Uh-oh...don't kick my butt for the ranting long post here, but I've worked in the cutlery business for 2.5 years now
Oh yes, and if you have anything that I may bash, well, um, sorry
First off, in general:
Planned Obsolescence: Knives are made with this in mind. Truthfully, if you want to always have your knife cutting at top quality, most knives must be replaced within 1-2 years (if cheap) or 2-4 years (if high quality) of buying them. Of course, many people just live with inferior performance for years after they need to be replaced until they finally are forced to get new knives.
Forged vs. Stamped blades: It used to be thought that forged blades gave an advantage in how long the knife held its edge, etc. But experts now state that if properly heat-treated, stamped steels perform equally well as forged steels.
Wood Handles: STAY AWAY FROM THESE. Wooden handles are absolutely disgusting. Wood is a porous material and absorbs grease, bacteria, etc from everything it comes in contact with. Most wooden handles, when inspected under a microscope, are dirtier than your average toilet bowl. Not to mention that they're STRONGLY discouraged against being used in any place where food is prepared for others such as restaurants, hotels, etc, so why in the world would you use them for yourself? Not dishwasher safe.
High Carbon Steel: Not used too much anymore, but it too is pretty disgusting. High carbon steel is quite tough so it retains an edge fairly well, however it also rusts and corrodes fairly easily which is obviously unsanitary.
Plastic Handles: A different form of crap. Sanitary, unlike wood, but they're typically glued and pressed on and because of that come loose quite easily and eventually come off the blade. They chip, crack, and melt as well. Again, not dishwasher safe - the high heat can cause them to loosen and sometimes melt if it's hot enough.
Stainless Steel: Much more sanitary than high carbon steel, and what is mainly used now. Advantage is that it resists rusting pretty well. However, your typical stainless steel is a soft metal and therefore dulls quite easily. It also makes it difficult to sharpen.
Ceramic Blades: Almost impossible to sharpen when needed, but they do stay sharp for longer than steel. However, ceramic blades will break as easily as glass if any significant amount of sideways pressure is applied.
Titanium Blades: Again, very sharp, but near impossible to sharpen when necessary.
Construction: Be sure that the knife has 3 rivets and a full tang. A full tang means that the blade goes all the way to the back of the handle - and be sure that it's not just on the top or anything like that. The blade should be just as wide as the handle all the way down and the tang and blade should be one piece.
Rivets: Look into what the rivets are made of. Most rivets are made of brass and this is not good. Brass is used because it's cheap, however it has properties which cause it to expand and contract with changes of temperature, causing them to come out of plastic handles or create crevasses in wood handles for food and bacteria to reside.
Straight Edges: Make nice, clean cuts and are capable of being sharpened. However, since the cutting surface (not the food) is what dulls a knife, and straight edge knives have the entire blade hit the cutting surface when you use them, they dull fairly easily and need to be resharpened frequently. If not resharpened frequently permanent damage can be done to the blade. Most high quality cutlery, which is predominantly straight edge, comes with a honing steel for sharpening. The disadvantage to this is two-fold. 1) Most people have no clue how to use it in the first place and 2) even if you know how to use it, it's difficult to be sure you're honing the blade at the proper angle for that particular knife. (Different companies hone the blade at different angles, and if you hone it at an improper angle you're really doing more damage than good)
Serrated Edges: At first description you'll think serrated edges are better, but there's a reason high quality cutlery rarely, if ever, uses a serrated edge. Serrated edges are very nice in the sense that they stay cutting "sharply" much longer than a straight edge knife does. Serrated edges cut with the points on the blade and literally work like a saw however, ripping and tearing as you cut. If you're willing to sacrifice a clean cut (not really an option with tomatoes, etc however) then this doesn't really matter much. However, serrated edges also dull every time they hit the cutting board (of course, there's no such thing as a knife that doesn't dull over time). The BIG problem with serrated edges is that you can't sharpen them and once they're dull they need to be replaced. Obviously the better trade-off is to have a knife that can be sharpened, even if it needs it a little more often, and makes a clean cut.
