They have a tall enough heel on the blade to give your knuckles counter clearance, enough height to deliver consistent chops, and a delicately curved blade that ends in a drop point for precision cuts. In short, a Japanese petty knife is the perfect li’l buddy to your favorite chef’s knife. And just the thing for a lots of kitchen tasks, including bigger ones like portioning out a roast chicken.
I know what you’re thinking: Breaking down a whole chicken seems like a task for a cleaver. We can all picture a cartoon French chef whacking away at a leg and a thigh, cleaver held high above their head. But smaller, thinner petty knives can swiftly find their way between joints, separating out all the parts with little to no effort. They’re also deft enough to remove the breast from the chicken’s ribcage with clean, neat cuts. Paring knives are too short to get the job done, and chef’s knives (including the gyuto) can be too unwieldy for such delicate work.
While Western-style utility knives can make similar cuts, what really sets the petty knife apart is its pronounced heel—the part of the blade that elevates the handle off the cutting board. This gives you more options for incorporating a pinch grip for handheld tasks, while also providing enough knuckle clearance between the handle and the cutting board for light chopping. That means I can use it like a paring knife to peel a shallot and then easily change grips for chopping and dicing. The smaller size also gives you greater precision in making cuts with a smaller target—the last time I tried to dice a shallot with a gyuto, the hand holding the onion was over 10 inches away from my knife hand. Not the most stable cutting position.
Which brings me to my next point—the knife’s point. Western-style knives tend to curve upward towards the spine, making them ideal for a rocking chop. Most Western-inspired Japanese knives, like the gyuto and petty knife, have a drop point, where the spine curves downward toward the point of the knife. This gives you excellent control for point work, like making quick grid cuts to dice a garlic clove or scoring a duck breast. It’s also great for pull through slicing.
Jesse Raub
Finally, it may seem like a picky bit of knife geometry, but the curve of the petty knife’s edge is very specific. The most dramatic angle of the edge is set just a few inches back from the tip, allowing for a gentle rock when mincing herbs. But the placement of that slope is intentional. When the knife point is resting on the cutting board, the edge’s curve crests a half inch to an inch above the surface, putting the most aggressive slicing angle perfectly at steak height. Combined with the thin blade and light weight, these petty knives have become my go-to for perfect slices of larger proteins. There’s something sublime in clean, simple, effortless slicing. One continuous motion, two pieces of steak. When the knife is sharp and nimble enough, it will do most of the work for you. You don’t even need to apply much pressure.
