Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

We received this set as a gift in 2010 and we absolutely loved it - we STILL love it after 6 years of every day use. It is the best silverware we have ever owned. It's heavy, stylish, and high quality. It wears well and we have never seen a single spot of rust. Over the years, we somehow have been losing teaspoons, so we decided to purchase this new set to replace them and add to our original set. Sadly, it's nowhere close to the quality of our original set. We were immediately disappointed with the new flatware. When I read the reviews before purchasing, I noticed some people referencing the change in quality, but figured it was worth the shot. It wasn't. The forging process Towle uses has clearly changed. None of the utensils are the same shape as our original set, but they're close enough that I would have kept them if there weren't other problems. One of the large spoons was rippled on the edge and most of the spoons had rough spots at various points around the edges - not exactly ideal when it comes to something you put in your mouth. The quality of the stainless steel isn't what it used to be. Other reviews provide many complaints of rust, but what really surprised me was the fact that every piece lighter than our original set. The teaspoons were the worst: the new ones were 20% lighter than our originals. I can identify them with my eyes closed based on the weight alone. The neck of the spoon is much slimmer, which would probably account for a decent amount of the lost weight. However, I'm guessing the rust people are complaining about is due to the 18/0 stainless steel, which has less resistance to corrosion due to the lack of nickel in the alloy. Our original set isn't marked, but I'm guessing it was 18/8 or 18/10 because we've never once seen rust on anything. Not surprisingly, 18/0 stainless steel costs less than 18/10. Towle was probably looking to save a few bucks and ended up ruining a great set of flatware. I mentioned my frustration to coworker who said he used to work for Towle. His theory was that the quality problems are probably due to the fact that they were bought out and consolidated into a larger corporation. I didn't bother using them at all because I wanted the ease of returning an unused item. And I figured we'd see rust eventually. Considering we still love our original set, I was supremely disappointed in the decline in quality. Check out the reviews on other sites and you'll find the same problems: unfinished edges, metal burrs, and rust. We'll probably end up replacing our set entirely, but certainly not with these, and probably not with Towle. TL;DR: Save yourself the trouble and find another set.