Milk Street: Kitchin-Ki Paring Knife

Paring knives are the overlooked, throwaway knives of the modern kitchen—poorly designed, poorly made and useless for most everyday tasks. Most have blades that are too long to be precise when cutting or feel too flimsy and flexible to inspire confidence. The puny handles feel like an afterthought sized for a child, providing insufficient grip to feel safe. They’re ill-suited for what they are supposed to do: close, detail-oriented work, most of which is handheld and off the cutting board. 

The Milk Street Kitchin-Ki is a complete reinvention of the paring knife. It matches an ultra-short—just 2.75 inches—fine-tipped blade with an oversized ergonomic handle for a knife that provides complete control over all the small tasks. The tapered handle and textured patch on the top of the blade provide a safe grip regardless of how you hold it. 

Most European knife-makers haven’t altered their designs in generations, but we looked outside that tradition for inspiration. The Kitchin-Ki’s unique blade design takes cues from sources as diverse as Japanese peeling knives, antique utility knives collected from trunk sales, stubby woodcarving blades and those work-worn kitchen knives your grandmother uses—shrunk down from generations of meals and maintenance.

Nearly an inch shorter than our current smallest knife, the Kitchin-kiji, the Kitchin-Ki isn’t a standalone knife. Instead, it’s the companion piece for peeling and prepping before you pick up a bigger knife to slice, dice and chop your way to dinner. Use it for peeling garlic and shallots, halving an avocado, removing the outer layers of leeks or scallions, removing the ribs from chilies, coring tomatoes or strawberries, stemming and peeling mushrooms, prepping shrimp, trimming chicken and meat and so much more. It’ll quickly become an indispensable tool for all the incidental tasks meal prep throws at you.