Forged, Stamped or Serrated: Choosing the Best Paring Knife

Most of the small, fiddly cutting in a Mexican kitchen happens in the hand, not on the board. Stems come off jalapeños and serranos, seeds and veins come out of dried guajillos, the cores come out of Roma tomatoes for salsa, and limes get halved by the dozen. A chef’s knife is too big for that work. A paring knife, with a blade of three to four inches, is the knife a prep cook keeps in an apron pocket or next to the cutting board for exactly those jobs.

The good news is that a paring knife does not have to cost much. The differences that matter are a sharp, thin blade, a length that gives you control, a handle that stays put when your hands are wet with tomato juice, and how you store it so the tip survives. This guide compares nine paring knives on those points, using makers’ specifications, the Amazon listings and America’s Test Kitchen’s published paring knife review.

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Quick verdict: which paring knife to buy

The table shows our five standout picks, one for each kind of cook. All nine knives are reviewed in full below it.

Five paring knives side by side

Blade and edge for our five standout picks, as each maker or Amazon listing states them.

Product images from Amazon. Specifications as stated by each maker or Amazon listing; check the listing before you buy.

Our picks for the best paring knife

These nine knives cover the range: a forged winner from a commercial cutlery brand, two inexpensive Swiss knives (one straight, one serrated), forged German knives from Wüsthof and Zwilling, Japanese steel from Shun and Global, and two sheathed knives from Kuhn Rikon and OXO for anyone who keeps a paring knife loose in a drawer. We judged each one as a prep knife for the kind of small work a salsa and taco line does all day.

How to choose a paring knife for prep work

A paring knife does small, precise work, often off the board with the food in your other hand. These are the points that decide whether it does that well.

1. Blade length: three to three and a half inches

Most paring knives run from about 3 to 4 inches. America’s Test Kitchen found that 3 to 3.5 inches “gave us a bit more control and precision” when slicing, peeling and hulling, while longer blades handle bigger food on the board at the cost of control in the hand. For stemming chiles and coring tomatoes, a short blade wins.

2. A thin, sharp blade

Sharpness was the main thing separating good and bad knives in ATK’s review, and a thin spine mattered almost as much: the reviewers looked for spines under 1.5 mm and found thicker ones wedged into apples, cheese and shallots. A thin blade can also flex slightly, which helps when you follow the curve of a fruit while peeling.

3. Straight or serrated edge

A straight edge peels, trims and makes clean cuts, and it is easy to sharpen. A serrated edge grips slippery skins such as tomatoes and limes and stays useful longer between sharpenings, but it cannot be honed at home easily and leaves a rougher cut. Start with a straight knife; add a serrated one if you make a lot of salsa.

4. Point shape, and the bird’s beak

Most picks here have a spear point, a symmetrical tip that suits both board and in-hand work. A sheep’s-foot blade has a blunt, rounded tip and is best on the board. A bird’s beak, or tourné, knife, such as Shun’s 2.5-inch Classic, has a short blade curved like a hook. It is designed for turning vegetables and cutting decorative shapes, and it is a specialist tool: good for peeling round fruit in one curl, awkward for coring a tomato or slicing a jalapeño on the board. We have not included one as a pick for that reason.

5. A grippy handle

ATK preferred handles about 4 inches long and textured enough to stay grippy when wet. That matters in a Mexican kitchen, where your hands are usually wet from tomatoes, limes or soaking chiles. Short handles, like the Wüsthof’s and Global’s, can feel cramped in big hands.

6. Storage and care

A paring knife’s thin tip bends or snaps easily if it rattles around a drawer, so use a block, a magnetic strip or a sheath like those on the Kuhn Rikon and OXO knives. Check the maker’s dishwasher advice: Victorinox and Zwilling allow it, while Mercer, Wüsthof and OXO say hand wash only. Hand washing and drying straight away is kinder to any edge.

