| 11.7 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 3 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 3 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
Great Knives, but is it the right mix for you?Dec 31, 2007
By Joseph Boone
The Henckels Twin Cuisine series stands among the finest cutlery on the market. The grips are well contoured and rest comfortably in the hand. The blades are razor sharp and thanks to a special process of ice-hardening, should remain so for quite some time. For heavy users, the set includes a sharpening steel that should help retain the edges almost indefinitely.
This set is comprehensive as it offers the following:
2 3/4" Parer/Boner
3" Kudamono Hollow Edge Parer
4" Paring/Utility Knife
5" Serrated Utility Knife
6" Utility/Sandwich Knife
7" Hollow-Edge Santoku
8" Bread Knife
8" Chef's Knife
Twin-L Kitchen Shears
9" Sharpening Steel
Hardwood Block for storage
This is a comprehensive set and will supply you with most all of the knives you are likely to need. Before buying, however, you should consider whether this set makes financial sense for your particular needs. The bundled price of these items is roughly 95 dollars less than they would cost individually. Any two of the knives would cost more than that so you have to ask yourself if you really want all of these or not. If you don't believe you would use them all, it probably makes more sense to buy the ones you want most separately and put together your own set. Another consideration is whether these are the knives you want most. I wanted the J.A. Henckels Twin Cuisine 7-Inch Fillet Knife, for example, but not the 7" Hollow-Edge Santoku included here.
There are many knives available for a lot less money than the Twin Cuisine series. Unfortunately, cheap knives will never take and hold an edge like this one will. Try them once and you'll be hooked on Twin Cuisine for good. But look closely at your buying options and whether or not this set is the best way to buy into the series. There are smaller sets for less money as well as individual pieces. It's a significant investment and worth spending the time to make certain you get the most for your money.
JA Henckels ReviewDec 20, 2011
By Lola
We ordered the knife set from CutleryandBeyond and we are very happy with it. The price point was by far the best, and we are very pleased with the level of service. One of the knives had a little chip & we got it replaced by CutleryandBeyond right away, they sent a free return label as well.
We are very happy with our purchase and we buy again from CutleryandBeyond.
Thanks CutleryandBeyond for the great servce!
Precise Tools for Your KitchenFeb 16, 2010
By John Harvard
THE REVIEW, PART I
Since you are reading this review, you are certainly weighing your options, a little over loaded I am guessing from the multitude of vendors and sets, and likely wondering if spending the money on this--or maybe any--nice knife set is worth it. On the other hand, maybe you are doing what I did where you may have just purchased these and are waiting for them to arrive and are seeking reassurance that you chose wisely. For those of you in a review rush, the short answer is an emphatic "yes, these are fantastic and you are brilliant for selecting them." And for those wishing for a more cogent knife review, I hope the following helps.
Preparing food with the Henckels Twin Cuisine delineates food preparation into two distinct cooking life before and after moments. Yes, really. The only other kitchen purchase that altered cooking reality as much as acquiring these knives is an All-Clad Stainless Steel cookware set purchased in 1999. Ten years later, after tolerating poor quality knives for too long and gawking at some variant of this knife set in a store at the local mall for years--you have done this too, you know you have--I discovered these.
Basically, this block set offers precision perfect high carbon steel knives for every cutting task. This set is great for someone that prefers having multiple knives in use while alternating between food types and/or leaving you with enough knife options to have a friend join in on food preparation.
So, why consider these tools and manufacturer over another? The answer really depends on what you want to get out of the experience of using a knife set. Obviously one can go buy a simple $30 stamped stainless steel knife set and still cut food. If you are considering these Henckels and other high-quality knives you are likely tired of having an odd assortment of cutlery acquired over the years that barely maintain a cutting edge. The price of these quality blades is a reflection of the low replacement demand in the market place and the professional calibration of a forged knife by a German blacksmith who knows how a well balanced knife should feel in your hand and hum like a tuning fork when drawn from a wooden block.
Put simply, when we use good knives like these in food preparation, we safely and consistently accomplish cutting tasks faster using less leverage while allowing the weight and material design of the knife to perform some of the work that limits forearm, shoulder, and neck muscle strain. When I started searching for knives, I wish someone just wrote that one long sentence somewhere as it encompasses why we should consider high-quality knives, period. When a recipe requires 6 onions, a couple bell peppers, potatoes, mushrooms, and garlic, we should smile knowingly at the few minute task in front of us and not immediately consider alternatives to cooking our grandmother's famous dish.
Fair Warning: Slicing food with these knives may simply make you want to whisper "yes" to yourself over and over again as if you were reenacting a scene from the movie "Lord of the Rings" where the character, Gollum, appreciates his precious ring. And no, I am not kidding. (It is a bit weird, actually.)
