Hatsukokoro Ginsan Damascus Tsuchime Petty 150mm with Teak Wood Handle, by Yoshihiro Yauji

A petty is a small utility knife, from the French petit. It is commonly shaped like a small gyuto and runs from 120 to 150 mm, up to 180 mm. Its clearest role is detailed work where a larger knife feels cumbersome: fruit peeling, garnish work, condiments, and small board work beside a gyuto or santoku.

A knife maker, Tojiro, frames the petty as a useful second knife, not an automatic necessity, and recommends santoku plus petty or gyuto plus petty combinations. It is not a replacement for a full size chef's knife; it lacks the blade length and belly for efficient chopping, rocking, or breaking down larger proteins. Treat it as a precision tool, not an all-rounder.

Petty knife lengths vary by maker: KAI's guide defines a petty (ペティナイフ) as a small knife with a narrow blade measuring 150 mm or under. Its table gives 90 to 150 mm, and it describes the shape as a smaller gyuto with a pointed tip.

We list petty knives from 70 mm to 165 mm, including lengths above the limit used in KAI's guide.

For most cooks the second knife after a gyuto is a small utility knife (petty) of about 150mm. If most of your cooking is vegetables, make it a vegetable knife (nakiri) instead; if you carve or slice a lot of meat or fish, a slicing knife (sujihiki).

A gyuto covers the main board work, so the gap it leaves is small work. A petty does the jobs where a full-size blade is clumsy: peeling, trimming and coring in the hand, and small board jobs such as shallots, fruit and herbs. Our petty knife FAQ covers the shape in detail.

A nakiri earns the second slot if you prep vegetables every day. Its flat edge meets the board along its whole length, so slices separate cleanly. It has no pointed tip, so the gyuto still does the tip work.

A sujihiki is the choice for carving roasts and portioning large pieces of meat or fish. The long, narrow blade has less surface touching the food than a gyuto, so slices come away cleaner. 240mm and 270mm are the popular lengths.

A santoku or a bunka is a weak second knife: both are all-purpose shapes that repeat what the gyuto does. If your gyuto already handles the small jobs comfortably, the second knife can wait, and a whetstone to keep the first one sharp is the better spend.

Ginsan, also known as Silver 3, is a stainless steel from Proterial, the Yasugi Specialty Steel division. Proterial describes it as a stainless steel which has hardness and sharpness comparable to carbon steel, and lists its uses as kitchen knives and scissors.

Knife makers use it when they want the corrosion resistance of a stainless together with the hardness and sharpness that Proterial compares to carbon steel. The steel maker lists 59 HRC or over after hardening, but that is a heat treatment figure, not a finished knife figure.

Dry it after use, like any stainless knife. Its performance depends on the heat treatment and construction of the specific knife, not the steel name alone.

Yes. Proterial lists the steel as GIN 3 with 13.00 to 14.50% chromium, above the Japan Stainless Steel Association's 10.5% minimum for stainless steel.

Proterial describes it as a stainless steel with hardness and sharpness comparable to carbon steel, used in various kitchen knives and scissors, and the association notes that stainless, strictly, means it rusts less. Wash the knife and dry it after use.

Yes. The Echizen Uchihamono association's roster of certified craftsmen lists Yoshihiro Yauji as certified as a traditional craftsman in fiscal 2018.

The roster says he wants to pass on traditional techniques and develop them into new things. It also says he formed a team that has begun making products while sharing the history and culture of traditional tatara iron making.

On nearly every Japanese kitchen knife sold as Damascus, the pattern is there for looks. It sits in the soft cladding on the sides of the blade, and the plain core steel at the edge does the cutting. Pay more for Damascus if you enjoy how it looks, and for no other reason.

Most are built in three layers (sanmai): a hard core with a softer layer forge-welded to each side. On a Damascus knife that outer layer is itself made of many thin layers, etched or blasted so the pattern shows. The cladding is made separately from the core, so a maker can change the look without changing how the blade cuts. Two knives with the same core steel and the same grind perform the same, patterned or plain.

The cladding does real work, but plain cladding does it too. It supports the hard, brittle core, and when it is stainless it shields a carbon steel core from rust except at the edge. Our Damascus construction page shows the layers.

The pattern also changes with use. The contrast fades where you sharpen, and once the knife is thinned the cladding near the edge will not look as it did out of the box. If the budget is tight, spend it on the core steel and grind, or on a whetstone. If you like the pattern, buy it; wanting a good-looking knife is a fair reason to choose one.