Best small knife?

I guess that is what I am asking as my Gyuto/Chef knifes become to big sometimes what would be the best option a petty or a parer? or which brand can anyone suggest that they are using/have used? Any help on this would be appreciated thanks!

How long are you looking for? What size gyuto do you use?

What is your budget?

Co, I think a lot of Professional Chef's use still Suiji's for board work in tight kitchen quarters. i personally love a stiff 210 Gyuto. Again, depends largely on what you're prepping. If your doing a lot of vegetable prepping, might consider a nakiri? They usually run from 165 to 180mm. Fun knife that is designed for vegetable prep. there are a lot of knife choices and until you grab something and give it a go, all the answers given will just be someone's elses opinion.

It depends on how you would use a smaller knife. If you are looking to use it in hand, then a small (80 to 110 mm) and narrow (~20 mm at the heel) parer is a better choice, like the Harner/McLean parer. If you are looking to use it on a board, then look for a utility knife with a heel height of 35 mm or more - like a Carter funayuki.

Rick

150 mm Petty - Fujiwara FH does the job proper on the cheap

If you can wait awhile, small knives (150mm or smaller) are great choices for custom makers because they don't cost nearly as much as custom gyutos/slicers. I have a Rader parer that I LOVE, and have used parers and petties from Devin Thomas and Pierre Rodrigue that were similarly awesome. Then again, a Shun Classic 4" parer does everything I've ever wanted a smaller knife to do fairly well.

My masamoto petty, 210mm tkc, and 240mm suisin IH suji are my go to smaller knives.

I just picked up a Hiromoto 210 suji and So far I'm liking it. I put in some significant thinning right out of the box, but the grind was nice and evenly convexed on the face, just a bit pudgy. The typical 150 petty has always seemed a little awkward to me, jack of a few trades, master of none. But as a "small" knife, I am finding the 210 suji/petty to be quite handy.

just let go of a great 150 petty (gesshin ginga), will surely miss it but it's not a fixture in the rotation right now.
people seem to dig the 210 suji thing, but you'd have to cut differently with your index finger across the top of the blade for lateral control.
the lead line cook at my work uses only a suisin IH 180 for everything and he is a serious badass with a knife.

With my limited experience, I would go with something like 150 funyaki-like design : wider blade at the heel than petty, but the blade would be getting narrower closer to the tip and the tip would be sharp, not santoku-like. Such design gives brigns a light angle between the handle and the cutting edge what gives you a bit more room for your fingers and so the blade does not need to be as wide as santoku or such. I actually hope to get a custom from Marko like that some day

Have a look at Zakuri 150mm Sabaki Bocho from Jon (http://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/zakuri-150mm-blue-1-kurouchi-sabaki-bocho.html) - this is the kind of design I have in mind (I have actually ordered the knife for boning).

I don't know if you'll find a knife that cuts better than a smaller Carter Funayuki.