ZWILLING HENCKELS Classic Carving Knife, 8-inch, Black/Stainless Steel

The spine of the knife, the back of the blade, is very sharp. Every Henckles knife I've purchased (5 so far) has had this 'feature'. I have to use a rough stone on the back of the knife to soften the edge enough so it doesn't cut my hands during use. That's the only downside, these knives are excellent purchases if you knowingly put a little effort into them. They come factory sharp, but a strop with some compound gives them incredible lasting sharpness. They are right between a soft blade that is easy to sharpen and a hard blade that is brittle. So if you work with knives for a living these are going to last you a long time. My 8" classic chef from henckels is my workhorse, this 8" classic carving I use with taking skin and scales of fish or taking silver skin of beef. It's not as flexible as some carving knives I've used, but I think that's better.

Nice and sharp. Good knife

A sharp knife and a long fork are much needed tools for carving all kinds of meats and these work great!

First off, this is a nice knife and I'm not going fully negative and trashing it. However, one can easily be okay with a product while also simultaneously being disappointed with certain aspects of it. Hear me out. I'll start with the positives: it's very aesthetically pleasing, has an excellent weight and balance to it, the metal is of very nice quality, and the handle feels great. This knife even makes that classic "shiiing" sound like you hear in the movies as pull it out of a storage block. Everything about it makes it look and feel like it's a great piece. Being what is supposed to be a premium brand, I'm not surprised by any of that above. What I am surprised about is this: the edge, or lack thereof. Is it "sharp", yes. Is it a fantastic edge, no. For comparison, I recently purchased a set of six Carote ceramic-coated kitchen knives for $20. In no, way, shape, or form are they as nice feeling as this Henckels, the handles are cheaper, they are much are lighter, and the material quality isn't the same, but they are SHARP. Even having significantly less weight, they glide through tomatoes or skinned oranges effortlessly. This Henckel does not. It requires pressure to cut cleanly through the same things. Will it cut them, yes, but not cleanly or effortlessly. This becomes even more glaring given the weight difference. The edge just simply is disappointing. At the end of the day, a knife exists for one purpose: to cut. This does everything perfectly that it doesn't need to, and doesn't do perfectly the one thing it needs to. I'll need to sharpen it in order for it to cut like six knives I got for $20 total, and I shouldn't have to do that. Is it a returnable offense? Maybe to some. I'm going to keep it because I like the knife itself in design and feel and it will be a good addition to the kitchen...after I put an edge on it it should've came with out of the box. (quick edit: put a proper 15 degree edge on it with a Chef'sChoice 15XV and now it's one of my favorite knives. Not going to edit the initial review, just reinforcing my point that it is an excellent knife but the sharpness wasn't quite up to par out of the box.)

Very sharp