Cutco makes great knives in the USA and have a reputation for quality, maintaining an edge and outstanding customer service. They are sold through representatives who earn a percentage of sales. The knives can also be found at Costco and through online retailers.
The sets can cost between $1000 and $2500 with individual knives in the $80-$120 range.
As a family friend was selling the knives, we opted for an in home demonstration and spoiler alert, bought several.
Our current knife set included:
I love all of our knives, but they are occasionally unwieldy for my wife's smaller hands. She like the look and feel of the Cutco knives.
Our test items were watermelon, tomato and a bagel.
I was very impressed with the Cutco Trimmer. It put the Wusthof Serrated Utility to shame.
I did not care for the Cutco 2-3/4" Paring. I really like my Mundial. I might have been OK with the 4" blade if our rep had one, but I do like a classic handle shape on a paring knife. The test piece was cutting and pealing an apple.
I was mixed on the Cutco Petite Chef. I prefer a Santoku, but my wife had a much easier time cutting a watermelon with the Cutco.
Finally the Cutco Slicer made short work of the day old bagel and filled a hole in our current knife set.
We were not in a position to buy a set, nor did we particularly like the table knives. We do not eat a lot of tough meat and a full set of table knives was silly.
We were torn between getting the Trimmer only or taking advantage of the buy 3 get 1 free option. In the end we settled for:
- Cutco Trimmer ($88)
- Cutco Petite Chef ($166)
- Cutco Slicer ($137)
- Cutco Spatula Spreader ($87)
We were also impressed with the shears ($136), peeler ($51) and pizza cutter ($66), but wanted to maximize the value of our freebie.
I also like the Serrated Pocket Knife ($75) but did not feel like I was in a position to buy another toy. The outdoor line is impressive.
I started looking on secondary markets and Cutco knives tend to hold their value well on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, typically selling for 66% of retail.
When I found a spatula spreader on Facebook Marketplace for $25, I decided to pick it up and we will exchange the one we ordered for the Pocket Knife.
The only other knife brand I have coveted is BenchMade. I may still invest in cutlery or outdoor knives from bench made. Of particular interest to me was the Dive knife ($170) and the Triage knife ($260).
I also have been tempted by hand-forged knives. Coolina had a huge marketing campaign on Facebook a couple of years ago and nearly sucked me in. Bear Creek Knives is a Colorado based company that has stock and custom hand made knives. There are several other retailers easily discovered online as well.
