Professional Deba Size

[MattPike4President]

I've been regularly breaking down whole salmon at work recently and the 165mm FuRinKaZan deba I bought for the task feels a bit undersized. I'm thinking about trying out something bigger, but I'm unsure on what size to get. The natural size up seems to be 180mm, but 1.5cm doesn't seem like much of a difference and I don't want to go out and buy a 180 just to find out I really wanted something like a 195 or 210. Conversely, a 210 deba seems absolutely massive. For those of you who break down lots of larger fish, does a 180 do the job sufficiently or do you like the extra length of something longer?

 

[Greasylake]

I'm not a pro but I do break down a lot of fish at a time, and pretty much every size of them. Personally I phased out the 165mm as it was kind of a bit redundant for me. Generally I would either reach for a 150mm or a 180mm, and the 165mm was mostly skipped over. The size difference was just too small for me to really want to put down a 150/180 and pick it up. The next size up from the 180 is a 210 and the 210 really needs to be like an ai-deba or a mioroshi, because a 210mm Hon deba would be a best to handle. The ideal lineup imo is a 150mm, 180mm, and a 210mm. That will cover you for everything from trout to tuna.

Also note that fish body depth is more important for blade size than fish length. Basically when you hold the blade at 45 degrees to the fish it should be long enough that you can cut to the center bone with some length to spare. Because of this a 180mm really does cover most fish unless you're regularly doing stuff like red snapper, amberjack, tuna and grouper and stuff. Those are mostly what I break out the 210mm for.

 

[daveb]

Love a 180 on salmon. And just happen to know where a couple are available very reasonably priced...

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/deba-4-sale-masamoto-or-toyama.65185/

 

[Ochazuke]

If you’re doing a lot of salmon, you could always consider a sakekiri?

180mm hon deba will probably be more useful though and is one of my most used knives.

 

[dreamwalker]

I prefer 210-240 mioroshi deba for salmon . and I will suggest at least to have deba in size of 125mm,165mm,210mm for a sushi chef .