I've had this knife for a few weeks now, and it has made chopping onions, peppers, and fresh herbs (my main digs) an absolute pleasure. It glides through everything that I put under it. I hone the knife every time I take it out of the drawer, and it's still as sharp as the day I got it. I'm planning on a professional sharpening after about six months of use, considering how much I use it.
***Fair warning-this review contains a description of an injury sustained while cooking. If you stop here, though, just know that this knife is FANTASTIC.***
About a week and a half ago, I was slicing an onion parallel to the cutting board (for a fine dice) and I underestimated its sharpness-I put a little to much pressure behind it, and it slipped into my finger, including quite a bit of fingernail. Ouch. The cutting, however, was still brilliantly sharp. When I went to the emergency room, the nurse and attending both commented on the cleanness of the cut and asked me what kind of knife it was. I told them, and they both seemed impressed. I figure those are some professionals who know the work of a good blade when they see it.
Highly recommended--just don't underestimate it. This blade deserves your respect.
I don't know why the others -including other hollow-ground santokus -are still in the house. They don't get any use anymore; this is not an exaggeration. The edge this holds is phenomenal. It requires a touch up in the sharpener far less often and, after weeks at a time of heavy use, it still out-performs anything else freshly sharpened. And no other knife has been this easy to hold onto; the "dimpled" grip simply does not allow for any slipping around.
The result of all this is that this ordinary middle-aged, middling cook has seen her knife skills increase to a level I never thought possible. I have always viewed chopping, dicing, slicing, and anything else that required me to pick up a knife as a particular kind of dangerous drudgery. No more. Where formerly I hauled a larger or smaller food processor out to handle things, I now confidently and happily pick up this knife, including for cups and cups at a time of finely diced vegetables. It has literally revolutionized the way I feel about food preparation. I use it seven days a week to prep for at least one meal a day.
And the thing is just lovely to look at. It is a beautiful object, one that makes me happy that I have a magnetic bar to display it.
One cautionary note: I agree with a previous reviewer that food does not seem much less likely to stick to the hollow-ground blade than to ordinary blade. But I absolutely love this knife and that is why, even with this caveat, it gets five big gold stars from me.
Buy Global G-48 - 7 inch, 18cm Santoku Hollow Ground Knife Now
Just a warning, this review will contain some graphical descriptions of injuries. Definitely not for the squeamish people.
The knife may have some additional desires, but overall, it's the best set you can sink your teeth into, and of course, blow a few hundreds on. I paid a total of $90 at Bed Bath and Beyond, but worth every penny. Here's why:
Looks and Feel:
To most people, a knife is just a knife. To those who actually use knives on a daily basis, a knife is a blade designed for specific tasks, and not any knife will act as a universal knife for all tasks. The full one-piece blade-to-handle is the exact type of knife that one should look into. A knife with an attached wooden or plastic handle will cause stickiness, deterioration, and sanitary issues later down the road. I know first hand, since I have a drawer full of knife types. The way the knives are made, the handle actually balance with the blade when you place the middle finger into the groove, and start cutting. The proper cutting technique is placing the middle finger in the groove (the bolster), while the thumb and index fingers' tips are place on each side body of the knife for stability during quick action chopping. The balance is slightly off if you just attempt to balance the knives on your index finger just being curious. When you cut, take a notice of your fingers, palm, and wrist strains. Too much pressure on your thumb and middle finger, the handle is too heavy. Too much focus on your palm's heel, the blade is too heavy. Either will cause a bit of a wrist strain after 5 minutes of cutting.
But these knives are perfectly balanced, and eliminating the strains. The handle is excellent in so many way. The dimples actually created slight suction if you wet your hand with warm water, while maintaining the handle clean from oily and meat fluids. Once there's an oily film on the handle, no knife's handle will maintain the proper grip.
