Cutco???

J

JoeShmoe2002

Joined
Jun 4, 2002
Messages
224
My buddies wife was quite impressed if not by the Cutco knives then the SALESMAN.

He has asked me to research it. I can't make search work, so give me whatever ya got to say about Cutco!

Thanks!

PBJ
 
The salesman is a lying cheating bastard. He should be flogged for throwing around big fancy words at people who don't know any better.

Ask your buddy's wife what the big parts of the sales pitch were, I can tell you right now what he told her.

"Our knives are made with high carbon surgical quality stainles steel"

"Our knives are made with a FULL TANG, virtually indestructable, especially with this space aged thermoplastic handle"

I stopped by their booth at the county fair, after standing to the side and watching the ******* give his pitch to some women.

"so, what kind of steel do you really use for these?"

Salesman: "like I said, high carbon surgical quality stainless steel alloy"

"no that doesn't mean anything, what is the alloy?"

Salesman(mutters) "440A"

"So thats high carbon, isn't the percentage around .6%?"

Salesman: shrug

I wanted to go on and ask how the full tang was such a big deal on a friggin kitchen knife with a super thin blade thats only gonna cut tomatos, but decided to find some other trouble to get into.

Now as for the actual knives. My aunt has a small 5 peice set of them, and they aren't all that bad. They are definitely a step above the usual chinese, never needs sharped, guinsu magic, wonderblade, dragon de-scaling horseshit thats generally advertised on TV, or at the megamall. They aren't anywhere near what the salesman trys to portray them as though. Bottomline is, if you like the knives, there's worse things you could get. But tell the sales man to shut the hell up
 
Agreement that Cutco knives are not all that.

If you want a good knife for a good price, Spyderco makes some great kitchen knives. They can also be found on ebay for great prices.
 
Hehe...

Once upon a time when my knife nuttiness was just beginning to grow I almost became a CUTCO salesman.

Here's my take on the pros and cons.

Pro: Nice handles, fit and finish is nice, the edges do cut, lots of variety from the company.

Con: Have to send them in to sharpen them, sales pitch is based on using big words average people don't know to wow them, sales peopl eonly memorize the set pitch (they really know nothing about the product), way overpriced for what you get.

If your friend likes them, then get them They'll cut nice and last a long time. But I'd rather spend the bucks on, say, Spyderco or Cold Steel kitchen knives with serrations and buy appropriate sharpeners (Sharpmaker, or the lansky stick made for Cold Steel serrations.) This will be way less $$ and do a better job. Or, of your friend is really serious, then for the money you can get some sweet custom pieces, or some awesome Japanese hand made blades, etc.
 
Matt has it covered pretty well.

This weekend's home show had a cutco dealer present. It was all I could do to pass by and not say something.

Think of all the bad words and degrogotory statements you could make and associate them with Cutco. A disreputable company that takes advantage of naive people to hawk inferior knives at premium prices.
 
I shudder at the mention of cutco.It is wustof trident or Gold hamster for me.None of that wonder knife bs.
 
My mom bought a set of Cutco, and they really do work I hate to admit. But when i look at what she spent on those four-five knives, and I look at the $7 I spent on a nice set of high carbon, wood handled classic Chicago Cutlery knives, I'm much happier withw what I got. Picked them up at walmart when chicago cutlery was busy changing over their models. was a $50 set or something to that effect, marked down to $7 and stuck in the back clearnace aisle. I am just now finally having to sharpen the paring knife a year and a half later.
 
I always see people do nothing but bash Cutco. I'm going to go against the grain and say I actually like them.

We (family) bought my mom a set of 10 about ...ooohhh.....10 years ago now. She cooks a lot so she uses those knives almost every day. Out of those 10, maybe 2 are dull or starting to get dull. One is the paring knife which probably is used daily. The other is the carver which is probably the second most used knife.

Now, I know that everyone always seems to think that every person alive knows how to sharpen a knife. Well, guess what. The fact that you can send them back to be sharpened is a plus for a LOT of people. The fact that they will replace a knife, even if it is at half cost, is a plus for some people who use knives for "less than designed" purposes. My friend had a couple of thier knives that he use to sharpen on his own. He'd get those suckers hair splitting sharp, but the blades looked like hell after about 5-6 years. He finally sent it back to be resharpened, with a note saying if it couldn't be sharpened to just send a new one and bill him. They actually got it sharp again. A bit smaller, but sharp. The next time he sent it in they replaced it for him, FREE of charge. Now, that was a knife that saw many years of usage, and some abuse, but they still replaced it for him, and at no cost.

