An affordable knife set that performs just as well as higher-end models

You don’t have to be a pro chef to understand the importance of having high-quality knives in your kitchen for all your chopping, dicing, slicing and mincing needs. The Carote 14-Piece Forged Knife Set won’t break the bank, but it still delivers everything most home cooks might need. 

The BestReviews Testing Lab put the Carote 14-piece Forged Knife Set to work, using it to chop, dice, slice and mince everything from tomatoes to raw chicken. We paid attention to how comfortable the knives felt in our hands, how easily they cut through each food and how well they maintained their edge. 

This knife set features forged high-carbon stainless steel blades and a dishwasher-safe design that makes them durable and easy to care for. The knives are also incredibly sharp and retain their edge well, and their cream and silver design looks great sitting out on the counter. 

What is the Carote 14-Piece Forged Knife Set?

Forged knives are usually harder than stamped knives, so they stay sharp longer and require less maintenance.

Product specifications

Number of Pieces: 14 | Blade Material: High-carbon stainless steel | Handle Material: High-impact plastic | Blade Construction: Full tang | Dishwasher-safe: Yes

The Carote 14-Piece Forged Knife Set contains all the essential knives a home chef needs, as well as a durable knife block to hold them, a pair of kitchen shears and a sharpening steel. The knives have cream-colored handles with silver details, giving them a fresh, modern style that looked great sitting out on the counter in our testing area. Their blades were extremely sharp, even right out of the box, and they maintained their edge well throughout a week of testing. The included sharpening steel made it easy to maintain the knives’ sharpness, too, and we found it very convenient that there is a slot for it in the Carote knife block.

Because they are so sharp, the Carote knives cut extremely well during testing. However, they aren’t just easy to work with because of their razor-sharp edge. The knives also feel well-balanced in hand because they feature a wide bolster that helps distribute their weight evenly. Even the larger knives, like the chef’s and santoku knives, were surprisingly easy to control. As for comfort, the knives’ high-impact plastic handles were pleasant to hold, even for longer periods. During testing, we found they provided a solid grip and didn’t cause any hand fatigue. 

To see how it compares to other products in its space, check out our reviews for the best kitchen knife sets.

Price and where to buy

The Carote 14-Piece Forged Knife Set regularly retails for $54.99. You can find it at Amazon, Target and Walmart. 

Why we like it

• Excellent value: Priced under $100 and containing 14 pieces, the Carote knife set is a serious value for both experienced and beginner home cooks. Even better, the set is often on sale at Amazon and other retailers. 
• Razor-sharp blades: The Carote knife set was incredibly sharp straight out of the box, so we didn’t need to use much effort when slicing, chopping, dicing, mincing and more.
• Full-tang construction: The knives are made of a single piece of high-carbon stainless steel for full-tang construction, making them highly durable and stable.  
• Dishwasher-safe: Unlike similar knife sets, the Carote knives are dishwasher-safe, so cleaning them after chopping and dicing is a breeze. 
• Attractive design: While many knife sets go for a traditional black and silver design, the Carote knife set mixes things up with a cream and silver design for a fresh, contemporary style that’s sure to look sharp in any kitchen. 

What we don’t like

• Plastic handles: The Carote knives’ handles are made of high-impact plastic, which held up well when we tested the set; however, we have some concerns about the handles possibly cracking over time. 
• Flimsy shears: Like any good knife set, the Carote set includes a pair of kitchen shears for snipping herbs and other more delicate foods. However, the Carote shears feel flimsier than the pairs included in other sets, so we worry about their long-term durability. 

Carote 14-Piece Forged Knife Set setup

While the Carote knives are dishwasher-safe, they are also easy to wash by hand with dish soap and water.

The Carote 14-Piece Forged Knife Set came in a branded box, with the knife block wrapped in plastic and the knives separated in another smaller box. Each knife was wrapped in plastic, and the blades were covered in a cardboard sheath. Each knife also had a small plastic guard on its tip for safety while unboxing the set. 

To prepare the set for use, we removed the knife block from the box and discarded the plastic wrap. Next, we removed all the knives and tools from the smaller box, removing the plastic wrap, cardboard wrapping and plastic tip guards. We should have been a bit more careful when unwrapping the knives, though, because we accidentally nicked a finger when unwrapping one because we struggled to remove the cardboard wrapper. 

Once we had all the knives out of their wrapping, we hand-washed and dried them. Then, we placed each knife in its respective slot in the block, so they were ready for chopping, slicing, dicing and more. 

Included knives and accessories

The 14-slot hardwood knife block has nonslip feet on its bottom to keep it from moving around on your counter.

This Carote knife set includes 14 pieces, with 11 knives, two tools and a knife block.

It contains:

• An 8-inch chef’s knife for chopping, slicing and dicing
• An 8-inch bread knife for slicing bread
• A 7-inch santoku knife for chopping, dicing, mincing and slicing
• A 5-inch utility knife for peeling, dicing and mincing
• A 3.5-inch paring knife for peeling, coring and mincing
• Six 4.5-inch serrated steak knives for cutting meat 
• A sharpening steel for maintaining the knives’ edges
• Kitchen shears for cutting herbs and poultry and opening packaging 
• A hardwood knife block for organizing all the knives and tools

During testing, we found that all the knives’ worked extremely well for their intended use. We used the chef’s knife to chop all types of vegetables, including onions, tomatoes, bell peppers and carrots. The santoku knife perfectly minced garlic for a pasta recipe, while the paring knife allowed us to effortlessly peel carrots. We also used the utility knife to chop new potatoes for roasting and slice an apple for a snack. The bread knife was the most impressive performer, though, easily cutting through a loaf of sourdough bread from the bakery without squishing any the slices. 

