A Tale of Three Petty's...

I'm looking at 3 petty's and am unsure on which I will ultimately go with.

Can anyone who owns or has owned/has experience with any of these 3 add their input and sell me on them, or advise me to stay away lol?

Watanabe Professional Series Kurouchi 150mm Petty





Kochi 150mm Kurouchi Wa-Petty





Masakage Shimo 150mm Petty





Thanks in advance.

Haven't yet used any of these three, but gonna receive Watanabe 150mm in the next 1-2 days. I have a soft spot for petty knives and have 5 or 6 at the moment. Chosen Watanabe because of stainless cladding and gyuto-like profile.

I have Masakage Koishi (SS clad AS) bunka and it is very well done - I really like it. I plan to polish the handle a little as after first waxing it got very slightly rough (it really is minimal). Otherwise the F&F is very nice as are cutting/slicing abilities. The Kochi is carbon clad carbon core if that makes any difference to you. Looks great and I suspect it will be a great knife as well. I would also expect the Kochi to be a bit stronger (thicker) than Masakage. You may want to check with Jon to be sure.

I have the Masakage shimo petty. Had it for about three weeks so I can't give a review from the long term perspective. Nice knife, f&f good, had to sand and oil the handle, but I almost always do that on new knives. Height is good for pinch grip, otb sharpness was adequate. If reactivity is a problem or nuisance this might not be the knife for you. I recommend it, but can't compare it to your other choices. I am pleased with my purchase. Good luck with your decision.

What about those three is appealing? How do you expect to use them? They all seem to be decent knives, but knowing more about what you want and how you'll use them would probably lead to more/better guidance.

id prefer the masakage profile for a petty.

Me too berko. I really like the long flat spot

Received Watanabe today and here are some first impressions: the knife is awesome

I ordered the knife without handle since I was going to put my own handle on it, so speaking about fit and finish I can only comment about blade itself. Which has very good finish. All the edges that needed to be rounded were rounded. Not polished, but rounded enough to the level where you don't bother about them anymore. Looking under magnifying glass you could spot some grinding marks on the softer clad. Very few and very minor.

Watanabe is noticeable thicker on the spine compared to Tanaka's. And the distal taper is almost non pronounced, so there's NO flex even at the very tip. Geometry wise somewhere in the middle of the blade it starts to thin and became VERY thin near the edge. Noticeable thinner then any other petty I have.



I love the profile. Probably I'm latent santoku guy, but I really like it because it gives enough clearance for pinch grip. Factory edge was very good. When I tried to cut some food I quickly realized that it doesn't need any touch ups on stones or stropping. Cuts beautifully. I haven't had any big carrots so tested wedging on a small squash and it didn't wedge at all. But it was a lousy test. I'm gonna prepare some real food tomorrow and gonna give it a real stress test. The big difference that I quickly noticed about Watanabe — NO food sticking. After cutting half of squash I continued to cut with two Tanaka's pettys and they both experienced very pronounced food sticking.

So far I can see only one downside for this Watanabe knife — price is rather high. But even with all my love to cheap Tanaka's I'd say this Watanabe is worth high price tag.



quick family photo: Watanabe, Tanaka blue№2, Tanaka VG10, Carbonext, Hattori HD 120mm

Hey chzbrgr, how do you like the profile?

I was looking for more of a mini Gyuto style myself with some height, one of the main reasons I wound up with these 3 high on my list, but I loved the flat profile of the Masakage. I thought this was similar,but your pics look as though it has a fairly aggressive sweep with a decent amount of belly.

toddnmd said:

What about those three is appealing? How do you expect to use them? They all seem to be decent knives, but knowing more about what you want and how you'll use them would probably lead to more/better guidance.

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Looking for more of a mini Gyuto with some height and a nice flat spot. I love my bigger chef's knives but sometimes like to reach for a smaller blade for stuff like tomatoes for sandwiches, garlic, shallots, brussel sprouts, various other veggies and I'll be using it to debone chickens, not cutting through the bones though.

TBH, I also really like the look of these, but the mini Gyuto aspect is key. I have a Shun Classic 6 inch Chef's knife which I love the size and use as a Petty but the sweep is ridiculous and really I'm just looking to upgrade everything a little. Even with my issues with the complete profile its still often a knife I reach for for quick tasks, so I want something similar but all around improved, especially a flatter edge profile with similar height.

I really like it so far, but remembering I have only used it for one day — take with a big grain of salt.
The profile is nowhere flat and has way more belly compared to any other petty I tried. Speaking of flat profiles, from all the pettys I've tried, Shigefusa kasumi 150mm has probably the most flat profile.

You can send email to Shinichi Watanabe and ask if he's willing to make a flatter profile for you.

icanhaschzbrgr said:

I really like it so far, but remembering I have only used it for one day — take with a big grain of salt.
The profile is nowhere flat and has way more belly compared to any other petty I tried. Speaking of flat profiles, from all the pettys I've tried, Shigefusa kasumi 150mm has probably the most flat profile.

You can send email to Shinichi Watanabe and ask if he's willing to make a flatter profile for you.

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Is there a decent actual flat spot though, or is it pretty much an aggressive sweep from heel to tip?

I own a Shimo and in my opinion its a lot of bang for the buck. Very thin and keeps an edge pretty damn good.

The handle needs a lot of oil before using it. Its like a spunge out of the box.

Dave Kinogie said:

Is there a decent actual flat spot though, or is it pretty much an aggressive sweep from heel to tip?

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Thanks man, that pic is the perfect answer to my question. Looks like it still has a pretty healthy flat spot even though its almost a blade long gradual sweep, it just gets pretty thorough two thirds of the way down the length.

Not sure how I feel about the stainless cladding, I'm loving patinas these days, but at least it's low maintenance.

erikz said:

I own a Shimo and in my opinion its a lot of bang for the buck. Very thin and keeps an edge pretty damn good.

The handle needs a lot of oil before using it. Its like a spunge out of the box.

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Out of curiosity, after it sucked down all that oil did it take on a nice deep hue or is it still really light?

That is a huge petty, it might as well be 150 gyuto lol. You will be hard pressed to find a better steel than Watanabe blue, enjoy.

Dave Kinogie said:

Out of curiosity, after it sucked down all that oil did it take on a nice deep hue or is it still really light?

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It's pretty light, but more yellow-ish (warmer) compared to the colour before oiling. I've used a linseed based oiling mix.

Hey erikz, also, what kind of patina is it taking on? I've read before that the Shimo line tends to take on an ugly yellow patina sometimes.

Dave Kinogie said:

Hey erikz, also, what kind of patina is it taking on? I've read before that the Shimo line tends to take on an ugly yellow patina sometimes.

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No patina spotted so far. Used it on a lot of small veggies and proteins, but I do wipe it clean directly after use. It might take more time for the white #2 to develop patina and the cladding seems to be not reactive at all.

So anyone out there who has experience with the Kochi?

How about any other random suggestions?

Burger I love the idea of that Shig, but its way more then I want to spend on a petty right now, is sold out anyway and I just got my hands on a Shig nakiri and would like to try another smith's work first.

I think I might just take the plunge and order the Kochi, friend at work is going to buy 2 of my starter knives so I'm prime for a new petty.

First I'm going to do a WTB on the B/S/T forums and see what pops up though.