Chef Panko does his entire review of the Misono asking whether or not a home cook would benefit from such an expensive luxury while justifying it for a pro.
Shun seems to regard the 150 mm slot as an opportunity to introduce Americans to something different in their home kitchen–and they scored with me big time. They used serration to introduce single beveled cutting to me–and I learned slowly with my left handed classic petty at first. However, the ultimate utility worked so well that I gave one to my son–and it worked for him as well.
“It is often said that most home cooks only need two knives. A large main knife (like German Chef’s knife or Santoku or a Chinese chef’s knife) and a smaller pointy knife like a parer.”
IMO, if one wants to participate fully in world food cultures, that one “large main knife” needs to expand to some version of the three you mention.
Chem…I do own a few knives. I guess I am a bit of a collector, (I’m not even going to disclose how many folders i own…) and many of my friends are knife makers, or are in the knife industry. Soooo…I try to keep up with trends, with makers, with cutlery steels, and am always willing to try something new. Since meeting Shosui Takeda at a knife show a few years ago, I’ve paid more attention to Japanese knives and Japanese knife makers. Gotta love what they can do with carbon steel. Murray Carter, while an American, learned from a Japanese teacher. The majority of my non kitchen knives are made by American makers, but most of my kitchen knives are Japanese. The only exception is a chef’s knife from Joel Bukiewicz of Cut Brooklyn, and a few by Barry and Phillip Jones who are friends and Virginia based knife makers. I own some vintage Sabatier knives, but I always come back to the Japanese makers…
Could you describe and possibly display a few of the Petty knives you use the most, and explain when you choose a petty over a gyuto or other full sized knife.
What kind of meals do you prep for with these knives? For how many?
These are what I would consider the most petty type of my knives. I usually enjoy a bit more knuckle clearance for food prep on board work, but I do find uses for this style.
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Yoshida hamono 135mm ZDP-189 petty. I use it mostly for fruits, stuff like orange and mango where it excels. Then also some cucumber, shallot etc. Holds it’s edge for a very long time and is not too thin. This is really nice for softer products imo.
New K Sabatier 6 inch stainless “chef”. It’s not very tall, or long for a 6 inch chef and I haven’t used it yet. I should still put on a few coats of tung oil for it. This will challenge the Yoshida Hamono for fruits and other small prep work. I wanted a softer small stainless alternative and this is it.
Zwilling professional S 16cm utility/meat knife. Not in use anymore. I didn’t really like using it much for anything, not that it’s a bad knife…
Old stock K Sab 6 inch carbon slicer. Thin and has some flex, pretty nice for slicing something up and also for “boning” the last meats off a leg of lamb etc. This has went through lots of vegs also. Doesn’t beat a boning knife for boning though.
Old stock K Sab 6 inch “chef”. Not much taller than the slicer :)… this is a thicker and stiffer spined blade in comparison. Out of the two, I would probably prefer using this most of the time, but the handle is a bit nicer on the slicer. This one has a quite slim handle.
Old stock K sab 14cm butcher. Havent used it yet and it’s perhaps not a petty… Expecting to like using it for example with whole chicken roasts as I think the size is perfect and I have been thinking the shape of the tip should be perfect for that. I will experiment also for breaking down raw chicken for example.
I have a bunch of other knives in the 14 -18cm range, but they are more specialized like boning, honesuki and a bigger butcher, or then gyuto / santoku knives and not really pettys in that sense. The few Sab chefs I wanted to show as they are pretty low height blades. It seems the K Sabs start getting good height for on board work in the 9-10 inch size. Anything shorter than that are more of a petty/slicer :D…
Yes he is selling those handheld stones too and I imagine they would be pretty nice for his knives. His knives are zero ground with short bevels, so it should be pretty easy to keep the angle good with those stones. But its easy on bench stones with his knives as well. Crazy food release, very special knives.
Yeah, I know. He was totally showing off his handheld stones (and selling them of course). He is not only a good knifesmith, but clearly also know how to sharpen knives too. He seems to really care about his knives, which is a necessary trait for a good knife maker.
Your Yoshida hamono 135 mm is a perfect example of a petty, and fits in with the other knives tested by ATK (even looks like one of them).
For the others, it’s a stretch.
Some of the knives that you didn’t include, like the honesuki and boning knives better fit the closely related utility knife category–which is what mine probably should be considered. Both your European and my Shun knives better fit the utility knife designation.
Part of the confusion in classifying is probably the intended purpose. The Japanese petty knives are really junior partners of bigger knives–often part of a series of sizes. European and American knives are purposive and carry out totally unrelated tasks, As suggested in the ATK Youtube, these distinctions have gotten mushed together.
My Shun Kanso 180 mm “Asian utility knife” is a great example of this murkiness. It’s as long as a santoku or nakiri, but it’s not either one. Nor is it a bunko.
It is a knife that many Americans can use when they want to pinch grip and steer better. It’s the antithesis of the Japanese knives that add “belly” to aid rock chopping.
Every knife I consider must meet a cost/benefit criterion, because I intend to use it as part of my batterie at home. That criterion is completely subjective, but can be monitized in terms of subjective expected utility. For a 150 mm (6 in.) petty knife, that number, for me, is about $100–and both knives I displayed were within that limit. If I had purchased the double beveled 150 mm Shun Classic Utility, I would have gone over my “number.” The Xinzuo 6" seems like a real bargain at$38.
Pros like Chef Panko can evaluate their knives on a return on investment basis: how long will it take before the cost of a knife gets paid back by improvements in performance on the job.
His number can be much higher.
Still
Everyone must remember that these knives are intended for prep work–and, for those of us who are home cooks–they must be used on pretty basic tasks–and make practical sense.
Of course, sometimes we get carried away–or get a gift from a rich uncle . . .
I own a Wüsthof, a Miyabi Artisan and a Kramer Meiji petty knife, but they are only used for certain specific jobs, when I use one of my 23-24 cm chefs knives and find them a bit too bulky to cut small shallots and other smaller veggies/fruits.
I prefer knuckle clearance in my knives, so petty knives are never going to be my favourite knives.
I do own a couple small santokus and small chefs knives, and I prefer them over petty knives for smaller stuff, since they still have enough knuckle clearance.
The knives you have really are more classic utility than petty knives–like my Shun Classic. Wusthof does have an “Asian utility knife” which is more “petty”, but the Miyabi’s and Kramer Meiji don’t really have anything close.
Look at the ATK review. You might find a truer petty knife interesting.
It looks much more like a true petty than the Shun classic I posted, but I think my serrated version worked well to introduce single bevel knives.
How does it complement your larger Artisans? The ATK Youtube I posted above does a pretty good job of distinguishing between utility and petty–and presents some test results.
I’ve associated “petty” with knives that are junior versions of a bigger knife with a similar profile. These are almost always Japanese knives with little belly. The term “utility” is much looser, and includes almost all non Japanese knives.
I think that ATK did a good job of providing an overview.
