Small Knives can be a good thing

[vilasman]

In most threads about knives, the idea seems to be, how big of a knife can I use to do a certain task. And people speak of 10-12 and even 14" Chefs knives.
Recently at the discount triplets TJ Maxx Marshalls and Ross I have seen and I bought a small birds peak paring knife and a small Santaku knife. Both might be 6" long, handle and blade together.

Now the thing I am enjoying about these two knifes is the control. The ability to make the knife go exactly where I want it to, so I can make the cut I want to make. I can slice, what I am trying to slice, exactly the way I want to slice it.

I totally get that there are things that need some serious heft to deal with... but I am lovin my small knives. I am thinking I am going to get some more

 

[KitchenSally]

I usually use my large chefs knife for most tasks but have recently been making use of some of my smaller knives because they are lighter weight and therefore easier on sore hands. Its a bit of a learning process if you are used to always using a chefs knife but I agree, you can get very precise with it. I just need more practice.

 

[GB]

As with anything, you need to use the right tool for the right job. Sometimes that means a big knife and sometimes that means a small one.

 

[Rob Babcock]

A bird's beak paring knife can be extremely handy indeed. I keep at least 3 of them in my working knife case at all times.

 

[RPCookin]

In most threads about knives, the idea seems to be, how big of a knife can I use to do a certain task. And people speak of 10-12 and even 14" Chefs knives.
Recently at the discount triplets TJ Maxx Marshalls and Ross I have seen and I bought a small birds peak paring knife and a small Santaku knife. Both might be 6" long, handle and blade together.

Now the thing I am enjoying about these two knifes is the control. The ability to make the knife go exactly where I want it to, so I can make the cut I want to make. I can slice, what I am trying to slice, exactly the way I want to slice it.

I totally get that there are things that need some serious heft to deal with... but I am lovin my small knives. I am thinking I am going to get some more

I have Wusthoff Classic 6" chefs and 5" boning knives, both of which serve as great utility knives. I do have a larger Cutco chef rolleyes that gets a lot of work when I'm prepping a wide range of veggies, but for quick small jobs the small knives are great.

Unlike you I usually feel like I have greater control of the bigger knife when I'm slicing or dicing larger veggies like onions, peppers, etc.... I guess it's just what you get used to. I'm a believer that some knives were designed for certain jobs, and I've found that they usually do those jobs better than substituting a knife which was really made for something else.

 

[justplainbill]

Short knives are not particularly suitable for slicing.