It is said that in your kitchen you really need only two knives: a gyuto and a paring knife. I agree. Some people would throw in a bread knife, but thats about it. For most home cooks the gyuto will be 21 to 24 centimeters and the paring knife will be 9 to 10 centimeters.
Nevertheless I found the gap between 9 cm and 21 cm rather large, so I thought there must be a use for a 15 cm knife, a petty. I got one, but I initially didnt find much use for it. I still did nearly all the cutting with my gyuto and I grabbed my paring knife for paring and the occasional delicate work on a vegetable. I know quite a few chefs use an 18 cm or so petty as a line knife, but I am not a professional chef. Only now, a couple of years later, I find I instinctively grab my petty for a number of tasks.
So what do I use it for? Probably most for slicing sandwiches and buns. This is much cleaner than with a serrated knife and the petty has got the perfect length for it. I also use it as a small sujihiki. I usually make sushi and sashimi from small cuts of fish and a petty is perfect for that. The same goes for small cuts of meat. There are also some specialized tasks I use my petty for, like trimming silverskin. Or deboning a chicken, since I don't have a boning knife. And because Ive grown to like the knife, I sometimes use it to cut smaller vegetables, like tomatoes, as an alternative to a gyuto.
I recently got a 14 cm Konosuke Swedish stainless petty.
First impression
The fit and finish of this knife is very good. The blade is well polished: the grinding scratches are barely visible. Both the spine and the choil have been rounded. And the knife has a ho wood handle with a buffalo horn ferrule that fits the knife perfectly. Even though the handle is very ergonomic, I found it a bit bland. So I replaced it with a beautiful maple burl and bog oak handle by Anton Kudris.
One reason I got this knife is that it is very thin. The choil shot may not tell you that much, since it doesnt tell the dimensions, but halfway the knife is 1.6 mm thick at the spine and it measures only 0.5 mm at half a centimeter from the edge. This makes it the thinnest knife in my house. The blade is slightly convexed on both sides.
The knife also has a very nice distal taper, from 1.8 cm above the heel to 0.6 cm one centimeter from the tip.
Use
Before use I sharpened the knife on my Shapton Pro stones, finishing at 16K. I then set out to slice some tomatoes. Who said a tomato needs a toothy edge?
https://wordpress.com/post/90231485/492
I love the edge this steel can take! Even though Konosuke does not disclose the type of steel, I am almost certain it is 13C26 or its Uddeholm equivalent, AEB-L.
Due to its thinness the knife also performed wonderfully on onions. Well, the knife performed wonderfully on everything I threw at it. The knife has some flex, but surprisingly little, considering its thinness. I hardly notice it in practice. I sometimes make sashimi just to have an excuse to grab my Konosuke again.
[IMG}https://japaneseknifereviews.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/board.jpg[/IMG]
Conclusion
I love this knife. Everything about it is perfect. That is not to say this knife is without competition. I already reviewed laser-type stainless knives by Suisin and Ashi Hamono, and they did a great job as well. But this Konosuke is going to stay in my house.
Factsheet
Click on the factsheet to view a larger version.
Nevertheless I found the gap between 9 cm and 21 cm rather large, so I thought there must be a use for a 15 cm knife, a petty. I got one, but I initially didnt find much use for it. I still did nearly all the cutting with my gyuto and I grabbed my paring knife for paring and the occasional delicate work on a vegetable. I know quite a few chefs use an 18 cm or so petty as a line knife, but I am not a professional chef. Only now, a couple of years later, I find I instinctively grab my petty for a number of tasks.
So what do I use it for? Probably most for slicing sandwiches and buns. This is much cleaner than with a serrated knife and the petty has got the perfect length for it. I also use it as a small sujihiki. I usually make sushi and sashimi from small cuts of fish and a petty is perfect for that. The same goes for small cuts of meat. There are also some specialized tasks I use my petty for, like trimming silverskin. Or deboning a chicken, since I don't have a boning knife. And because Ive grown to like the knife, I sometimes use it to cut smaller vegetables, like tomatoes, as an alternative to a gyuto.
I recently got a 14 cm Konosuke Swedish stainless petty.
First impression
The fit and finish of this knife is very good. The blade is well polished: the grinding scratches are barely visible. Both the spine and the choil have been rounded. And the knife has a ho wood handle with a buffalo horn ferrule that fits the knife perfectly. Even though the handle is very ergonomic, I found it a bit bland. So I replaced it with a beautiful maple burl and bog oak handle by Anton Kudris.
One reason I got this knife is that it is very thin. The choil shot may not tell you that much, since it doesnt tell the dimensions, but halfway the knife is 1.6 mm thick at the spine and it measures only 0.5 mm at half a centimeter from the edge. This makes it the thinnest knife in my house. The blade is slightly convexed on both sides.
The knife also has a very nice distal taper, from 1.8 cm above the heel to 0.6 cm one centimeter from the tip.
Use
Before use I sharpened the knife on my Shapton Pro stones, finishing at 16K. I then set out to slice some tomatoes. Who said a tomato needs a toothy edge?
https://wordpress.com/post/90231485/492
I love the edge this steel can take! Even though Konosuke does not disclose the type of steel, I am almost certain it is 13C26 or its Uddeholm equivalent, AEB-L.
Due to its thinness the knife also performed wonderfully on onions. Well, the knife performed wonderfully on everything I threw at it. The knife has some flex, but surprisingly little, considering its thinness. I hardly notice it in practice. I sometimes make sashimi just to have an excuse to grab my Konosuke again.
[IMG}https://japaneseknifereviews.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/board.jpg[/IMG]
Conclusion
I love this knife. Everything about it is perfect. That is not to say this knife is without competition. I already reviewed laser-type stainless knives by Suisin and Ashi Hamono, and they did a great job as well. But this Konosuke is going to stay in my house.
Factsheet
Click on the factsheet to view a larger version.
