Hunter.Dual
15 Pcs Kitchen Knife Set
About the product
With 15 pieces and a dishwasher-safe design, is this knife set a must-have for your kitchen?
Whether you’re new to cooking or have been experimenting in the kitchen for years, having reliable, easy-to-use knives makes life much easier. The Hunter.Dual Knife Set contains all the knives you need for everyday cooking tasks, plus a block to store them, so it’s an excellent option for those needing all the basics.
To see how the Hunter.Dual Knife Set really performed, the BestReviews Testing Lab put it to work in the kitchen with plenty of chopping, slicing, dicing and mincing tasks. We evaluated how sharp the knives were right out of the box by cutting various foods, such as tomatoes, onions and carrots, as well as how well they maintained their edge throughout a week of testing. We also considered the overall design of the knives in terms of comfort and durability.
After testing them, we think the affordably priced Hunter.Dual Knife Set would be a solid choice for a new home cook or college graduate starting out in their first apartment. But more experienced home chefs will likely be happier with a higher-quality option.
What is the Hunter.Dual Knife Set?
Product specifications
Number of Pieces: 15 | Blade Material: High-carbon stainless steel with Teflon coating | Handle Material: Plastic | Blade Construction: Full tang | Dishwasher-safe: Yes
The Hunter.Dual Knife Set contains 15 pieces, including kitchen shears and a block with a built-in sharpener to keep the blades sharp. It has all the knives essential for everyday slicing, chopping and dicing, such as a chef’s knife and a serrated bread knife. The knives were extremely sharp out of the box, so we could cleanly slice onions and tomatoes. However, we found that the blades lost their edge by the end of our testing week, leading to greater resistance and more uneven cuts when cutting our onions and tomatoes. Fortunately, the block’s built-in sharpener made it easy to sharpen them once we noticed they were dull.
The Hunter.Dual knives are made with rust-resistant stainless steel blades that have a black Teflon coating that prevents sticking during cutting. They are still dishwasher-safe, though, so they are easy to clean. Their plastic handles give them a lightweight feel in hand. They were well-balanced, though, so we felt we had solid control while cutting. However, the plastic is fairly hard, and there isn’t a bolster between the blade and handle to provide a comfortable spot to rest the fingers, so we needed to take breaks while cutting for more than 15 minutes. We didn’t observe any obvious signs of wear and tear on the knives during our week of testing, though there were a couple of minor scratches in the coating on the slicing knife’s blade.
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 Hunter.Dual Knife Set regularly retails for $99.99. You can often find it for much less at Amazon.
Why we like it
- Affordable: Often on sale for well under $100, the Hunter.Dual Knife Set can be a very affordable set. Considering it contains 15 pieces, including 12 knives and a built-in sharpener, it is an excellent value, especially for those new to cooking who require knives for most kitchen tasks.
- Built-in sharpener: The block included with the Hunter.Dual Knife Set has a built-in sharpener that’s convenient and easy to use. We only had to run the blades back and forth through the slot to sharpen their edges once more.
- Sleek all-black design: The Hunter.Dual knives have a black Teflon coating on their blades that matches their black handles for a sophisticated all-black look. Even the included knife block is black, completing the monochromatic look.
- Easy to clean: Despite the Teflon coating on the blades, the Hunter.Dual Knives are dishwasher-safe, making cleanup a breeze. However, during testing, we found that the nonstick coating also made them easy to hand-wash.
What we don’t like
- Flimsy handles and construction: The Hunter.Dual knives have lightweight plastic handles, giving them a fairly flimsy feel. While the brand claims the knives are full-tang, we have concerns about their long-term durability because the handles don’t have any rivets to secure the handle to the full tang.
- Lose their edge quickly: While the knives were very sharp right out of the box, we found they lost their edge very quickly during our week of testing. In fact, they were the only knife set we tested that required sharpening before the end of the testing week. Fortunately, the knife block has a built-in sharpener that makes sharpening the blades more convenient.
