ZWILLING Four Star 2-Piece Chef's Knife Set - High-Quality German Stainless Steel Kitchen Knives for Professional Chefs & Home Cooking | Perfect for Slicing, Dicing & Chopping Vegetables, Meat & Herbs

I was looking for paring knives to go with a set of Victorinox Fibrox chef's knives, which are perfectly fine and often priced well, but they don't make matching paring models, which are perhaps the most commonly used of all kitchen knives. These (Henckels Solution 4" and 5.5") fit the bill. The finish on them is nothing special, but they're wonderfully light, and the thinness of their blades make them very slicey for light to medium duty work. The steel is probably not far removed from the 420 family of stainlesses, with a hardness of around 53. Their edge retention is okay, and they're very easy to sharpen. While I wouldn't recommend them for cutting through bones, or wheels of dry parmesan, they're fine for most everything else, and between the two, one could conceivably prepare most meals without wanting another knife. Unless you bake your own bread, this set and a 7+ inch chef's knife could do almost anything, and for $18, that's pretty great. At their current list price of $35, they'd have a lot more competition, but would still be worth a look.