Aren't Paring Knives the most important in home kitchen?
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Keith Sinclair
Senior Member
My smallest knife at work was a 150mm Hiromoto AS core. Used most butterfly shrimp on the board. 240mm gyuto's favorite size knife. 270mm yanagiba's my prized blades.
At home smaller knives are used quite a bit. Really like pointy tip Tosagata 4" WS blade tough thick spine good for small cutting,coring strawberries even trimed carpet around door molding. Little thin ku Carter WS 140mm. That knife gets used a lot by both of us. 180mm KU Kochi K tip I use quite a bit. Gyuto all 210 Watanabe, TF hammer WS#1, Blue moon nashiji blue#2 core thicker grind a must for avocado seeds & great peeling melons, pineapple.
OP is right whatever you use most is important blade.
At home smaller knives are used quite a bit. Really like pointy tip Tosagata 4" WS blade tough thick spine good for small cutting,coring strawberries even trimed carpet around door molding. Little thin ku Carter WS 140mm. That knife gets used a lot by both of us. 180mm KU Kochi K tip I use quite a bit. Gyuto all 210 Watanabe, TF hammer WS#1, Blue moon nashiji blue#2 core thicker grind a must for avocado seeds & great peeling melons, pineapple.
OP is right whatever you use most is important blade.
It’s the most abused knife so cheap and cheerful wins. I’ve got some expensive ones, but they barely get used- victorinox and a cheap old stainless that I grew up with so just feels right. When guests grab a knife it’ll nearly always be a paring knife and they’ll nearly always do something that’s a bad habit- which would damage either a sharp knife or themselves if it was a proper knife. It’s also good to have knives that need no special treatment. Given the tasks they do I’ve found no advantage to good steel and given the size there’s not much variation in grind. A €10 vic is hard to beat. I’ve seen some really nice looking customs (and some awful looking ones) but remind myself that it’s a knife with the most marginal gains of any. With a good gyuto you really notice the difference so spend the money on that
bahamaroot
Idiot Savant
150mm petty is the smallest knife I own. Anything smaller feels like a useless toy.
i have two pettys, a 75mm and a 150mm; both get used a lot, but exclusively on the board. they are both too thick at the tip for in-hand work (i mean, they can be used in-hand at the heal, but so can a gyuto or suji, or yanagiba, or whatever). i'm actually looking for a legit paring knife for coring apples etc (work that requires a thin tip that can turn in hard product). looking at mac or shun. anything else i should consider?
I wonder why no one posted a bird's beak knife as reference.
Take a look at the jki 105 stainless paring knife. That little puppy makes its living helping me cut the cores out of tomatoes. Pointy as all get out.
https://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/collections/petty-knife/products/gesshin-105mm-paring-knife
I use a 150mm a lot at work, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, coring heirloom tomatoes, tenderloin cleaning, and line duty. I have a couple, but use mostly a beat up tsubaya western, pretty much a tojiro, its great because it's pretty much indestructible, i keep a thickish grind, with a highly assymetric edge on it, and it performs well enough. If something were to happen to this knife, it would be replaced immediately, right now right now, not the same, just a knife that filled the role.
I have a couple of smaller knives but hardly ever use them, not because the knives arent good, they're just not big enough for most tasks, and i need my work knives to be versatile.
I want a 165 or 180 petty, as i think i could use an extra couple of cm. for the amount of use i think i would put into that little knife, i would consider it very important, and would be willing to put a good amount of money in it. I had a tanaka ironwood 135mm, i sold it because it was a little bit to small, if it had been a 150 or bigger, i would have never sold it.
I have a couple of smaller knives but hardly ever use them, not because the knives arent good, they're just not big enough for most tasks, and i need my work knives to be versatile.
I want a 165 or 180 petty, as i think i could use an extra couple of cm. for the amount of use i think i would put into that little knife, i would consider it very important, and would be willing to put a good amount of money in it. I had a tanaka ironwood 135mm, i sold it because it was a little bit to small, if it had been a 150 or bigger, i would have never sold it.
dafox
Senior Member
I have a 90mm dolar store utility knife that I use to open packaging. I've tried a few 150mm petties, my favorite is a Fujiwara Kanefusa FKM stainless, it gets used mostly to cut apples into slices for snacks. Ive discovered that I like utility shaped pettys and not mini gyutos. I keep looking at the FKM 180 and Suisin Inox 210 petties but I've not bought one yet. The FKM 180 petty seems good for processing raw protein but I like my FKH 180 gyuto for this and the SIH 210 petty seems perfect for slicing sushi rolls, using a SIH 210 gyuto for this right now.
MrHiggins
Senior Member
I like mine to core apples, which I actually do a lot. That's the only use I've found for it.