The blade:
7-inch Santoku is perfect for big person like me. I have large hands, and need additional cutting length, so the 7-inch is the perfect cutlery tool for me. The hollow ground doesn't prevent the foods from sticking onto the blade, but the sharpness of the blade will slice through pretty much all your meats (from frozen to a pile of pounded glob), veggies (hard like jamaca and hard shell veggies or ultra soft like over ripen tomatoes), to breads. Once slice, one cut, straight through without rough edges. Carelessness will cause you your fingers. It claimed my left middle finger's nail and meaty tip, cut through my ring finger's blood vessel, my wife's middle and index finger's blood vessels, my friend's middle finger's tip, my wife's mom pinky finger's blood vessel. Let's just say that the knife made its mark on our bones. That's how sharp the blade is right out of the box.
The durability and sharpness:
The knives are truly durable in all ways, but the cutting edges are not. You can drop it, toss, bang it, and pound it to the wood or plastic surface as you can all you want, the knives don't get any dent, bent, or ding. But, the cutting edge, honed at 15 degree, will get damaged if you slam it into bones, hard ceramic surfaces, metal, or any thing hard. I don't think any fine cutlery can stand up to such an abuse. Gentle sliding from front of the blade to the back will cut through pretty much everything, without requiring brute force to chop off your foods. Right out of the box, if you take care of of your blades properly during your days of food prepping, the blades will continue to have the sharpness up to 6 months. You'll notice a decrease of sharpness after the 6 months. If you're continuously cutting through frozen foods, especially meat, you'll notice the sharpness will start to decrease after two months of usages. The sharp edge of the knife will have misalignment, and the uniform edge will now have small imperfect warps. This is where a sharpening steel comes into play. Get a good steel like The Ultimate Edge Model 10NSS Stainless-Steel Handle Diamond Sharpening Steel (600 grit) or the cheaper The Ultimate Edge Model 10W Gourmet 10-Inch Oval Diamond Sharpening Steel (1800 grit people!). After a few sessions with frozen foods, use the steel to realign and sharpen the blade back up. Try to use it after every session, and you'll continue to keep the blades extremely sharp. Otherwise, if you keep neglecting to maintain your blades, you will have to purchase a honing-resharpening device, like the MinoSharp Plus or the whetstones (rough 320 grit and fine 1000 grit).
Cleaning:
The cleaning is extremely easy, after much usages. My knives with the plastic and wooden handles get so dirty and filled with food particles along the handles' edges that I have to toss them away. There's no way to clean them off without destroying the knives. Over time, around a year, the food particles and the oils forms an amber-resin like stain around the handles, disallowing any stain removal agent to get rid of them. The Global's one piece blades remove that issue. The cleaning only requires warm to hot water, and a soapy sponge. How easy is that? I have this set for over year now, and no stain what so ever. If there's caramel or sticky substance on it, run it under hot water for 30 seconds, then clean the entire knife with a hot soapy sponge, and it becomes like new again. Can't even find a bad thing to say about this. Small opinions here and there, but this is the first set of knives I could not find any bad to say.
Read Best Reviews of Global G-48 - 7 inch, 18cm Santoku Hollow Ground Knife Here
I own many of the best rated kitchen knifes, whether they be made in France, Germany or Japan. This however, is the best most fun knife I've yet to purchase. It is very sharp, the angle is fabulous and it feels perfectly designed for standing and doing a lot of knife work. The weight is just the best for me. I find myself using this knife instead of most of the others, even when a smaller or larger one is called for. In time, I hope to replace all of the others with other Global knifes. The price offered at Amazon beat every other source I checked out.
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I was in the market for a 6 to 7 inch hollow ground santoku...my budget was $100 or less. I narrowed it down to 2 knives: the global and the mac. I loved both but I liked how the global was all stainless and i liked how it felt.
I actually have the Kitchenaid Santoku which was around $17. It cuts nicely, but the global is oh so much sharper and just feels so much better.
Unlike the other reviewer, it does NOT feel slippery to me....i love the grip i love how it feels and it slices/chops/dieces like a DREAM.
Seriously though you have to have some respect for this knife. It is incredibly sharp so please be careful. You will wonder how long you were able to survive w/out it and it will make chopping onions...herbs....veggies etc. seem like you are cutting into butter. It is just so smooth and it is a complete joy to use this knife. i LOVE this knife.
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This is nothing short of beautiful. I own 3 of them, two large and one small, all in Stainless Steel.