Like you, I happen to enjoy cooking; it's one of my passions. I spend anywhere from 2 to 12 hours a week cooking with family, friends, or by myself and ultimately for my own enjoyment. It took me a long time to decide which knife set to get. Take your time to learn why these knives are considered some of the best available. I used Google and Amazon to search for everything about professional knives that I could find; learned the difference between honing and sharpening; the importance of weight, material, and handle design. I found that looking at videos from YouTube and the Henckels website helpful as well as holding knives at a local cooking store. In the end, I learned that I should consider forged carbon steel, well-weighted, 7 to 10 inch chef or santoku, a parer, an 8 inch serrated, a honing steel, kitchen sheers, and a wood block or canvas bag for storage. A professional chef will multitask with just those few items. It is also why starter sets do not offer them together! Since manufacturers are in the business of selling knives, they mix and match nearly everything except those few options until you start to consider larger sets with 9+ pieces. However, if you look at pricing items separately, you may reconsider the block set for the overall value as I have.
After using these a few times, you will want to talk about them so often with your friends, family, coworkers, and strangers that you will eventually realize why speaking about knives so excitedly is such a socially unsettling topic of conversation.
Thanks for making the time to read my review; enjoy cooking and your new knife set. Ciao!
THE REVIEW, PART DEUX
I am separating this out since this has more to do with the quality of these knives than the set as a whole. The difference between a $10 Henckels International knife made in Spain & China and a $100 Zwilling J.A. Henckels knife made in Germany has to do with the elemental design of the blade material. I am going to geek-out here so stay with me as I promise the knowledge is worth it. A stainless steel blade is easy to dull, difficult to hone, and very hard to sharpen. A high-carbon cold-forged steel blade is easy to dull, easier to hone, and less difficult to sharpen. Yes, you read that right. When I initially learned this I did a double-take, too. What seems to not make sense will shortly.
If we were to look at these blades under a microscope, we would see a fine row of metal teeth that represent what is known as the microscopic serrated cutting edge. Every type of cutting tool man has created since the human animal thought it might be nice to cut up dinner has this feature. From the dullest stone axe to the sharpest tool on Earth, an obsidian glass knife. The only practical difference between these tools is what defines its cutting edge, the teeth. Specifically, sharpness is defined by the number of micro-serrations over a given area. On a $10 stainless steel knife there are hundreds of micro-serrations. On the other hand, a high-carbon steel blade may have thousands of micro-serrations. Since the high-carbon blade has smaller serrations tightly grouped together, the blade is sharper. But wait there's more. 'No,' I hear you say, 'there can't be anything more mind-blowing than that about kitchen knives!'
Since these serrations differ in quantity over the edge of the blade, this also translates to the size of the serrations. Imagine the microscopic view translating to what would be like comparing a steak knife to a wood saw. Here, the the serration size matters because it influences what is called serration splay. As we use any type of metal cutlery, the micro-serrated teeth splay left and right as those serrations move through food items and into the cutting surface. When the teeth are small and numerous, they spread out the force applied over more serrations and reduce serration splay and serration snapping. When the serrated teeth are larger, they splay to a higher rotation off center which encourages them to frequently snap off faster.
This is where honing comes in and what that round "steel" is used for from the wooden block. When we swipe the carbon-steel blade on both sides with a honer, the teeth are realigned center and our knife is exceedingly sharp again. When we swipe the stainless blade with a honer, the teeth are often filed off instead of being aligned. So, now you know that taking a honer to a stainless steel blade is often removing metal from the blade (a poor form of sharpening) and honing a carbon steel blade primarily aligns the cutting edge and snaps off fewer splayed serrations. This is also why when we hone a stainless steel blade and wipe a damp paper towel over the edge we easily see the metal filings. If you do the same with a carbon-steel blade you will see less filings and probably cut into the paper towel unintentionally. To clarify what is going on, honing a stainless steel blade increases the removal of metal serrations such that the blade recedes into thicker blade material, essentially widening the micro-serrated cutting edge. On a carbon steel blade, this process takes a year or more of heavy use. Now we know why all of our stamped stainless steel blades are harder and harder to use and sharpen over time! And for you physics geeks in the audience, remember the equation Pressure = Force / Area from school? Yup, that translates mathematically to widening the micro-serrated cutting edge is bad and makes preparing dinner less enjoyable!
By the way, to properly sharpen a carbon steel blade and create new micro-serrations, you might want to acquire an oval diamond sharpening steel and once a year swipe the blades evenly on both sides at the proper angle. Alternatively, you could also have a professional do it for you once a year for about $25 on average. Cheers!
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