Paraffin
Senior Member
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I've never used one because I could never figure out how to keep the edge sharpened, other than a "steel" or ceramic rod which is only good for touch-ups, not actual sharpening. It wouldn't fit my normal sharpening routine on flat water stones, so I've never bought one. Is there a technique for sharpening these on stones? Maybe working on a beveled stone edge?
SilverSwarfer
Well-Known Member
I have a Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker. The "rods" serve me very nicely for sharpening unconventional blade shapes. I hold a single rod in my left hand and then sharpen freestyle. I think I remember where to find a youtube link showing the technique.
Of course using the setup as intended, in the "corner-facing" configuration would obviously be more approachable and user friendly.
HRC_64
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Not alot of people do tourne cuts outside of work settings
Keith Sinclair
Senior Member
Also can be done with slip stones. Just touched up my Soboten carbon pruning shears. I keep a pair med.-fine perma soak with my King Hyper IK & Gesshin 4K. They come in all different shapes mostly for gouges & V chisels. That's why used them to sharpen ice carving tools. Had one that was perfect for sharpening Forschner 10.25 wavy edge bread knife. They also happen to be excellent for garden tools. I am surprised that I am the only one pushing these stones here. Been using them for years can't live with out them.
Keith Sinclair
Senior Member
Might add that when I say garden tools don't mean the crap they sell at Home Depot & Lowe's . As with knives Japanese make serious garden tools.
Kippington
A small green parrot
Paring knives come in handy in professional kitchens, but at home I just don't need anything that small. I'm in agreeance with a bunch of the fellas here.
After reading this thread I realised I don't own a paring knife.
After reading this thread I realised I don't own a paring knife.
For my use, outside of getting leftover remnants of pith on lemon and lime skins, it sits in my knife bag. It's a 3in Vnox paring. My gyuto sees the majority of work. For things those 2 won't take care of, I grab a meat cleaver.
Carl Kotte
Senior Member
For you guys working as cooks/chefs: what do you do when you have 20 kg of onions to peel eg? (Maybe that never happens to you, but imagine it would!) At all the places I worked, a 80 or 100 mm paring knife was the weapon of choice. In-hand work only, no board contact. I’m not saying it couldn’t be done without a paring knife (of course there are other options: pettys, gyutos, single bevels etc etc) but doing it with a paring knife is time efficient and it saves you from the weight of the heavier knife (the blade of which you don’t really use more than 5-10% of when peeling anyway).
I use one at home (90mm). Mostly for opening plastic bags, scoring chestnuts, cutting the occasional single piece of citrus.
And seriously, I'm not going to throw a *gyuto* across the room when I'm angry...
And seriously, I'm not going to throw a *gyuto* across the room when I'm angry...
Carl Kotte
Senior Member
Yep exactly. The only pairer i own is a Herder I use for things like that. I'm hoping I'll replace it soon with a sabatier
As for a petty, I also only own one but that's because I don't need anything else. It's a Matus 180mm, thick at the heel and super thin at the tip. I use it at work for trimming and portioning and cleaning up proteins, as well as smaller produce, when using it on board I just keep the handle part off the table so that I have enough clearance, and it works fantastically well. I sometimes don't even take out my gyutos at work. It's also more or less the only knife I need at home as well. I wouldn't see the point of a 120 or 150 mm one either, so I get why so many people don't use them all together, but 180s are a lot of fun and I find mine very very useful
Depends on the final results or habit I guess.
At first I was doing the same thing but soon realised that it's time wasted, time I didn't have. I'm a lot faster now to slice and dice with a gyuto directly.
I understand this well.
There are ways even on flat bench stones. I do recurve blades all the time.
But it's easier and faster with smaller stones and a round diamond strop.
Carl Kotte
Senior Member
So, while I agree that it is a matter of habits, and that the whole thing is contingent on the final result, I wonder in what way this responded to my question. When you say ’slicing and dicing’ are you thereby including peeling the onion? (Understand me correctly: I’m not questioning your Gyuto ability; I’m just asking whether we are talking about the same thing [emoji16]!)
You do have to peel them no matter what. If you need them in one piece for something, I would also suggest using a paring knife. If you don't, peeling them prior to the actual cutting is time we don't usually have and it's just one step not needed.
I have one of those. It’s great. I use it this time of year to slice peaches.
I don't need to keep the onion whole. So cut ends, cut in half, take skin off then slice or dice (depending on it's use).
This. But. Leave one end on for dice. Both off for slice or julienne.
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Jon has two $30 usd paring knives that are out of stock right now that look nice.
How many people do them at work anymore? I don't think I've done a tournee since school.
Pretty sure that's how everyone should do it haha. My comments where for when I had to keep onions whole (which I do sometimes)
Of I'm dicing or slicing then it's probably a 50lbs bag of onions for soup or something. Then definitely top and halve and peel... Followed by A LOT of chopping
