Gurney –

The females around my house have had a similar preference for "teeny-weeny" knives, but have started using a more utilitarian size since I added to the collection recently.

My "currently popular" utility knife is made from the Steakhouse Knife shown about halfway down here. I found a few at $3 US each at a local supermarket, and bought a couple "to play with." When I found that once the serrated edge was removed they made a really nice kitchen utility knife, I went back and bought the rest of them (about 8 total). The cheap ones had unfinished wood handles, which are very comfortable to use. The same knife, but with a slick hard finish on the handles is still available at a couple of local hardware stores, at about $6 each, and I've converted a set of 6, but I don't really care for the slick finish. I've threatened to try stripping the finish, but laziness has prevented it.

The cheap ones are marked "Steak House, Premium Beef" on the blade, while the "fancy ones" are marked "Tramontina, High Carbon Stainless Steel." Blades appear to be identical, a little more polish on the high priced ones; and the necessary grinding to remove the teeth indicates they're almost "burn proof" under any reasonable amount of grinding. After the teeth are removed, a quick pass on a belt sander, about 80 or 120 grit, puts a nice utility edge on with no real need for additional finishing. (If you polish off the "tooth" left by the sandpaper, you have to make them a whole lot sharper to get about the same ease in cutting for most kitchen purposes. Either way works.)

**** Japanese Knife:

Mentioning it in the thread made me curious about my "Japanese knife," since I'd never bothered to find out exactly what to call it.

According to Wikipedia: Nakiri bochu it's a Japanese vegetable knife (Nakiri) with the "Tokyo" blade shape. Mine has an apparently "westernized" wooden handle much like common kitchen knives. Blade markings are "Pilot, Sakai Japan, Sharp Stainless" and the box says "Pilot/1500" but I haven't found that as a brand name (or as anything else) on the web.

Kikuichi Warikomi Gold Elite Vegetable Knife looks like mine except for the ferrule and a slightly more "round edged" handle, but at $110 list probably is a bit different. I paid about $18 or $20 (US) for mine, although it was about 15 years ago.

6.5-in. Nakiri Knife is close to my "Japanese knife." Differences are that mine has a wooden handle, slot and rivets, in place of the "simulated bamboo" shown, and cost me about $18 instead of the $30 shown here. Fifteen years may have inflated prices that much(?).

Kershaw 6616N Wasabi Nakiri Vegetable Knife 6.5-in. is also similar, but again has the round handle that I find less comfortable and is about 3x the price I paid.

Shape is about like the Messermeister Asian Precision Usuba Knife - 7 inch except their description of this knife as a "lightweight cleaver" implies a much thicker blade than the one I like. The "cleaver" reference isn't really consistent with the Wikipedia description of the Usuba, but it might not be too far off.

It appears, from my bit of poking around, that if one just asked for a "Japanese knife" they'd probably be offered something called a santoku knife. This name doesn't appear in Wikipedia's Japanese knife types, and I suspect a "made up for westerners" naming – sort of a "Japanese French Chef;" but all the popular ($$$) makers seem to offer one. It's a completely different style (for my purposes) than what I have. For most of the other Japanese styles, I'd probably prefer a common "western" type, but the very thin blade on the Nakiri does "do better" for chopping veggies and some other things.

**** Ulu:

An accidental find during my browsing was another source (maybe already mentioned?) for the Ulu, at Cove Cutlery: Ulu. I got mine at Walmart, about $10 (late at night when nobody would see me shopping there.)

John