KRAMER EUROLINE Carbon Collection 2.0 6-inch Chef's Knife

I've been using this knife for over a year now, and it's by far my most-used blade in the kitchen. The shorter, taller blade gives it the height and belly of a classic chef's knife for rocking or mincing, but the compact length makes it feel nimble and gives it the higher angle of a prep knife, making it great for things like push chopping onions. It's almost like a dedicated prep knife with extra versatility. The knife came razor sharp, with a 15° edge, which is what prefer for that style knife. It's actually one of the very few knives I've bought that arrived properly sharpened, deburred, and stropped out of the box, which is rare and a huge plus for someone like me who's a nerd about those things. The Micarta handle is gorgeous; the brass rivets and mosaic pin give it real presence, while feeling solid, balanced, and incredibly comfortable. I usually use a pinch grip, and it settles into my hand so naturally it feels like an extension of my arm. It's just a satisfying knife to use. I forced a patina right away with mustard, but after a year of heavy chopping it's developed a beautiful, more even, natural-looking one, protecting the carbon steel blade without any need for maintenance. Highly recommended. It was worth every penny.

What a great knife. Really worth it. It is important to know that it needs tender love and care, and that after a short time it is discolored. That is the nature of the beast (carbon steel). The handle could be a bit more premium or more “durable”. And the knife is not the balanced of knives. Yet is probably one of the best knives in my selection.

This knife is beautiful and had perfect edge right out of box. Feel of knife in hand is very comfortable and entire knife has been buffed and smooth. I have tried many different types knifes up to about 150$, this knife is far superior to any of them and well worth the investment. The blade does get patina easily actually the first time I cut onion saw some discoloration. So if you don’t mind the extra work of a carbon steel knife then this one can’t be beat.

This knife is phenomenal and I’m not regretting spending this much for it one bit. So much nicer to use than any other chefs knife I’ve owned.

It's a great knife. However, it gets rusty very easily, so it's high maintenance.

This is a high carbon tool steel knife with remarkable performance that shows itself almost immediately: from the first touch, to the first prep work. It also is wildly reactive--and begins to patina almost instantly. Routine care consists of washing with plenty of detergent and a soft sponge, rinsing, and drying thoroughly. As an added step as the patina forms, I have been protecting the blade with a tiny tiny amount of Camelia oil and wiping with a paper towel. So far, the protected patina is just adding character to an already beautiful polished blade--not even a hint of rust

Really bad quality plus the metal gets rusty really fast even if you dry it fast

This is a shame. For a premium $400 product I expect excellent quality. I can purchase knives at half this that are superb knives. I was really excited about owning my first carbon knife. I figured, if I was going to jump in let’s start with the best. When I opened the box, I thought the knife itself was beautiful. I was already wondering what my unique patina will look like after much use. I take the knife out of the box and the weight and balance felt great. But then, the handle did not seem flush. The rivets in the handle were slightly higher than the handle material itself. It felt wrong, it's all I could feel. I then went online and read that this was a common issue with this knife. I ALSO then read that a common issue for the 10” blade is that it can have a slight bend to the left. I looked down the spine of the blade and there it was. The tip of the blade pulled to the left. Unacceptable. I had to return it. On the plus side I will state that I do not think the bend would have affected the performance of the blade. I do think that it would have functioned flawlessly with proper care. But I refuse to spend this kind of money and receive a production poor product that is supposed to be “the best” in its class. These defects are completely unacceptable. As a person with a manufacturing engineering background, I can tell you that these are not “quality” issues, these are “design & production” issues. They are cheaping out on the post process of the handle, if there is any at all. I would guess when they moved to the new material for the handle they decided to keep the old rivets. Between the grinding and the heat-treating processes the blade will (should) move. But it's clear they have done a poor job of characterizing that properly. If I were to make a personal guess, I bet they moved to a new facility to save a few bucks and copied and pasted all the previous procedures on the new machines not realizing it would handle differently. Then I also bet that the engineers at the new facility are less experienced with 52100 and don’t know how to fix it. This is a complete money grab product not respecting the Bob Kramer brand.