To petty or not to petty?

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simymatt

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Hey guys,

I've been scouring the "What's in you bag?" thread over and over for the past few days and now I'm looking to add to my home kit.

Link here:
http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/showthread.php/22934-What-s-in-your-bag?p=403567#post403567

I currently own a #6 Chinese veg cleaver, 3" parer and 10" slicer(both Macs) which all stay board-side at all times. After going through the thread, I think a petty/utility is now priority #1 on my radar, but I'm just not 100% sure I really need it.

Truthfully speaking, I can get anything and everything I need done with my knives(I also have an 8" Victorinox Chef's knife in a drawer my gf uses), but I'm sure there are some tasks in the kitchen a petty will handle better than a small parer or cleaver.

So my question is... what tasks do you professional and home chefs actually use your petty/utility knives for?

and...

What size would compliment my kit best? 120, 150 or 180?

It's late and I'm rambling, so I'll stop here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
I like a 150mm.

As a home cook, I find it to be a good general purpose small knife which can fulfill the functions of a parer, slicer and gyuto. It is also excellent for working on small things, such as finely mincing garlic, and it works well for trimming meat and breaking down chicken.

If I'm preparing a small amount of food (for 1 or 2 people) I'll often use a petty on a small board rather than a selection of bigger knives (or just a gyuto) on a full size board.

It's not quite as efficient, so takes a little longer to get the job done, but when preparing only a small amount of food the extra time is more than offset by the reduced washing up.
 
i very rarely use my petty knives.. current one is a 135mm white 1 fujiyama and have also used lengths of 90, 120, 150 and 210 from different makers. I like using them for deboning and maybe doing small f+v jobs, halving cherry tomatoes, orange segments etc..i suppose its also great at opening vac bags in service?

Majority of my prep work is done with a 240-270mm gyuto and sujihiki and I can't think of any times where I've thought "you know what.. i wish i had a smaller knife right now". I suppose if I were working in a tiny kitchen with tiny chopping boards or if i were doing truly intricate tasks then it would get more use but I really just bring mine own purely because I own it and feel pretty wastful having it sit in my knife roll unused
 
Don't go any less than 150.
For general utility and meat fabrication 150 is good.
For more slicing and board cutting tasks 180.
 
I have a 165 mm and I find it to be a nearly perfect size, but I do often wonder about a 180 mm
 
Don't go any less than 150.
For general utility and meat fabrication 150 is good.
For more slicing and board cutting tasks 180.
Click to expand...

+1
 
I use Petty(s) at home to trim meats, remove silverskin, small dice and lots of citrus. Can't imagine not having one or more.

I've had them in all of the popular lengths, under 150 does not work for me, 150 will do most tasks fine but I've come to prefer the 180. Current line up is (1) 150 stainless and (2) 180s, one carbon Marko I use on proteins, and one stainless Haburn I use on veg and fruit.

The 210s I've used I've not liked at all.
 
Yeah a wa 180 is the secret slayer. It can do a surprising amount of work if you're willing to back your hand off on the handle.
 
bkultra said:
I have a 165 mm and I find it to be a nearly perfect size, but I do often wonder about a 180 mm
Click to expand...

Given that gyutos start at 180mm in some cases, why go with a 180 petty over a 180 gyuto? Honestly curious.
 
DanHumphrey said:
Given that gyutos start at 180mm in some cases, why go with a 180 petty over a 180 gyuto? Honestly curious.
Click to expand...

I tend to look at it the other way around.

I find petties great, I can easily prepare a full meal with just a petty, but find small gyuto to be much less versatile. The petty is better for slicing meats and in hand work, but gives up very little for standard on-board work (if you adjust your grip a little).

I don't see the attraction of the extra height in a small blade, but then again I tend to like narrow blades in general.
 
Thanks for all the informative responses gents.

You know, I'm guilty of never doing meat fabrication other than trimming off excess fat and maybe some minor portioning. I almost always buy chicken, beef and pork pre-cut ready to go :O.

So I do surmise a petty will be a welcome addition at home. My current knives are all stainless and would like to keep it that way for the time being(western handles as well, but I'm open to Japanese handles too). Not quite ready to jump onto carbons just yet.

