Wasn't too sure what i should expect with these, but i was very surprised with the quality and sharpness of the knives. There are some extra slots for additional knives.

I'm no expert in the kitchen, but these are far better than your average knife set, and a hell of alot sharper than my last set.

We bought these knives as a replacement for some we'd gotten years ago. The steel sharpener is awesome and has been used to sharpen other knives. The kitchen scissors are sharp and very nice quality. The knives themselves are sharp, sharp, sharp! I have never had a knife cut a sponge as I was washing it, and these knives are so sharp, they cut through bread like butter. I rarely rave over kitchen gadgets, but these knives were worth every single penny spent!

Now I have the 8 piece Asian set. However prices on those have more than doubled. I doubt that the current price will last long, you had better get it soon if you are going to. I honestly think that at $90 the 8 piece set is a good deal. So at $39 this a super deal. I can testify to the sharpness by my bandaged finger, I sliced part of the tip of my finger clean off. Very clean cut (it won't be noticible when it heals, and this taught me a good lesson, maybe now I will avoid something much worse in the future). I really feel that these knives compete with sets costing over $100. Cuisinart has discontinued knives it seems, I assume that caused the low discounting. You don't get the slicer knife and the bread knife with this set. The slicer is really not all that much different from the chef's knife in this set anyway, just a little lighter. And you can fill the empty two slots with some other knives later. I also bought the heavier continental style 8 piece set, found that for $69, not many of those out there. A steal also at that price. Sharp also, just a little heavier knives. I read two reviews on some single Cuisinart knives where the customer claimed that they 'rusted'. I can't imagine that. The alloy is exactly 'stainless', however they don't rust, they have not even tarnished. Maybe they ran them through the dishwasher (it is generally recommended to not do that with all sharp knives, the dishwasher cleaner is pretty harsh). This is the same alloy that Martin Yan uses on his "Ultimate Chinese Chef Knife". It is similar to stainless in appearance but is more suitable for the purpose of having a sharp edge. You will loves these knives, just be careful! Let me be the one village idiot who learned about sharp knives the hard way!