How can you recognize good cutlery?
High-quality cutlery emphasizes the dish's character and contributes significantly to the enjoyment. Good cutlery should be comfortable using it in hand, and it must be beautifully finished and durable. Cutlery from ZWILLING meets these criteria without reservation.
QUALITY AND FEATURES
MATERIAL
The steel quality significantly influences the quality of a cutlery set. It is an essential factor for the cutlery's optimal functionality and long life. All cutlery from ZWILLING is made of high-quality 18/10 stainless steel.
MATERIAL THICKNESS
Cutlery spoons and forks should be at least 2.5 mm thick. The higher the material thickness, the higher the quality and price of the cutlery. The material thickness is measured above the punch for forks and spoons.
TREATMENT
The surface is polished or matted cleanly and without pores. The edges are soft and free of scratches and grooves. The surface is finely ground between the fork tines, and the spoon's lobe and fork edge have no sharp edges. The fork tines are pointed but not burr-like.
KNIFE BLADE
The knife blade is thinly ground out and has a clean serrated edge and a reverse grind.
DESIGN
The handles on the cutlery are beautiful, and the individual pieces must not only fit well in hand but also be comfortable to use and look good at the same time. Design and ergonomics are, therefore, just as important as function. ZWILLING works together with renowned designers when developing new cutlery.
CARE
The 18/10 stainless steel cutlery can be cleaned in the dishwasher.
Manufacturing
It takes time until a piece of stainless steel is turned into an all-around cleanly finished piece of cutlery. Here are the most important work stages:
FORK AND SPOON
- Forks and spoons are punched out of steel sheets, each in one piece..
- These pre-cuts are then deburred and rolled down to a smaller material thickness in the spoon area.
- Forks and spoons are then trimmed to the dimensions required for the model before the cutlery parts are embossed to give them their final shape and decoration.
- The embossing operation takes place in a positive and negative embossing die, which is used to shape the cutlery part in a cold state and with a pressure of up to 650 t.
- Embossing inevitably creates a burr on the sides of the cutlery pieces.
- This burr must be ground off before the grinding and polishing operations are carried out to level the surface and create the gloss on the surface.
Due to the various complex operations, cutlery production can hardly be automated. High-quality cutlery is, therefore, comparatively expensive to manufacture, as many work steps must be done by hand. The many operations also result in long throughput times in production.
KNIFE
Knives are distinguished between two types of manufacture, the hollow handle and the monobloc knife.
Hollow handle knife
Cutlery with hollow handle knives are generally characterized by higher quality. The production of hollow-handle knives is much more complex than monobloc knives. The handle is made of 18/10 stainless steel, the blade is forged from high-quality blade steel. The knife handle is welded together from two half-shells previously formed from a sheet metal strip. The blade is cemented firmly into the hollow knife handle. The hilt and the transition to the blade head are ground and polished until a clean, even transition without edges is created.
Monobloc Knife
In this manufacturing process, a knife is produced in one piece from hardenable chromium steel with a relatively high carbon content by forging and rolling. Because the process is less costly than the hollow handle knife, monobloc knives are less expensive. Hardening and surface finishing are also crucial for these knives' corrosion resistance and good cutting properties.
Cementing the blade into the hilt and precision grinding the transitions between the blade bolster and the handle is complicated and demanding.
MATERIAL AND WORKMANSHIP
Quality starts with the material. The steel quality significantly influences the quality of a cutlery set, an essential factor for optimal functionality and long life.
All ZWILLING cutlery is made of high-quality 18/10 stainless steel.