My budget is $120 max. I have a few on my radar:
- Tojiro DP 150 or 180
- Fujiwara FKM 150 or 180
- JCK Carbonext 150

I still am learning to sharpen on waterstones, so I think it would be a great benefit if one had a sharp and long lasting edge from the factory. Any thoughts or other petty recommendations?
 
of all the petties I've used so far I tend to agree 150 seems like the most appropriate length. i wouldn't really get my hopes up about a long lasting super steel petty knife that's also going to pretty cheap. i would think you would be better served getting something that's not a pita to sharpen. of the knives mentioned, I would personally grab the carbonext although I prefer carbon knives.
 
150 is fine, I have a 130 mm Catchside petty that gets lots of use for quick work when space is at a premium, depending on your cooking preferences/styles
 
I like the 150 myself, I have the T-F 150 Nashiji Petty and the Konosuke GS 150mm Petty both are used daily.
 
simymatt said:
I'm curious as to now why. Thinner edge overall?
Click to expand...

I'd assume it's that, to cut a given amount of "stuff", since the blade is shorter each part of the cutting edge is used more than on a longer knife.
 
I pretty much like Petty's, had a few of them in the last years:

Kono Fuji 210 Wa-Petty: very nice knife, used it most of the time for sushi prep and so on, kind of a mini-Slicer. Little bit to thick for my taste for an allround petty though...

Kono HD2 150 Wa-Petty: the incarnation of the perfect allround petty in my mind. Just sold it because I never used it... maybe to "allround" for me :lol2:

Now what I have and use is a small 130 mm Western Petty in SB1 Niolox from Jürgen Schanz (german knife maker) as my multi purpose knife (opening bags, peeling works and so on) and a custom 180 heavier Wa-Petty as kind of a replacement for a honesuki/sabaki... works great for prepping tenderloin and so on.

If I had to decide on one petty, I would choose a 150, but fortunately I don't so I'll rather have a 130-150 petty for small work and a larger one for beef.


Regards, Iggy
 
DanHumphrey said:
I'd assume it's that, to cut a given amount of "stuff", since the blade is shorter each part of the cutting edge is used more than on a longer knife.
Click to expand...
That would be a bit of shortcut not taking account for other variables (what you are cutting, how you are cutting, in hand, on the cutting board, cutting board material, blade geometry, steel, heat treatment, what type of edge was put on the blade etc.) that would affect this more than the length of the blade, in and of itself, IMO.

That being said, ultimately I do not think this is really a point of concern.
 
Home user here, but my 2 cents on petties... I tend to use (this size of) knife mostly for specialized tasks; mostly trimming / skinning meat, taking about hanger steak, seperating bolar meat, stuff like that. Some people also use them for taking apart chicking, but I prefer having a seperate knife for that so I don't worry about ruining nice precious edges. :)

Regarding length... 150-180 is nice. well... I don't want to sound like a spoiled lady but the 120-130 mm doesn't cut it for me. They're nice when you want it to double as a paring knife and do peeling with it, but when you start using it on meat you end up missing length and using rather short...strokes. I mean cuts. Used to have a cheapo crappy 150 petty that I gave away that I actually miss a lot. Even though it was dirtcheap and crap metal it was far more useful than my much more expensive shorty VG-10 petty. I actually do most of my meat work on boneless meat with a really cheap 180 filet knife that is just the perfect length and really thin; for me the perfect petty would be that exact knife with a bit less flex and a bit more heel for ease of sharpening.

Also take in mind that edge length on WA pettys might be somewhat shorter than indicated as they sometimes count from the handle. Also something to take in mind that there's pretty much 2 'types' of petties; the scaled down gyutos that tend to be somewhat higher and the scaled down sujihikis. I think most people here are talking about the latter and I think it's far more useful for precision work than the higher profile. But that might be a matter of taste.
 
Jovidah said:
...Also something to take in mind that there's pretty much 2 'types' of petties; the scaled down gyutos that tend to be somewhat higher and the scaled down sujihikis. I think most people here are talking about the latter and I think it's far more useful for precision work than the higher profile. But that might be a matter of taste.
Click to expand...

I agree with that, and of course... if you do some work on meat than 150 is the absolute minimum I think, 180 is quite perferctly for me at least for that. 120-130 is more sort of a backup paring and utility knife in my mind.
 
yes I don't think 130 or below should even be considered a petty... I mean a 120 feels like a 4" paring knife to me, and that's really how I use them. sad shallots, garlic, button mushrooms. boxes.... about all they're good for. I rarely reach for a 150, had a tojiro 210 which I could see the utility in. But it was ground really thick so now it lives in Normandy avec une belle commis XD One day I will buy a 180 I think.
 
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