Spec me: cutlery

Cheap cutlery feels... cheap. I got some Viners on offer a few years ago and it's been great so far.
 
Bes said:
Cheap cutlery feels... cheap. I got some Viners on offer a few years ago and it's been great so far.
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No denying that real cheap stuff is crap. But anything around £20 is gonna hold up for many years.
 
cheesyboy said:
We've got Robert Welch stuff from John Lewis. It's a bit like this set:
http://www.johnlewis.com/robert-welch-warwick-cutlery/p89008234
But not quite so bendy looking. We've had it since getting married (from the wedding list, you see) about 8 years ago and it's very much going strong - it will outlive us easily.

It's bloody lovely, to be honest. You really notice the difference with the **** stuff other people have :D
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Thanks, this looks spot on. Do you use it in the dishwasher? Notice any deterioration?

Thanks to everyone for the responses so far :D

To answer some of your questions:
A £20 set will indeed last for years (it's just metal after all), but they also get banged up pretty quickly. My forks are a bit bent from mashing avocados.

It's not like I budgeted £500. I didn't know what a good set was and how much it cost. But if it did cost this much, I could afford it. So I didn't want to discount the option by stating something lower.

My mother always said, don't buy cheap: Shoes, sheet, plates or cutlery. You use them all the time, it's well worth getting good ones.

And if you've ever stayed at someones house for a few days that has good stuff and then gone home, you really notice a difference. Sure, it's not exactly an essential thing, but if it's something I want, why not, right? :)
 
#Chri5# said:
We wanted new cutlery at the start of this year. Went to John Lewis and turned into cutlery snobs after comparing "cheap" stuff against Robert Welch. The RW felt like a better quality item with the overall weight and balance.

We paid £140 for this 56 piece set:

https://www.robertwelch.com/dining/...lvern/malvern_bright_cutlery_set_56_piece.htm

We got ours from Selfridges (though they don't seem to stock RW anymore) - lugging it across the Trafford Centre proved how heavy it is. We were going to go for the Stanton range but the Malvern from Selfridges was a good saving. Also got a 3 piece serving spoon set for £20.

I'd say pop into John Lewis to look at the styles, then wait for the January sales to see if you can get a good discount.
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I was just about to post the same, we were in JL yesterday looking at the Robert Welch and they are a very nice set.

I am a big fan of their knives so when the time comes I think we will be going down the RW road for cutlery.
 
Sorry to resurrect, wanted to give an update on this.

After reading the responses I ended up getting 2 sets of Robert Welch Malvern from John Lewis, plus some of their steak knives and serving spoons: https://www.robertwelch.com/dining/...lvern/malvern-bright-cutlery-set-24-piece.htm

I have used it daily for almost 4 years now. Super happy with it all. Feels great to hold and is exactly what I was looking for: something that's solid and going to last forever.

10/10 would recommend.
 
Another thread bump (only 6 years).

I've been going round in circles about what cutlery to buy, current daily set is Viners so nothing super special but 18/10 and usable, been looking for a set to use for christmas etc and maybe migrate to every day depending.

Almost ended up with Arthur Price from JL but based on the above and other great internet reviews ended up with Robert Welch Radford Bright service for 8 people, so 5.0 18/10 and lifetime guarantee, ordered directly with them.

Shouldn't be excited about stuff like this, but nice things feel nice!
 
Found one of our "cheap IKEA crap" knives under the oven whilst dismantling the kitchen, no idea how long it's been there, it was pretty manky, but after a proper wash you'd never be able to tell.

We've had the set for about 20 years now, and still functional as ever, can't remember exactly how much it was, but certainly less than £50. Had knives used as tyre levers, screwdrivers etc. and refused to break.

Probably pick up a new set at some point, but only because we seem to have a fork-fairy in the house that keeps disappearing them...

Edit: fairly sure this is the set we have:

www.ikea.com

FÖRNUFT 24-piece cutlery set, stainless steel - IKEA UK

Special days or every day – the simple but elegant FÖRNUFT 24-piece cutlery set will add extra flavour to your table settings. Made of durable stainless steel.
www.ikea.com www.ikea.com
 
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We have a Robert Welch set for when people come over. I never put them in the dishwasher though as it'll ruin the shine over and time.

Our everyday stuff was bought from Debenhams I think a long while ago. Still going strong. All metal with nice thick curved handles.
 
I’ve been looking for a nice set of solid titanium cutlery.

I’ve got 2 sets of Ti chop sticks and they bend my brain, so light but so stiff / solid. I’m now looking for a nice cutlery set but it’s proving tricky….

Any suggestions?
 
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Firestar_3x said:
Almost ended up with Arthur Price from JL but based on the above and other great internet reviews ended up with Robert Welch Radford Bright service for 8 people, so 5.0 18/10 and lifetime guarantee, ordered directly with them.

Shouldn't be excited about stuff like this, but nice things feel nice!
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I think ours is the Radford.

My earlier post in this thread reported it was still going strong at 8 years old.

It's now 18 years! It's all still nearly as good as new, even with kids of 15 and 12 throwing it around.

I have noticed one of the smaller 'side' forks (which the kids use) has a slight bend in one of the middle prongs, and there is a desert spoon with some sort of scrape in its face but, otherwise still lovely to use.

And it goes in the dishwasher every day :D

Definitely it's one of those 'lifetime' purchases, and therefore all the better the earlier you can do it, to get the most out of them. Bit of a luxury purchase, in terms of up front cost of course.
 
Robert Welch,
We've had our set since we got married over 15 years ago now and all is great.
I hate cheap cutlery as the spoons tend to have sharp edges, no issues here after years of use so far :)
Can be cheaper buying direct.

Also just seen the post 20 on page 1, funnily enough ours was on our wedding gift list from John Lewis :D
 
I'm also looking for a large or 2x new sets I can use when family comes round, so needs to look half decent.
Anything from amazon or something I can order,

I ended up getting a decent set from amazon a few years ago, the mistake i make was I wanted to check it before ordering the 2nd but they had non left and no longer sell it, so I needed to mix 2 sets, now I thought I would have another look.
 
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stuman said:
I’ve been looking for a nice set of solid titanium cutlery.

I’ve got 2 sets of Ti chop sticks and they bend my brain, so light but so stiff / solid. I’m now looking for a nice cutlery set but it’s proving tricky….

Any suggestions?
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See for me Titanium is the thing I wouldn't want unless weight was an issue like travel.

I want my guests to need good forearm strength to pickup the knife and build anticipation for my sub par food. Titanium is also very prone to scratches.

We have a set of RW which we used to keep boxed for when we had people over, now I just throw it all with regular and enjoy it.
 
Datamonkey said:
Robert Welch,
We've had our set since we got married over 15 years ago now and all is great.
I hate cheap cutlery as the spoons tend to have sharp edges, no issues here after years of use so far :)
Can be cheaper buying direct.

Also just seen the post 20 on page 1, funnily enough ours was on our wedding gift list from John Lewis :D
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+1

Whenever I've been hob knobbing with the gentry of the area, they often have Robert Welch around here, since it's a localish company..


Definitely fits the bill and I've never heard anyone complain, and they do feel 'quality'..
 
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