As far as some major brands are concerned (in order of increasing quality):
Chicago Cutlery: Don't even bother. Wood handles, low quality stainless steel blades. It's not worth your time. We have a nickname for them - Chicago Dullery. Not dishwasher safe - wood handles.<a href="http://www.worldkitchen.com/faq2/faq3.asp?id=202">Chicago Cutlery's Guarantee</a> (Defects in material and/or craftsmanship)
JA Henckels International: This is Henckels crap brand (aka, "economic") In other words, they make better stuff that will last longer but they're still willing to make this crap to get people to buy it thinking they're getting something remotely close to Henckels quality. Why you wouldn't just get high quality in the first place? You've got me.
Wusthof-Trident: Good stuff. However, the hardness of the steel tends to be too hard and Wusthof is prone to chipping along the blade. Not truly dishwasher safe - handles will fade due to the dyes used. <a href="http://www.chesapeakeknifeandtool.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/online-store/scstore/wusthofguar.htm?E+scstore">Wusthof-Trident Guarantee</a> (Defects in material and/or craftsmanship)
Zwilling JA Henckels: NOT JA Henckels International - same company, much different quality. Awesome knives. One of only 2 high quality cutlery companies that cryogenically tempers the steel (other one is next). What that means is that the steel is first heated to VERY high temperatures (over 1000 degrees) and then put into a deep freeze. This helps a great deal as far as the strength of the steel is concerned and has a significant effect on how long the blade lasts.
Henckels best line is known as Five Star. It has polypropylene handles which is obviously better than your typical plastic. However, the handles are still not dishwasher safe - use in the dishwasher will cause the handles to fade. Here's the deal with the handles though: Awhile back Henckels made a line called Twin Star which had a coating on the blade meant to prolong sharpness. These are never a good idea and this time was no different. It was found that the coating came off over time and, consequently, ended up ingested. So, Twin Star is no longer sold by the large majority of reputable stores (you can see it in Williams-Sonoma catalogs for example, but they won't carry it in any of their stores), and Henckels had all these curvy handles sitting around in the factory. What did they do with them? Took the blade from Henckels Four Star, put it on the Twin Star Handle, and jacked up the price a few hundred bucks. Same blade quality, just a different handle (with no real benefits).
Nonetheless, Henckels Four/Five Star is the best in-store quality you're going to get. It's costly - a full set of Henckels Professional Series with 8 steak knives, sharpener, shears, and cooking knives <a href="http://ww2.williams-sonoma.com/cat/pip.cfm?src=schfname%7Cion%7Cp1%7Crshop%7Cshenckels&skus=63%5F4065710&root=shop">costs about $1100 on sale at Williams-Sonoma</a> - but they're well worth it. <a href="http://www.chesapeakeknifeandtool.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/online-store/scstore/henckelsguar.htm?E+scstore">Zwilling JA Henckels Guarantee</a> (Defects in material and/or craftsmanship)
Cutco Cutlery: Easily tops if you're looking for high-quality cutlery that will last a long time. Consumer's Digest rates it the Best Buy as far as kitchen cutlery is concerned. Cutco is the only other high-quality cutlery company that cryogenically tempers its steel besides for Henckels, and it is the only high-quality cutlery of any consequence that's American made. Cutco has been around for 54 years and, for the past decade or so, has been the highest selling cutlery in North America with over $250 million in sales last year. Cutco uses the same high-carbon surgical stainless steel which is used in medical instruments due to its sanitary, yet edge retaining qualities. (Note, Henckels uses excellent steel and the difference truly is fairly minor, so I don't mean to diminish the steel used in Henckels by ANY means.)
One of Cutco's primary benefits is in the handle. It's "Universal Wedge-Lock Handle" was designed by a guy named Thomas Lamb who studied 700 pairs of hands to create a design to fit most people's hand, be it left, right, large, or small. It has won awards and, as mentioned above, is in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Granted, the majority of the hands he studied were those of housewives since that is Cutco's primary market, but that does not diminish its comfort level for the majority of other people as well. The handle is also made of a thermo-resin material which is the same material used on the inside of dishwashers, bowling balls, and NFL football helmets. Because of this, Cutco can be put in the dishwasher and the handles won't fade, so it's fairly dishwasher safe. Still, common sense ought to be used as with any high quality Cutlery - don't put it in a position where it's likely to bang up against other things, and hand washing is always preferred. Lastly, the rivets in the handle are made from a nickel-silver alloy which is a material NASA uses for parts of the space shuttle due to its temperature resistant qualities. They are flush with the handle and don't expand or contract with changes in temerature so they don't come out of the handle or create crevasses where food and bacteria can reside. Overkill? Perhaps, but it ensures quality in the rivets. Most importantly, the rivets aren't brass, and neither are the rivets in Henckels or Wusthof.
