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From:	Greeny (12.210.97.223)
Subject:	Rebuttal to the eight disadvantages of Cutco
Date:	August 1, 2008 at 1:45 pm PST

In Reply to: There are at least eight disadvantages to Cutco knives. posted by Sean on March 28, 2004 at 8:27 am:

This is a rebuttal to the eight disadvantages of Cutco. To be completely honest with everyone, I am a veteran Cutco representative. It was my job to answer these objections to Cutco. I have, however, NEVER been dishonest with a customer or anyone concerning Cutco.
1) Forged knives are generally thicker and heavier. While this may be the preference of chefs, Cutco is made for the average family. Women usually dislike heavy knives, and every woman I’ve ever seen with Wusthof or a high grade Henckels has preferred the weight of Cutco. True, the worst and cheapest knives are stamped, but that does not mean Cutco is the worst or cheap. There are plenty of terrible, much more expensive knives that are forged. When the weight matters, however, such as in a cleaver or an ice cream scoop, Cutco takes the time to thicken the metal, and add more substance to the tool. As for flexibility, all you would have to do is compare the blade of Cutco to a forged blade, and it is very easy to tell Cutco is much more flexible. There is a balance of hardness and flexibility, which is due to the steel used and heat treating process. Forged is simply traditional, not necessarily superior.
2) There is no noticable significant difference between 440A and 440C steel. There are multiple types of “surgical grade” steel, so I will admit that describing Cutco as surgical grade is obscure at best, but here’s something interesting. The following is a short list of hospitals that have used Cutco, specifically because of its withstanding edge, sanitary nature, and corrosion resistance, to cut HUMAN TISSUE:
Los Robles Hospital, CA
Northside Hospital, CA
Grady Hospital
St Joseph’s Hospital
Egleston Children’s Hospital
Athens General Hospital
Emory University
Vanderbilty University
Milledgeville State Hospital
etc…
3) Bolsters are purely traditional. Proper weigh proportion in the steel provides the same balance and stability. This is, of course, based on preference.
4) I’ve never said that a Cutco knife is not serrated, although I’m sure some reps do. It may be or not be depending on how broad a definition of serrated you are quoting. I believe it is more accurate to call the edge recessed. As a recessed edge, the points are SUPPOSED to wear down. They keep the inside of the edge sharp. Talk to Cutco owners who have owned their knives for 10 or 15 years without sharpening them, and see what they say about the edge. Also, try cutting through any food with a Double-D edge, even one that is decades old, and then say it does not cut clean and strait. These are things, of course, that I cannot prove in words, which is one of the reasons why Cutco is demonstrated, not boxed and placed on shelves. As for the sharpening, every set of Cutco comes with a hand-held sharpener for the strait edge knives in the set. The Double-D’s can be sent back to the factory. Most of the time, however, there is a local office that will pay a representative to go to a customer’s home and sharpen the double-d edges with a service sharpener. Representatives often ask specifically to be a part of this, because without prompting, most Cutco owners buy more Cutco every chance they get. My point in all this, talk specifically to a Cutco owner who has had the product for a while. I personally have sent my own Cutco back just to see the process. I wrapped the blades in cereal box board and shipped them in a flat rate box. I was without it for about 8 days and the total cost came to about $12. They came back in perfect condition.
5) You are right, Smithy. This is completely subjective. Again, talk to a Cutco customer. As far as Consumer Reports, Cutco has been rated a best buy several times, so if they did find them uncomfortable, everything else about the knife must have been pretty damn impressive. Again, I never say the handles are not plastic, but I do say they are not polypropylene, which is what even expensive knife makers usually make their handles from. The material is in no way comparable to gun powder. That’s a gross exaggeration. The material will melt before exploding, and the temperature would have to be well over 300F for even that. The specific type of nickel silver used by CUTCO is called “Type 65-18,” “18% nickel silver,” or “German silver.” It is an
excellent material to use because of its attractive color, its ability to resist staining or tarnishing under adverse conditions normally found in the kitchen. The chemical composition of nickel silver is:
65% Copper
17% Zinc
18% Nickel
The metal silver is not found in nickel silver rivets. The term “silver” in the name nickel silver
refers to the color of the rivets. It is extensively used for architectural purposes where beauty and corrosion resistance are important.
6) Again, I could tell you this is untrue, but please, just talk to a Cutco customer who has owned their Cutco for several years. I personally have never seen Cutco corrode or rust. I have, however seen mineral deposits from cheap dishwasher detergent. This is unavoidable and easily removed with an oxidizer like Bar Tender’s Friend.
7) There are multiple ways to buy Cutco. Go to the website and request a catalogue, or find a local office. Mary Kay is also direct sales and I’ve never heard someone describe them or any other as disadvantaged.
8) Cutco is expensive. Period. However, you pay for more than knives. Prank call Cutco customer service and tell them you broke your Cutco knife. Cutco has incredible customer service, and they will handle just about any problem you might encounter with kitchen knives. As far as the misuse and abuse clause, this is merely to protect the company from replacing the same knife thirty times because someone’s son likes to throw it into walls or cut down trees. If you break a Cutco tool, the company will most likely replace it for free if you send it back to them. The half-price replacement is for obviously abused knives, such as ones broken into multiple pieces or melted down in a fire and reformed into a statue of Mickey Mouse. The guarantee for Henckels and Wusthof is two pages long and requires very specific types of malfunctions for a tool to qualify. http://www.wusthof.com/data/pdf/Warranty-on-LH.pdf
Also, Cutco supports multiple charitable organizations, and donates hundreds of thousands towards education. The marketing company responsible for Cutco is called Vector. Everyone in Vector starts as a sales representative and works their way up. No one is promoted without putting incredible effort into their business, and several major business men in America, as well as several important people in history have been a part of that process and commented on how it has added to their character and drive. The criticisms you hear about Cutco and Vector are often from lazy sales reps who don’t understand why they don’t get paid for doing nothing, like they would in most teenage targeted jobs. It is not a scam. It is not a terrible product. Talk to any Cutco owner or sales rep that has been with the company longer than a month, and you will hear the same.

Thank you for reading, and I hope that you find the moral of all this to be that everything is speculation. Try it out for yourself. Decide for yourself.

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