petty advice for a lefty

Been lurking this forum forever, and have some advice questions for all you knowledgeable weirdos. I posted this in the CKTG forum too, wanted to post it here as well to get advice from outside the shop and see if there are knives from elsewhere I should be considering

I am in the market for a petty to use as my primary line knife. I know I want carbon, and would prefer a Japanese handle as I’d like to try one out, but would be okay with western. 150 length, as I’m looking for something that won’t get in the way on the very tight line I work on.

I’m left handed
I do have sharpening supplies and am slowly starting to not suck at it. Waterstones. I have a medium and a couple fine, and am getting some honing supplies. At some point down the road I’ll pick up a rough, but want to make sure I know what I’m doing before I get that aggressive.

Here’s what I’ve been looking at and why I haven’t pulled the trigger on any of them. Looking for feedback on my choices and other options I may have missed.

Konosuke White #2 petty 150 – this looks awesome and is basically in my price range, but I’ve heard it’s extremely thin. I like thin, but I want something that’s versatile as I may end up doing any number of chores with it. And not everyone working on my line is very careful with knives, so I’m worried about the fragility?

Tojiro ITK kurouchi petty 150 – I’d be psyched to not spend a bunch of money, I can always get something fancier down the road if I decide I love petties. The big issue is the d grip. I understand I could sand down the handle to make it oval, but is the ferrule also d-shaped? That would probably be weird

Moritaka Supreme petty 150 – starting to get to be more than I want to spend, for one. Also I’ve heard on other forums about grind issues with Moritaka.

Kanehiro petty 150 – definitely more than I want to spend. Again, this is for use on a busy line with a lot of people who aren’t very careful with their gear, so I’m hesitant to spend a lot and then be freaking out on people for looking at my knife the wrong way.

So that’s my list. Feedback? I’m also interested on if any of them have more or less symmetrical grinds. I understand they’re all 50/50 bevels, but are they also 50/50 grinds?


For point of reference, other knives in my slowly building kit are:
Hiromoto AS 210 gyuto (ordered with lefty bevel from JCK)
Henckels 210 chef knife, don’t know what model
Fujiwara FKH 270 carbon gyuto (ordered with levty bevel from JCK)
CCK 1301 cleaver (ordered recently from CKTG, sweet!)
Shun small paring knife


Thanks!

Mark

Welcome!

The only one I can comment on is the Tojiro korouchi petty (though I have the 120). It is a cheap knife and the grind/heat treatment is questionable--small overgrind on one side, and still popping out carbon granules after many sharpenings. Other than that the handle is fine, it is rather small but not very D-shaped...feels fine in either hand...yes the ferrule is d-shaped as well. I don't work in a pro kitchen, but wouldn't think this would be a great knife for heavy use. One other note is that it is not too highly reactive. Good luck, and I am sure that with the help of the people here, you will find an excellent knife somewhere.

Cheers

I bought a Zakuri 150mm Petty from Jon at JKI a couple of weeks ago. It has seen a fair amount of use in that time and it is a serious winner. He doesn't have them blue super (cuz I bought the last one I guess) but he has it in Blue #1. The grind on mine was basically flawless. Fit and finish were great and I think it has the nicest ho wood handle I have owned.

I owned the moritaka for over a year and just recently gave it to my boss cuz he loves it. Good little knife basically a skinny petty sized santoku. Takes a great edge really really quickly but doesn't and never did cut as well as the Zakuri when I first sharpened the Zakuri. I would not hesitate to buy a Zakuri. I will never ever buy a Moritaka again because of grind issues and how reactive the cladding was. My petty didn't seem to have grind issues (except for the ones I gave it LOL) but i wouldn't want to roll the dice like that.

http://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/kitchen-knives/zakuri/zakuri-150mm-blue-1-kurouchi-wa-petty.html
Here's the web address for the Zakuri I think it fits your budget.

Tanaka makes a super affordable blue steel wa-petty, as well...

I've sanded down d shaped handles and horn ferrules before. It works fine, although not sure of the plastic ferrule with the likes of the Tojiro ITK...

thanks, I've been checking out the zakuri as well and should have included it on my list.

Any place to view/buy the tanaka besides ebay? Heard poor reviews on the one ebay seller, I forget his moniker at the moment

I use a Tanaka I got off of ebay for my petty work. It is a 150 and less than 100$. I am liking the blue #2. It takes a beating and still gives more. Easy to sharpen, with a 50/50 bevel you can alter it if wanted.

