Warther Cutlery

[Bob W]

http://www.warthers.com/kitchen_knives/

Bought two kitchen knives from Warther Cutlery to give Brother as a gift. There have been a few posts at BladeForums that mentioned Warther, butt not much info. So I thought before sticking them in the mail, I'd take a peek and see what they're like.

Shown below are the two knives selected, the 7" French Chef's Knife and the 3" Paring Knife.

The fit and finish of these is pretty good. Very smooth well-finished handles, full tangs, and relatively sharp edges from the factory. The Chef’s knife easily sliced through a piece of paper, but not perfectly clean. The Paring knife’s cut was much cleaner.

One thing I wondered about before ordering, the nature of the decorative pattern on the blades. Well, if you’re wondering too, here’s a closeup. It does make the products unique, an identifying trademark, but I don’t really care for it. Wonder if you could special order knives without it…

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[ADD]

Nice review and pics. :thumbup:

These knives always get high marks for value and performance.

If you notice they do not specify what type of steel they use.

Mostly common knowledge suggests Warther uses D2, which because the carbide size, does not take easily to a polish.

So, by machining the swirl marks, problem solved.

A lot of guys get these Warther knives and modify the handles and edges a little and make some outstanding kitchen knives.

 

[richard j]

a friend has a really old set of them and they are a good knife. he sent them off to be sharpened but wasnt pleased with the edges so he had me fine tune them. another friend has a bread knife that i sharpened many years ago and its still in great shape. i just copied this from their website which is rather interesting to read.

When Mooney started making knives, he wanted a finish that would
not show wear. So he came up with the idea of "spotting" the
blade. The more formal term for this process is "Engine
Turning". It creates a fine swirl design on the blade by grinding
a concentric circle pattern on the surface. The "spotting" is
smooth to the touch, makes the knife look newer longer, and
gives the knife a distinctive look. This tooling design is created
by hand and has become a Warther registered trademark.

 

[Bob W]

I also wanted to post a scan of the tangs, comparing the Warther knives to other kitchen brands. Didn't get the time though - had to get them back out in the mail ASAP.

My instinct though says the steel is of moderate thickness - thicker than the current Old Hickory Chef's knife, but not as thick as the old USA-made Chicago Cutlery knives. Probably about the same as the current Old Hickory butcher knives.