Spyderco 4" Paring Knife Black Sermollan

[Mister Coffee]

Badly needed a kitchen knife. Just ordered a Spydie 4" Paring Knife.

While I'm waiting for it to arrive, give me your opinions. How am I going to like this, and what kitchen knife should I buy next?

Thanks.

[Diamondback]

When I want to slice a tomato ultra-thin or cut up chunks of meat for a stir-fry, this is typically the knife I reach for in my kitchen. Very light in the hand, pretty easy to get VERY sharp, mostly because of how thin the blade is ground at the edge; it holds that sharp edge for a decent amount of time before it needs a touch up. Reasonably priced...or at least it was three years ago when I purchased mine. Try to wash and dry the knife soon after use...I have had issues with rust at the blade/handle juncture and some mild staining from letting the blade air dry. The knife is a workhorse in my kitchen. If you don't have a good Chef's knife, I would look at that next. A 4" paring knife and an 8" chef's knife and you could probably do just about everything in the kitchen with the exception, PERHAPS, of splitting hard shell squash and cutting through some bone joints.

[Notsurewhy]

Enthusiastic amateur cook here. I do probably 80% of my kitchen tasks with an 8in chefs knife and about 15% with a 3.5-4in paring knife. The last 5% is split between a serrated 8in bread knife and a 6in flexible boning knife.

I recommend getting a good chefs knife, a decent paring knife (you're already covered there) and an okay bread knife. The rest you can pick up as you figure out what you like/need. If you don't "rock-chop" much you can substitute a santoku for the chefs knife.

Spyderco obviously makes great knives, but apart from the pairing and bread knife, they aren't really designed for how I use my kitchen knives. Nothing wrong with Japanese style knives, I just prefer far more belly than the Murray Carter knives or the satoku provide in my primary chefs knife. YMMV.

Some kitchen knife tips:
-Don't cut stuff that's frozen, you can chip or roll your edge
-Don't store your knives in a drawer or you'll ding the edge (a magnetic wall mounted knife strip is what I use, wooden blocks can be bacteria traps)
-Don't use ceramic, stone or glass as a cutting board, you'll destroy your edge. Wood or plastic are good. Easier to cut on wood, easier to sanitize plastic.
-hand wash and dry knives immediately after use. It only takes a second and if you leave them in the metal sink they could get banged around and damage the edge. Also prevents corrosion.

[Mister Coffee]

Thanks for the replies so far.

@Diamondback: Rust on these knives seems to be an issue. We'll have to see how it goes.

@Notsurewhy: I have a couple of chef's knives, but a 4" utility knife is in the sweet spot for most of what I do. If this Paring Knife turns out to be too delicate, I'll have to add another. I probably should have gone with a Zwilling/Henckels knife, but I wanted to buy a Spyderco.

[aicolainen]

I just received a serrated paring knife, so can’t say anything about how it performs yet, but I really like the size, even the handle was surprisingly a perfect fit for my narrow hand.
Can’t wait to see how the serrations performs on such a thin blade stock.

I plan to get or make some kind of sheath for it and use it as a all round food knife for travel and camping, so it probably won’t see much use at home.

[Mister Coffee]

Just received the Paring Knife.



The blade length and dimensions are perfect for me. The proportions of the knife are attractive. The handle is good, but the hook on the end makes it feel a tad cramped (never thought I'd complain about a knife handle being too small). All in all, I am very pleased, and I am looking forward to seeing how the MBS-26 works out.