Paring Knife Recommendation? (KKF form filled out)

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GeneH

GeneH

KKF Supporting Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2013
Messages
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LOCATION
Country : USA

KNIFE TYPE
What type of knife: paring knife

Are you right or left handed: Right handed

Are you interested in a Western handle: Western handle

What length of knife (blade) : 65 mm - 85 mm measured from the handle

Do you require a stainless knife: Yes Stainless or stain resistant

What is your absolute maximum budget for your knife: $95.00


KNIFE USE
Do you primarily intend to use this knife at: Home.

What are the main tasks you primarily intend to use the knife for: A lot of in-hand work, also on the board, slicing peppers, fruits, onions, peeling potatoes, cutting anything a small knife can because it's handy.

What knife, if any, are you replacing: cheap no-names.

Do you have a particular grip that you primarily use: hammer and pinch grips

What cutting motions do you primarily use: push cuts and slicing

What improvements do you want from your current knife: ease through food without sticking, stiff, springy, thin, minimal heel-blade more in-line with the handle.

Better aesthetics (e.g., a certain type of finish: nothing specific.

Comfort: handle material that doesn't get slippery when wet.

Ease of Use: push cutting, slicing motion, less wedging, better food release, less reactivity with food.

Edge Retention: high - doesn't fold or chip easily.



KNIFE MAINTENANCE
Do you use a bamboo, wood, rubber, or synthetic cutting board: synthetic - poly board usually.

Do you sharpen your own knives: Yes! It's fun!

If not, are you interested in learning how to sharpen your knives? (Yes or no.)

Are you interested in purchasing sharpening products for your knives: Yes, it's a bad habit I'm controlling ok



SPECIAL REQUESTS/COMMENTS

 
Buy a bunch of Victorinox paring knives in both 3 and 4-inch lengths, straight and spear point styles. Come back in a year and tell me if you really need a $95 model. To be honest, my long time favorite paring knife is a very plain 4-inch Carter. The problem is I bought it off him when he still lived in Japan for around your $95 dollar limit. Given his current prices, I would never even look at it now.
 
How about a petty knife? It's essentially a more versatile pairing knife that works just as well for the in hand stuff , but is much better with board work. Also I would suggest a 125mm size.

I use a Mac Pro that I bought over 17 years ago and it never missed a beat. I like western handles on a petty for some reason. With their size western handle just feels more practical IMO.

If I was looking for a petty today I would choose the Takamura R2 (red handle). Ready to go ootb, flawless f&f, very thin, very good edge retention, one of the the best made R2 knives around and made by a very respected maker.
 
...and if it absolutely has to be a traditional pairing knife, the Mac Pro pairing knife should fit the bill. It's about in your price range, it's an alround well made ss knife, it's stiff and it has a comfortable well made pakkawood handle that is quite nonslip even when wet.

For a cheaper option you could try the ss gesshin pairer from JKI.
 
If you're willing to kick another 20 into the pot you could contact Butch Harner, Del Ealy, Randy and I'm sure others to find out when they will next be making a batch. IMO the Harner is the most versatile, very good for board work (relative to other parers) and good for in hand work. Del makes a more robust parer, very workable but does not handle as well as the Harner. It can also be used for opening boxes, sous vide pouches, and other rough work. I keep a Harner in my bag and a Del in my pocket. Randy's is my favorite for in hand work. It can even make tourne fun. Unfortunately some skill is still required.

I've had a Misono as well (Korin) and liked it. For the name brand knives the Shun classic gets a good bit of love. Fairly robust, good in hand. Just don't let your friends see you using it. :cool2: No experience with the JKI parer but have heard positive things from people who should know.
 
A few off the top of my head:
1. Best Paring knife I've used-- Joe Calton sabatier parer. Triple(?) quenched 1095 carbon. Fairly non-reactive. One of the sharpest knives I own (comparable to my Heiji, but much thinner). This sharpens extremely fast, and is pretty inexpensive. Try Cliff Stamp's review (google it).
2. Great *stainless paring knife*-- Herder stainless windmill knife. It's maybe $25 in the US? In Europe it's maybe 4-6 euro. Excellent for potato/fruit peeling. A true laser.

3. Conventional stainless paring knife-- after 3 hours in Mission Cutlery, I bought an Ashi Hamono 100 mm western petty in Swedish steel. It's nowhere near as good as my Joe Calton Parer, but it's far better than most people will ever use. It takes a good edge, and bests the Shun. According to my sushi chef friend, it bests a lot of other Japanese blades.
The Calton is thinner, gets sharper, and stays that way longer.

