Amazon has
3" Mercer Culinary Millennia Slim Paring Knife (various colors) on sale for
$6.18.
Shipping is free with Prime or on $35+ orders.
Thanks to Deal Hunter
StrongWeather642 for finding this deal.
Available colors:
Product Details:- Ergonomic handle - a combination of Santoprene for comfort and polypropylene for durability.
- Textured finger points provide slip resistance, grip, and safety. Protective finger guard.
- Hand wash knives for blade edge and surface care.
- The highest quality Japanese steel allows for easy blade maintenance and rapid sharpening for a razor-sharp edge.
- One-piece high-carbon, stain-resistant Japanese steel.
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Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank the_hork
This is the better option and one i reach for most:
https://a.co/d/09NVYN2g
This is the better option and one i reach for most:
https://a.co/d/09NVYN2g
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The Victorinox has more handle material 'relieved' near the 'bolster'. This makes it sit very snugly when holding the knife outward facing, but in my experience, with medium-large hands, when paring with the blade oriented towards me, it feels slippy. I have to use a tighter grip than any of my other paring knives, or it wants to rotate while cutting. Holding a fist shape in a pinch limits the range of material I can slice and is tiring to the hand.
Both are very clearly budget knives, but because I use many such knives also in craftwork and packing, I have a lot of experience using them in different materials and sharpening them.
I like the Mercer and keep it at my workbench. The Victorinox is very much not for me, but also at my workbench. I use it to open boxes and pry at things that are too slim for a prybar (as a trained professional on a closed course with full safety gear do not try this at home.)
My favorite budget kitchen parer is the restaurant-style, American-made Dexter: https://www.amazon.com/Dexter-Rus...01DVJ0MUO/
It has an evenly-wide, knurled handle and is effortless to hold in any position. I have straight and scalloped versions of these. Cutting fruits and vegetables, I rarely have to sharpen them.
I also have a Spyderco paring knife which feels like it's made for highly detailed vegetable art and not for actually processing food. I have a generic VG-10 paring knife and some ICEL and 1980's Chicago Cutlery parers which were passed down from family, and those are also a great value, but mostly I just grab the Dexters.
I paid ~$4 for my Mercer parer, so this deal feels lukewarm.
The Kuhn has a taller blade than both the Mercer and Victorinox, which helps with rigidity. The blade geometry has a two-stage bevel, so it doesn't feel as slicey, per se, but the overall thickness of the blade is thinner than the mercer, almost as thin as the Victorinox, and I feel that the ceramic coating helps reduce drag in grabby materials like bread and cheese. So, although it creates more of a wedge with the angle of the bevel, in the hand, it balances out to just feel like it has more control.
It has less of a tang - about 1" depth, but mine is 15-20 years old and no issues there. I have never batoned anything with it, and the blade is still perfectly secured.
I like a 3-3.5" paring knife. The Kuhn Rikon is 4" and feels like a good compromise. The height of the blade extends below the handle, and it has a subtle swept-back angle like a Santoku knife. These two things make it better suited to cutting on a board than peeling, but it does peel competently (maybe less so for smaller hands) and feels natural in the hand.
The handle of the Kuhn Rikon is overall thicker than the Mercer, and it tapers towards the blade, without that half-finger taper on the underside. I think this is preferable for control with different hand positions that are not full-grip - i.e. most of the ways one would typically hold a paring knife. The plastic on mine is a slightly softer plastic which, although smooth, has a nice grippiness. I have no idea if this is due to mine being very old or if even the same plastics are in use today, but I imagine it's unchanged.
My Kuhn Rikon is one of the easiest knives I have to touch up, probably easier than the Mercer, but I haven't done them back to back, and of course, one of them is scalloped so I can't compare directly. I'm middling at sharpening so I don't often chase razor edges, and I don't have any artisan knives. In the kitchen, mostly I touch things up as I go, and not very religiously. I make up for this somewhat by being very practiced with cutting angles and not abusing blades. (I've never had to put a new edge on something that didn't come to me already destroyed, and I'm not set-up to do that well.) So perhaps take my sharpening insight with a grain of salt.
Can't go wrong with either in this price range. If you are interested in this sort of thing, holding them in the hand will reveal a lot, and almost immediately.
I think paring knives are where it's at for most quick tasks. It doesn't hurt to have a few. In our household, we have 5 paring knives in the kitchen that see use daily.
edit: Adding, I think the Kuhn Rikon holds an edge better, but the scalloped blade on mine might be as much of a factor functionally as blade steel.
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