Wusthof "Classic", "Classic IKON" and "IKON"

The steel is in this price range in all German manufacturers (be it Zwilling Professional, WMF class or Grand Class or Wüsthof Classic / IKON) molybdenum compound used with good hardness (as it were the classic Solingen steel). In general I prefer Wüsthof front of the other manufacturers, since you pay less for the name and for the handles and blades are processed accurately.

The blade is sharp good, stable, at the same time not too brittle, so you could get a little can divide Gefrohrenes so (which is prohibitive for harder or thinner diameters because of the risk of breakage). Even "normal people" make it, so a knife itself resharpen because in the Japanese steels increasing hardness resharpening is an activity somewhere between art and ritual action (ie with the ultra-hard Japanese steels do you look as normal users in the long term is not always a favor).

The handle is larger and thicker than the "Wüsthoff Classic" and "WMF Spizenklasse" series and a bit smaller than the "WMF Grand Class". Whether this is an advantage or disadvantage, of course, depends on the size of your hands. The cutting goes all the way through to the back, which I prefer because of easier resharpening.

The build quality is just as comparable (see above) German knives classic design clean and precise. Ultimately decide in this group actually price and personal preference (eg design, weight, size of hands and grip or weight distribution), since the material differences (in particular steel) are rather low.

If one wants to primarily cut food (rather than wanting to shave it or raise the knife a cult object or so impress people), it is really very well served in this price range with this knife.

The IKON cook's knife here would be the large knife in the usual triad of knife-standard equipment (9cm, 12cm, 15-20cm). It is well suited for work requiring heavy-duty use, it's the knife that you take in your hand, for example, to halve a stubborn pineapple.

What is interesting in this context may, the difference between the series Wüsthof IKON (4996/20 Wüsthof chef's knife), and this "Classic IKON" here. The knives of both series are structurally almost identical, with the exception of the material for the handle. The handle of the much more expensive IKON is made of real wood and therefore not dishwasher safe. But wood is considerably easier, resulting in a completely different weight distribution depending on the length of the blade (eg has the 16cm cook's knife with plastic handle focus very far back).