How we chose these nine paring knives

We started from what a prep station needs from a small knife: a sharp edge, control in the hand, a grip that holds when wet and care that suits a busy kitchen. We looked for paring knives from established makers sold on Amazon in the United States, kept only knives showing as in stock when we checked, and confirmed each specification against the maker’s Amazon listing. Steel, hardness and edge angle are given only where the maker states them; where a listing is silent we write “Not stated”. We read America’s Test Kitchen’s paring knife review and its older serrated paring knife review and cite them by name, noting when ATK reviewed a different model. We could not access Wirecutter’s coverage and did not read Serious Eats’ for this page, and we have not used these knives ourselves for this guide.

We left out the Opinel No. 112, which ATK rated Not Recommended for a dull blade and a bolster that leaves part of the edge unusable, and the Mercer Millennia 3-inch slim knife, which ATK recommended but which overlaps with our top pick. Several Opinel, Zwilling and Global listings showed low stock and were skipped.

A paring knife at the salsa station

• Fresh chiles: cut off the stem end, slice the chile in half lengthwise and run the tip of the knife under the seeds and white veins to lift them out. It is the usual way to trim a jalapeño for a milder salsa. Wear gloves for habaneros.
• Dried chiles: snip or cut off the stem, slit the chile open with the tip and shake out the seeds before toasting. Our guide to Mexican chiles explains which dried chiles go where.
• Tomatoes: push the tip in at an angle beside the stem scar and turn the tomato against the blade to lift out a small cone. For salsa roja or a cooked salsa, that is all the coring you need; see salsa roja vs salsa verde for how the two are made.
• Tomatillos: pull off the husks, rinse off the sticky coating and trim the hard stem end with the tip of the knife.
• Limes: cut off both ends, then cut wedges from the sides around the core, so the wedges squeeze cleanly without seeds.

Paring knife questions, answered

What is the best paring knife brand?

There is no single best brand. Mercer Culinary made ATK’s winning paring knife and Victorinox its Best Buy, both at low prices. Wüsthof and Zwilling are the best-known forged German makers, and Shun and Global make well-regarded Japanese knives. Choose the knife, not the logo.

What is the best paring knife for the money?

The Victorinox Swiss Classic 3.25-inch, which ATK called an “extraordinary value for your dollar.” If you can spend a little more, the Mercer Renaissance is a forged knife at a modest price and was ATK’s overall winner.

Which paring knife does America’s Test Kitchen recommend?

ATK’s current paring knife review names the Mercer Culinary Renaissance as its winner, the Suisin Inox as its upgrade pick, and the Victorinox Swiss Classic as its Best Buy. It also recommends the Wüsthof Classic, Global Classic, Zwilling Pro and others, with reservations about handle length on some.

What does Wirecutter or Serious Eats recommend?

We could not access Wirecutter’s paring knife review and did not read Serious Eats’ coverage for this guide, so we cannot report their picks. The independent review we did read is America’s Test Kitchen’s.

Is a paring knife worth it if I have a good chef’s knife?

Yes. A chef’s knife is the board knife; a paring knife does the in-hand jobs a long blade makes awkward and unsafe, such as hulling, coring, peeling and seeding. ATK counts it among the three knives most home cooks need, with a chef’s knife and a serrated bread knife.

How long does a paring knife last?

A well-kept steel paring knife can last for many years. Store it so the tip is protected, wash and dry it by hand, and sharpen it when it starts to slide on tomato skin. Most makers here back their knives with a lifetime warranty against defects, though Kuhn Rikon gives one year.

Our final pick for small kitchen jobs

Buy the Mercer Culinary Renaissance if you want one paring knife that does everything well, and the Victorinox Swiss Classic if you want to spend very little or keep several around the kitchen. Choose the Wüsthof Classic for a forged German knife, the Shun Classic for a fine Japanese edge, and the Kuhn Rikon Colori set when the knives need sheaths.

Carrying it in a drawer or bag? See our guide to the best paring knives with a sheath.

On a budget? See our guide to the best budget paring knives.

Like Japanese steel? See the best Japanese paring knives.

Related guide: Paring knife vs chef knife.

A paring knife is one piece of a working kitchen; our Mexican cooking tools guide covers the rest of the kit, from the comal to the molcajete. And when you would rather someone else stemmed the chiles, see the menu or call to order.