There can be a downside to the handle however. If you've been trained in culinary arts and choke up on the blade when you're holding it, or if you picked this up somewhere along the course of your life, then the handle will not be comfortable for you. It is designed for your average home user and the way in which they typically hold a knife. Consequently, many chefs because of their training find Cutco uncomfortable and this also caused a very unfavorable rating in Consumer Reports since the person who tested the cutlery for them was trained to choke up on the handle. However, chefs who are ued to the Cutco handle love it because it's comfortable for them (and for the other reasons stated here of course). Not unlike most other brands of high quality cutlery, Cutco also has a advisory board of world-reknowned chefs. You simply need to think about how you hold the knife - it works for most but not for all.
As far as the blade goes, Cutco has a hand-applied recessed edge on the majority of its blades. It is called a "double-d" edge and, while it looks serrated, it is basically a straight edge for all intents and purposes. The way it works is that it has points which do not cut but instead protect inside straight-edge blades. Because of this, it cuts precisely like a straight edge, but the points allow a typical double-d knife to last 7-10 years with normal, everyday use (i.e. not in restaurants). Some edges are straight edge due to their uses, such as the chef's knife.
Basically, a double-d edge looks like this: /\_/\_/\ The points hit the cutting board and the straight parts are where the cutting is actually done. A normal straight edge is rounded in between the points and the points do the cutting (well, ripping actually).
In my opinion, the most significant advantage to Cutco comes in the guarantee though. It has been the same and has been honored for all 54 years of its existance. <a href="http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/journal.php?s=&journalid=4&action=view#Guarantee...">Cutco's Forever Guarantee</a> Basically, because of the guarantee a Cutco knife will always be as good as new. I've literally seen people simply send back a 40, 50, whatever-year-old knife and receive a brand new one to replace it - free of charge.
Lastly, the other downside to Cutco is that it's not sold in stores, so if you want some you need to look up the number to an office nearby to have a representative show you, or simply buy over the phone (products can be seen at cutco . com).
Why do I know all this? Well, I've worked for Cutco for the past 2 and a half years and am currently an assistant manager. I speak moreso from experience than training though - I've seen people's used Henckels, Wusthof, Chicago Cutlery, Ginsu - you name it - and I've heard their stories about them. And I've seen how well Cutco compares. I've also seen statistics, been to the factory, etc etc. So, yeah, I'm a bit biased, but facts are facts nonetheless.
My recommendation is that it really depends what you're looking to do and where you are in your life. If you're looking to buy cutlery that you intend to use for many years to come, then I'd recommend investing in Cutco. Or at least Henckels - it truly is great stuff. Save up the money if need be and get a $700-800 set of Cutco or a $1000-$1300 set of Henckels. Not meaning to make my bias too obvious, but with the Forever Guarantee you at least know you'll never have to buy cutlery again. Perhaps get some Cutco and then if you don't like it simply return it and get Henckels.
If you're a college student or something and are not looking to invest in high quality cutlery - paying at least $400 for a medium sized set (anything less is really too cheap) - then just get the really cheap stuff from your local grocery store for now and invest in high quality cutlery later on.
If you're truly interested in high quality cutlery, I'd recommend you request a Cutco demonstration from someone in your area. (Unfortunately, chances are, you may get one of the idiots who didn't pay attention to anything his managers told him. I deal with far too many of those *rolls eyes*)
I hope that helps and that, if purchasing high quality cutlery, you settle for nothing less than Wusthof or Henckels at least. It's amazing how many people have truly terrible knives even though it's one of the most used tools in the home.
Oh yeah, and as far as "brainwashing" that I saw mentioned a bit earlier concerning the method in which Cutco is sold, that's a whole other post, but suffice it to say there's a reason why we're written up in 8 different marketing textbooks and taught in 300 level marketing classes at Illinois State University, Purdue University, and others.