Design considerations for a Pairing/Utility knife?

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Omega Leather Works

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My wife needs a pairing knife. I'm making a small edc wharncliffe at the moment, but I'd like to make her the knife she needs after this is done.

I have 1095 and 1084 on hand.

Not considering handle material, what are some things to be aware of when grinding one of these blades? I know it'll have to be thin, but how thin? What about hardness? Any blade/edge to handle ratios, or cutting edge elements to keep in mind?
 
I'm not an expert on paring knives, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.
Make them from thin stock. Some people will tell you that 3/32" at the spine is the thickest you should go, some people say 1/16" at the spine is the thickest you should go. In my personal experience, 3/32" looks awful thick on a paring knife. This pretty much rules out 1084, unless you've got a special source of it or you're willing to spend a lot of time on a surface grinder.
The blade should be short: 2-3.5". Some people say 3" is the longest you ever want a paring knife to be, but that's a personal preference. You should be able to choke up on it and use the tip for fine trimming, and much past 3" does get a little bit weird for this. Handle should be long enough to get a good grip on it, but not so long that it gets in the way when you're choking up. The paring knives in my kitchen have just over 4" handles. Don't focus on handle:blade ratio, just make a handle that is the right size to get the right grip on and a blade that is the right length to do what it needs to do. Narrow, thin handles are traditional, but some people are making them with big handles these days because they're supposedly more comfortable for people with arthritis. I've never tried this so I can't comment on it.
The blade should be narrow so it can cut in a tight radius. The edge should be very thin, but keep it thicker behind the tip — some paring cuts may involve twisting and you don't want a fine tip to break off in your food.
I've heard people say that paring knives should have a lower hardness than most other kitchen knives, because of the aforementioned twisting that may happen to them. I can't comment on this from personal experience.

- Chris
 
Chris made some good points.

I have a paring knife that I like very much. It's made by Wusthof, model # 4002; they call it a "Trimming Knife."

Below is the address for a web page on the Wusthof site that shows this knife, along with several other "paring knives" that are shaped differently.
http://www.wusthof.com/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-75/317_view-121/categories-121/country-usa/wlang-2/

The #4002 is listed as 2-3/4"; The actual cutting edge on this blade, measured from in front of the bolster to the tip of the point is 2-1/4", while the overall length of the entire knife is 6-1/2".

The spine measures 1/16" thick; and the width of the blade, from spine to cutting edge is 1/2" at it's widest part. There are two important curves on this blade that help make it so useful.
 
Excellent information guys, exactly what I needed.

My 1095 is 1/8" and I could do a distal taper I suppose. Carbon steel probably isn't the best choice for this knife anyway.

I ask all of this because I'm not much of a cook myself. My wife does have a bit of carpal tunnel so I'll need her input on handle ergonomics.

Thanks guys!
 
1/8" is way too thick, but you can grind it "past the shoulders," meaning that the height of the grind is wider than the blade. This will reduce the thickness of the spine to below 1/8". No amount of distal taper alone is going to make 1/8" stock suitable for a paring knife.
There are lots of carbon steel paring knives out there, and used carbon steel exclusively for knives before stainless steel became common. That said, I think small-task knives are best in stainless because you don't want to have to immediately wash and dry it after using it for just a few seconds. Nobody wants to spend more time on maintenance than they do using it. And I say this as someone who's got two paring knives on my bench right now in 52100. I love carbon steel for kitchen knives (and knives in general), but if all I want to do is slice a lime in half, stainless wins. For my next batch I'm going to try AEB-L ;) (which comes in thicknesses very suitable for paring knives).

- Chris
 
i have been using XHP in 3/32 thick and hollow grinding with distal taper (hollow done on nates 48 inch platen ) fully ground edge to spine witha nice thin tip
carbon steel is not a problem if lightly etched and buffed then let it buils its own patina (jsut a little care will keep it in good shape (i have a O1 blade not 6 years )

as for handle oversized and a shape tht will not rotate in hand if she doesnt want it to (keep her from having to have a death grip ) my bro inlaw has lupus and have grip issues those were the tips he told me what i was making him 2 knives
 
Hesp, I just looked at her current user and you are right. That is some very thin stock. I do believe I could grind down my steel as you say. I'll give it a shot. :)

Butcher, xhp would be ideal, but I'd like to do the ht on this one. I think it would be quite easy. The temper is my only concern, but even that should be pretty straight forward.

Thanks for the advice on ergos. I'll keep those in mind.
 
I just checked my Opinel Carbone paring knife. It has some sort of high carbon steel with a beautiful patina on it. The blade thickness starts at 0.058" with a taper running the length of the blade. The length of the blade is @ 3.5" with a total length of @ 7.0". The width of the blade starts 0.650". A lot of the makers will cut out the blank and pin holes then heat treat before grinding the bevels and taper because of warping problems.
 
I will second all of what Butch had to say. Thin stock, preferably no more than 3/32. Ground very thin with a nice distal taper and a very comfortable handle. As for hardness, I would not be shy about shooting for a 61-62.
 
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