Say what you want to about them, but I've had nothing but positive experiences with Cutco. Yes they're expensive for what you get. Yes there is better out there for less. But for the average person, that lifetime replacement warranty and free sharpening service are worth the extra price.

Sorry for the ramble, but that's my honest 2¢.
 
Oh yeah. I forgot to add. We bought them off of recommendations from other people that owned and used them every day. We didn't have a salesman come over and give us any fancy sales pitch. One of those people was a local pizza shop owner that I know. His wife has a set dating back close to 30 years that they still use daily. They've sent them back for sharpening quite a number of times and had nothing but positive things to say after all that time. No sales pitch can carry that kind of weight.
 
It is more economical and convenient to buy good quality knives like Forschners and have them sharpened at a local knife shop than to buy Cutco and send them back to the factory.
 
I'd stay away from Cutco.

From my understanding, they are wildly overpriced.

Free replacement means very little if you paid far more than it would be worth for 3 sets of knives.

Besides, how do you know Cutco will still be around in 30 years? In 10 years? Vector marketing is a little on the shady side. Don't believe me? Go to one of their interviews.

To say the least, I would be pretty suprised if someone didn't eventually end up in jail from the company.

Don't overpay for low quality kitchen knives. Save your money, buy a decent set that actually will last you a lifetime. Then, buy yourself a sharpmaker and never send a knife in for sharpening again.

In the meantime, you can always buy yourself a dirt cheap chinese set to fill in for the few months it takes to save up. My girlfriend bought a $7 Ikea block set with micro-serrations that is actually half-decent. As long as you don't mind sawing through food, it's liveable.

-- Rob
 
Jeff, I'd agree if I had a decent knife shop in my area. We have a Herder's Cutlery in our local mall. They use a $25 Wusthof hand sharpener to do thier knives. It puts a decent edge on knives, but not really that sharp. I have yet to find another knife shop with 45 minutes of me. Economical? How? Free sharpening or paying for it. I may have to agree on the convenience factor if I had a local shop. :) It takes about 10 days or so to get them back when sent back to Cutco.

Baraqyal, I could buy 20 sets of Ginsu for the same price, not 3. :) True, they may not be around in 30, or even 10 years. That 50 years or so of business so far means nothing, right?
Last a lifetime? Ours are 10 years so far and still cutting great. My friends is close to 30 years and still going strong.
You apparently missed what I said about not everyone sharpening their own knives. Of course people are going to get a highly biased opinion on a knife forum, but the huge majority of people I've ever met don't know how to "properly" sharpen a knife.
 
This must be the third thread on CUTCO. The last time we kinda agreed they suck for the money. Spending a grand for 440A knives after listening to a canned demonstration and their "lifetime" guarantee still makes no sense. No matter how much time Mom spends cutting in the kitchen, she can buy several sets of far better cutlery and just throw them away when they get dull. Cutco knives do cut, but no where as well as one would expect for their price.

The consenus still remains that CUTCO bites:p :p :p
 
IMO Cutco knives are pretty good, not great though. They are however priced far more than they are worth. I really like the Spyderco Endura, for example, but who would pay $300.00 for one?

My cousin and others I knew used to sell Cutco. They are kept ignorant of anything related to cutlery and most of them really believe the BS that they tell people in their sales pitches. When they domoed at my house, they got to see how a Cold Steel Voyager cuts. :D The average person does not know what sharp knives are like, and the Cutco demos are often against old, dull, knives. I was actually at a demo by a manager who brought in old, dull Henkles to compare with new Cutcos. On picking up a Henkle I was impressed by the craftsmanship compared to Cutco. :D

I won't slam the reps themselves. They've been suckered into a "business opportunity" that has all the worse aspects of an MLM and a sales job. The get impressionable kids out of high school and pretty much get them to sell to friends and relatives. The managers are manipulative jerks and as you can imagine few people stay with them very long. :barf:

I will admit to owning a few Cutcos. They started to dull after a couple months or so, far quicker than my old AUS8 Endura though the Edura was used more and for cutting tougher things. On actual food my Newt Livesay Bushi and Cold Steel Recon Tanto outcut Cutco when all these knives were new, and now they cut much better. Now I use a Buck Special as my primary kitchen knife since stainless knives are less of a hassle.
 
