I wanted my knives to have the following characteristics: 1. sharp 2. Lightweight 3. Thin blade. 4. The feel it will last forever.
They are most definately sharp. Very light weight. Thinner blade compared to some German knives. I also got the feeling they would last forever due to the handle being metal too. Other knives you may have to worry about the rivets or deteriorating wood handles.
Handles: I bought these online based on reviews and the pictures here on Amazon. In the pictures I thought the black dots may have been some kind of rubber for grip. I wasn't too keen of the thought of potentially having little pieces of rubber glued to the knife. I ordered this set anyway and was pleasantly surprised that the dots are just colored dimples like a golf ball.
Utility knife grip: Looking at the picture of the utility knife I was worried about the grip because the handle looks a little different. I immediately washed this knife upon receiving it and used it to chop up some veggies. I found it very comfortable to use. No concerns with the grip at all.
My set was out of the box sharp and I was chopping things up effortlessly. There really is a "wow" factor if you've only experienced cheap knives from your local *mart stores.
I purchased these knives in September 2009. I carefully selected these knives after reading several reviews and because the steel used has a high Cr content making it one of the better performing materials for a kitchen knife. We had a quality problem with one knife, that was resolved quickly by the US distributor (see below for more information), but I would not let this deter anyone from purchasing what I think is good value for money for anyone who spends a lot of time in their kitchen.
The quality problem: After a few weeks I noticed the paring knife showed black spots on the blade surface (corrosion of the stainless steel). I was taking good care of the knives (not putting them through the dishwasher etc.) but still this knife corroded faster than any stainless steel I had ever seen, and none of the other knives had this problem so I concluded this was a quality issue on the paring knife. I contacted Chefs Resource (the vendor) and they just pointed me to the US distributor's website (to be honest I was very disappointed with their response so I wouldn't recommend Chef's Resources over any other vendor). I then returned the knife to the US distributor with a warrantee claim form (). I am please to say that within a few weeks a replacement knife was mailed back to me. I believe this was a rare quality problem that I have not seen in any of the other knives and I was pleased the US distributor stood behind the product and did the right thing. I was happy that after investing so much in a high quality knife that when a problem did occur the US distributor honored their commitment to the customer Great job by Sointu USA.
Buy Global G-2338 - 3 Piece Starter Knife Set with Chef's, Utility and Paring Knife Now
I bought these knifes 4 years ago and till that day I am very satisfied with them. They are light, well balanced and easy to clean since they are made from one piece of metal. I wash them by hand, sharpen with Yoshikin 220/GB MinoSharp Water Sharpener and store on MIU France 15-Inch Stainless Steel Magnetic Knife Holder. No issues and they look like new. Since i bought this set, we do not use any other/extra knifes in our house. I find chef's knife to be a little too big for me so I mostly use it only when I need bigger knife. My husband on the other hand prefers chef's over utility knife, so I guess that's a matter of preference or maybe hand size? I might also add that my husband is left handed and finds them very easy to handle too.
Highly recommended!
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I bought this set a while back and was amazed at how sharp they were when I got them. The chef's knife is great and as useful as you'd expect. I don't find that I have much use personally for the pairing knife, but when I do use it, it's great. The utility knife it turns out is really a nice size for those jobs where a full chef's knife is a little too big. I find myself using that knife much more often than I thought I would because of it's convenient size.
While I really like the knives, I'm finding that maintaining them is going to be more expensive that I anticipated. After a few months of use and carving a few turkeys, I'm finding that the chef's knife doesn't seem to cut the way it once did. It's reasonable that this should happen after some use. Usually when this happens, I run the knife over a steel to condition the edge. I find that after some minor sharpening and honing, even a relatively cheap knife can be made very sharp again with minimal effort. Because of the edge and the steel used in the Globals though, they only recommend using a Global diamond steel. This steel costs more than the knives do. I've tried a normal steel which works fine on my other knives (though Global doesn't recommend it) and didn't get very good results. No damage to the knife, but no improvement in the edge either.
So, I'm going to end up spending a significant amount of money to keep these knives in best form. Much more than I would have with more conventional knives. I don't consider it a huge drawback since the knives are very good, but it's something to consider when making your purchase. It changes my opinion of the knives a bit though. While they are very very sharp and nice to use, they are expensive to maintain. The German knives are nearly as nice to use, less expensive to buy and less expensive to maintain. To my mind, that puts these knives into the category of useful show items. They're a little bit better than the Germans, but the large cost difference isn't really justified by the performance difference. Buy them if you want really good knives and want to show off a bit. If you want something that works really well but isn't as flashy, go with the Germans or even Victorinix which I also have and work nearly as well.
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This was a wedding gift and the couple absolutely loved it! This starter set of knives is perfect for people to get to "know" Global knives.
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After hating every wall mounted knife magnet I'd seen I decided to spend a little more for something that looked nicer. It was between this one and a bamboo one that was more expensive. (they were the only two with hidden magnets) This one was smaller and cheaper in price but I decided to give it a try.
