A Long Story About Our Purchase of this Mikasa Swirl 20-Piece Flatware Set
For the past twenty-five years, we have been using 18/8 stainless flatware made by the Wallace company. The name of the pattern is “Tiara” and, in my opinion, it looks as nice today as it did when we bought it.Unfortunately, about 10 years ago, my wife announced that she “was tired of it” and that it was time to buy a new set.Frankly, I saw no reason to do this, but, keeping in the spirit of “a Happy Wife Means a Happy Life,” I agreed that we should look for something new.Now, for the most part, we agree on most things we purchase for our house, but we just could not agree on a flatware pattern.The problem is that I prefer satin-finished flatware and she abhors it!As our former set was shiny, I thought that it would be nice to have a satin-finish now.So, for the past ten (10) years, we have been visiting all sorts of stores where stainless flatware is sold but, primarily, we have searched in that “famous” store called B B & B (you know, the one which sends out all those 20%-off coupons).FINALLY, couple of weeks ago, we were in B B & B (armed with plenty of those coupons) and we saw this Mikasa Swirl 20-Piece Flatware Set.It wasn’t “exactly” my wife's choice, nor was is it “exactly” mine – but we agreed that, after all this time, a compromise was in order, especially in view of the fact that we both liked this set. She likes "shiny" and I like "satin" and this set has both.Now B B & B does not keep this set in stock so we had to order it. We ordered two sets, a total of service for 8 (we have NEVER had more than 6 people for dinner including us).We thought that that amount would be fine.Later, when we got home from the store, my wife suggested that we check to see, a) if Amazon sells it, and, b) at what price.I did so and saw that Amazon does indeed sell it and I was gratified to see that Amazon’s price was much higher than B B & B’s price. My wife was happy too.The sets arrived three days after we had placed the order, we packed away the old Wallace set (I insisted that we keep it as there is absolutely nothing wrong with it), and washed the new set in our dishwasher.As expected, all of the pieces emerged in good order. The satin portion was not damaged in any way (something that my wife feared would happen with satin finishes) and the shiny portions were shiny indeed.As we have never experienced any rust on any 18/8 stainless set we have owned in the past, we do not anticipate any forming on this Mikasa 18/10 set (18/8 and 18/10 are virtually identical in quality).But then, after just a few days of ownership, my wife announced that, as we had had service for 16 of the Wallace set, we must have service for 16 of this new set.As I mentioned above, we have never had more than 6 people at our dining-room table, but that argument fell on deaf ears. She DECREED that I must order one more set, thereby giving us service for 12 (that was her “compromise”).Before going out to the store, I decided to check Amazon once more (after all, their prices change all the time).WOW! The price had dropped $30.00 per set! This was well below what we had paid in B B & B.I told my wife this and she said that we should order two more sets of 4-place servings, thereby giving us the service for 16 we had had previously.I did this and, two days later (thank you Amazon Prime!), the sets arrived.Now she is a happy lady indeed!I have to say that we are very pleased with this stainless. It is obviously very well-made and it is heavy, much heavier than our previous Wallace set. The heft is superb. The teaspoons and the tablespoons are larger than any which either of us had ever seen before. The knives are very sharp and cut neatly through anything we have tried so far. The forks are equally superb.I have to tell you that if we hadn’t seen it in the store, we probably would have never bought it. You just can’t tell from a picture, no matter how detailed, how a set of flatware will look or how it will feel in the hand.So, if you are in the market for a new set of flatware, I suggest that you go to a store which sells Mikasa flatware and see for yourself. Then you can come home and order it from Amazon (though, in the spirit of fairness, it might be nice to buy just one set of 4 from the store and any more sets from Amazon).Personally, I think that you will like this Mikasa Swirl flatware as much as we do.Here’s a little tidbit: if, forty years ago, you would have told me that I would be buying stainless flatware which was made in Vietnam, I would have told you that you were nuts! But there it is. That’s where this flatware is made (our previous Wallace set was made in Korea).Now I am quite certain that I will not be around in twenty-five years (though it’s possible that my wife will be) so I am also quite certain that this is the last set of stainless flatware that I shall ever purchase.But that’s all right. Both my wife and I are very pleased with this Mikasa Swirl flatware and I know that I shall never “get tired” of it. I hope that my wife feels the same way.I can very highly recommend it to you as it has brought “happiness” to our house.I thank you for reading this.Lawrence H. BulkP.S. If my wife ever does "get tired" of this set, she can always go back to that Wallace one. I'm NEVER going to buy another flatware set as long as I live! So there!