Western maker petty

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JPAU

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Are there any western smiths, who you would recommend, who could / would make a wa handle petty knife for a modest (sub-350aud) price (happy to supply own handle if necessary to bring down the price)? Not looking for anything too flashy - just full carbon (open to steels) and even grind with some choil and spine polish (which I can always work on myself - easier if someone with a belt or wheel sander gets it started).

If that’s a totally ridiculous request, I’d also be grateful to know that. If i am dreaming re the price, I’ll probably just get an ashi for half that on eBay and call it a day!
 
Admittedly I’ve done very little research so far. In part, I don’t know whether I’m just going to offend someone with my budget. I have no idea what to expect for a no frills but high performance petty. Will have a look through that link … thanks!
 
If you are also looking at outside Austrlia, I ordered a petty from Shi.Han last year and it is my favourite knife. It cuts well, is really nice to use and it's incredibly satisfying to look at and it's (at least when i ordered it was) below your 350aud budget.
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Just use my HSC prep knife today for a small meal, I love love his knife but it is probably gone be quite bit more than 350 aud. ShiHan is great, @MSicardCutlery also but shipping from Canada to Aus is gonna be a pain. @Skye Eilers Knives is NZ based and makes some killer knife, may be you can check him out too, tho I’m not sure if he’s taking order now
https://www.skyeeilersknives.com/
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I'm nz based as @blokey kindly mentioned. However, I don't have anything in that price region atm sorry. All my petties thus far have been custom or higher end models. I may down the line do production petties for that price.

I'd say your best bet in that price region would be stores retailing Japanese blades really. There are countless talented nz and aus makers for sure, but my assumption, which may be wrong, is that most of the good ones will be selling petties for more than that... at least petties that beat what you can get for that price range from Japan. I feel that western stuff starts to usually trump Japan stuff in terms of fit, finish and overall quality once you get into the higher bracket, but that is a generalisation.

@bsfsu who are you using for shipping? Mine go to aus for about 30-45nzd depending on size, but that's with NZ post. USA stuff definitely costs what you said though for me too.
 
Skye Eilers Knives said:
I'm nz based as @blokey kindly mentioned. However, I don't have anything in that price region atm sorry. All my petties thus far have been custom or higher end models. I may down the line do production petties for that price.

I'd say your best bet in that price region would be stores retailing Japanese blades really. There are countless talented nz and aus makers for sure, but my assumption, which may be wrong, is that most of the good ones will be selling petties for more than that... at least petties that beat what you can get for that price range from Japan. I feel that western stuff starts to usually trump Japan stuff in terms of fit, finish and overall quality once you get into the higher bracket, but that is a generalisation.

@bsfsu who are you using for shipping? Mine go to aus for about 30-45nzd depending on size, but that's with NZ post. USA stuff definitely costs what you said though for me too.
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I'm shipping with NZ post, from Dunedin it's $30-40 untracked and $65+ tracked.
 
Neutri said:
I ordered a petty from Shi.Han last year and it is my favourite knife. It cuts well, is really nice to use and it's incredibly satisfying to look at and it's (at least when i ordered it was) below your 350aud budget.
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JPAU said:
Looks incredible. Didn’t think I’d have a chance with such a popular maker. I’ll inquire!
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I ordered a custom 165mm petty in AEB-L KU at the beginning of this year, and unfortunately it was about 50% above your budget. Not sure if his prices went up a bit this year, FX rate fluctuations are skewing the number, or Neutri’s petty is a shorter (or maybe non-custom) one.
 
dehory said:
I ordered a custom 165mm petty in AEB-L KU at the beginning of this year, and unfortunately it was about 50% above your budget. Not sure if his prices went up a bit this year, FX rate fluctuations are skewing the number, or Neutri’s petty is a shorter (or maybe non-custom) one.
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Thanks. I’ve spoken privately with ShiHan and am excited to be commissioning one.
 
dehory said:
I ordered a custom 165mm petty in AEB-L KU at the beginning of this year, and unfortunately it was about 50% above your budget. Not sure if his prices went up a bit this year, FX rate fluctuations are skewing the number, or Neutri’s petty is a shorter (or maybe non-custom) one.
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It was a custom one but indeed it is shorter at 125mm long in A2
 
I agree with Skye above - there's really not much of a price break on smaller knives with Western makers as it takes them almost as much time as a gyuto. That Shihan shown above is a pretty awesome score.

You might try reaching out to Britton Steele - steeleworksknives on Instagram. It's been a while since I talked to him, but he used to charge per inch and I got a very reasonably priced petty with steel left over from a custom gyuto. @MSicardCutlery on this forum is also very reasonably priced and worth talking to.

But for good, cheap pettys, it's hard to beat the Japanese.
 
Delat said:
I agree with Skye above - there's really not much of a price break on smaller knives with Western makers as it takes them almost as much time as a gyuto. That Shihan shown above is a pretty awesome score.

You might try reaching out to Britton Steele - steeleworksknives on Instagram. It's been a while since I talked to him, but he used to charge per inch and I got a very reasonably priced petty with steel left over from a custom gyuto. @MSicardCutlery on this forum is also very reasonably priced and worth talking to.

But for good, cheap pettys, it's hard to beat the Japanese.
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For sure yeah. I belive most of us charge per inch or mm, assuming we have a pricing system. Mine is per inch and variable based on steel type too. But most of the cost on small knives ends up coming from the handle. It's about as much work fitting, shaping and polishing a petty handle as it is a gyuto sized one, and not a massive difference in material size/usage either. So even if the blade is smaller and faster to make, it's very hard to make it a linear relationship of blade size to price. Business wise, a petty can't cost 1/2 as much if it takes 3/4 the time and 3/4 the material.
I think we all try our very best to keep prices down and fair, but it's tricky in cases like these. If life and time was free I'd give all my knives away haha
 
Neutri said:
It was a custom one but indeed it is shorter at 125mm long in A2
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He offered to make me one within the above budget but told me that shipping would be 75-120USD and if I thought that was excessive (which it is) we should discontinue communicating. When I asked to proceed anyway, he ghosted me and never responded.

I’ve decided to go with Travis from Lucid Knives. Tremendous guy making wonderful knives and very happy to accommodate your desired specs etc. I’d highly recommend him and look forward to my custom, which is coming up in the next week or two.
 
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