- Uncomfortable for longer chopping: Unlike some of the other knife sets we tested, the Hunter.Dual knives don’t have a wide bolster between the blade and the handle. As a result, there wasn’t a comfortable spot to place our thumb and forefinger while cutting with the knives. When we chopped for longer periods, our fingers often got fatigued, so we had to take breaks for a few seconds before continuing.
Hunter.Dual Knife Set setup
The Hunter.Dual Knife Set arrived in a branded box, but the block and knives were packaged separately inside. The block was wrapped in a plastic bag to protect it from scratches and other damage, while the knives were housed in a smaller box. Inside the box, each knife was wrapped in its own plastic bag, while the blades were all covered with cardboard sheaths to prevent accidental nicks during unpackaging.
After unwrapping the block and each knife, we washed the knives with warm water and dish soap. After drying them thoroughly, we placed each knife in the appropriate slot in the block, so we were ready for chopping, dicing, mincing and more.
Included knives and accessories
The Hunter.Dual Knife Set has 15 pieces, including knives, shears and a block with a built-in sharpener.
It contains:
- An 8-inch chef’s knife for general slicing, chopping and dicing
- An 8-inch bread knife for slicing bread, cake and other delicate foods
- An 8-inch slicing knife for slicing meats and vegetables
- A 7-inch Santoku knife for chopping, dicing, slicing and mincing
- A 5-inch utility knife for chopping and slicing fruits, vegetables, meat and cheese, as well as peeling produce and trimming raw meat
- A 3.5-inch paring knife for peeling and coring fruits and veggies and mincing small amounts of food
- Six 4.5-inch steak knives for cutting through meat
- All-purpose kitchen shears for cutting herbs and small, thin veggies, breaking poultry and cutting food packaging
- A knife block with a built-in sharpener for storing the knives and tools and keeping their blades sharp
During testing, the knives all performed their intended tasks very well. We were especially impressed with the bread knife, which allowed us to slice a loaf of sourdough bread we purchased from a local bakery quickly and easily. The chef’s and santoku knives were probably the most versatile from the set. We used the chef’s knife to chop everything from tomatoes to potatoes, while the santoku was excellent for chopping onions and mincing garlic. The paring knife was excellent for peeling carrots and apples, too.
The knife block is sturdy and well-balanced, so it didn’t wobble or shift around on the counter during testing. The knives also moved in and out of the slots without any issues, and the built-in sharpener makes sharpening the blades when they dull much more convenient.
Blade material and design
The Hunter.Dual knives have high-carbon stainless steel blades coated with Teflon to make them easier to clean and prevent food from sticking. The brand claims that they are full-tang, but the knives don’t have rivets in the handle to secure the blade like full-tang knives usually do. The blades were very sharp right out of the box, so we cleanly sliced onions and tomatoes without any issues.
Unfortunately, during our testing week, we noticed that the Hunter.Dual knives began to lose their edge. By the end of the week, we felt some resistance when slicing our onions and tomatoes. The slices were slightly irregular, too. Of all the knife sets we tested, the Hunter.Dual knives were the only ones that required sharpening before our testing period ended. However, the included knife block has a built-in sharpener, so sharpening the knives regularly is very convenient.
We were also fans of the aesthetics of the black Teflon coating on the Hunter.Dual blades because it gave the knives an all-black design with the matching handles. Unfortunately, the coating didn’t seem too durable — the slicing knife’s blade developed a small scratch in its black coating during testing.
Handle material and design
The Hunter.Dual knives have black plastic handles, so they’re lightweight and easy to clean. The underside of the handles has a slight curve to them, allowing them to fit well in hand. We found them very comfortable to hold when slicing a single onion or tomato.
However, unlike some of the other knives we tested, the Hunter.Dual knives don’t have a bolster between the blade and handle. This area is usually a comfortable spot to rest our thumb and forefinger during cutting and provides excellent control. Without the bolster, we sometimes felt like our fingers were in danger of slipping toward the blade when we cut.
