Petty knife for my daughter

Johan Nel

Johan Nel

Well-Known Member
This is the second knife that I have completed.
It is a small petty knife/vegetable knife for my daughter as a Chrismas gift. It is an unknown steel, but is a carbon steel obtained from a ramsaw blade.
Blade is about 8cm long and the knife is 20cm overall.
The handle material is red mahogany "Khaya anthoteca" with basic brass pins.
Comments and critisism is welcome.
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Wonderful design for a Petty! The sweep of the handle will afford her some knuckle clearance when she is slicing on a board and the overall dimensions are excellent for handheld work off the board, like paring.

Very well done.
 
John Wilson said:
Wonderful design for a Petty! The sweep of the handle will afford her some knuckle clearance when she is slicing on a board and the overall dimensions are excellent for handheld work off the board, like paring.

Very well done.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the kind words, John. The next knife, a bird & trout, I want to try and do without a visible bevel, based on how you do it on your kitchen knifes.
 
That is a very nice knife and I know you daughter will love it. I have never heard of the term "petty knife". Would you explain that to me.
Thank you.
 
Nice knife Johan, I'm sure your daughter will love it. well done.
I've never heard of petty knife either, where does that come from?
 
Thanks for all the kind comments guys,
I think you guys will refer to it as a paring knife, but is to my understanding is normally a knife used for peeling and processing vegetables and is ussually a thin , small blade that has some flex to it. I may also be wrong about the nomenclature though, but that is what I know it as, petty, eg. small or petite...:(:D
 
I use the same terminology as you, Johan. A paring knife is used in the hand, most often with the edge facing you and you pull it back toward your thumb for peeling, etc. I consider your knife a Petty / Utility because it has so many more uses than paring. Of course, anyone can use any knife for paring since that is a method of cutting. But a knife built specifically for paring usually has a very short blade because you can't get much of the edge onto a round object, anyway.

Most people have never heard the term "Petty knife." A Petty is used a lot in Japanese cooking and the blade tends to fall in the 120mm - 150mm length (roughly the 4 - 6 inch range) although those are just popular lengths- there is no standard. In recent years, Pettys have really gained a huge following. They are no longer thought of as Japanese profiles. You can find European companies offering them now.

It's the knife you reach for when a Chef knife is overkill, or too broad to make tight turns. A Petty is great when you are doing delicate work. Or if you are lazy like me it's your sandwich knife, your steak knife, your cutting strawberries knife, hollowing out bell peppers knife, fillet knife, cantaloupe knife, lemon slices knife.... Okay- it's your "leave it out on the counter all day for everything knife" because leaving your chef knife laying out means you are a reckless maniac.
 
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