Dansk Variation V 5-Piece Place Setting, Service for 1

A new generation of Variation V
I've had Dansk Variation V for 35 years, including pieces manufactured in Denmark, Finland, Japan, Korea, and China. There are slight but real differences in the shapes of each utensil type (spoon, fork, etc) from country to country of manufacture. These latest sets are made in China; the polish is higher, and the molds are clearly different. If you have acquired this pattern in recent years you may not notice; if you have originals, you will. It's a bit too soon to tell how well these pieces will "age" (stand up to the dishwasher, etc). Otherwise, they blend in with the older pieces except when lined up with like items (ie, spoons, forks, etc). For the price, these are a great value.

Dansk Variation V flatware
I ordered some individual pieces recently to add to my set which I have had since 1970. Actually, I only needed the teaspoons. Well, I returned the teaspoons and kept the rest. The forks are a different shape and the knives had spots after one washing but I decided to keep them anyway. The stainless is not up to the original standards of manufacturer. My biggest disappointment was the size of the teaspoons. They were much smaller. And the teaspoon is already on the smallish side. They are manufactured in China and I was truly not satisfied.

Chinese-made Dansk not up to Dansk Standards
Upon close observation and after a week of casual use, I am very disappointed with the current production of Dansk Variation V silverware. For one, the Chinese-made versions no longer match the style of the previous 40+ years of production for this model. It is similar, but too different to add to an existing set of older, superbly-crafted Variation V silverware. As for quality/finish, the inside edges of the fork blades are not polished and food particles cling to those roughly-milled inside edges. It's too bad that company's worldwide throw away their quality standards in pursuit of cheap, Chinese labor. I think I'm being generous to give this product 2 stars.

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