A Tale of Two Petties

I thought some of you might be interested in my amateur observations and poor photos of two really stellar little knives.
The 180mm Wa-Petty is one of my favorite knife styles. I think it's extremely versatile and attractive to boot.
Here's a quick comparison of a Kato 'Workhorse' and Shig Kitaeji

Both weigh just under 100g
Both are almost exactly 180mm from heel to tip
Both are about 33-34mm tall


Kitaeji shows best in low light (or maybe a better camera and photographer too).

While I adore the Shig logo it's a stamp so I gotta give it to Kato-san on this one. His engraving style is my favorite.

Much prefer that length of tang on the Shig (20mm) to the Kato (10mm), makes a short knife feel longer and more comfy IMO.


Kato (left) tapers evenly, Shig (right) has a dramatic bulge at the handle.

If the choil really does betray anything about performance here, I'd go with the Kato (left).

Gotta decide which one (or both) to part with soon...

Cheers!
Matteo

 

Damn, I do need Shige petty

 

Huh, I thought Shigefusa's kitaeji model had stamped "registered" 登錄 and chiseled "Shigefusa" 重房.

 

ok lemme double check, i could be wrong!
I usually drop at least one erroneous or otherwise asinine comment per post.

 

Actually no I think you're right; looking at your photo and at my own knife, it seems to be a stamped mark.

 

start from 13 min

 

That true for single bevel kitaeji knives. Double bevel kitaeji knives generally have stamped mark, but I have seen some exceptions. See http://www.kitchenknifefora.com/threads/do-these-shigefusa-mark-look-any-different-to-you.640/.

 

here's what i thought was the giveaway. look closely at my knife and you'll see a couple of light marks where the stamp must have tapped the steel, a little to the right and up from the actual stamp.

 

I'm lovin both of them! Will give them a nice home

 

That's a great photo comparison. I love a 180mm petty or funayuki for a line knife. Any thoughts on actual performance between the two?

 

So there won't be any comparisons offered up as I parted with the Kato. Turbochef (not sure if he's on here) has it now. In the process of flipping the handle to righty I was able to repack it with beeswax and back it off a little, exposing more of the tang.
I used the Kato very little but was pretty thrilled with it overall. My suspicion is I would have slightly preferred the Kato over the Shig in terms of raw performance. However, a big part of that is because I'm a lefty. The geometry on the two Katos i've had is more friendly to a lefty that that of a shig. What I've noticed, is Kato offers you closer to two flat planes for blade faces where the shig geometry is much more nuanced and there's a definite favor towards releasing food off the right side, which in my case, is where i'm cutting. So I feel like i can get a slightly more accurate cut (closer to my knuckles) with the Kato if that makes sense.
Another side note, contrary to what some may expect, Katos seem to have thinner tips than Shigs, this is excellent for cutting onions and shallots and such but makes me wary of using the tips for any hard work. For example I have a KU shig santoku that doubles as a butcher knife and small deba for me. The tip is sturdy enough to handle a little scraping on the bones, wouldn't do that with the Katos I've had. With the extremely high hardness of a Kato as well i think it's definitely a misconception that "workhorse" implies those knives can be abused.
I'm still babying that Shig, haven't used it, just got up the courage to let her hang out on the mag-blok.
Cheers
Matteo

 

Also, FWIW, when i was cleaning the Kato I considered for a moment swapping the handles as I love burnt chestnut. I gotta say the chestnut just did not look right on that shig at all, The Kitaeji really is favored by he most basic of handles IMO.