You know that moment when you're prepping tea and you pull out the chef's knife for something small? Trimming the fat off a steak. Slicing a couple of spring onions. There's a gap between your big knife and your small knife. And it's bigger than most people realise.
Where the Petty Knife Came From
In the late 1800s, Japan opened up to the West. French cooking came flooding in, and with it, French knives. Japanese blade makers picked up the small French utility knife, the couteau d'office, and did what they've always done. Made it better.
Thinner blade. Lighter in the hand. A sharper, more refined edge. The name is thought to come from the French word petite. Small knife.
It filled that gap straight away. Peeling ginger? Grab the petty. Chef's knife feels clumsy trimming silver skin off a piece of lamb? Petty. Slicing strawberries for the kids, deveining prawns for Friday night, breaking down shallots for a stir fry? Petty.
In professional kitchens it became the knife cooks reached for more than anything else. Not the showpiece. The workhorse.
The One Thing It Couldn't Do
A traditional petty has a narrow blade. Maybe 25 to 30mm at the heel. Slim, light, great for in-hand work where you're cutting towards your thumb or working above the board.
Put it flat on a chopping board though and you've got a problem. The blade is so narrow that your knuckles hit the board before the edge finishes the cut. You're either crushing your fingers or lifting the blade at a weird angle to make it work.
So for anything on the board, you'd put the petty down and grab the chef's knife again. Which kind of defeats the point of having it.
The Tall Petty
The fix was simple. Keep the length. Keep the weight. Keep the precision. Add height to the blade.
A few extra millimetres at the heel changes everything. Suddenly you've got knuckle clearance. You can rock through herbs. Dice an onion properly. Do real board work with a knife that still feels light and controlled in your hand.
It sits right in the middle. Not as committed as a chef's knife. Not as limited as a paring knife.
And honestly, for a lot of people, that middle ground is exactly where they need to be. If you're someone who's never felt totally comfortable with a big 20cm blade, a tall petty doesn't ask you to change how you cook. It just works with you. Kumara, potatoes, carrots, onions, herbs, meat prep. It handles the lot.
A whole pumpkin? Grab something bigger. But for 90% of what you're actually doing at the bench on a Tuesday night, this is the knife.
That's the Thomas
The Thomas is our tall petty. 13cm blade, 40mm at the heel. That's a solid 10mm taller than a standard petty, and you feel the difference the first time you pick it up.
Forged from high carbon steel. Coal forge, power hammer, hand-ground edge. Kurouchi finish from the heat treatment. Padauk handle.
At $120 it's the most affordable knife in our lineup. We recommend it all the time to people who want one good knife that does most jobs. It won't replace a full-sized chef's knife for the big stuff, but it'll surprise you how rarely you reach for one.
Have a look,
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