Solid, high class, and razor sharp from the factory
These were bought for an upmarket holiday let. I wanted something that even a serious cook would hopefully be impressed by, and with something of a wow factor. Although these knives have plastic (POM) handles they're nice and solid, and well weighted, and the full tang blades are thick at the handle end so the overall look and feel is very good indeed. The blades are razor sharp from the factory. Although Heinnie don't sell them, it's also possible to buy these knives individually. The other thing you really want for a holiday let is something that can take the odd trip through the dishwasher. Of course every manufacturer says "best washed by hand" but in a holiday let you can't control what people do. There seems to be no definitive statement as to whether these Intempora knives will survive a dishwasher. With 12C27M blades and POM handles I'd assume they should be at least dishwasher tolerant. The box they come in says not (a crossed out dishwasher symbol) and some websites say not, but the opinel-usa site says "Intempora kitchen knives are designed to be washed with home or industrial dishwashers" so that's interesting. After 3 weeks in use, and several trips through the dishwasher they're still good as new, and the handles haven't suffered at all. I'm sure under a microscope the blades will show some effect, but they're still paper-slicingly sharp. The one downside to this set is that the paring knife blade feels very short, especially compared to the other 4 knives, but there's no longer paring knife or utility knife in the Intempora range.
