I hate paring knives with dinky handles!!! LOL. Japanese Petty's are super thin, with thin scales and short, narrow handles. The longer handle makes it much more comfy in different grips. Most Japanese knives are just not sized for my hands. I replaced all of the Wa handles on my Japanese blades with larger handles to fit my hand better. Pettys were the worst and I rarely used them. The handles were generally too small, and the blades either to short if they were narrower or too wide if they were longer; I never found one I liked. I found my hands cramped quickly with smaller handles. So I got fed up and made some paring knives from some O-1 I had laying around.
I do a lot with cauliflower and broccoli and veggies, so I wanted a longer, narrower blade to reach in and remove the core and florets easily at the stem so it's less messy than cutting through the outside of the heads and the little pieces going everywhere. The petty works great for removing the tendon and silverskin from chicken tenders and is nimble enough for many tasks that a gyuto would be too big for. I was surprised at how little patina the 52100 gyuto and O-1 petty get, too. Maybe when I do a magnacut petty I will get rid of the O-1 petty, but it's a keeper for now!
I prefer a flatter gyuto profile, more like the Bunka or Funayuki blade shape/profile wise. I do a lot with veggies and proteins, so I tried to combine the long flat of a nakiri closer to the handle with the slight curve and point for proteins.
Some of the other Japanese knives I used to have and still have some (lots):
Some gyuto; CKTG Artifex at the top, Shigeki Tanaka Blue #2 Kurouchi I reground completely, Richmond AS Laser (Yu Kurosaki):
Big Tojiro 330mm gyuto I used when doing deer processing with my uncle and for watermelon:
Richmond As LAser Sujihiki:
Shigeki Tanaka R2 240mm and Kohetsu Blue #2 210mm gyuto:
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