4. Vintage Sabatier nogent parer-- great handle; horrible blade. This inadvertantly created the Calton sabatier parer, as I asked him to make me a few with Sab handles (after sending him mine). The best paring handle I've ever used. The most reactive blade I ever used. Gets sharp, but dulls very fast. The steel won't properly support an acute enough angle.

Personally, I'd recommend getting a Calton, and just letting it patina.
Of course, I've never had the pleasure of a Butch Harner parer.
 
Masamoto, Suisin, Misono at korin have good price.
 
Nogent 6" -- add a micro-bevel -- and for peeling a small Herder with inverted geometry: right face flat and left one convex.
 
I have two: a T-I Sabatier Nogent 3" Paring Knife & Herder Windmühlenmesser 3.3" Paring

Both are excellent, but both are carbon steel. The Nogent's shape/length works well for boning out smaller game birds such as quail.

If I had to have SS, I would just pick up a Victorninox value pack.

Forgot to add: one attribute I love about my paring knives is how feather light they are in the hand - this is important and reason enough why I would avoid an over built 'custom' parer or something with dense wood scales. When you choke up on the blade the heavier handle has a negative effect, and I have oversized hands.
 
I prefer a Tojiro dp ; rcheap and keeps an edge longtime.Herder more cheap but not so good edge retention.
 
I have tested a few Herders and really did not like how easy to flex they were (combination of soft steel and thin blades). Still - the K series was interesting.
 
No issues with edge retention on my Herder. Super thin grind (I mean really thin!!!) allows it to cut even when dull. Primary bevel so small takes only a few passes on fine stone to refresh. Steel is no softer than my vintage Nogent. I'm very happy with it as a primarily hand-peeling knife. Nogent is more versatile.

Here's a couple pics with my oversized Pierre du Levant, an excellent and fast natural medium/fine stone.

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Lot's a great suggestions! I really appreciate the responses, giving me options I didn't know about. The parer is a wedding gift to my son and his fiance' to go along with a gyuto + possibly a petty for home use. Jon @ JKI and the other thread I have going here have been a great help. My boys and I like carbon steel, but the women like the stainless .... so you know how this is going to go... :biggrin:

I have one rich arty something parer 12c27 and really dislike the edge it won't take or keep. My wife and daughter don't like the heel hanging below the handle of my petty or the parer - my daughter chose the more conventional parer.
 
If you do not want to have a sharp heel (which gets in the way when doing in-hand peeling), than have a look at this 110mm Blazen. I bought it for that very reason and love it. It is more than your budget, but it is a fantastic parer. Mine will soon get a custom handle from Dave :) Also - both customers reviews on EpicEdge are correct IMO.
 
Matus that 110mm Blazen is the most awesome perfect shape. For the suggestions of carbon blades - wish I could go that route (every other non-kitchen knife we own is carbon) but considering the potential neglect from the kids as they are busy with college, full time jobs, and will probably have kids in a couple years or three, I can just see the knives sitting around wet. Heck, I do that plenty myself.
 
Robert said:
I prefer a Tojiro dp ; rcheap and keeps an edge longtime.Herder more cheap but not so good edge retention.
Click to expand...

No need to over-egg the cake with a parer. These are brilliant. Though those Calton's have me intrigued
 
I went over to the Carter website but found that none of the current Muteki line really match my old paring knife. Lucky for me, I bought a spare at the time and picked up a couple of other sizes later. Some time ago, and I don't remember if it was this website or the one before it, a person went on a rant about how much he hated the design of my favorite Carter. What can I say? To each his own but I STRONGLY disagree.
 
It's easy to overlook but Shun makes a very decent paring knife. Right now C&M has limited edition 4" on sale for $50. Also there is a clip point (K tip) paring knife with a nice profile for $70.

I use a Shun Elite SG2 paring knife (discontinued line), and it's a great paring knife. I'd put it almost up there with a Blazen.
 
Last night I placed my order for a Mac Pro paring knife. Also have a Gyuto coming from JKI. Kids will be happy with the presents.

Some of the stuff I read today about the Shun and / or SG2 that it can be prone to chipping or damage - maybe because it's pretty hard and or thin behind the edge - not sharpened correctly for the characteristics of the steel and how the knife is being used?
 
To the OP, Marko Tsourkan just posted a very nice AEB-L parer for $150. Get that one quick and don't need to look anymore [emoji16]
 
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