Global GSF-22 4" Forged Kitchen Utility
Japanese Kitchen Knife Review

Given my negative opinion of the usability and usefulness of the utility knives in the kitchen, I figure it is clear that the Global GSF-22 utility knife is not mine, but it was given to me by a friend fro maintenance sharpening, which is always a good opportunity to examine the blade again, reevaluate it and maybe draw some new conclusions. The only problem with that of course is the fact that I don't really know what was happening with the knife all that time, and as usual the owners are not very sure either. Most often I get "I just cut stuff in the kitchen", unless something very dramatic happens. Well, at least since those are my friends I know more or less well their knife habits, maintaining procedures, e.g. whether or not the knife ends up in a dishwasher or gets hand washed, which to be honest doesn't require much of "knowledge", as in 99% of the cases even the Globals end up in a dishwasher, despite of all the complaints and arguments from my side. Well, not my knives, what can I do :) Besides it's still a free knife to review and it's a knife that was used by real person, in a real home kitchen, so to study live use that's a pretty good opportunity. That is how the Global GSF-22 utility knife ended up with me several times. Each time I have used of for about a day or two before returning it to the owner. For the experiment's sake I did try once to use it as it was returned to me. Just out of curiosity, and dropped that pretty much immediately. I'm not felling very comfy when I have to apply that much force to the knife when cutting vegetables or meat, feels really awkward.

General

Blade

Handle

Sharpening

Usage

Peeling and slicing Avocados - That is one of the more frequent jobs I use paring knives for. So, I went with the GFS-22 first. Its slightly longer blade was an advantage compared to the shorter competition, both Global GS-40 and Tojiro Flash parers are ~100mm or 4" blades. However, the trouble was the handle. Thin, almost flat. After peeling a few Avocados and proceeding with slicing, my hands and the knife were really slippery. I had hard time controlling the knife in my hand, because of its shape and thickness, or rather absence of such. One would think, Global GS-40 would be more trouble in this situation, due to its more rounded shape, but no, because it is more substantial I could grip it better. Tojiro came on top, out of those three because of its handle materials I guess. I had much better grip on that. Although, considering that Avocado internals are really oily, this isn't very clean work at all and it's a good test for any knife.

Peeling potatoes - As usual I don't do that with knives, despite my great knife enthusiasm :) Well sharpened (I make sure of that) Rosle Crosswise peeler makes short work of any peeling job, but given the very narrow (despite of its seemingly multipurpose name) specialization of the kitchen utility knives, I had to do something with it. So, first I had to cut out potato "eyes" on the test subjects, and then proceeded with peeling. Frankly, I didn't enjoy the process at all and have to admit that was mostly due to my bad potato peeling skills. However, partly the thin handle was the culprit. No matter how you try, or how I try, hands and the knife get wet with the juices during the peeling process and it became harder and harder to maintain proper control to the knife. I had to squeeze it harder and harder, which in turn lead to unnecessary finger fatigue. For cutting out potato eyes, the GSF-22 knife did work ok, but again, comparing it to its cousin from Global, GS-40 and especially with Tojiro Flash paring knife, later two performed better. I did prefer shorter blades for the delicate, mainly knife point work and on top of that as I mentioned the handles on both (GS-40 and Tojiro parers) were better. With that I've dropped delicate work experimentation, it was clear, GSF-22 utility knife can do that, but it is better to have more dedicated parer. One thing I'd have to mention, GSF-22 was still a better parer than the Shun Classic Utility knife, which has even longer blade, 150mm(6"). No surprises with that conclusion though.

Miscellaneous cutting - With large items out of question due to its small size, and with delicate point work already out of the way, I just went around the kitchen and tried to cut few things that I thought might've been more or less suitable for the GSF-22 utility knife. I can't say I found many. Unfortunately I didn't have any ribs to try to use GSF-22 knife for cleaning the meat from the ribs. I did find a single chicken thigh in the fridge, which was cooked already. I've decided to sacrifice that for the test. Can't say it was a very conclusive test tough. I did it, and it was ok. Next was a carrot. I didn't even try batonnet, the blade is way too narrow for that type of cutting to be any kind of comfortable, just cut the circles. As expected, the absence of the knuckle clearance was a nuisance. I did it anyway, because I've seen and read quite a bit on the net how people advise others to use utility knife for such works. All I can say, this is utterly pointless, if you have a wider knife, such as Gyuto, or a chef's knife or better yet Nakiri or Usuba, why would you torture yourself and a knife doing that I don't understand. If you are stuck on the deserted island with just GSF-22 utility knife, then ok, although you might have bigger problems than picking the right knife for cutting carrots and other vegetables, otherwise just get the chef's knife and be done with it. I've heard those utility knives work well to cut sandwiches in half. So, I made one. From the leftovers of the chicken thigh mentioned above, some lettuce, cheese and bread. Then cut it in half. Ok, it worked. Then I cut the same sandwich halves in half, first with 270mm Sanetsu gyuto and then with 150mm Watanabe Kuro Uchi Nakiri. Both worked better than the short, narrow GSF-22 utility knife. So, frankly, I have no idea why many consider utility knives so good for cutting just sandwiches.

After that I was just bored and ran out of ideas. Peeled an apple, sliced it. Ok result. I'd still prefer shorter GS-40 or Tojiro parer with a better handle. Opened packaged food. Can't say it worked any better than other knives I've used for the same purpose, kitchen or not. So, I've decided to call it a day. Washed the knife, sharpened on 0.5µm and 0.25µm diamond crystal loaded strops, stopped on the plain leather and packed to return to its rightful owner. To be fair, I have to note here that the owner, and many other folks I know personally, do manage to use those utility knives for all sorts of kitchen cutting, that wouldn't come to my mind today. That includes cutting tomatoes, large and small, broccoli, soft meat, using it as a boning knife, etc. Although, again being fair I have to say, that's not because GSF-22 is so versatile, not at all, but because those folks use it that way. The same people use paring knives for the same stuff as the 8" slicer, interchangeably :) So, if you are not picky as I am, then any knife can be do it all. After all for experimenting, I did survive for a week in the kitchen with combat knives, more than once.

Conclusions