Mercer knives are great for many reasons one being they are made from the same steel as those other big name companies. This steel is the X50 Cr Mo V15 No Stain High Carbon German Steel Fully Forged. Mercer Knives are just a company that believes in making a quality knife at a quality price. All Mercer knives are also NSF certified, which means yes these are safe to use in your commercial kitchen, recommended hand wash only of course.
Renaissance - The Mercer Renaissance Collection is made with triple riveted handles for comfort and saftey. The Handles are a synthetic material that are nice and smooth and easy to clean up.
The Chef's knife is the cooks MOST important tool. Since is a thinker sturdier blade you can easily cut through meats and pretty much any food ingredient with ease. The Chef's knife is 8" and is just long enough to go through medium to large meat products, as well as medium to large anything else.