Review on Chicago Cutlery Walnut Tradition 5-Inch Boning Knife: High-Carbon Blade for Precise Meat Trimming by Scott Kulothungan

I bought this knife in addition to the same model I bought in the mid 2000's. The handle of the old knife was well formed, the blade was easy to sharpen and sharpened well. The fit of the blade and wood was excellent and has held up extremely well over the years, including frequent water immersion. Functionally it was almost perfect for its uses of boning, filleting and general small scale butchering and has served well over the years. But the "new" knife was very different. Out of the box it was awful and required extensive wood and metal work to turn it into a bad knife. The handle was unusable, too thick and with hard edges. Throughout its length, the steel shaft was slightly "proud" of the tree, making it even more uncomfortable. An hour with wood and router files improved the grip, but only marginally.* Also, unlike my previous Chicago Cutlery knives, this one was dull. It was easy enough to sharpen and even easier to blunt (just chop a tomato). I try not to be prejudiced against products whose once reliable domestic production has been moved to the Far East because some are just as good, if not better, than the originals. But not this knife - if Chicago Cutlery continues to sell these inferior knives under its own name, it will quickly join the group of former companies that have sacrificed pride in their products to minimize the cost of their production. This knife is terrible! * CC will probably be quick to point out that wood will shrink and swell with changes in humidity, which is true, but the shrinkage/swelling behavior is only significant if the wood has not been properly seasoned. A perfect example of properly seasoned wood was the wood used to decorate Chicago cutlery knives. From what I understand it's still flavorful, but if it is, they make up for it by leaving the handle unusable and very poorly attached to the metal.