AllOutdoor Review: Benchmade Culinary – Custom 3 Piece Set
Patrik Orcutt 01.29.24
After my recent move across America, I was unpacking my car and wanted to get my kitchen in order, to my surprise all of my kitchen knives did not make the trip with me and were 28 hours away from me by car. Naturally, this was not a great situation to be in and I am someone who loves to cook at home so I kind of felt ill-equipped in my new kitchen. I reached out to Benchmade and crossed my fingers to see if they would be willing to send me one of their cutlery sets. Thankfully, they were more than happy to hook me up with a custom set that I designed through their Customizer. I’m happy to report that the customizer seems to be more accurate with the Culinary knives than with the Osborne series in regards to color accuracy. So, today we are going to take a look at the Benchmade Culinary – Custom 3 Piece Set.
Benchmade Coverage on AllOutdoor
- Benchmade Custom 940 – Crafting your Very Own, One-of-a-Kind Knife
- Home on the Range #060: Benchmade Mini Adamas Marbled Carbon Fiber
- AllOutdoor Review: First Impressions – Benchmade Culinary 3-Piece Set
- AllOutdoor Historical Review – A Brief History of Benchmade Knives
The 3 Piece Cutlery set was provided by Benchmade and while I am allowed to keep these knives indefinitely, it will not change my current or future opinion on any Benchmade Products. Benchmade has not been allowed to preview this review prior to publishing. I have been using all of these knives every day for food prep for the past month. I have not sharpened them yet but only taken a honing rod to them once a week.
Specs: Benchmade Culinary – Custom 3 Piece Set
- Blade Steel – CPM154
- Handle Material – Richlite
- Country of Origin – USA
- MSRP – $1150
I have already done a first impressions write-up on the Culinary 3-Piece set here so if you are looking for more information on the specs and materials of the knife please check it out.
Design & Aesthetics: Benchmade Culinary – Custom 3 Piece Set
This is part of the review where I tell you about how glorious and good-looking this set of knives are. I tell you how Benchmade did an incredible job on choosing these color options and materials, but that would be kind of a lie. The reason for that is that I’m the one who designed these knives. Well, at least in regards to colors, materials and blade steel, I had quite a hand in it. You might be asking yourself how did some idiot like this guy get to design a knife like this? Well, the simple and straightforward answer is I used Benchmade’s Customizer on their website to create these knives.
There are not going to be as many color options and small details you can customize on their culinary line as compared to the Osborne series, but there are still a lot of options. For the blade, I went with the CPM 154 steel in an all-black finish. This is actually the standard blade steel that comes on the culinary line. CPM 154 is a bit of a Goldilocks option when it comes to steals as it has really good, corrosion resistance, decent edger retention, and good toughness. It’s a jack-of-all-trades steel that won’t excel in any of these categories but also won’t let you down. I decided to go with a more natural-looking, Richlite handle material to keep these knives from looking too tactical and out of place in my kitchen. Again I think these knives came out looking phenomenal but that’s because I designed them so of course I’m going to think of that.
Performance: Benchmade Culinary – Custom 3 Piece Set
When I took these knives out of their packaging, which was very nice, by the way. I was delighted to see the blades were razor-sharp out of the box. Sometimes I think Benchmade blades don’t come the sharpest from the factory, but these ones came incredibly sharp. I think it’s also important to note that in the one month that I’ve been using these knives every day, I have only been honing the blade once a week and I have not had to sharpen them at all and they are still very sharp. Slicing tomatoes and onions and steak and chicken has been a dream with these knives. I was worried at first that the spine and the coding on the blade might not work very well when it came time to chop up an onion but I was wrong. I don’t think these knives will cut through an onion quite as fast as my one Wusthof knife, but that also has scalping on the blade to prevent buildup when cutting small vegetables.
The handle material on these knives is made out of Richlite which is a recycled composite paper material, but it gives a good grip and also looks really nice. The Richlite will also not absorb water which is nice for when you’re washing the knives unlike a traditional wooden handle. All the knives have a bolster with an inset pivot ring and this helps to reduce the weight of the blades, but also gives you a place to potentially hang the knives for storage.
Benchmade Culinary: Custom 3 Piece Set – “The Chopper” – The Big Blade
I found this blade worked great for tackling larger pieces of meat and chopping up big hunks of potatoes. I think the size of this blade is well suited to most tasks in the kitchen but will struggle with a task like carving.
Benchmade Culinary: Custom 3 Piece Set – “The Do It All” – The Medium Blade
This was certainly the blade I used the most of the three as it is the handiest but also has the most usability. This is my go-to for a quick chop on some vegetables or carving up some chicken. This one does not chop quite as well as the larger blade so if you were going to dice some onions, go with the bigger blade.
Benchmade Culinary: Custom 3 Piece Set – “The Carver” – The Small Blade
Aside from being a super premium steak knife, the smallest of the blades is great for carving meat off bones and more surgical work. This was my least used knife of the three but there were several occasions I found it to be super useful.
Overall, the performance on these three knives is exceptional. I think I throw the work exceptional around a lot and some of my reviews but Benchmade really hit it out of the park with these knives. I think the only improvement I could see performance-wise for these knives is if they did add some scalloping to reduce buildup on the blades when chopping large quantities of small vegetables .
Price: Benchmade Culinary – Custom 3 Piece Set
Benchmade knives have been, and always will be a premium product. They’re culinary line is certainly no exception, as these are some pretty pricey blades. I believe the cheapest you can have all three of these knives for is around $750 but the way I configure my set came out to a little bit over $1100. That’s a lot of money for three knives. But it is important to put this in perspective and realize that if treated well these are three knives that will last you the rest of your life. They’re also coming from a manufacturer with a very good reputation and a free knife sharpening program so if you are not comfortable putting, an edge on knives of this quality, Benchmade has got you covered.
Likes
- Super Sharp
- Made with premium materials
- Expertly designed
- Customizable
Dislikes
- Jaw Droppingly Expensive
Wrap Up: Benchmade Culinary – Custom 3 Piece Set
Is the Benchmade custom three-piece culinary set for everyone? The answer is no. These knives are for people who truly love cooking and want to have high-quality tools to help them cook better, either at home, at a friend’s house, or in their restaurant. These knives have a very expensive price tag, but as mentioned before they are constructed with premium materials and have the backing of one of the best knife companies in the industry. Don’t forget about the Benchmade’s Life Sharpe program which will allow you to have these knives sharpened for free anytime you’d like. I have really loved using these knives, and they have certainly helped me in the kitchen over the past month. I plan on taking care of these knives as best I can and hopefully someday I can pass them down to my kids.