I haven't got to any of the ones listed yet but from here they sound like good knives too.

Righty D-shaped handles are equally comfortable for lefties. To be honest, I like 'em.

Oh, and Tanakas are pretty sweet!

Crothcipt said:

I use a Tanaka I got off of ebay for my petty work. It is a 150 and less than 100$. I am liking the blue #2. It takes a beating and still gives more. Easy to sharpen, with a 50/50 bevel you can alter it if wanted.

I haven't got to any of the ones listed yet but from here they sound like good knives too.

Click to expand...

I, too, have a Tanaka blue 2 petty, great knife for the money. I went through a few cases of strawberries recently, all fast chopping board smacking, was still hair popping sharp after, though quite black now. The Tanaka do seem to be 50/50 ground, so I have been slowly changing the grind and bevel to right bias and better in my opinion.
I have bought Tanaka from 330mate on ebay and this seller. Both were good to deal with, and arrived earlier than expected.

All of these posts about Zakuri are going to cost me some money, unfortunately I just had to buy new tires for my bike(the other money pit), and theres that Hide I am waiting on. I can see a Zakuri of some kind in my hands by the end of this year.

Thanks for all the advice guys. I think I'm going to follow the advice here and have it narrowed down to the Zakuri and the Tanaka. I've found the tanaka for around $90 shipped, which is a chunk less than the zakuri. And the tanaka is in blue #2, so a little better edge retention. But I do like the sound of the stiffness of the zakuri. Any ideas on how the tanaka would stack up using it for heavy work, i.e. breaking down a chicken?

Also, just looking at the pictures it looks like the zakuri may have a little flatter profile, which I like. Any thoughts here?

Is the tanaka clad or no?

I'd love to save a little money and go with the tanaka, but if I'm getting a lot more knife for $40 more dollars I'll go for it.

Here's the tanaka: http://www.metalmaster-ww.com/product/27

And the zakuri: http://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/kitchen-knives/zakuri/zakuri-150mm-blue-1-kurouchi-wa-petty.html

Thanks everyone!

Zakuri is on my short list as well.

I don't think you could go wrong but I've never owned a tanaka. The grind on my Zakuri is great. I just broke down a case of hanger steaks and it was a real pleasure to use. The nice thing about Zakuri for me is that the handle is longer than a typical petty handle. You can choke up in it and it feels really great. This also lets you work on the board easier because you can get your hand further back and out of the way of the board.

hoping to revive this thread to get some final advice - never did pull the trigger but still need a petty!

Two hesitations with the zakuri, looking for comments - first is the size of the handle. I have small hands, would this be an issue? I know it's longer than most, which shouldn't be a problem, but is it also thicker? (yes, I know, ha ha)

Second hesitation is the full carbon. I own a hiromoto as and really enjoy the combination of carbon cutting edge and stainless cladding, a nice compromise in the busy kitchen I work in. I realize the kurouchi finish will protect it a bit, but I'm wondering if there's a clad option out there?

Which leads me to wonder about the fu-rin-ka-zan at JCK. Same price more or less, I can get the thicker version which I imagine will be nice and beefy like the zakuri, and it's stainless clad. Also I'm interested in trying a white steel. http://japanesechefsknife.com/FurinkazanW1Series.html#W1-1

Thanks for the advice!

Mark

Haha. You should suck it up and spring for a Gengetsu.

tk59 said:

Haha. You should suck it up and spring for a Gengetsu.

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If this performs as good as that gyuto you brought over this is a no brainer.:surrendar:

I hate to continually bring him up, but Murray Carter Slim Funayuki, at about 5.2sun.

I love my Carters as much as the next guy but if edge retention is of primary importance, there are much better options, esp. for the price.

Gotta be honest, I didn't read too closely about the necessary traits. I was just saying a bad-ass cutting fiend for dudes with smaller hands. But yeah, if edge retention is high on the list, it might not be the best.

the handle on my zakuri petty is the perfect size. the carbon reactivity wont be an issue if you wipe down the knife after use. sometimes i clean my petty then forget to dry it and a little rust will set in but if you catch it early even the rust will wipe off. those jck white steel knives do indeed look nice, i may get one of those to try out also.