The honesuki and the petty are both small Japanese knives of about 150mm, and from a photo they can look like close relatives. I compared seven series at Hocho-Knife that sell both, at the same or nearly the same blade length. In every one the honesuki was heavier, in six of them by 80g or more, and in every one it cost more.
If you only want my pick: if you break down whole chickens or take meat off the bone every week, buy the honesuki. The Sakai Takayuki INOX PRO honesuki 150mm was $113.99 and in stock on 22 October 2026. If you want a small knife for fruit, garnish and the jobs too fiddly for a gyuto, buy the petty. The Sakai Takayuki INOX PRO petty 150mm was $93.99 the same day.
What each knife is for, according to Tojiro
Tojiro, a knife maker in Niigata, has a Japanese guide to Western knife shapes that covers both.
It describes the petty as a small knife that gets used a lot, shaped like a small gyuto. The jobs it names are peeling and cutting fruit, and it adds that the petty is sometimes used the same way as a gyuto. For home use the guide gives 90 to 150mm, double-edged. It also notes something I had not seen before: some professionals deliberately dull the part of the edge nearest the handle, so they can hold the knife by the heel of the blade.
The honesuki entry is about one job, taking meat off the bone. Tojiro says that abroad this knife would be called a boning knife, but the honesuki is a shape of its own from Japan and is single-edged, because it carries over the techniques of Japanese knives. That is why, the guide says, it can also be used on fish. For home use it gives 120 to 150mm, single-edged.
So the two lengths overlap almost completely. The difference Tojiro draws is the job, and the edge.
Seven series that make both
These are the listed weights and prices at Hocho-Knife on 22 October 2026. All fourteen knives were in stock.
| Series | Petty | Honesuki | Honesuki is heavier by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sakai Takayuki INOX PRO | 150mm, 110g, $93.99 | 150mm, 133g, $113.99, double-edged | 23g |
| Sakai Takayuki INOX | 150mm, 100g, $81.99 | 150mm, 180g, $120.99, single-edged | 80g |
| Sakai Takayuki Grand Chef | 150mm, 80g, $102.99 | 150mm, 200g, $154.99, single-edged | 120g |
| Sakai Takayuki Grand Chef SP | 150mm, 75g, $116.99 | 150mm, 190g, $175.99, single-edged | 115g |
| Sakai Takayuki 33-layer VG10 Damascus | 150mm, 87g, $136.99 | 150mm, 185g, $185.99, single-edged | 98g |
| Masamoto CT | 150mm, 90g, $129.99 | 145mm, 170g, $190.99, double-edged | 80g |
| Masamoto HC | 150mm, 90g, $180.99 | 145mm, 170g, $188.99, double-edged | 80g |
All seven petty knives are double-edged. The weights for the Masamoto CT pair come from the size list on the honesuki page, because the petty page leaves the weight out.
In three of the seven series the honesuki weighs more than twice as much as the petty, and in three more it is close to twice. The odd one out is the INOX PRO, in which the gap is only 23g. It is also the only Sakai Takayuki honesuki here with a double edge.
The price gap runs from 8 dollars for the Masamoto HC pair to 61 dollars for the Masamoto CT pair.
What the extra weight might be
The product pages do not give blade height or spine thickness for most of these knives, so I cannot show which part of the blade the extra 80 to 120g is in. My guess is a thicker spine and a taller heel, since the honesuki is the one that gets pushed into joints and along bones. Treat that as my reading, not a measurement.
What I can say from the listings is that a honesuki is not a petty with a different name. At the same length it is a heavier knife, and in most series it is sharpened on one side only, for a right hand. I went through what that one-sided edge means for a left-handed cook, and which honesuki are double-edged, in best honesuki knife.
Which one to buy
If you buy whole chickens, or cut meat off the bone often enough to notice the knife, buy the honesuki. Tojiro gives it one job, and that job is the one you have. I compared it with the Western boning knife in honesuki vs boning knife.
If you already own a gyuto or a santoku and want a second, smaller knife, buy the petty. That is what Tojiro describes it as, a small gyuto for peeling and fruit, sometimes used for the same jobs as a gyuto. Tojiro does not list boning among the jobs of a petty, and I have no source that tests one on a chicken, so I will not tell you it does the job of a honesuki. I wrote about choosing a petty length in petty knife vs paring knife.
If you want the two knives to be as alike as possible, the INOX PRO pair is the closest the two shapes come: 23g apart, both double-edged, the same steel and the same handle.
Three knives, checked on 22 October 2026
A petty: the Sakai Takayuki INOX PRO petty 150mm at $93.99. 110g, AUS-8A stainless, double-edged, stainless handle, in stock.
A light petty: the Sakai Takayuki Grand Chef petty 150mm at $102.99. 80g, Swedish stainless, double-edged, in stock. It is the lighter knife for fruit and garnish work.
A honesuki for either hand: the Sakai Takayuki INOX PRO honesuki 150mm at $113.99. 133g, AUS-8A stainless, double-edged, in stock.
Disclosure
I have four approved affiliate partnerships: two with knife retailers, Hocho-Knife and SharpEdge, and two with Japanese language-learning companies unrelated to knives. This page carries five tracked links, all to Hocho-Knife: three knives, and a second link to each of the two INOX PRO knives near the top. At about 10 percent, that is roughly 9 dollars for the INOX PRO petty, 10 dollars for the Grand Chef petty and 11 dollars for the INOX PRO honesuki. The other knives named here are not linked. Tojiro is quoted as a source, and this page does not link to any Tojiro product. My full affiliate disclosure is here.
Sources: the Tojiro Japanese guide to Western knife shapes, read on 20 October 2026, and the Hocho-Knife product pages for the fourteen knives above, checked on 22 October 2026.