Best Chef Knives for Small Hands

If you have small hands, buy a 165 to 180 mm santoku rather than an 8-inch chef's knife — and the MAC Professional MSK-65 at 6.5 in is the one to buy first. It is thin, light, ground at 15 degrees per side, and short enough that the balance point sits inside your grip instead of ahead of it.

Almost every "best chef knife" list assumes one hand size. The default 8-inch Western chef's knife was not designed around a small hand, and the usual advice — hold it further back — makes the problem worse, because moving your grip back moves the balance point forward. The fix is a shorter blade, not a different grip.

1. Blade length. 165 to 180 mm. A santoku at that length keeps the full blade height a chef's knife gives you, so you lose reach and nothing else. Our sizes guide covers what you give up at each length.
2. Weight. Under roughly 200 g. The Global G-2 is 170 g, the MAC MTH-80 is 6.8 oz, and a Wüsthof Classic 8-inch is 265 g. That is more than a 50 percent difference in what your pinch grip has to stabilize.
3. Bolster height. A full bolster running down to the edge blocks the pinch grip, where thumb and forefinger sit on the blade itself. That grip is where small-handed control comes from, so a knife that prevents it is the wrong knife.

A D-shaped handle like the Shun Classic's fills the palm asymmetrically. Some small-handed cooks find that supportive and some find it crowded, and there is no way to know which you are without holding one. A round or oval Western handle like the Tojiro's is more neutral, and Global's one-piece steel handle is the narrowest of the four — which also makes it the slipperiest when wet. The full handle comparison is here.

Those are different problems with different answers. A small hand wants a shorter, neutrally balanced blade. A weak or painful grip wants a soft, high-friction handle and the lowest weight available — which points at the Victorinox Fibrox Pro, whose thermoplastic handle holds wet hands better than any wood or steel handle here and which weighs 5.6 oz. It is a 56 HRC stamped knife rather than a Japanese one, and that is often the right trade. What you give up going that way.

MAC MSK-65 if you want the best of these and will look after a thin tip. Tojiro DP santoku for most of the same geometry at a fraction of the price, with a plain handle and a bolster you may want to ease. Global G-2 if you want a full 200 mm of blade at 170 g and you have held one first. Shun Classic santoku if you are right-handed, you like a D-handle, and the object matters to you as much as the cutting does.