150mm petty to stop the itching

Hi guys,
so I ordered a 210mm from heiji in Japan, and it will be mine only in about three months .
So in the mean time, I thought I'll buy myself a petty.
It will be my first real japanese knife (beside some globals, if it counts ), and I don't really know what I'm looking for in a knife, except that it will be crazy sharp, and fun to work with.
I'm an home cook, who really love to make Italian food, so the blade will meet a lot of garlic and tomatoes, but I will treat it nicely.
My absolute maximum budget for the knife is 150$, I have family in the USA, so it can be shipped to them to save some money on the delivery.
One interesting option I saw is the 150mm Watanabe for about 115$ (http://www.kitchen-knife.jp/pro/petite.htm).
What do you think about this knife? Do you have better recommendations?

No love for the petties?

I just ordered a takamura 150 petty to play with. They have awesome reviews and are made out of an r2 powdered stainless. I paid $160 cad so you should be able to find them for 150 usd no issue.

I prefer an old style Sabatier...

I have a 150 tanaka ginsanko western petty I love and it was like $48 from metal master. Use it all the time.

turbochef422 said:

I have a 150 tanaka ginsanko western petty I love and it was like $48 from metal master. Use it all the time.

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Yeah...Ive been staring at the tanaka ginsan petty for literally years now. I dont like spending much money on petty knives so this is the exact knife I would get, or maybe the inexpensive bolsterless gesshin petty.

Godslayer - could you post here or in a PM your thoughts about the knife when it'll get to you?
turbochef422 - the profile seems a bit odd to me. Is it a good cutter? I myself thought that a petty is an opportunity to buy a good knife cheap, but if this petty is really nice, maybe I should think about this more.

It won't win any beauty pageants but would bust someone's *** in a cage fight. And I like the profile a lot. I've had way more expensive pettys and this one is my favorite

If you're not a knife snob, get a Tojiro petty. They're about $50 and crazy sharp.

alfreedo said:

If you're not a knife snob, get a Tojiro petty. They're about $50 and crazy sharp.

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Don't buy the shirogami...they are ground like ****!

Turbo, I had one before and would consider another as a home knife, I question if it would survive abuse from room mate however.. Dishwasher, drops, frozen stuff, etc.

I have a Takamura and Kato, and though both seem very competent and the Takamura (Hana) quite pretty, I think I'd have been better off saving my money and getting something cheaper.

Tanaka makes very nice petty knives, however I'd get VG10 instead of ginsanko due to a better grind and F&F.

Watanabe makes "classic" wide bevel knives with pretty thick spine and tip, so don't expect Watanabe petty to slice through onions as easy as Tanaka could do. On the other hand, Watanabe's F&F is way better than Tanaka's. And food release is much better as well.


I had tried maybe 10-12 different petty knives in 150mm length and think Tanaka offers best bang for your bucks. Especially if you are willing to tweak that knife yourself a little.

Thank all you guys for your help
I prefer a wa petty, and I saw this one http://www.metalmaster-ww.com/product/27
It's a Tanaka carbon with damascus steel (always a nice bonus) and it's pretty damn cheap.
Is this Tanaka as good as the one you offered?

I was referring to the Tojiro dp petty. Never had a shirogami.

The blue steel Tanaka pettys have a good reputation, but their handle has always been supposed to be pretty bare bones. Since they've moved to a resin ferrule, I'd say those bones are barer than ever. That said, without any personal experience of my own, I believe they're supposed to be great blades.

FWIW i had a tanaka blue 'damascus' (can we all just agree already we're misusing this term all over the place???) 180 gyuto. I thought it was kind of a piece of junk, even for $68 i paid for it. it rusted almost immediately after use and had this wonky grind, was not pleasant to sharpen and the lamination along the spine was all uneven. Some like them though.
I haven't ever held on to a 150 petty. tried a few but the size didn't work for me. I found them most useful for meat fab but any small tasks including paring i'd rather just do with a gyuto.

How about this:

http://www.epicedge.com/shopexd.asp?id=91724&photo=1&size=n

:doublethumbsup:

TheDispossessed said:

FWIW i had a tanaka blue 'damascus' (can we all just agree already we're misusing this term all over the place???) 180 gyuto. I thought it was kind of a piece of junk, even for $68 i paid for it. it rusted almost immediately after use and had this wonky grind, was not pleasant to sharpen and the lamination along the spine was all uneven. Some like them though.

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Hunh. I'd heard of some f&f issues but, hell, that sounds as though buying myself a carbon tanaka is more of a gamble than I am a card player.

Ok, so the tanaka is out of the list.
I have two new names in the list, do you guys have any thought about them?
http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/KAGAYAKIAogamiSuperSeries.html
and the gesshin uraku

Of those two, I'd buy the Uraku (vendor being the key), but should mention that I've never heard of tanaka being that bad. Mine certainly is no rust bomb and has very good bevels for an inexpensive knife. I have an older one so the handle is ho/horn and would imagine the only problem with the newer ones would be the handle.