Microtech's $331 Steak Knife Set Is M390MK for Dinner

Microtech making kitchen knives is either the most obvious diversification in the industry or the strangest, depending on how you feel about a company whose reputation was built on out-the-front automatics. The steak knife set, model 3600-10SETBK, is the clearest expression of the plan: four fixed blades, 4.5-inch serrated drop points in Bohler M390MK with a stonewash finish, fluted black G10 handles, blade guards included, 3.8 ounces each, $331 for four.

Serrated steak knives are usually disposable junk with hollow plastic handles, and the reason is economics: restaurants lose them, so nobody spends money on them. A domestic set is a different calculation. M390MK at high hardness with a serrated edge will go through a steak without tearing the fibers, and it will do it for a decade without sharpening, which is roughly nine years longer than the average supermarket set survives.

The G10 handles are the practical choice. Wood steak knives go through dishwashers badly, and while G10 should be hand-washed and dried to protect the edge, it shrugs off heat and detergent far better than stabilized wood or plastic. At 8.25 inches overall and 3.8 ounces, the knife is sized like a proper table knife rather than a miniature chef's knife.

Compared with a $60 set of Victorinox steak knives, the Microtech set costs five times as much and cuts better for longer, and it is the kind of purchase you make once. Compared with a Wusthof set at a similar price, you are trading German steel and wood scales for American manufacturing and a powder-metallurgy supersteel. Compared with Microtech's own 8-inch chef's knife at $248, the set is the more sensible entry into the kitchen line.

Verdict: a genuinely good steak knife set for people who already like Microtech, and a defensible one for people who do not. It is not the value pick, but the steel and the build are real, and the guards make it practical to store.