My Kitchen knives consist of Henckels, Wusthof and Cutco. I use them a lot as i cook pretty much every meal and probably use my chef's knives (a cutco and a wusthof trident) at least a couple times a day.. they probably dull more from the cutting board than the fruits and meat that they are cutting tho.. but anyway, the Cutco steel (440a, as i've heard mentioned here) dulls really fast for me.. i steel it after every use, and have had to sharpend every few months. The wusthof is made from a much harder steel, some xCoMoVa12 or something weird like that i think, and it cuts really well also... from comparing the two side by side in a normal situation, they both are very good knives, though i must say the wusthof has a beautiful finish and has MUCH better balance than the cutco. When i'm using them for food i honestly dont feel that either one really cuts better than the other.. and the Cutco has a nice finish too.. i didn't pay for my cutco, it was a gift, so to me it isn't an expensive knife for the money, it is a nice gift that cuts pretty good.
 
Patryn,

I didn't miss your point about people not being able to sharpen their own knives.

Many people can't change a flat tire, either.

Lots of companies offer sharpening services. Benchmade does. Spyderco does too.

It sounds great on paper, but in reality, it's not much of a deal.

With Cutco, the resharpening itself is "free". You just have to pay shipping in, and out ($5). If I wanted to sharpen 1 knife, once a year, for 3 years, at the current cheapest postal rates (parcel post, 1 lb), it would cost 3 x ($5 + $3.75) = $26.75. Price wise, you might be better off taking them to a decent cutlery shop and having them professionally sharpened.

Also, 440A is not particularily known for its edgeholding abilities. Even the toughest, best steels probably need to be sharpened more than once a year with constant, daily use.

Call it cost of ownership; the people who can't sharpen are either stuck with dull knives, or pay a premium to keep them sharp.

I would be willing to suggest to those people that can't sharpen knives, that they either A) LEARN, B) Buy the cheap ginsu knives and just throw them away when they get dull or C) Buy decent quality, pay to have them sharpened less often, save money in the long run.

What advantage do the Cutco knives have? The fact that you can pay to have them sharpened? The fact that they will replace them for "free" (well, you still pay shipping in) unless they've been "abused" (you pay 1/2 of the current retail, they decide what constitutes abuse) The fact that, by your numbers, you could buy 30 sets of near equal quality for the same price?

50 years of existance is no proof that the company will be around another 50. Especially considering the companies IMO fraud-like business practices.

Your knives may very well last 30 years. They are, after all, made of steel, even if it is only 440A. That, however, is no proof of quality. Especially when you can get better knives, with better steel, from better companies, for the same price.

-- Rob
 
I'll chime in here since I used to sell the stuff.....

Well first off I'll say that I quit selling Cutco knives after 2 weeks because their whole sales approach is very twisted and I couldn't continue lying to these unsuspecting customers. I have A LOT to say about that but if you want to hear about that aspect shoot me an email aaronsk@NOSPAMearthlink.net (take out the NOSPAM)

Back to the knives, while being VERY overpriced they are nice knives. Blades are a little thin but for a kitchen knife that's not a big concern. By far the best thing about Cutco knives is the warranty or the "Forever Guarantee" as they call it. They truly do stand behind their product. I've heard dozens of stories about knives being replaced for free and even whole sets of the older knives.

As for the how long the Cutco/Vector Marketing will be in business I'd guess for a while. If their advertised sales figures are correct they are making A TON of money. After all they have already been around for 50 years, but that doesn't really mean much now-a-days.

I do have some knives that I won, not quite a complete set, that I'd be willing to sell for very cheap if your interested :)
 
I certainly agree that Cutco are overpriced and there are far better kitchen knifes out there. A set of Wusthof, Henckels, Global or even Victorinox knives I'm sure would leave Cutco in the dust.

Can't say I agree too much with the 'bashing' of the sales people though. Thats what they've been told and is as much as they know about the knives and their performance. They themselves are probably 'wowed' by such things that this supposed miracle knife can do. If it were me and I knew nothing to very little about knives I'd be the same way.

The people that run Cutco are making some kind of ludicrous profit on an average performing knife but I don't think that makes the salesperson trying to do his job a shithead. Maybe the people behind the sales people are.
 
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