This Deba looking knife was one more blade that I acquired during my spring 2008 kitchen knife upgrade times. Described as meat/fish knife by dealers and manufacturer, it looks very much like western Deba to me. Description kindda matches that too. Although, the Deba is more for fish/poultry. Anyway, it looked different, had a wide blade and I was trying to get new knives and experiment with them, so G-29 was a good candidate for testing. THerefor I had all the reasons to buy it :)
General
- Fit and finish as with other Global knives are very good. Packaging is nice too. That's about all the comments I have in that department. Knife is quite heavy in general and more on the blade side specifically. It's not very thick, even if it looks like one. At its widest, blade was 3mm thick. Handle is standard Global style. Works pretty good in general for most of the knives I've had from them, so I wasn't expecting anything new or unusual from the handle on this knife.Initial Sharpness
- As for the initial sharpness, out of the box it wasn't good, as with the rest of the batch of Globals I got that spring (2008). So, I've proceeded with standard set of 5µm, 2µm 0.5µm, 0.3µm abrasives to achieve really sharp, mirror polished edge.Steel
- The steel is the CROMOVA 18 used by Global for all their knives as far as I am concerned. I've already commented regarding this steel in Global GF-33 Forged Chef's knife review and in Fallkniven White Whale review, thus there is no point in repeating all that in here. Follow the link to see the info regarding CROMOVA 18.Blade
- Which was the main reason I purchased G-29. Very wide, and rather thin at that. Geometry is pretty close to Deba knife too. Wide blade, drop point, except Debas are few times thicker than that and as usual have single bevel. G-29 has a standard, western style double bevel. Which is why I said looks more like western Deba. As you can see the handle is located very high on the blade, and it makes more convenient with most of chopping/rocking style cutting, since you don't have to rise your elbow and shoulder too high. Obviously 7" knife isn't the best slicer in the world, so I didn't use it as such. One more plus, blade so wide works very well for scooping cut vegetables and other stuff from the cutting board. Although, it didn't work too well as a vegetable cutter. Santokus and Gyotos work much better for that.Usage
- The only place this knife ever saw use, was my kitchen, that is until it was retired and went out as a present to my family. Overall I really liked it even though I didn't use it a whole lot. I've tried to use it for meat, as a slicer, not good, blade is too short for slicing. I didn't have a chicken to clean or some other task of that sort, so can't comment there. Where it worked very well - pineapple cleaning. Because of its sharp, polished edge which was also conveniently wide it went through pineapples real easy, and wide blade gave more control during those cuts. Especially when chopping off the ends off of the fruit. When I said G-29 didn't work too well for vegetable cutting, I was referring to rocking motion. For forward/downward cutting it worked pretty good, no complaints there and like I said wide blade really helped with scooping the cuts.In the end, I didn't really use this knife for its designed purpose. But, for whatever I used it it gave me good results. yes it wasn't perfect for all cutting, but no knife is. It's not as universal as Gyoto, but still had plenty of use and its advantages thanks to its wide blade.
During those 9 weeks I've had this knife I've sharpened it two times after initial sharpening which could be classified as more or less serious sharpening. Last two sharpening sessions were more like touchups. However, it wasn't used very intensively and I always use smooth steel when I'm done using a knife and in 95% of the cases I use smooth steel, just couple passes per side, before I start cutting too. No chips or rolls during all that time. Edge held up razor sharp.
As mentioned above, G-29 ended up being a present to my family member. Which in general was caused by the arrival of the real Japanese Deba knife. Anyway, the point is that after inspecting G-29 week later I've discovered that the edge was damaged pretty bad along first 6 inches. Multiple rolls and dents were clearly visible with naked eye. No chips though. Further "inquiry" showed that the only thing cut during that week was various types of vegetables, all of the cutting was done on the wooden board covered with flexible cutting board. So, it's more of a puzzle to me at this time what the hell happened to it. It stood up to pineapples just fine, so which other veggie was so aggressive and tough on the edge I donno. Still, serves as a good example what can happen to kitchen knives in different hands in different places.
Specifications:
- Blade - 177.80mm(7")
- Thickness - 3.17mm
- OAL - 304.80mm(12")
- Steel - CROMOVA 18 56-58HRC
- Handle - Stainless Steel
- Acquired - 04/2008 Price - 111.00$
Related reading:
- Global GF-33 Forged Chef's Knife Review
- Global G-61 8" Hollow Edge Chef's Knife Review
- Kumagoro 240mm Hammer Finish Gyuto Knife Review
- Watanabe 270mm Honyaki Gyuto Knife Review
- Shigefusa 270mm Kitaeji Gyuto Knife Review
- Sanetsu 270mm ZDP-189 Gyuto Knife Review
- Aritsugu 270mm A-Type Gyuto Knife Review
- Tadatsuna 270mm White Steel Gyuto Knife Review
- Tojiro DP Gyuto 240mm(9.5") Japanese Kitchen Knife Review
- Watanabe Small Nakiri Knife Review
- Kobayashi Suminagashi Nakiri Knife Review
- Tadatsuna White Steel Kamagata Usuba Knife Review
Last updated - 05/19/19