I liked making my Chefs Knife, the Kengata, that is heavily in use in the kitchen of my mother. I talked to her about it and how it performs and she likes its shape, the ergonomy of the handle and the superior sharpness of the blade But for some tasks the Santoku Knife style is a bit too large. Now it was her birthday, so guess what, I made a small Petty Knife.
I chose the same shape as the Kengata Santoku Chefs Knife and scaled it down to the size of a Petty Knife. I chose a 2 mm thin 01 Tool Steel for the knife as for its bigger brother.
The most difficult part was finding the correct name for this knife. I did a lot of research but was not sure what these knives might be called. Finally, it was solved by #followerpower as the Instagramer @customchopshop brought up, that these knives are called “fruit” knives in Japan. So I decided to call this blade “Furutsu”.
The whole conversation is in the comments of this post:
This was the first knife I ground from start to finish on my 2 x 72″ belt grinder. That thing is simply insane, so much power and fun to shred steel on. No wonder the grinder is the heart of a knife makers workshop. The thing is so powerful that it eats away steel so fast that it is much easier to wreck a blade just because you touch the belt with the blade the wrong way just for the blink of an eye.
For the handle, I chose Ziricote again. I did not like the wood too much on the Santoku, just because it is so hard to work into form. It seems to clog up the grinding belts very fast. But as it should suit the Santoku Knife I went for Ziricote again. And I have to admit it is a very beautiful wood.