Named for the French word petite, which means small, the petty knife is often a replica of the gyuto, just in a much, much smaller form. Most petty knives are around five inches long and feature a thin, lightly curved blade with a drop point tip and heel just tall enough to keep your fingers from bashing into the cutting board. Petty knives are great utility knives for small tasks, like dicing a shallot, slicing garlic, or slicing herbs, but they’re also long and nimble enough to be great slicers. Unless you do a lot of handheld turning and peeling, a petty knife is a great replacement for a paring knife in your lineup.
We found that both the MAC Professional Petty Knife and the Tojiro Classic Petty Knife were sharp enough to slice a steak while still being the perfect size to slice strawberries for your morning yogurt bowl.
Funayuki
Traditionally a fisherman’s knife used for all sorts of purposes on the boat, the funayuki is an old-school knife shape that predates the gyuto and santoku, and it likely helped inspire both shapes. The traditional funayuki is a shorter knife, around seven inches long, with a narrow, pointed tip and a tall heel. They are santoku-sized but gyuto-shaped. Unlike the deba knife, which was a heavy, single-bevel knife used for fish butchery, the funayuki was designed to be light and nimble so that fishermen could fillet their lunch while at sea. These days, most home cooks might pick up a funayuki as a secondary, shorter gyuto, or opt for this shape over a santoku as an all-purpose utility knife with a narrower tip.
Though it’s not as common in modern kitchens, one of our favorite Japanese chef’s knives is the Akiru-Saku Funayuki Gyuto, which is more traditionally shaped like a funayuki but is advertised as a gyuto since the two shapes are so similar.
Kiritsuke
Shun Classic Blonde 8″ Kiritsuke Knife
The kiritsuke is a Japanese slicing knife with an angular “sword tip” that allows the user to make precision cuts. The initial design combined a long slicing shape and tall heel, making the kiritsuke a hybrid knife, similar to the santoku. For most people, the kiritsuke will be a version of an all-purpose chef’s knife that could take the place of a gyuto as a daily driver, with the big difference coming in the shape of the tip.
