Aogami Petty Knife

Aogami Petty Knife

$168.00
$168.00
  • The Best Made Co. Aogami Petty is a small kitchen knife featuring a gleaming Aogami blue steel blade and a rectangular Shou Sugi Ban handle, shown against a simple light gray background—an elegant showcase of Japanese Chef Knives craftsmanship. NEW
  • A left hand holding a Best Made Co. Aogami Petty Knife with a wooden handle over a blue and white checkered cloth background. NEW
  • The Aogami Petty Knife by Best Made Co. features a wooden handle and a dark Blue Paper Steel No. 2 san-mai blade. It comes with a canvas sheath adorned with small black symbols for protection, and is presented in a black box labeled “Best Made Company, Handcrafted in Japan.”. NEW
  • A close-up of the Best Made Co. Aogami Petty Knife, crafted with Blue Paper Steel No. 2 in a traditional san-mai construction, featuring a wooden handle and engraved characters on the blade, set against a plain light gray background. NEW
  • Close-up of the Best Made Co. Aogami Petty Knife, featuring a two-tone wooden handle and a partially visible san-mai Blue Paper Steel No. 2 blade, set against a white background. NEW
  • Close-up of the wooden handle of the Best Made Co. Aogami Gyuto Knife, featuring a dark bolster and highlighting the smooth texture and natural grain of the wood against a plain, light background. This elegant handle is designed for both comfort and precision, reflecting the quality craftsmanship of this Japanese chef knife. NEW
  • A Best Made Co. Aogami Petty Knife with a wooden handle is displayed vertically from above, its san-mai blade pointing upward and centered against a plain white background. NEW
  • A hand holds the Best Made Co. Aogami Gyuto Knife, distinguished by its wooden handle, next to three more of the same knives arranged on a blue checkered cloth. Crafted with Blue Paper Steel No. 2 for exceptional sharpness and precision, these knives are perfect for any culinary task. NEW

Aogami Petty Knife

Aogami Petty Knife

$168.00
$168.00

The Petty comes from the French "petit", and this knife fills the gap every cook has between a small paring knife and a larger chef's knife. This blade is small enough that it can still be held over a bowl and wielded in mid-air, and yet it also has enough edge to take to the cutting board.

The core is Blue Paper Steel No. 2 (aka Aogami 2), forged at the Yasugi works in Shimane Prefecture, named for the blue paper the mill uses to label its billets. Chromium and tungsten give it the wear resistance pure carbon steel lacks, and our forge heat-treats it to 61–63 HRC. Its double bevel takes a keen edge, holds it through real work, and returns on a water stone with little effort.

Our forge laminates that core between two layers of stainless in the san-mai method, exposing the carbon steel where it means business. Everything happens under one roof in Sanjo City, where our shop has been based since 1948. Each blade carries our katakana X-mark and ships with a canvas blade guard. Dry it after use, oil it now and then, and the walnut handle will only darken and patina with age. 
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For the work that happens between the big tasks. Cutting garlic, peeling and turning vegetables in hand, segmenting citrus, hulling strawberries, deveining shrimp, splitting a shallot, cleaning a rack of ribs, trimming fat from a roast. It is small enough for genuine control and long enough to slice a lemon or run through a bunch of parsley without feeling undersized.

A note on the steel. The Yasugi works produced several grades of high-carbon tool steel that, to the eye, couldn’t be told apart. So the mill marked each one with a different color paper. The smiths who bought the steel adopted the shorthand and named it after its wrapper rather than its formula. Blue paper gave us aogami-kō: blue paper steel in Japanese.

Blue Paper Steel No. 2 is one of the most widely trusted carbon steels in Japan, and the reason is balance. Aogami holds its edge longer than white steel while remaining far easier to sharpen than powdered stainless steel. At the hardness our forge runs it at, the edge can be taken thinner than a Western blade would tolerate, and that’s what's meant when they say a Japanese knife cuts differently.
Aogami Petty Knife
- Blue steel carbon core
- Stainless steel outer laminate
- Walnut handle
- Canvas blade guard
- Gyuto: 8.27” blade, total length: 14.5"
- Santoku: 6.50" blade, total length: 12"
- Nakiri: 6.50” blade, total length: 12"
- Petty: 5.25" blade, total length: 10"
Never run this knife through the dishwasher. Wash by hand in warm water and dry the blade immediately — the high-carbon edge tarnishes if left wet, and will rust if left wet long enough. Citrus, tomatoes, onions, and anything else acidic will mark the steel within minutes, so wipe the blade as you work rather than waiting for the end of the job. A thin coat of oil before the knife goes back in its guard protects it between uses, and matters most if it will sit unused for any stretch. Over time, those acids and oils will darken the exposed edge into a patina particular to the way the knife is used; that patina is protection rather than damage, and shouldn't be scrubbed away. Sharpen on water stones, and keep the edge off bone and frozen food.
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