Additionally, the more angular design of the blade-to-handle transition on the Hunter.Dual knives meant we needed to take small breaks when chopping or dicing for longer periods. For example, when we chopped several potatoes, onions and carrots for a stew recipe, we needed to stretch our hands after 20 minutes of chopping to reduce the strain.
Edge retention
As we mentioned, the Hunter.Dual Knife Set featured blades that were very sharp right out of the box. We had no trouble creating clean, thin slices of onion and even tomato during our initial testing of the set. However, over the course of a week, we observed a noticeable dulling of the blades. By the end of testing, we felt some resistance when slicing the tomatoes and onions and ended up with rougher cuts.
While we tested the built-in sharpener or sharpening steel that came with every knife set we tested, the Hunter.Dual knives were the only ones we actually felt required sharpening to ensure solid performance. Fortunately, the knife block with the set has a built-in sharpener, so maintaining the knives is an easy task.
Built-in sharpener
Instead of a separate sharpening steel like some of the other knife sets we tested come with, the Hunter.Dual Knife Set has a sharpener built right into the included knife block. It’s easy to use: You simply have to slide the blades through the slot several times to sharpen the knives. We found it a bit more convenient than using a sharpening steel since we didn’t have to pull a separate tool out of the block to restore their edge.
The Hunter.Dual knives became dull during testing, so we were impressed with how effectively the built-in sharpener worked. We found we only had to pull it through the slot four to six times to restore the knives to their original condition. The only downside to the sharpener is that we had to remove a few of the steak knives from the block to use it, which was a minor inconvenience.
How does it compare to other knife sets we’ve tested?
The Hunter.Dual Knife Set contains 15 pieces, the same number of pieces as the McCook Knife Set, Henckels Premium Quality 15-Piece Knife Set and the Cuisinart 15-Piece Knife Set with Block. However, the Hunter.Dual knives were the lightest and flimsiest of all the knives we tested. In particular, the Henckels and Cuisinart knife sets felt much higher quality and more durable than the Hunter.Dual set. The McCook knives were probably most similar to the Hunter.Dual set in terms of weight, but we were more encouraged by their long-term durability because the blades and handles are a single piece of metal. On the other hand, the Hunter.Dual knives feature separate blades and plastic handles, so we have concerns about the handles becoming dislodged from the blades.
Additionally, the Hunter.Dual knives lost their edge before our week-long testing period ended, which didn’t happen with any of the other sets we tested. However, when the knives were sharp, they performed very similarly to the other sets.
Testing the Hunter.Dual Knife Set
To see how well the Hunter.Dual Knife Set performed, we tested how sharp they were out of the box by slicing through a ripe tomato and an onion and observed how easily they moved through the food and how clean the cuts were. After a week of using the knives for everyday chopping, slicing, dicing and mincing, we sliced another tomato and onion to see how well the knives had retained their edge, noting again how easily they moved through the produce and how clean the slices were.
We used all of the knives to prepare our regular meals and snacks. In order to evaluate their overall usefulness, we used the chef’s knife for chopping potatoes and carrots, the paring knife to peel carrots, potatoes and apples, the bread knife to slice a loaf of sourdough, the santoku knife to chop onions and mince garlic and the slicing knife to slice cooked chicken.
Additionally, we tested how comfortable the knives were to use by chopping, slicing and dicing for 20 minutes or more. We paid attention to any discomfort or fatigue we felt and whether we needed to take any breaks during cutting. We also hand-washed and dried the knives after each use, so we could observe whether they showed any signs of rusting or discoloration. We also tested the effectiveness of the block’s built-in sharpener for maintaining the blades’ edge.
Should you get the Hunter.Dual Knife Set?
The Hunter.Dual Knife Set features all the knives most home chefs could need, plus a block with a built-in sharpener to keep them organized. However, they aren’t the highest-quality knives we tested, and we are concerned about their durability. Ultimately, the set is probably best for college students, someone moving into their first apartment or those new to cooking. Experienced home chefs will likely be disappointed by the flimsy feel of the knives and the lower-quality materials and construction.