The knives are excellent, and the block is solid and high quality. My only concerns are some drips in the stain on the top of the block right out of the box, and the fact that my older Zwilling knives, which have a different bolster, don’t sit right in this new block. See photos. Neither are enough of an issue for me to send them back, just worth knowing if you have other knives from Zwilling you want to use in this block.