I bought the 8" chef's knife with 5" utility knife combination ("Beginner Chef") for my mother in-law. My first impression, out of the box, was that the chef's knife felt quite heavy. I washed it and used it to fine dice a whole onion and a huge amount of carrots (julienne). The knives are super sharp out of the box. The blade went thru the onion with no effort at all. After using for all the chopping and dicing, the chef's knife did not really feel heavy. It's well balanced.The shape of the both the chef's knife and utility knife are a little unusual. The curvature of the cutting edge of the chef's knife is ok, I tried rocking the knife while chopping the onion and it felt fine. Attached are photos. They are taken with my Cangshan A-Series chef's knife which has a more traditional German chef's knife shape. Both knives have cutting edges of exactly 8 inches, but the backside of the ZongChuan 8C blade is about an inch longer, explaining the extra weight of the knife. The width is about 2.25" compared to 1.75 inches for the Cangshan.The width of the utility knife is 1.1 inches, while the Cangshan utility is about 0.875 inches. Personally, I would prefer a more narrow utility blade.I give these knives a 5 star rating. They appear very well made. The edges around the handle are smooth and all flush. The blade is thick and strong, but not too thick. The edges of the back of the blade are rounded and smooth. The reported hardness of HRC 58 +/-2 should be hard enough to hold a sharp edge, yet soft enough to easily sharpen with a whetstone. This is the same hardness of my Cangshan knives, which I have had for 5 years and sharpen about every 6 months.At $60, these knives are good value.