What small knife

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Hey, I currently use my 240mm gyuto for 90% of the things I do. However I feel like it would be nice to have a smaller knife for when I want to do things like cut a single tomato for a sandwich or dinner only requires a few quick cuts. What knife do you all reach for when it's just a small task?
 
i assume you have a paring knife. i reach for that long before a petty.

for a petty, do you want mini-gyuto or mini-sujihiki?

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I'm enjoying the Munetoshi 165mm petty.

It takes up minimal space and is small enough to hull tomatoes while the gyuto-style shape still enables me to easily dice onions and handle other basic prep tasks.

So far It's an ideal, albeit not essential, knife with enough versatility to bridge the gap between a paring knife and 210/240mm gyuto.
 
I primarily use shorter knives for my prep so main drivers are 165-180ish. I've tried several in this range. If you like pointy things, two of the best in my book are Homi 165 santoku and Watanabe Pro 180 gyuto.

For quick and small tasks my Kawatsu 120 funayuki often gets the grab.
 
I've got a bunch. Lately, I'm using a 180 petty in SK steel, I think it's from Kikumori, Nihonkou. It's got a fair amount of flex, but it is very thin and tough. It holds its edge well enough. I am gentle with most of my knives, but this one gets used hard, scraping bones, whatever. It has held up very well. For more precise work, I like Bunkas by Y Tanaka and Shibata. I've got a 180 Yoshi Gyuto that gets a fair amount of work.
 
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I have a ton of <180 knives that I end up using. There's a decent amount of cycling through the different shapes, heights, grinds etc. My drawer has basically never been without something pettyish in the165mm range, I think the clad sg2 one is 155x30 and the carbon clad one is 160x38. I'll grab those for any small items, or utility work that comes up in the kitchen.
 
To add to the confusion: I have a relatively lightweight hankotsu, not so much for heavy butchering, but used for fruit and small tasks. Large, comfortable handle, remarkable edge retention once you got rid of the factory edge. Semi-stainless.
https://japanesechefsknife.com/prod...ies-kc-12-boning-knife-hankotsu-145mm-5-7inch
It looks a lot like the Masahiro and Kanehide branded ones, have looked at these at places like Tetogi and BluewayJapan, very tempting.
 
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