Pretty. Sturdy. Shiny.
Is this really my life now? Getting excited over a nice set of flatware?Anyways, BLUF - I shopped around and decided on this set for form and function. So far no problems. Recommend when it is on sale.Form being that I like the style, and function being the overall quality of the pieces. First, 18/10 is the best anti-rust, and very durable in terms of not being flimsy. Second, the shape of where you hold each piece feels natural in your hand, I like that. Some reviewers did not like the size of the forks/spoons, and noted they weren't balanced quite right. I thought the sizes were fine compared to my parent's set, as for the balance all the sets I've used easily fell off of edges of plates as they described so I don't really know how to judge "correctly balanced".Onto the unnecessarily lengthy part of this review.Thank you to others who left reviews, good and bad I found useful. I also enjoyed reading the one that was really long. Perhaps mine will be the second longest because it is impossible for me to get to the point quickly, hence the bottom line up front in an attempt to help those who do not enjoy reading long reviews.This whole unexpected cutlery journey of mine started at homegoods, where they had a set of nice hammered style flatware at a tempting enough price that I purchased it to think about it. My parents had told me that you do NOT want anything less than 18/8, because it has such a high chance of rusting, bending, and being a bit terrible all around. So I knew to watch out for that, but nowhere on the box did I find any indicator of the content of my newly purchased flatware! Being the skeptic I am, and that I love shopping, I went back to homegoods and read the other boxes on the shelf to get an idea of the average quality of the stock. Everything, and I mean everything, was 18/0. It was funny that some of the packages seemed to brag about it? I suppose that works on folks who aren't aware of the meaning.Seeing what was on the shelf pretty much assured me what I had bought was 18/0 as well, it seems this particular company knew enough to omit that detail on the package since it isn't really required to put it on the product. Needless to say, I returned that set the same day. However it left a bit of a hole, I thought I had finally got my lifetime set of silverware, and now I had returned a set that I had liked quite a bit.Now I HAD to get the right set to replace it, so I went to the largest shopping repository I could think of to find it, the internet. Naturally that lead me to amazon where I went thru pages and pages of stuff, reading reviews, and comparing sets. I like the hammered look as I was going for something that didn't scream "super sleek modern", "I slipped it into my purse from a very fancy restaurant", nor "old-lady aesthetic", you may disagree of course but I get a sort of "rustic yet modern" feel from these.Something I learned from reading, which might be common sense to some, was that anything that has two-tone or a different color on it other than just straight stainless steel means it will eventually wash off/chip/fade and look terrible. Some of those are also not labeled 'dishwasher safe', can you imagine? I don't have time for anything that cannot survive sitting in the sink for a few days at least, I will admit. So anything like that, instantly out of the running.Among other places, I went to Ross-Simon, Etsy, Costco, and looked at sets there. I did buy one other set to compare this one to from Costco. The Napoleon Bee.At this point, I had actually already purchased this hammered set, seeing as it was 20% off and 172$. I bought it after some number of weeks deliberating before I decided to just order it so I could have it in hand to look at. I am glad I did, since it dropped to 10% off not long after. I like to list prices in my reviews for all you deal-hunters out there. I hope you can beat the price I got!Anyway, when the Napoleon Bee set arrived in the mail it was all sorts of wrong compared to this one, firstly, granny-vibe for sure, secondly the shape. This is when I really noticed the difference in holding it vs the hammered one. The shape was completely straight on the Bee set and the sides hardly rounded compare to this one, so it sort of dug into your hand a little.If you are like me, and sometimes use cutlery for not exactly intended use, or you get really into cutting a steak, you may end up gripping it a bit harder than under normal use so this was important when say, evening out the wax on a candle, or getting mad at something when you have flatware in your hand. Next, the forks were enormous in the Bee set. Awful. I believe the hammered set uses "European" sizing for their pieces which is apparently different than whatever the alternative is called. My parents have (what they claim is called) European sized cutlery, so I am used to that sizing and prefer it.After noticing the shaping on the handles of the pieces, I realized that not many sets I looked at even had nicely shaped handles which narrowed down my choices considerably.A few small things to mention here about the hammered set, the 'stamp' or logo on each piece is not what I would consider consistent. Sometimes it looks faded, sometimes off center, sometimes it has the name as well as the logo. I get the suspicion it may also wash off over time. Personally, I do not care.I believe most 18/10 you will find to be rust-resistant if not rust-proof, heavy weight, and unbendable. It doesn't have to be these unless you other things like the style, shape, etc.What remains for me is that I can only hope they don't rust, of course there are reviews about pieces rusting but this doesn't account for all the folks who didn't review because everything was fine causing a skewed perception (fingers crossed on this).The seller has a stand-alone site, but I actually found the deals here to be better at this moment in time.Lastly, once I decided I was going to keep these, I noticed they also have a 10-piece serving set 64% off currently at 89$ (do people really buy it for 250$?). I also ordered that and found it to be just as nice as well. I suppose my only gripe here is I want a meat serving fork too.I'll attempt to edit if I can and add pictures later because it doesn't like my uploads at the moment.