Petty knife for cheese?

[LazyOutdoorsman]

Hello y'all, I'm thinking of getting one of the petty (poly, bd1n) knives for a family member. Would it work pretty well for hard and soft cheeses? I'm asking because I know close to nothing about cheese and I see many different types of cheese knives.

[ChrisinHove]

Absolutely fine for harder cheese, I would think.

Really soft cheeses are best cut with one of those skeleton or very narrow blade knifes where there is very little for the gooey stuff to stick to.

… unless you are fine dining or trying to impress ….

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/articl ... guide.html

[Wandering_About]

I'm not sure I'd use that particular knife for cheese... they are super thin. Excellent as a paring/utility for veggies and such, but I'm not sure I'd put mine through a block of cheese with confidence.

[RustyIron]

All I know is what I've been able to figure out on my own, but my results are always imperfect. I generally don't care for soft cheeses, so I have no advice. For hard cheese, I want a knife that's thin and long. Take a look at the attached pictures.

In the first picture, I was trying to make rectangles. Notice how the pieces of cheese are cracking. That's because the knife is acting like a wedge and bending the cheese as the blade passes through. Hard cheese doesn't like to bend, so it cracks. A thinner blade will minimize this effect. Maybe a professional cheese-ologist would do it differently--I don't know.

In the second pic, it appears as if my vision of uniform rectangles wasn't working out, so I just made chunks instead. When the cheese breaks apart like this, you end up with a lot of small crumbly stuff that isn't suitable for plating. Thick blades just make the problem worse.

[bearfacedkiller]

For slicing lots of hard cheese uniform I like the hand held wire style cutters.

For having guests over I have a small walnut cutting board with a wire cheese cutter built in.

For soft cheese I just use a butter knife or if we have guests I have a small spreading knife that looks better.

I eat a lot of cheese. My New Year’s resolution last year was to start trying lots of different cheeses. I have always consumed lots of dairy but this year has been focused on cheese.

[Bill1170]

Temperature makes a big difference with cheese. Hard cheeses become more flexible when they warm up, which reduces the cracking when cutting thick slices. A thin knife is preferred. A paring or petty knife that has a less tall blade offers less area for the cheese to stick to the primary bevel.

[Evil D]

I go through a lot of sharp cheddar, and I use my SE Chap almost exclusively. I'm not cutting for fancy layouts though so I don't mind the serrations texture it leaves behind and it cuts very well.

[JoviAl]

I’d be inclined to use a cheese wire over a knife. I eat prodigious amounts of cheese (keto diet long term) and a wire is the tool for the job really, although a really thin filleting knife does the job pretty well as there’s not much blade height for it to stick to. It’s actually my preferred use for my Catcherman Salt.

[LazyOutdoorsman]

Thanks yall. Ill be getting a cheese wire instead!

[benben]

I have two Shun paring knives, both in VG-10, both are razors. I use the thinner one on the bottom almost exclusively for cheese.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Get a Spyderco Stretch Salt. Attach it by lanyard to the cutting board. Never rusts.

[vivi]

I've used this yoshimitsu petty on a lot of cheeses.

https://www.chefknivestogo.com/fu1pe15.html

I use larger 10" knives for breaking down those 80lb parm wheels but the petty works fine on pretty much any size you'd find in a grocery store.

[benben]

I've used this yoshimitsu petty on a lot of cheeses.

https://www.chefknivestogo.com/fu1pe15.html

I use larger 10" knives for breaking down those 80lb parm wheels but the petty works fine on pretty much any size you'd find in a grocery store.

I’ve looked at and thought about buying that particular petty several times.

[vivi]

I've used this yoshimitsu petty on a lot of cheeses.

https://www.chefknivestogo.com/fu1pe15.html

I use larger 10" knives for breaking down those 80lb parm wheels but the petty works fine on pretty much any size you'd find in a grocery store.

I’ve looked at and thought about buying that particular petty several times.

if the 240mm gyuto ever gets restocked I'm getting one.