REVIEW – If your knives are showing their age, the PAUDIN Knife Block Set promises a complete kitchen refresh at a compelling price: $79 down from $170. That’s a 53% discount for German high-carbon steel blades, but does the quality justify the investment, or will you be reaching for the sharpener sooner than expected? I put this set through everyday prep work to find out whether it delivers solid performance or just looks impressive on the countertop.
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Price: $79.19
Where to buy: Get it on Amazon and PAUDIN
What is it?
It’s a set of cooking knives, steak knives, honing rod and kitchen shears that comes with a knife block for storage and display on your kitchen counter.
What’s included?
Your set comes with a chef’s knife, a bread knife, a carving knife, a utility knife, a serrated utility knife, a paring knife, 6 steak knives, a honing steel, kitchen shears, and a knife block. Note: my test kit did not include the 7″ Santoku Knife which is now part of the updated model.
Tech specs
- X50CrMoV15 German high carbon stainless steel
- Rockwell hardness 56+
- Full tang design
Design and features
The PAUDIN Knife Block Set leverages a minimalist Japanese-style design that you’ll see carry through all the pieces provided in the package. Simple, functional blade shapes & ergonomic handles are the key themes here.
The set includes a total of 14 pieces in addition to the knife block. From top to bottom in the pic below you’ll find a 5-1/4″ serrated utility knife, the 8″ chef’s knife, an 8″ meat slicer, an 8″ bread knife, and a 3-1/4″ paring knife.
Rounding out the kit in below’s pic (from left to right) is a 4-1/4″ utility knife, a honing steel, a set of 6 4-1/4″ steak knives (2 shown below), and a pair of kitchen shears.
I should note here that my test kit does not include a 7″ Santoku, which has been added to the latest version of the set available in the links in this article in addition to all the other knives shown here.
Each blade shares the same standard design elements. The blades are made from high carbon stainless steel polished to a mirror finish. Contoured Black ABS handles are designed for nimble handling and easy cleanup. A three-rivet design keeps the handle connected to the blade.
All the blades leverage the same handle configuration and a full tang design with one piece of steel running from the blade down to the base of the handle. This is a good thing for long-term durability and stability.
A closer look at the transition from the heel to the handle shows a relatively tight seal. Look closely and you’ll find some imperfections in the finished like gaps or bumps, but it’s not a bad build at this price point.
The steel used in these blades is X50CrMoV15 high carbon stainless steel, which is good for corrosion resistance and durability. It’s also easy to sharpen, which is a good thing because I found these knives to be relatively dull out of the box. They sharpen easily, but the nature of steel is that they will dull faster with regular use.
The chef’s knife will be your workhorse. The blade shape is long and elegant, with a rounded belly designed for both slicing and rocking action (like mincing).
The slicer and paring knife mirror the shape of the chef’s knife. The slicer actually looks like it was stamped from the same template as the chef’s knife with about an inch of steel removed. It also has a slightly flatter belly designed for carving meats. The paring knife is short and has a deeper blade in proportion to it’s size, made for working around small produce.
This package includes two utility knives: one serrated and one standard. The serrated utility knife has a rounded tip and is designed for using those serrations to slice smoothly through stuff like tomatoes. The standard utility knife has that fine point and longer cutting edge for food prep, filling in the space where the paring knife may be impractical but the chef’s knife is too big for finer work.
A serrated bread knife is an essential addition to your gear for it’s versatility. You’ll see a close up in the second pic below of the cutting edge. The serrations are pretty deep and and a little dull out of the box. These required some work with the honing steel to sharpen a bit to my tastes.
The kitchen shears are pretty basic stuff, with plastic handles and a matching plastic cap over the nut.
You can see from the closeups here that the finishing on these is a bit rough. They feel kind of cheap overall; they do include some teeth in the handle (see second pic below) as a grip for opening bottles. I think.
The honing steel (shown below) is a basic & inexpensive build much like the kitchen shears.
When I started doing measurements I noticed that the steak knives (center below) are cut to the same serration pattern as the serrated utility knife (top below), but use the same blade shape as the utility knife (bottom below). That seems to be a theme in this kit to reduce costs by repeating patterns/forms in different knife types.
The knife bock itself is just fine, made from a wood composite that you see in similar knife sets. It’s solid, the blades all fit well, and the block is nice and stable.
Performance
Paudin makes a number of knives and block sets in a range of styles and price points. My tester kit is on the lower end of their lineup, but are pretty solid performers for a budget knife set.
I like the lightweight blades and contoured handle design. Every knife feels nimble in your hands and is very comfortable for use over long prep sessions. The steel choice, full tang design and sturdy handles feel solid. You won’t be concerned about the blades bending or chipping here. The finish isn’t perfect, however, so you’ll feel some rough edges here and there that could probably be buffed out.
Most of the blades were not very sharp out of the box. I needed to sharpen them a bit to get the edge where I wanted it. They are easy to sharpen, however, and should do fine with regular use if you keep a sharpening rod handy to tune them up between full sharpenings.
I’m not a fan of the cheap sharpening steel included in the package, but you can get a decent sharpening rod (I like ceramic) for under 20 bucks.
The was a little confused by the choice to NOT include a cleaver-style or santoku-style blade for vegetable chopping in this kit. This has since been resolved in newer editions of this set (see link below), but they kept the serrated utility knife while adding the Santoku. This is a good thing, as found I really like the serrated utility knife. I find it much easier to use on stuff like tomatoes than a bigger knife.
Your paring knife, slicer, and standard utility knife are all perfectly fine as add-ons to the kit. They need a good sharpening, but each blade has a unique place in the breakdown of proteins & vegetables. While I usually rely on on a basic kit for most tasks (chef’s knife, paring knife, bread knife), I see a role for each of these in my food prep.
The kitchen shears and honing steel are dollar store quality, which is unfortunate. Those shears are going to fall apart long before the knives start to show any signs of wear. I’ve seen similar honing steels thrown in with other budget knife sets and I find that they scratch the steel as much as they hone the edge. I get why they’re included to complete the set, but you could leave both of these behind.
While the shears and honing steel are kind of lame, the steak knives are pretty great! Some big sets like this throw lower quality steak knives in to fill out the lot. These knives use the same heavier steel, full tang, and handle design as the rest of the blades. It’s a good choice to add the extra oomph here for the long-term usability of the set.
Final thoughts
As a general rule I don’t recommend buying knife sets. You usually end up with stuff that you’ll never use, and you can do better in the long term by building out your arsenal as you build your cooking skills. That said, this set is actually a pretty good value given the price point! The durability is there, the variety of blades is diverse enough to handle just about all tasks (especially with the addition of the Santoku), and it all comes in at about a hundred bucks. There are some rough edges and some not-so-great accessories, but the core weapons will serve you for quite some time with a bit of buffing and sharpening.
What I like about PAUDIN Knife Block Set
- Lightweight and maneuverable designs
- Set includes a variety of styles for different cutting needs
- Durable steel
- Steak knives are as good as the working blades
What needs to be improved?
- Some rough edges on the finishing
- Not very sharp out of the box
- Kitchen shears & honing steel are poor quality
Price: $99.99
Where to buy: Get it on Amazon and PAUDIN
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by PAUDIN. PAUDIN did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
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$34.90 (as of October 26, 2025 06:09 GMT -04:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
