Looking for a gift for my dad. He goes deep into his hobbies and is all about process (e.g., he makes espresso by weighing in, weighing out). He already hand sharpens “my mom’s” kitchen knives, so I think he’d enjoy the maintenance aspect of reactive steels.
The last several years he has been into making special cocktails at our family get togethers, and I want to get him something for that task. He currently uses a shun premier 4” paring knife in VG Max (a fine tool, but shared). My impression is something a bit longer would be better as he tends to cut a lot of grapefruit.
Which brings me to my real question: if he is primarily cutting citrus, would it be dumb to do anything other than stainless? Or would someone who is meticulous with their tools (as he is) have no problem with a reactive steel for that task?
And second question: am I primarily describing a petty? Or would other blade profiles be worth considering/better for the task?