The sharpening steel was easy to use, helping to maintain the knives’ edges. We only had to run the knives down the rod at an angle, switching between sides to maintain the blades. While we found the kitchen shears helpful for cutting fresh basil for our pasta, they had a flimsy feel, especially compared to the shears in other knife sets we tested. That raised some concerns for us about their long-term durability. 

Blade material and design

The testing team liked that the knives had a good weight to them, which made slicing hard foods feel effortless.

The Carote Forged Knife Set features blades made of a single piece of forged high-carbon stainless steel, giving them a full-tang design. Between the material and design, we found that the knives had an extremely sturdy, durable feel that gave us confidence they would hold up well to heavy use. They also had a good weight in hand, which made cutting harder foods like onions, potatoes and carrots nearly effortless.     

Handle material and design

The testing team liked that the Carote knives cut extremely well during testing without causing any hand fatigue.

The Carote knives feature handles made of high-impact plastic. The full-tang blades are triple-riveted to the handle, giving the knives a very sturdy, stable feel. The handles also have a curved underside that fits comfortably in our hands while chopping and a large enough area to rest our thumb and forefinger while cutting. They also provided a secure grip throughout testing, so we always felt we had excellent control over the knives.

Best of all, the handles were so comfortable to hold that we never experienced any hand fatigue. We used the knives to prep vegetables for a summer salad, chopping onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and bell peppers and removing corn kernels from the cob, but experienced no discomfort even after nearly 30 minutes of cutting. 

Edge retention and sharpening

The knives never lost their edge after a week of testing.

The Carote knives were extremely sharp right out of the box, so they easily cut through tomatoes, onions, carrots, potatoes, bread and more. We tested them for a week, using them to prepare at least one meal per day, as well as some smaller snacks, and the knives never lost their edge. Throughout our seven days of testing, they easily cut through all the food we used them on. Based on their performance, we think they would hold up well to the wear and tear of regular use and could go at least a month before needing any sharpening. 

Still, near the end of our testing period, we used the sharpening steel that comes with the set. It was extremely easy to use, only requiring us to run the knives along the rod from both sides. Afterward, they were as sharp as they had been when first removed from their box, making all our chopping, dicing and mincing even easier. 

Bolster

The testing team liked that the Carote knives have a wide bolster, which made them safer to cut with.

The Carote knives feature an extra-wide forged bolster, which is the area where the blade meets the handle. The wider design of the bolster helps add weight to the middle of the knives to provide greater balance, control and stability when cutting. We definitely noticed that the bolster helped the knives feel well-balanced in the hand, so we always had solid control as we cut into various foods.  

We also found that the wider bolster increased the protection for our fingers from accidental nicks while chopping, dicing or mincing. That allowed us to cut more confidently, making them an excellent option even for home chefs who don’t have the most advanced knife skills. 

How does it compare to other knife sets we’ve tested?

The Carote 14-Piece Forged Knife Set stood out among the knife sets we tested for its excellent value. While it offers similar cutting performance, edge retention and versatility as higher-end sets like the Henckels Premium Quality 15-Piece Knife Set and Cuisinart 15-Piece Knife Set with Block, it is more affordable. 

However, while the Carote knives had a solid, sturdy weight in hand, the Henckels and Cuisinart knives felt a bit heavier and more substantial. The Carote set was similar in weight to the McCook Knife Set we tested but felt more durable than the Hunter.Dual Knife Set, which was somewhat flimsy. Additionally, the Carote knife set held its edge as well as the Henckels and Cuisinart knife sets, so we think the Carote knives should be able to withstand the signs of wear and tear just like higher-end knives for anyone who cooks regularly. 

Testing the Carote 14-Piece Forged Knife Set

The testing team spent a week with the Carote knife set to see how well it performed in the kitchen.

To see how well the Carote 14-Piece Forged Knife Set performed, we started by testing how well it did during basic cutting tasks like slicing tomatoes, dicing onions and chopping carrots to evaluate how sharp the blades were, how comfortable they were to hold and how much control they offered. We also chopped veggies and herbs like cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes and garlic, as well as raw chicken, cooked chicken and cooked steak. We also used the knife set to peel fruit and vegetables, including carrots and apples, and slice a loaf of bread. Additionally, we used the kitchen shears to trim excess fat from raw chicken and cut fresh herbs, including basil.  

In addition to seeing how well the knives sliced, chopped, diced and minced, we paid attention to how well they maintained their edges. At the end of testing, we used the included sharpening steel to determine how effectively it sharpened the knives and how easy it was to use. We also hand-washed the knives in the sink and placed them in a dishwasher to assess how easy they were to clean and how well they held up to both cleaning methods. 

Should you get the Carote 14-Piece Forged Knife Set?

The testing team found the Carote 14-Piece Forged Knife Set to be a good value.

The Carote 14-Piece Forged Knife Set is an excellent set that would work in most kitchens. It’s an outstanding value, too, costing under $100 and offering the same performance and features as high-end options. Because the knives are so well-balanced and provide excellent control, they’re ideal for those new to cooking. However, experienced home chefs will also appreciate this set because the knives are razor-sharp, durable and easy to maintain.