You can think of a paring knife as a smaller version of a chef's knife because, like the Sora Chef's Knife, the Sora Paring Knife is quite versatile. The paring knife gets its name from its main function removing or paring away things like peels or pits from fruits and vegetables. It s ideal for peeling, coring, trimming, decorating, and other detail work. Its small size gives you complete control over the tip and edge of the blade. Generally, you'll use this knife in your hand rather than against a cutting board, though paring knives can also be used for chopping small foods, such as garlic cloves or ginger. The Shun Sora Paring Knife is part of the exciting Shun Sora line that provides exceptional handcrafted Shun quality at an amazing price. Sora uses Shun's proprietary Composite Blade technology to bring together a VG10 san mai cutting edge with a Japanese 420J stainless steel upper. This technology puts high-performance material exactly where it's needed on the edge. The two blade sections are laser cut, then fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Braze welding permanently joins them. The attractive wavy pattern at the joint is based on traditional Japanese sword hamon lines. While Sora's blade shapes and handle design are traditional Japanese, the textured PP/TPE polymer blend handle material provides a contemporary look, secure grip and balance, and is easy to maintain.