Hummm... Interesting response. I've personally never heard of them saying anything along the lines of the response you posted.

I've also never heard of a knife that can't be used on hard surfaces (assuming your referring to wood...).

I've never own any of their non-kitchen knives (even though went through cubs and scouts 40 mins from there), but i've used their chef knives a lot. If I didn't already have a nice selection of Wusthof and Henkel, i'd get a complete set of theirs.

I highly recommend their filet knives.

Wish you good luck with this and hope there is a solution that you can live with.