Petty Knife

A petty knife is a small Japanese utility knife, usually 120mm to 150mm (about 4.7 to 5.9 inches), built for the jobs a chef knife is too big for and a paring knife is too small for. It has a pointed tip, a slight curve to the edge, and thin stock that handles shallots, garlic, herbs, citrus, and cheese with control.

The name comes from the French petit. In a Japanese set it fills the small-knife slot, though it's ground thinner and finer than the western utility knife it superficially resembles. Most cooks reach for one dozens of times a session: trimming, peeling, portioning, and finishing plates. If you already own a main knife, a petty is usually the most useful second one to add.

Shop Petty Knives

Explore our petty knives for precise kitchen prep, including trimming, peeling, slicing, and detailed cutting. Compare different blade lengths, steels, handles, and finishes to find a petty knife suited to your cooking style.

Browse the collection to find a size and blade design that works comfortably both on the cutting board and for smaller in-hand tasks.

What Is a Petty Knife?

A petty knife is a double-bevel Japanese knife of roughly 120–150mm, shaped like a scaled-down gyuto with a fine tip, a modest belly, and a blade height near 25–30mm at the heel. Sharpened on both sides, it works in either hand.

Petty describes a size and a role rather than a traditional Japanese blade form, which is why a petty japanese knife looks familiar to western cooks. It evolved alongside the gyuto as Japanese makers adapted European kitchen shapes, in the same way the honesuki adapted the boning knife.

Japanese Petty Knife Uses

A petty knife is used for small, controlled cutting in two distinct modes.

On the board:

• slicing shallots, garlic, chillies, and mushrooms
• segmenting citrus and slicing strawberries
• portioning cheese, cooked sausage, and small proteins
• trimming silverskin and fat from meat

In the hand, off the board:

• peeling apples, pears, and ginger
• hulling strawberries and coring tomatoes
• deveining prawns and scoring skin
• turning vegetables and finishing garnishes

That second mode defines the category. A petty utility knife is short enough to control with your fingers wrapped near the blade, yet long enough to earn a place on the board, which is why it replaces two knives in many kitchens.

How to Use a Petty Knife

Change your grip with the task. For board work, pinch the blade between thumb and forefinger just ahead of the handle and keep your guiding hand in a claw. For in-hand work, choke back onto the handle, brace the food against your thumb, and draw the blade toward you in short, controlled pulls.

Two habits protect you and the edge. Cut away from your thumb on anything with a hard skin, because a thin blade slips suddenly when it breaks through. And keep the tip out of prying work: on a blade ground this fine, the point breaks before anything else does.

Petty, Paring, or Utility?

All three cover small tasks, and the differences are practical rather than national.

• Petty: 120–150mm, pointed, slightly curved, ground thin. Works on the board and in the hand.
• Paring knife: usually 75–100mm. Built almost entirely for in-hand work, so it's more agile for peeling but too short to slice on a board. Searches for a paring knife Japan-made usually land on petty knives, because Japanese makers treat the petty as the equivalent tool.
• Utility knife: the Western mid-size knife, generally thicker behind the edge and sometimes serrated, built for sandwich and general work rather than fine cutting.

If you're adding one small knife to a set built around a gyuto or santoku, the petty covers more ground than a paring knife. Compare everything in chef knives.

Choosing Length, Steel, and Handle

Length

120mm is nimble in the hand and light for peeling but short on the board. 135mm is the middle ground. 150mm gives real board capability, handling a shallot or a block of cheese without feeling cramped, at some cost to in-hand agility.

Tip shape

Most petties taper to a fine point. A kiritsuke petty carries an angled, clipped tip that reaches into tight spots and looks distinctive, though the thinner point chips more readily. Full-size versions sit in kiritsuke knives.

Steel

A stainless steel petty knife makes sense here more than on any other blade, because a petty meets citrus, tomatoes, and onions constantly and often waits on the counter between tasks. A carbon steel petty knife rewards attentive cooks with a keener edge that's faster to restore, and it greys into a patina within days. Whichever you choose, check the listed hardness: petties are commonly 58–62 HRC and ground near 15 degrees per side, so they cut with very little force and dislike being twisted.

Handle

Light wa handles keep balance forward, which suits precise board work. Western handles put weight behind your hand, giving more security during in-hand cuts with wet fingers.

Made to order

A custom petty knife lets you set length, tip shape, and handle material together, which matters more on a small knife where a few millimetres change how it handles. See custom engraved knives or contact the workshop.

Care for a Small, Thin Blade

Petty knives take more incidental abuse than anything else in a kitchen. They get grabbed for quick jobs, left on counters, and dropped into sinks. Three habits prevent most of the damage.

Keep it out of the sink

A dropped peeler lands tip-first. Wash it, dry it, and put it away in one movement rather than setting it down wet.

Respect the tip

Never use the point to open packaging, separate frozen items, or lever anything. On a blade this thin, a snapped tip means grinding back several millimetres of blade to rebuild the profile.

Sharpen all the way to the point

On a small knife, it's easy to work only the section under your fingers and leave the last 20mm dull, which defeats the purpose of owning one. Lift the handle slightly as the edge moves toward the tip so the curve meets the whetstone at the same angle as the middle.